Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/207

 honest with you! I am on this ship for the same purpose that you are here."

"To go to Locombia?"

"No—to defeat Ganley!"

"For what reason?"

"For your reason!"

"But for whom?"

"For the Minister of War of the United States of Locombia," answered McKinnon. He leaned towards her a little as he spoke, and lowered his voice, with a warning side-glance towards the closed door.

"But my brother Arturo is the Locombian Minister of War," she maintained, her eyes still wide with wonder.

"And for two months past I've been commissioned by your brother to keep in touch with practically every so-called 'Liberal' expatriate in New York. And only twenty hours before this ship sailed I found out what it carried and why it was necessary for me to be on board of it."

For a full minute she did not utter a word. "Then you are a spy?" she said, at last.

Scarcely a spy—I am merely a Secret Agent for Arturo Boynton's government," was his answer.

He could see the deep breath she took as she