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Zalapata and Atlamalco are illustrations; they are continually quarreling and at war over trifles that would shame a couple of schoolboys." "All that is ended; henceforth General Yozarro and I are brothers, and the two republics will join hands in the path of progress.
From Zalapata the yacht steamed to Atlamalco, the home of Manuela Estacardo. There the party was received by the other impressionable type of the tropics, General Pedro Yozarro, who left nothing undone to make their visit pleasant in the highest degree.
Captain Guzman said: "He has no way of getting cannon this side of Atlamalco, and that would take a day or two; he has no wish to destroy his own property, and, if he had such a wish, he couldn't do it, for only by accident would he hit the boat." "That squelches my theory, which I didn't believe in myself.
Superbly self-possessed as he was, he could not conceal his anger. "How could he help knowing it, when by his own orders the charge was withdrawn before we left Atlamalco? What his whim was I didn't ask and do not care." "Knowing that, why did he hesitate?" "Because," replied Captain Ortega with a sneer, "he feared you might have learned the truth, and reloaded the gun.
"I will go to Captain Navarro of the guard and tell him I come as a messenger from General Yozarro, who is waiting with the gunboat to take the Señoritas to Atlamalco, and he must not delay in obeying the command." The American looked at him in amazement. "Have you the nerve for that, Martella?" "I await only your permission."
The western half of the island forms the Republic of Atlamalco, whose President and Dictator is General Pedro Yozarro; the eastern half constitutes Zalapata, with General Fernando de Bambos at its head. The name "republic," as applied to the peppery provinces has as much appropriateness as if given to Russia or China.
The puffing grew louder, the throbbing of the screw, and the rush of the foamy water from the bow struck the ear more clearly, and the outlines of the craft were marked as it rushed past, near the middle of the river, with the starred, triangular flag of Atlamalco wiggling from the staff which upreared itself like a needle from the stern.
Three of the crew had fought against Spain and would welcome a scrap with the Atlamalcan navy. But the American was restless. That night as he slept in the hammock which he had brought from his boat and swung in front of the native hut, he heard as in a dream, the puffing of the tug on its return to Atlamalco.
The young woman could not touch upon these themes, lest he accept it as encouragement; so she contented herself with parrying them. She began to long for the time when she should turn her back upon Atlamalco forever. On a certain balmy forenoon, General Yozarro, his niece and Miss Starland rode out from the town and over the trail leading into the Rubio Mountains.
There had been hostilities between Zalapata and Atlamalco in the past, with no special advantage accruing to either side. On the whole perhaps the latter Republic had been the gainer, since the last treaty ceded to General Yozarro a small strip of territory on which Castillo Descanso stood, the same having been a bone of contention for a long time.
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