Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/14

 detailed that which has until now escaped the public ken, except as garbled press reports have at times hinted at inexplicable situations without furnishing the solution. I can see now that Smith, in his world-wide wanderings in search of circus and menagerie furnishings, or in piloting some theatrical venture, was the blind factor in many a half-published equation. If I remember correctly, I had been commenting on the frequency of revolutions in quarrelsome Central America when Campbell first opened his heart, filled his pipe, and began the narrative which was to charm me for many an evening.

"It is true," he began, "that Central America has been a bargain-counter in petty warfares for years, and has peddled out more genuine lemons to would-be Cæsars than any other spot of its size on the map. Some of the disturbances have been exceedingly eccentric, others, just plain, vulgar killings; but I doubt if ever there was a more picturesque insurrection than that in which Tiberius Smith, of Vermont, filled the president's cosey corner for one week, and with his reserve battery of comic-opera singers and his ever-reassuring "Ha! ha!" defied all comers. The passing of Tiberius and his administration is not mentioned in history, nor did the consular agent hear of it in time to stir up the Washington newspaper men with sanguinary