At six o'clock I 'll be back here. Unless you decide by
then, I'll telephone the consulate that the whole thing is off."
"Of all the impudent, conceited, self-important young
whippersnappers!" fumed Mr. Brewster. But he found that he had no
audience, as Sherwen had followed the scientist out of the room.
Before the afternoon was over, the American concessionnaire had
come to realize that the situation was less assured than he had
thought. Twice the British Minister had come, and there had been
calls from the representatives of several other nationalities. Von
Plaanden, in full uniform and girt with the short saber that is
the special and privileged arm of the crack cavalry regiment to
which he belonged at home, had dismounted to deliver personally a
huge bouquet for Miss Brewster, from the garden of the Hochwald
Legation, not even asking to see the girl, but merely leaving the
flowers as a further expression of his almost daily apology, and
riding on to an official review at the military park.
He had spoken vaguely to Sherwen of a restless condition of the
local mind. Reports, it appeared, had been set afloat among the
populace to the effect that an American sanitary officer had been
bribed by the enemies of Caracuna to declare plague prevalent, in
order to close the ports and strangle commerce.
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