"Very well,"
had said the considerable personage to whom Charles Gould on his way
out through San Francisco had lucidly exposed his point of view. "Let us
suppose that the mining affairs of Sulaco are taken in hand. There would
then be in it: first, the house of Holroyd, which is all right; then,
Mr. Charles Gould, a citizen of Costaguana, who is also all right; and,
lastly, the Government of the Republic. So far this resembles the first
start of the Atacama nitrate fields, where there was a financing house,
a gentleman of the name of Edwards, and--a Government; or, rather, two
Governments--two South American Governments. And you know what came of
it. War came of it; devastating and prolonged war came of it, Mr. Gould.
However, here we possess the advantage of having only one South
American Government hanging around for plunder out of the deal. It is an
advantage; but then there are degrees of badness, and that Government is
the Costaguana Government."
Thus spoke the considerable personage, the millionaire endower of
churches on a scale befitting the greatness of his native land--the same
to whom the doctors used the language of horrid and veiled menaces.
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