"Come, that is a little too strong," the Colonel exclaimed, as he burst into a laugh.
"You do not believe me? Well, listen to this: I who am speaking to you once knew, no matter where, a man whose whole life was spent in conspiring. One day luck smiled on him, and chance enabled him, hardly knowing how or why, to occupy the highest post in the Republic—something like President. Do you know what he did, so soon as he obtained power?"
"Canarios! He tried to hold his ground, of course."
"You are quite out. On the contrary, he went on conspiring, and so famously that he overthrew himself and was condemned to perpetual imprisonment."
"So that—?"
"So that, if the man who succeeded to power had not amnestied him, he would, in all probability, have died in prison."
The two men were still laughing at John Davis's last repartee, when the latter stopped, and made the Colonel a sign to follow his example.
"Have we arrived?" he asked.
"All but. Do you see that boat tossing about at the foot of the cliff?"
"Of course I see it."