“I know a girl,” Hi said. “Miss Rosa Piranha, sir. Perhaps if you know her you can tell me if she’s in town?”
“Oh, you know Miss Piranha, do you?” Mr. Weycock said. “I suppose you met her in England?”
“Yes, sir.”
A change came on Mr. Weycock’s face, as though the subject were unpleasant to him. “I have met her,” he said, “but I do not know whether she’s in town or not. You see, Ridden, my work brings me into touch with the dynamic party, the Reds, now in power here. I am not well in favour with people like the Piranhas. You can always call on the Piranhas. I would go with Winter to-morrow, if I were you.”
“I’d love to,” Hi said, “but I don’t feel quite free.”
“No, I see your point,” Mr. Winter said. “You aren’t quite free. So don’t decide now. I’ll call at eight to-morrow and you can come if you can. You may have had an answer by then. Leave it like that.”
Hi asked why so many soldiers were in the city.
“Precaution,” Mr. Weycock said; “the Reds, the present Government, are being threatened by the Whites. The feeling is running very high.”
“I should think it ought to run high,” Mr. Winter said, “when these gangs of cannibals are imported to keep order. I never saw such a set of ruffians in my life. ‘I will not ask what the disease be, the cure being what it is.’ ”
“They are surely as civilised,” Mr. Weycock said, “as some of these Whites, who would burn heretics here to-morrow if they had their will. Besides, you must know, Winter, that the Pitubas have always been allies here. They helped the Spaniards in the Conquest.”