Laguerre sat for a long time without replying, and then rose and bowed to Lowell with great courtesy.
“I must be returning,” he said. “I thank you, sir, for your good opinion. At my earliest convenience I shall pay my respects to your commanding officer. At ten o’clock,” he continued turning to me, “I am to have my talk with Mr. Fiske. I have not the least doubt but that he will see the justice of our claim against his company, and before evening I am sure I shall be able to announce throughout the republic that I have his guaranty for the money. Mr. Fiske is an able, upright business man, as well as a gentleman, and he will not see this country robbed.”
He shook hands with us and we escorted him to his horse.
I always like to remember him as I saw him then, in that gorgeous uniform, riding away under the great palms of the Plaza, with the tropical sunshine touching his white hair, and flashing upon the sabres of the body-guard, and the people running from every side of the square to cheer him.
Two hours later, when I had finished my “paper” work and was setting forth on my daily round, Miller came galloping up to the barracks and flung himself out of the saddle. He nodded to Lowell, and pulled me roughly to one side.
“The talk with Fiske,” he whispered, “ended in the deuce of a row. Fiske behaved like a mule. He told Laguerre that the original charter of the company had been tampered with, and that the one Laguerre submitted to him was a fake copy. And he ended by asking Laguerre to name his price to leave them alone.”
“And Laguerre?”
“Well, what do you suppose,” Miller returned, scornfully. “The General just looked at him, and then picked up a pen, and began to write, and said to the orderly, ‘Show him out.’
“‘What’s that?’ Fiske said. And Laguerre answered: ‘Merely a figure of speech; what I really meant was “Put him out,” or “throw him out!” You are an offensive and foolish old man. I, the President of this country, received you and conferred with you as one gentleman with another, and you tried to insult me. You are either extremely ignorant, or extremely dishonest, and I shall treat with you no longer. Instead, I shall at once seize every piece of property belonging to your company, and hold it until you pay your debts. Now you go, and congratulate yourself that when you tried to insult me, you did so when you were under my roof, at my invitation.’ Then Laguerre wired the commandantes at all the seaports to seize the warehouses and officers of the Isthmian Line, and even its ships, and to occupy the buildings with troops. He means business,” Miller cried, jubilantly. “This time it’s a fight to a finish.”
Lowell had already sent for his horse, and altogether we started at a gallop for the palace. At the office of the Isthmian Line we were halted by a crowd so great that it blocked the street. The doors of the building were barred, and two sentries were standing guard in front of it. A proclamation on the wall announced that, by order of the President, the entire plant of the Isthmian Line had been confiscated, and that unless within two weeks the company paid its debts to the government, the government would sell the property of the company until it had obtained the money due it.