Portiforo appeared pleased to hear this. “If that is the way your brother journalists regard him I presume that his fate will not cause a great outcry from the press which is so influential in your country?”
“Of course it won’t,” the newspaper man eagerly assured him. “The scamp has been mixed up in so many shady transactions that we’ve all been expecting to see him come to a bad end. Of course, you must expect that his own paper, the Sentinel, will try to stir up a fuss about him; but, then, nobody pays any attention to what that sensational sheet says or does.”
Portiforo expressed surprise at this. “I had been under the impression that the New York Sentinel was one of the most influential journals in the United States,” he said.
“You have been misinformed,” Gale returned. “It has a fair-sized circulation, but its readers consist mostly of the more unintelligent classes.” He leaned forward in his chair. “You can take it from me, Señor Presidente, that if that rascally camera man gets his deserts the better portion of our press will heartily approve of what you have done as soon as the facts become known. And I shall make it my business to see that the facts are known,” he added significantly. “I am returning to the United States on next Wednesday’s boat—my editor has sent me word that he positively cannot get along without me any longer—and when I get to New York it will give me great pleasure to combat with my pen any adverse sentiment which the Sentinel may try to create against your government.”
“That is most kind of you, my dear Señor Gale,” the president declared gratefully. “You are indeed a true friend of Baracoa. With such a distinguished journalist enlisted on the side of truth I have no fear of being misunderstood by the people of your great nation.”
He slipped from one of his pudgy fingers a massive gold ring set with a huge diamond. “Since you are about to leave us,” he said, handing the piece of jewelry to his visitor, “I beg you to accept this as a small token of my esteem and gratitude.”
Gale left the palace well satisfied with the result of his visit. “Guess the boys on Park Row will think this is pretty poor.” He chuckled, gazing at the gem which glistened on his finger with all the pleasure of a woman. But what pleased him much more than the president’s valuable gift was the thought of what influence his conversation with Portiforo was likely to have upon the fate of the man whom he hated more than anybody else in the world. “I rather think I’ve settled Frank Hawley’s hash,” he told himself delightedly.
Shortly after Gale’s departure from the palace, Minister Throgmorton arrived, and was closeted with the president for over an hour. The interview was at times a stormy one. It was as a result of that conference that the Camera Chap, the next morning, was visited by two men who threw open the door of his cell and bade him accompany them.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
AT THE PALACE.
Hawley believed that almost anything outrageous was possible after the terrible scene he had witnessed in the courtyard of the jail, and he accompanied his own visitors with some misgivings, which, however, he took pains to conceal from them.