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'Andres Garavel, President of the Republic of Panama! It has a sweet sound, my friends, and yet I have fears." "Let's take them one by one," laughed his host, "and prove them imaginary. I see a great good-fortune in store for you." It was midnight before Senor Andres Garavel, the banker, bade his friends good-bye.
It was some time later, when the sun was dipping, that voices sounded outside the wall of verdure, and Kirk heard Andres Garavel saying: "Of a certainty I shall try that experiment, senor, for the ticks in this country are a pest to cattle. A little to the right, and you will find the path So!" An instant later the two white-haired men appeared. "Hello! There you are, eh?"
This meant frequent councils among the three, a vast amount of careful work, of crafty intrigue, of untiring diplomacy, and, although his candidacy had not as yet been more than whispered, the purple robe of power was daily being woven, thread by thread. It was not long after Kirk's visit to the bank that Garavel, during one of these conferences, took occasion to bring up the young man's name.
"So, your engagement to Miss Garavel is broken?" she began, when she and Kirk had seated themselves in two of the big rockers that lined the porch. "All smashed to pieces, running-gear broken, steering-knuckle bent, gasolene tank punctured. I need a tow." "You take it calmly." "What's the use of struggling? I'm no Samson to go around pulling down temples." "Did you expect her to yield so tamely?"
This was much the simplest way, he decided; for even should Kirk meet a Garavel or a Fermina, there was no chance of his winning her, and love, after all, is but a passing impulse which may be summoned or banished at will by such simple mediums as charms.
His poise was that of a man with heavy responsibilities, for Andres Garavel was a careful banker and a rich one. He was widely travelled, well- informed, an agreeable talker, and the conversation at Mrs. Cortlandt's table did not lag. "I am so disappointed that your daughter could not come," Edith told him for the second time. "I'm afraid she objects to our American informality."
Indeed, as soon as he had reminded the banker of their former meeting, he was treated with a degree of cordiality that surpassed his expectations. "I remember quite well, sir," said Garavel "'La Tosca. Since you are a friend of Mrs. Cortlandt I shall be delighted to serve you." Now that they were face to face, Kirk felt that he distinctly approved of Chiquita's father.
There, not a yard away, was the girl of his dreams demurely bowing to Edith Cortlandt, her hand upon the arm of a swarthy man whom Kirk knew at once as her father. He felt the blood rush blindingly to his head, felt it drumming at his ears, knew that he must be staring like a man bereft. Mrs. Cortlandt was speaking, and he caught the name "Garavel" like a bugle-call.
Runnels admitted the fact cheerfully, and at the same time noted how her partner's muscles swelled and hardened as Miss Garavel glided past in the arms of Ramon Alfarez. It gave her a thrill to see a real drama unfolding thus before her very eyes. To Kirk, Chiquita had never appeared so ravishing, nor so purely Spanish as to-night.
On the contrary, in spite of all that had been done to prevent it, he had been working secretly and had perfected the preliminaries of a coup which he intended to spring at the eleventh hour. Through Ramon, he had brought about an alliance with the outgoing Galleo, and intended to make the bitterest possible fight against Garavel.
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