Then listen to a little bit of history.
The State or Province of Panama, on the narrow bit of land connecting North and South America, had been a part of the country called the United States of Colombia.
The great republic to the north, the United States of America, wanted to dig a canal across Panama, but had been unable to get permission from Colombia. And so it looked as if there might be no canal—at least not in Panama.
The citizens of Panama were disappointed, for the digging of a canal through their country would bring to them many people and much wealth.
For this reason the leading men concluded that it was best to separate from Colombia, organize a government of their own, and come to an agreement with the United States. At the time this story opens the new government had just been set up, and its authority proclaimed.
But, it may be asked, what has all this to do with Vasco?
To begin with, Vasco's father, in private life a very ordinary citizen, who sometimes had been a waiter in a hotel and at other times the servant of an American engineer, was deeply interested in this latest revolution; for was he not an officer in the new National Guard,—Lieutenant Amadeo Barretas?
LIEUTENANT AMADEO BARRETAS