. We had a conversation this
very evening, I walking by the side of his horse as he rode slowly out of the
town just now. He promised me that if a riot took place for any reason - even
for the most political of reasons, you understand - his Cargadores, an important
part of the populace, you will admit, should be found on the side of the
Europeans.«
    »He has promised you that?« Mrs. Gould inquired, with interest. »What made
him make that promise to you?«
    »Upon my word, I don't know,« declared Decoud, in a slightly surprised tone.
»He certainly promised me that, but now you ask me why I certainly could not
tell you his reasons. He talked with his usual carelessness, which, if he had
been anything else but a common sailor, I would call a pose or an affectation.«
    Decoud, interrupting himself, looked at Mrs. Gould curiously.
    »Upon the whole,« he continued, »I suppose he expects something to his
advantage from it. You mustn't forget that he does not exercise his
extraordinary power over the lower classes without a certain amount of personal
risk and without a great profusion in spending his money. One must pay in some
way or other for such a solid thing as individual prestige. He told me after we
made friends at a dance, in a Posada kept by a Mexican just outside the walls,
that he had come here to make his fortune. I suppose he looks upon his prestige
as a sort of investment.«
    »Perhaps he prizes it for its own sake,« Mrs. Gould said in a tone as if she
were repelling an undeserved aspersion. »Viola, the Garibaldino, with whom he
has lived for some years, calls him the Incorruptible.«
    »Ah! he belongs to the group of your protégés out there towards the harbour,
Mrs. Gould. Muy bien. And Captain Mitchell calls him wonderful. I have heard no
end of tales of his strength, his audacity, his fidelity. No end of fine things.
H'm! incorruptible! It is indeed a name of honour for the Capataz of the
Cargadores of Sulaco. Incorruptible! Fine, but vague. However, I suppose he's
sensible, too. And I talked to him upon that sane and practical assumption.«
    »I prefer to think him disinterested, and therefore trustworthy,« Mrs. Gould
said, with the nearest approach to curtness it was in her nature to assume.
    »Well, if so
