“Yes, but I don’t dare go to it,” came the smiling answer.
“Oh! May I ask why not, sir?”
“The Government of Brazil is, in the main, an honest one,” replied Powell Seaton. “The President of that country is an exactly just and honorable man. Yet not quite as much can be said for the governments of some of the states of that country. The governor of Vahia, Terrero, by name, is probably one of the worst little despots in South America.
“Now, as it happened, before I came to know anything about this new diamond field I had the bad fortune to make an enemy of Governor Terrero. Some American friends were being shamefully treated by this rascally governor, and I felt called upon to become mixed up in the affair. I even went so far that I incurred the deadly hatred of Terrero. It was right after this that I came upon my diamond field. But Terrero’s enmity was pressing upon me, and I had to flee from Brazil.”
“Why?” asked Tom, wonderingly.
“Do you know how things are done in South America?” demanded Powell Seaton, impressively. “If a man like Terrero hates you, he 96 has only to inspire someone to prefer a serious charge against you. The charge may be wholly false, of course, but officers and soldiers are sent, in the dead of the night, to arrest you. These wretches, when they serve wicked enough officials, shoot you down in cold blood. Then they lay beside your body a revolver in which are two or three discharged cartridges. They report, officially, that you resisted arrest and did your best to kill the members of the arresting party. This infamous lie all becomes a matter of official record. Then what can the United States Government do about it? And the governor, or other rascally official, has triumphed over you, and the matter is closed. Though an honest man, Halstead, you are officially a desperate character who had to be killed by the law’s servants. It was such a fate that Terrero was preparing for me, but I escaped his wicked designs.”
“That must be a nice country!” murmured Hank Butts.
“Yet you say the President of Brazil is an honorable man?” asked Halstead. “Can’t he remove such a governor?”
“The President would, in a moment, if he could be supplied with proofs,” rejoined Powell Seaton, with emphasis. “Governor Terrero is a wily, smooth scoundrel who is well served by 97 men of his own choice stamp. Terrero is wealthy, and backed by many other wealthy men who have been growing rich in the diamond fields. In fact, though they are wonderfully smooth about it, the Terrero gang are terrors to all honest diamond men in that one part of Brazil.”
“So, then,” hinted Captain Tom, “you know where to find one of the rich diamond mines of the world, but you don’t dare go to it?”