s adventurers in
association with Captain Mitchell, the engineer-in-chief, and old Viola, at
Sotillo's headquarters. To the doctor, with his special conception of this
political crisis, the removal of the silver had seemed an irrational and
ill-omened measure. It was as if a general were sending the best part of his
troops away on the eve of battle upon some recondite pretext. The whole lot of
ingots might have been concealed somewhere where they could have been got at for
the purpose of staving off the dangers which were menacing the security of the
Gould Concession. The Administrador had acted as if the immense and powerful
prosperity of the mine had been founded on methods of probity, on the sense of
usefulness. And it was nothing of the kind. The method followed had been the
only one possible. The Gould Concession had ransomed its way through all those
years. It was a nauseous process. He quite understood that Charles Gould had got
sick of it and had left the old path to back up that hopeless attempt at reform.
The doctor did not believe in the reform of Costaguana. And now the mine was
back again in its old path, with the disadvantage that henceforth it had to deal
not only with the greed provoked by its wealth, but with the resentment awakened
by the attempt to free itself from its bondage to moral corruption. That was the
penalty of failure. What made him uneasy was that Charles Gould seemed to him to
have weakened at the decisive moment when a frank return to the old methods was
the only chance. Listening to Decoud's wild scheme had been a weakness.
    The doctor flung up his arms, exclaiming, »Decoud! Decoud!« He hobbled about
the room with slight, angry laughs. Many years ago both his ankles had been
seriously damaged in the course of a certain investigation conducted in the
castle of Sta. Marta by a commission composed of military men. Their nomination
had been signified to them unexpectedly at the dead of night, with scowling
brow, flashing eyes, and in a tempestuous voice, by Guzman Bento. The old
tyrant, maddened by one of his sudden accesses of suspicion, mingled spluttering
appeals to their fidelity with imprecations and horrible menaces. The cells and
casements of the castle on the hill had been already filled with prisoners. The
commission was charged now with the task of discovering the iniquitous
conspiracy against the Citizen-Saviour of his country.
    The dread of the raving tyrant translated itself into a hasty ferocity of
procedure. The Citizen-Saviour was not accustomed to wait. A conspiracy had to
be discovered.