"So!" exclaimed the reporter. "Well, you seem to be a pretty keen observer. What did you think of things in Haiti when you left?"
Stuart was flattered—as what boy would not have been—by this suggestion that his political opinions were of importance, and he gave himself all the airs of a grown-up, as he voiced his ideas. Many of them were of real value, for, unconsciously, Stuart was quoting from the material he had found in his father's papers, when he had rescued them from Hippolyte.
Dinville led him on, cautiously, tickling his vanity the while, and, before the meal was over, Stuart felt that he had found a friend. He accepted an invitation to go up to the news office, so that his recently made acquaintance might take some notes of his ideas.
The news-gatherer had not been a reporter for nothing, and, before ten minutes had passed Stuart suddenly realized that he was on the verge of telling the entire story, even to those things which he knew must be held back. Cecil's warning recurred to him, and he pulled up short.
"I guess I hadn't better say any more," he declared, suddenly, and wondered how much he had betrayed himself into telling.
Persuasion and further flattery failed, and the newspaper man saw that he must change his tactics.
"You were willing enough to talk to the vice-consul," he suggested.
"Yes, but I wasn't going to tell him everything, either," the boy retorted.
"You're not afraid to?"
Stuart's square chin protruded in its aggressive fashion.