EM EM : monthly magazine - 01.09.1941, Síða 36

Em Em
áð
aii nour iater atuarea ana i
stood In the shadow of the chart
house as the V.Tiipple steamed
back to Caimora.
“Did you know,” I asked, "that
Carretos might flee the country
when you went aboard his yacht
tonight?”
“What do you thing?” she
asked.
"I’m not thinking. I’m asking.”
“You’re such a fool, Ray Leslie,”
she said impatiently. And then
added briefly: “Carretos lied to
get me there. He told me there
would be others—other women.”
“But you must have suspected
there was something fishy some-
where.”
“Of course I did. I '■uspected at
Seneral Ricc's ball.”
“And that’s why you’ve been
playing up to Carretos?”
“‘Mfttlirílllv W era vah olllv
nervous and excited, apprehensive.
I didn’t know about the shipment
of gold then. I didn’t know any-
thing except that some plot was
afoot.”
“Did he tell you—afterward—
why he was aboard?”
“No. But I suspect he took pas-
sage at the last minute when he
found I was sailing on her. He
wanted to look after me when the
ship went down.”
“Very noble of him. Did some
one else open those sea cocks?”
“Your little friend Pedro Gon-
zales, I learned tonight, was a
stowaway on the Alderbaron.”
“But what I can’t understand,”
I said impatlently, “is why a man
of Carretos’ position and wealth
should be mlxed up in such a rot-
ten plot.”
“But surely, as a budding young
diplomat, you know what was be-
hind it.”
“We’ll skip the budding young
diplomat. And I don’t know what
was behind it. Neither does your
father.”
“My father, Ray, has been
asleep for 15 years. But you—”
“Let all that go. What’s the
low-down?”
“Well, Carretos was planning to
jump over to the Liberal party and
have himself elected president at
the next electlon. While he held
office with the Conservative ad-
ministratlon he was working hand
and glove with the Liberals.”
“But that doesn’t explaln—” I
began.
“Of course it does,” Mildred in-
terrupted. “It explains everything.
That gold, you must surely know,
was the flnal payment of a loan
granted to Andegoya the Taft
adminlstratlon. The money — as
enougn íq irnnK i mignt oe m lova
with the man?”
“Well—I—”
She sounded like a teacher ex-
plaining a problem to a dull and
disinterested child. “I was attract-
ed by the aura of mystery and
intrigue which seemed to surround
him. So I cultivated him, played
up to him. Why? Because I have
a woman’s curiosity and love of
plotting and intrigue.
“I didn’t suspect anything was
seriously wrong until that night on
the Alderbaron. He asked me if I
nnew how to put on a life belt, he
sven tried to show me. He seemed
used to good purpose, perhaps, but
for 20 years the people of the re-
public have been groaning under
the taxes that were levied to pay
it back.
“There hasn’t been any too
much prosperlty in the country
anyway, and the people have been
growing more and more discon-
tented with the Conservative ad-
ministration. The loss of the
money, the realization that it
would have to be collected and
paid all over again, would have
been the flnal straw that broke the
camel’s back. There would have
been a tremendous political up-
heaval, possibly even a revolution.
And Carretos would have ridden
into the president’s palace with
colors flying. Do you understand
now?”
“I’m beginning to,” I admitted.
“It wasn’t the money Carretos
wanted, then. He wanted merely
to crystalize public sentiment
against President Sazardi by the
loss of lt.”
“There you have it. Of coursé,
though, Carretos wasn’t averse to
taking the money, too. The gold
for which he had the lead bars
substituted is aboard the Liber-
atad.”
Mildred looking up at me smil-
ing. “You know, Ray, I don’t be-
lieve you would ever make a dip-
lomat.”
I put my arm around her and
grinned. “Would you want to bo
the wife of a diplomat?”
“We-e-ell, I think I’d rather—”
“Be the wife of a navy officer?”
“Yes.”
“Then that should make it unan-
lmous.”
(The End)
1 Copyright by Whitman Chambers
Dist. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Hikes 20,600 Miles
Completing a 20,600-mile hilang
trip, Julio Cesar Berrizbeitia, 19-
year-old Boy Scout, is pictured as
he arrived in Washington, D. C.,
four years and one month after
leaving Caracas, Venezuela. He
brought with him a letter from the
chief executive of his country to
President Roosevelt.
Grandma Ross
During business hours Mrs. Nellie
Tayloe Ross is director of the U. S.
mint, but all other times she is just
grandma to the infant she is shown
holding so proudly. Left, is the
baby’s equally proud father, Lieut.
William B. Ross, shown in May-
nard Hospital, Seattle, Washington.