"In that case permit me to welcome you most heartily to Equinata," he returned, but without any great show of enthusiasm. "Perhaps you will accompany me to my private office, where I shall be pleased indeed to be of any service I can to you."
I followed him across the patio to a door on the further side. This he opened, and when I had passed into the room, he followed my example and closed it carefully after him.
"How am I to know that you are the gentleman whom I have been led to expect?" he began, when I had seated myself and he had offered me a cigar. "As wine of that particular vintage is very difficult to obtain, you must see yourself that I have to be most careful that I do not make the mistake of giving information concerning it to the wrong person."
I thereupon took my watch from my pocket, opened the case, and took a small piece of paper—which Silvestre had also given me at our last meeting—from it. This I handed to the man before me, who read what was written upon it very carefully, and then tore it up into tiny fragments.
"I am quite satisfied," he said, "and now to arrange the matter you desire." Then, dropping his voice almost to a whisper, he continued, "Of course I recognize the fact that you would not have been chosen for the work had you not been considered a person most likely to accomplish it. Nevertheless, I feel sure that you can have but a very small notion how dangerous it is likely to prove. The man in question mistrusts everybody, and should but a breath of suspicion attach itself to you, you would be in the cartel to-night, and most probably in your grave to-morrow morning. Though my opinions have not changed in a single particular, I am not at all certain that it is wise of me to mix myself up in it. However, I don't see exactly in what way I am to get out of it."
It struck me that the latter portion of his speech was spoken more to himself than to me.
"Before we go any further, it would perhaps be as well that I should convince myself that you are Don Hermaños," I said, for so far I had had no proof of his identity.
He did not answer me, but crossed to a writing-table on the other side of the room, and, unlocking a drawer, took from it a book. Turning to a certain page, he showed me a series of portraits of the prominent politicians of Equinata. One was a likeness of himself, and underneath was printed his name in full—Don José de Hermaños, Minister of Mines. I expressed myself as being quite satisfied.
"And now," I continued, "will you be good enough to tell me how you propose to introduce me to the Pres——"—here he held up his hand as if in expostulation—"to the individual whose acquaintance I am so anxious to make?"
"As you may suppose, I have been thinking of that," he replied, "and I have come to the conclusion that it would be better for me not to be personally concerned in it. As it is, I am not at all certain in my own mind that he looks upon me with a favourable eye. I have a friend, however, with whom he is on terms of the greatest friendship. Through this friend I will have you presented. It would be better in the meantime if you will call at the palace and inscribe your name in the visitors' book, according to custom. After that I will make it my business to see my friend, and to arrange the matter with him. From that moment, if you will permit me, I will retire from the business altogether."