would give me time,« he added.
    »Exactly,« said Dr. Monygham, suppressing his excitement. »Especially if Don
Pépé behaves diplomatically. Why shouldn't he give them some hope of success?
Eh? Otherwise you wouldn't gain so much time. Couldn't he be instructed to -«
    Charles Gould, looking at the doctor steadily, shook his head, but the
doctor continued with a certain amount of fire -
    »Yes, to enter into negotiations for the surrender of the mine. It is a good
notion. You would mature your plan. Of course, I don't ask what it is. I don't
want to know. I would refuse to listen to you if you tried to tell me. I am not
fit for confidences.«
    »What nonsense!« muttered Charles Gould, with displeasure.
    He disapproved of the doctor's sensitiveness about that far-off episode of
his life. So much memory shocked Charles Gould. It was like morbidness. And
again he shook his head. He refused to tamper with the open rectitude of Don
Pépé's conduct, both from taste and from policy. Instructions would have to be
either verbal or in writing. In either case they ran the risk of being
intercepted. It was by no means certain that a messenger could reach the mine;
and, besides, there was no one to send. It was on the tip of Charles's tongue to
say that only the late Capataz de Cargadores could have been employed with some
chance of success and the certitude of discretion. But he did not say that. He
pointed out to the doctor that it would have been bad policy. Directly Don Pépé
let it be supposed that he could be bought over, the Administrador's personal
safety and the safety of his friends would become endangered. For there would be
then no reason for moderation. The incorruptibility of Don Pépé was the
essential and restraining fact. The doctor hung his head and admitted that in a
way it was so.
    He couldn't deny to himself that the reasoning was sound enough. Don Pépé's
usefulness consisted in his unstained character. As to his own usefulness, he
reflected bitterly it was also his own character. He declared to Charles Gould
that he had the means of keeping Sotillo from joining his forces with Montero,
at least for the present.
    »If you had had all this silver here,« the doctor said, »or even if it had
been known to be at the mine, you could have bribed Sotillo to throw off his