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“Is that safe?” Again the smile worked itself loose.

“Yes,” I replied, “if you don’t lose your plant too often by bad weather. We have warnings of our coast storms and can provide against them. I don’t know anything about yours–what are they like?”

“They come suddenly and without warning,” he rejoined; “typhoons, generally, with the tiles rattling off the roofs and the natives hugging the cocoanut trees.” With this he turned to the plans again. “Better add another twenty thousand–I want to be safe,” he said, in a tone that showed me he had at last made up his mind.

I added it, marking the sum on the memorandum which Mawkum had given him.

“Now, please put that in writing over your signature. I’ll call to-morrow at ten for the document. Good-day.”

When he was well down the corridor–we waited really until we heard the down-chug of the elevator–Mawkum looked at me and gave a low whistle.

“Add another twenty! What do you think is up? That Bunch of Garlic is working some funny business, or he wouldn’t have sent that brigand up here.”

I ruminated for a moment, walked to the window and took in the brick wall, the clerks and the clock tower. Frankly, I did not know what Garlicho was up to. It was the first time that any passenger by the Tampico, or any other steamer, from any quarter of the globe, had asked either Mawkum or myself to add one penny to the cost of anything. The effort heretofore had been to cut down each item to the last cent. Was the ivory-tinted gentleman going to build the lighthouse at his own expense out of loyalty to President Alvarez, the saviour of his country, and then donate it to the Government, using our estimate to prove the extent of his generosity? Or was there a trick somewhere? I decided to sound Senor Onativia the next morning, and find out.

I had not long to wait. He arrived on the minute, bobbed to Mawkum, drew a chair to my desk and squared, or rather rounded, his body in front of me.

“I will now tell you what I omitted to say yesterday,” he began. “When an order comes for this lighthouse–and it will arrive by the next steamer–it will not be signed by Senor Garlicho, but by me. I have reasons for this which I cannot explain, and which are not necessary for you to know. The ironwork–all you will have to furnish–will also be shipped in my name. With the order will be sent a letter introducing my bankers, who will call upon you at your convenience, and who will pay the amounts in the way you desire–one-third on the signing of the contract (one of the firm will act as my agent), one-third on erection and inspection of the ironwork properly put together in the yard, and the balance on delivery to them of the bills of lading. Is that quite satisfactory?”

I bowed my head in answer.

“And have you signed your estimate showing what you consider to be a fair price for both the lighthouse itself and for the cost of its erection on the Lobo Reef?”

“Yes; there it is,” and I pointed to the document lying on my desk. “And now one word, please. When did you last see Mr. Lawton? He’s our agent, you know, and you must have met him in connection with this matter. When Senor Garlicho arrived he brought us a letter from him.”

Onativia’s lips curled slightly as he recognized the hidden meaning of the inquiry, but his expression never changed.

“I have never seen him. If I had I should not have wasted my time in getting a letter from him or from anybody else. As to Senor Garlicho, his time has expired; he has not asked for its renewal, and so far as this deal is concerned he does not count. I am here, as I told you, to keep the affair alive. I would have come sooner, but I have been away from the city of San Juan for months. Most of us who have opinions of our own have been away from San Juan–some for years. San Juan has not been a healthy place for men who believe in Paramba.”