Show THE OF CHRONICLES DON ALES Q I r A K King lOgO of f Finance F I BY HESKETH K HARD AND VII Time went on for a long Ions period in the mountains as serenely as of old The executive had deprived Majada of his appointment but otherwise the matter of dealing with Don Q fell once more Into abeyance Thus the usual series of captives con ton continued continued to appear in the Boca de Lobo but although most of them were satisfactory sat satisfactory satisfactory from a financial point of view It chanced that not one presented any Qualities of interest in the eyes of Don Q until a certain Mr George Mc tlc whose fame was vas emblazoned emblazOned emblazoned in the bourses of the two hemis hemispheres blundered into the net of the robber chief Though a naturalized Englishman he had been born and bred in Cuba He early crossed to Brazil for larger fa facilities facilities of ot trade later New York and andI Condon I ondon knew him well There was in fact nothing Scottish about him but buthis buthis buthis his name and his extraordinary busi business business business ness instinct He was one of the few nho ho starting well equipped in life Ufe with witha a JJ large banking account and an excel excellent excellent excellent lent share In a profitable business have refused to sink back upon the couch of Base se offered off red to them by circumstances Born rich rl h at 20 he was hard at work and at 35 the age at a which he visited Spain he had contrived to roll the ball of his fortunes through so much of the mud of the worlds wealth that he heas was as become one of the money kings r df if the day Already inclined to fleshiness and he yet possessed in a pronounced degree the type of good looks characteristic of the Spanish col colonies colonies onies onles It was commonly reported that he had never met his match at a bar bargain bargaIn bargain gain or as a n prophet of the weather changes of the financial world But Buthis Buthis Buthis his most salient quality was said to be bethe bethe bethe the capaciousness of his maw Those who knew him best declared that if he had gathered all the wealth of the universe Into his pocket with the ex exception exception exception of a single dollar note he would know no rest until he had somehow acquired that last dollar also Under other conditions of life Ufe or lacking some share of his preponderant cold greed he could be conceived a gambler In fact he was a gambler but with accurate knowledge power and pull on his side a peril to his generation of the most modern kind Such was the man who in an Interval in a lull In his electric career chose to go motoring in Spain He told one or two friends that he was vas feeling the strain of business and then slipped quietly away to join his yacht at Vigo As a matter of fact he was in the position of a hunter who has set a snare and waits wafts out of sight for his quarry to fall into it He had engi engineered engineered engineered with skill and consummate com completeness completeness completeness a corner in that human ne necessity necessity necessity corn Never before had he held so strong a hand in the destinies of the world To be absent while his enor enormous enormous enormous transactions worked out to their th ir appointed isi issue is ue was a part of his hi scheme He foresaw a possible amount of embarrassment when those most concerned saw his net closing over them He resolved to go away for a holiday and leave time TO LO play his hand for him So having forced even time to his own uses he disappeared to await the moment when he must re return return return turn for his final coup and victory At the in the village one night a spoken name roused him from his moodiness The talk had veered about to a subject that under the sierra possessed a perennial interest the doings do doings doings ings past or possible of Don Q QI QI QI I have heard many man stories stones of this fellow joined in with I the manner peculiar peculIar peculiar liar to him Tell me his last ex exploit The innkeeper a thin dark wiry mountaineer glanced furtively round at atthe atThe atthe the men gathered in the room and shook his head The Cuban smiled unpleasantly You have the nerves patron he said You look as if you knew too much Every Everyone one warns me of the vulture vulture vulture ture of the sierra fierra yet you who live under finder the shadow of his beak know 1 nothing of him Not so excellency excelle lcy exclaimed the theman theman theman man The lord of the sierra dwells up there in truth he waved his hand Jf 1 toward the north but poor Ioor folk like ourselves speak little of him himI I am curious to see him I wish he would at this moment enter by your door r v The saints forbid senor put in the priest You know not what you say Without question que tion you are a rich and a aJ i J great groot man but the lord the sierra i demands more than a ransom sometimes some sometimes sometimes times I snapped his fingers 1 Patron you shall hire me a mule to tomorrow morrow and I will ride into the moun to look for Don Q T You must then buy the mule at its full price excellency replied the inn t keeper sullenly for I am a poor man i and I shall never set eyes on it or you j any more The Cuban laughed yawned stretch stretching ing his arms over his head Have no fear patron I do not be lieve In your jour brigand I have met some in n my time a good deal more terrible 11 I will but ride back into Malaga 1 As he spoke someone struck a guitar r and began to sing Verse by verse it t flowed a pathetic song of love and 3 parting Then another voice followed in an altered rhythm the singer Im Improvising improvising improvising as Spaniards commonly do with a witty allusion to the stranger who mistaking the for tor a parrot would go up into the sierra to scratch its head hend hendA A handsome young man in the worn leather accoutrements of a mountain mountaineer eer with a scarlet waistband who had been dozing in a corner an ancient propped between his knees now woke up and seizing the guitar chanted out a in Jn praise of the wild boar and the joys of bringing him to bay in some pome deep thicket under the tho mountain spurs The company was visibly stirred Any boars to be had hereabouts asked with interest A chorus answered am him Robledo the singer was himself a cazador a hunter who had killed many boars There were also and foxes up there in the gorges But Robledo in spite of the Cubans brusque urging and offers of good payment hung back at first though after some persuasion he promised to arrange a hunt for his hi excellency Under cover coyer of a surge of talk taUt the innkeeper brushed past the Cuban Do not go senor he lie said In a low voice It is dangerous to hunt wild boars If It anything should happen to o you It will give me a bad name But opposition was the salt of life to His eyes gleamed What is you good go d name to me he asked with a laugh The gui tar twanged a dancing measure Im Immediately Immediately Immediately mediately there was the fhe crisp melodi n t I Ii i ous rattle of castanets the circle about the fire broke up and in the clear space two couples were dancing the girls swaying gracefully as mead meadow meadow meadow ow grasses with many delicate step pings swift and involved watched them a glow coming slowly up Into his face Then he sprang to his feet thrust aside one of the young men and took his place as partner in the dance There was a suppressed scuffle behind him as the sinewy wrist spoiled a knife thrust aimed at the Cubans back The ousted partner a young shepherd turned in hot blood on the hunter Be content Estaban my lord de desires desires desires sires him said Robledo soothingly In these dances partners advance and retreat circle and bend each moving moving moving ing in relation to the other but separ separately separately without contact even of the hands took his part ably abb and with abandon but as the music quickened he caught the girl by bythe bythe bythe the waist and whirled her round in a rough waltz He fancied he heard a growl from the spectators but the d dance hurried to an end and a black man at once came up to tell him that the had already de departed departed departed parted to locate the quarry for his ex pleasure In the forenoon of the next day Wilson Wilson Wil Wilson son from his couch by the wall watched ride away to toward toward toward ward the mountains with Robledo and andone andonE andone one or two others The innkeeper turned In from the doorway George most entirely at your service the gentleman of that name was saying as he swept his hat hatin hatin hatin in an elaborate bow across his feet Don Q repeated slowly gazing at the swarthy face op opposite opposite opposite and an Englishman Yet that turn of the wrist was surely never learned beyond the sound of the Span Spanish Spanish Spanish ish tongue He illustrated the supple movement as he spoke Don Q was sunning himself on the r rocky terrace outside his dwelling c cave In front of him stood the recent 1 captive smiling and jaunty ii In these particulars varying from the generality of individuals who occupied that position The boar hunt had resolved itself Into a trap for the hunter When Mc c arrived at the patch of level ground shut in by steep cliffs cUffs and feathered with brushwood which he Was vas assured was excellent ground for pig the men had closed In n about him He grasped at the rifle slung behind his saddle but the captors were too quick for him His first reeling feeling was a murderous mur erous flare of rage But Robledo and his companions knew how to handle furi furious furIous furious ous men and as the mule was led up upwards upwards upwards wards through patches of pine and along tracks hardly to be de detec detected detec tec ted and lastly through barren echoing ravines the Cuban cooled down to a more reasonable view of the situation For an idea germinated in his mind that a temporary seclusion in inthe inthe inthe the glen of the brigand might very well answer the purpose for which he had left England He proposed to have as good a time as possible and though when he left the languorous woods behind and climbed further and further Into the of bare black gorges the desolation and intangible menace of the landscape communicated ted itself to his thoughts he shook It oft off and prepared to meet the dreaded chief with a cheerfulness he judged that personage would find unusual Though English born senor I had the privilege to be brought up in n your country He supplemented the speech by another extravagant bow The chiefs eyelids flickered There was a suspicion of mockery in the mans courtesies I have long been an exile from the world he remarked with apparent ir irrelevance relevance and there are many types of Englishmen looked sharply at him The words might have conveyed an insult had the tone been less suave Shall we te touch on the disagreeable of business went on o Don Q ur urbanely urbanely urbanely The matter of your ransom for example senor Certainly But pray let me assure you I am not a rich man Mores the pity It Is s Indeed a pity as I had t of saying fifty thousand Pesetas interjected the prisoner airily The senor is mistaken I was about to say dollars but since he has the bad taste to bargain we will say pounds fifty thousand English pounds sterling You joke surely It is the ransom of a millionaire exclaimed dale Don Q bent his head with a polite gesture g sture of assent Precisely I perceive you do not understand that I am a man whom sordid considerations easily pain and offend The question is now In abey abeyance arce ance We will not return to it for a week The petty details of business disgust me as I have said but finance on a grand rand scale that is another af affair affair affair fair I have looked forward for some sometime sometime sometime time to discussing the subject with so eminent nt an authority as yourself turned the dark red of ofa ofa a swarthy man manIn manIn In spite slite of your exile you seem to gather some news up here he re remarked remarked remarked marked cropping his debonair manner man manner manner nerI ner I flatter myself that it is so agreed Don Q with much amiability I count myself fortunate in meeting you At one time or another members of various professions have honored me here in the mountains sportsmen doctors politicians and so on but never before a millionaire They came cameto to me in various ways by rail by car carriage carriage carriage on foot root and on horseback But you senor outdid them all by rushing headlong into my domains in an auto automobile automobile automobile mobile The chief smiled as though paying his companion a compliment Ah the scoundrel said dale reminiscently Then resuming his flippant manner Youve got the better of me this trip Well I must communicate at once with my secre tary This ransom will take some time timeto timeo to collect adding to himself but may I be skinned if ever you get a penny of it It was the evening of the second day Don Q and his guest were sitting with in the cave over oer cigarettes and coffee The conversation touching on many points lingered long on financial methods had explained the nature of trusts and corners He had gaily admitted that such combinations stifle legitimate trade the companies to absorb any special special special cial line could be engineered with the effect of starving small traders out of their lawful la share of business A description de description description of the corner in corn orn Born was given though its promoter modestly omitted to mention his Interest In the operation o Don Q listened with attention It would appear from much that you ou have been good enough to tell me senor that business Is a cloak for many sores he remarked showed his white teeth In a complacent grin grinI I suppose one must acknowledge so much But what does It matter as long as the sore Is on the back of an another another another other man he replied Don Q eyed him broodingly You may not be aware senor that I hold strong views vi ws on ones duty to toward toward toward ward ones one he said It goes without saying laughed the Cuban but I presume stronger ones on ones duty to oneself The chief raised a delicate yellow forefinger Pardon me I T think not he said I with some grimness But it seems strange to me that I who occasionally perform the meritorious action of re relieving relieving relieving lieving the rich of a part of their wealth and thereby decreasing their temptations am put outside the pale of the law whereas these of whom you yau speak spend their lives in robbing the poor and yet are respected and praised How is that thatA A matter of luck I suppose re responded responded responded the other indifferently But there is something I want to talk over over with you Just reconsider the subject of my ransom is a long price Don Q rose abruptly At the end of the week senor when we have come to know one another I better we will speak of it again But the delay is absurd exclaimed angrily I cannot per permit permit permit mit it itI I insist Don Q raised his hand There are two courses open to you he said slowly Either you remain as my guest in n which case I am sure you jou will respect my prejudices or you will become the guest of my children in the valley who will I fear not be likely to respect yours The Cuban set his jaw It was Intolerable Intolerable intolerable erable Call up your comrades Gaspar Caspar Robledo Ro Ko 1 bledo and the rest and settle the mat mater matter matter t ter er out of hand he said insolently los losing losing I ing ng hold on his temper but the chief walked away into the interior of the cave without replying It was evident that detention in the mountains annoyed the Cuban out of ot all proportion to the hardships it jt en entailed entailed 1 tailed ailed Don Q became serious and an anat at the end of the week he spoke It would seem senor that my hos hospitality hospitality hospitality does not meet |