Major Starland took another tack. 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.
The purchase of a tugboat by General Yozarro had unquestionably tipped the scales in his favor. The American did his best to show Bambos this fact and to warn him that in case of another war between the republics, Zalapata was sure to be the chief sufferer. Bambos could not gainsay this and he was now seeking to balance things, by floating a loan which was to be used in arming his troops with modern weapons. He made a tempting offer to Major Starland to enter his service, agreeing to pay him an enormous salary in gold, though one might well question where he was to obtain a fractional part of it, and to place him in supreme command of the military forces of the Republic.
While the American was illimitably the superior in mentality to the gross Dictator, he failed to perceive an important truth, which did not become clear to him until after his plain talk with Captain Guzman. The great object of the obese nuisance in warring against Yozarro was to place Miss Starland under deep obligations to him, though he was too cunning to intimate anything of that nature. When Jack Starland kindly but firmly declined his offer, he feared that he would become an obstacle to his scheme; and although he hid any such feeling, he would have been glad to have him disappear from the stage of action. What galled Bambos was the fact that the American lady was the guest of his rival, who he knew would do his utmost to woo and win her. To bring to naught anything of that nature, he determined to wage war against Yozarro and shatter the opportunity that fortune had placed in the hands of that detested individual. It cannot be said that the logic of Bambos was of the best, but it must be remembered that the gentle passion plays the mischief with numskulls as well as with men of wisdom.
Such in brief was the situation, when Major Jack Starland yielded to his growing unrest over the visit of his sister to her friend. He had learned that General Yozarro was a widower—though as in the case of Bambos that would have made little difference in his wayward promptings—and he decided that it would be well to shorten the visit of Miss Starland or to bear her company, so long as she stayed in Atlamalco. He would be welcomed by the young women themselves, and, although Yozarro might wish him to the uttermost parts of the earth, he, too, would be gracious. So the sail of the American and Captain Guzman up the forked river becomes clear to the reader.
Never was mortal man more infatuated with woman than was General Yozarro, from the moment he first laid eyes on the “Flower of the North,” as he poetically named her. His passion was too absorbing to be concealed, and in the sanctity of their apartments the niece rallied her friend on the conquest she had made.
“But it is the very one I do not wish to make,” protested the annoyed American; “I like General Yozarro, chiefly because he is your relative, but absolutely my feeling can never go beyond that.”
“I thought your heart had not wandered elsewhere.”
“It has not, and it can never pass to him, my dear Manuela.”
“May I not say that you might go farther and fare worse? He is one of the kindest-hearted of men, is wealthy and would always be your slave.”