“Do not worry on that point, Caliph. I am your ally there; between us both I think we can manage him.”
“Fine business! Miss Ruey, if that boy Bill ever gets a notion in his head that you haven't forgotten more than he'll ever know, I'll break his neck. And with those few kind words we'll dismiss William until you care to talk about him again, although if you're as deep in love as Bill you'll not stay off the subject very long.”
“How is Don Juan Cafetéro, Caliph?”
“Coming out in the wash and without his colours running. I've sweated the booze out of him, hiking him over the hills, and bullied him into eating solids, and a few days ago I shut off the firewater forever, I hope. However, I'll have to watch him very closely for a long time yet—particularly in town. Out at the mine he'll be away from temptation. Hard work is the best cure for Don Juan. There's a deal of truth in the old saying that Satan will find mischief for idle hands to do. I imagine you've been rather idle lately. Hope you haven't been into mischief.”
“I haven't been idle. I've made several dresses for Mother Jenks and done a lot of fancy work and begun the study of my mother tongue. If my brother should become president of this country, it would ill become his sister not be able to speak Spanish. By the way, Billy told me you were going to remain up in the hills quite a while yet. What brought you back to town so soon?”
“Expected I'd have some freight arriving shortly: besides, I wanted to make certain the title to Bill's property didn't have any flaws in it.”
“How long will you remain in Buenaventura?” Considering the fact that he was no longer subject to temptation, since the object of his temptation was now definitely promised to his friend Billy, Webster suddenly decided to remain until the political atmosphere should be cleared, although prior to his conversation with Dolores he had cherished a definite plan to go back to the hills within forty-eight hours. He could not suppress an ironic grin, despite the pain and misery of his predicament, as he reflected how often, of late, he had made up his mind to a definite course of action, only to change it promptly at some new whim of fate.
“I'm going back,” he replied soberly, “after I have kept my promise and introduced you to your brother in the government palace. If I cannot introduce him to you there, the title to our mining concession will be clouded, in which event it will not be necessary for Billy or myself to fuss with it further.”
He related to her the information gleaned from her brother two days previously.
“It's no use for an individual to fight a government despot in courts controlled by the latter,” he concluded. “Your brother must win and depose the Sarros; then with the title to the property certified by the government as without a flaw, I may dare to spend fifty thousand dollars developing it.”