dawned in Keogh's ruddy countenance. He dropped his pencil. His eyes turned upon the sunburned young man with joy in them mingled with fear lest his ecstasy should prove a dream.

"For God's sake tell me," said Keogh, earnestly, "are you Dink Pawson ?"

"My name is Pinkney Dawson," said the cornerer of the cockleburr market.

Billy Keogh slid rapturously and gently from his chair to his favourite strip of matting on the floor.

There were not many sounds in Coralio on that sultry afternoon. Among those that were may be mentioned a noise of enraptured and unrighteous laughter from a prostrate Irish-American, while a sunburned young man, with a shrewd eye, looked on him with wonder and amazement. Also the "tramp, tramp, tramp" of many well-shod feet in the streets outside. Also the lonesome wash of the waves tha beat along the historic shores of the Spanish Main.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Masters of Arts

A TWO-INCH stub of a blue pencil was the wand with which Keogh performed the preliminary acts o his magic. So, with this he covered paper with dia grams and figures while he waited for the United States of America to send down to Coralio a suc cessor to Atwood, resigned.

The new scheme that his mind had conceived, hi stout heart indorsed, and his blue pencil corrobo rated, was laid around the characteristics and human frailties of the new president of Anchuria. Thes characteristics, and the situation out of which Keog hoped to wrest a golden tribute, deserve chronicling contributive to the clear order of events.

President Losada - many called him Dictator

triotism of Washington (the man he most admired), the force of Napoleon, and much of the wisdom of the sages. These characteristics might have justified him in the assumption of the title of "The Illustrious Liberator," had they not been accompanied by a stupendous and amazing vanity that kept him in the less worthy ranks of the dictators.

Yet he did his country great service. With a mighty grasp he shook it nearly free from the shackles of ignorance and sloth and the vermin that fed upon it, and all but made it a power in the council of nations. He established schools and hospitals, built roads, bridges, railroads and palaces, and bestowed generous subsidies upon the arts and sciences. He was the absolute despot and the idol of his people. The wealth of the country poured into his hands. Other presidents had been rapacious without reason. Losada amassed enormous wealth, but his people had their share of the benefits.

bearing legends in praise of his greatness. In the wall of every public edifice, tablets were fixed reciting his splendour and the gratitude of his subjects. Hi statuettes and portraits were scattered through out the land in every house and hut. One of the sycophants in his court painted him as St. John with a halo and a train of attendants in ful uniform. Losada saw nothing incongruous in this picture, and had it hung in a church in the capital He ordered from a French sculptor a marble group including himself with Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and one or two others whom he deemed worthy of the honour.

He ransacked Europe for decorations, employing policy, money and intrigue to cajole the orders he cov eted from kings and rulers. On state occasions his breast was covered from shoulder to shoulder with crosses, stars, golden roses, medals and ribbons. It was said that the man who could contrive for him a new decoration, or invent some new method of extoll

eye. The gentle buccaneer had observed the rain of favours that fell upon those who ministered to the president's vanities, and he did not deem it his duty to hoist his umbrella against the scattering drops of liquid fortune.

In a few weeks the new consul arrived, releasing Keogh from his temporary duties. He was a young man fresh from college, who lived for botany alone. The consulate at Coralio gave him the opportunity to study tropical flora. He wore smoked glasses, and carried a green umbrella. He filled the cool, back porch of the consulate with plants and specimens so that space for a bottle and chair was not to be found. Keogh gazed on him sadly, but without rancour, and began to pack his gripsack. For his new plot against stagnation along the Spanish Main required of him a voyage overseas.

Soon came the Karlsefin again—she of the trampish habits-gleaning a cargo of cocoanuts for a speculative descent upon the New York