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 they'll begin to cannonade. By Tuesday after noon we'll be advancing on the Palace itself. By Wednesday night we'll have Duran and his gang shelled out or our own men shoved in. By sun-up on Thursday we'll have Duran deposed and the new government declared, an hour after those Palace gates come down, with our own men in office. There's no use my beating round the bush with you any longer. It's all got to come. And I don't want you workin' against us. I know you're game enough; and I like your style. I don't want to see you cuttin' your own throat. And if you see us through for the next two or three days I'll do the right thing by you."

"How the right thing?"

"I'll deed you over a third interest in the Parroto chromium mines, and make you Minister of Telegraphs for the new republic, with a salary of six thousand dollars in gold!"

Some momentary spirit of romance, of vast issues and strange dangers, of hazards and risks in far-off corners of the earth, seemed to hover about the hot and stuffy little cabin.

"I mean it," went on Ganley, as placid and persuasive as before. "I'll tie myself down to it. And that hill-town of Guariqui is going to be a mighty livable little city when we do it over!"