“Still, they could seize it.”
“Well,” said Harding, with quiet confidence, “when we have chased every Spanish soldier out of Cuba I’ll get it back again, and that is just what is going to happen before very long. It’s quite difficult to freeze a citizen of my country out of his property.”
“Unless an American trust casts covetous eyes upon it,” said Appleby.
Harding laughed as he shook hands with him and Maccario, and then turned away with a smile still upon his The four Sin Verguenza plodded behind him down the road, and Maccario glanced at his companion.
“One would not have fancied the Señor Harding knew he was taking a heavy risk,” he said.
“Still, I think it was quite plain to him.”
Maccario glanced across the cane towards Santa Marta. “I had many friends there, and he has one or two at most. Morales is a daring and clever man—but it is his misfortune that in this affair he has others of the same kind against him.”
“That is an admission,” said Appleby, with a little smile “If you count the Señor Harper, two of them come from America.”
Maccario laughed. “And one from England! Men of that kind are not confined to any one country, my friend. Still, they are perhaps more plentiful in the Peninsula—and Cuba—than elsewhere.”
Appleby said nothing, and they walked slowly back to the hacienda.