"Man alive! you haven't lost it yet. I have no doubt that the matter will be settled all right."
"Do you know what plan Eguiburu proposed to me?"
"No; what?"
"That I should also guarantee the twelve thousand duros which he had furnished besides, and then he will wait."
Mendoza made no reply. Both remained lost in thought.
"That does not seem to me such a bad plan," said the former, at length. "I tell you frankly that at present it is impossible to get the thirty thousand duros from the general; I know his affairs well, and am certain that he is not in a situation to pay down this amount. But if it does not come from his private pocket, it may be got from the public treasury. I have it on good authority that the government has already voted some money (though not any such sum as this), to be spent on newspapers, and credited to the secret funds of the Ministry of the Government. The point here is to get influence enough for the minister to get hold of it."
"I suppose that the general will use all his."
"Of course. And I will do what I can. But the general is not in Madrid, and you know as well as I do that these delicate transactions cannot be managed through correspondence, or arranged in this way, ever. We must be always on the track, worry the minister with visits, speak to all his friends, so as to keep it before his attention, and, if it were possible, threaten him with some summons to the Cortes concerning some delicate affair which he would not like to have made public."
"Caramba! Perico, you have made great advances in short time. You understand wire-pulling to the last detail."
"How so?"