"Yes; you heard me. You will be sorry, but, of course, I'm coming back
again."
"I know I can tell you that I certainly shall without its appearing
presumption," said Appleby.
The girl nodded. "We haven't any use for that word in our country. In
fact, we have rather a liking for a presumptuous man so long as he is
sensible," she said. "Then there is nothing I can do for you there?"
"No," said Appleby.
Nettie leaned a little nearer him, and though she smiled a faint flush
crept into her cheek. "If there were, you would tell me? I can't help
remembering what you did for me."
"I think I would. Still, you see there is nothing."
"Well, I'm not quite sure, and one never knows who they may meet in
England. It's quite a small place, anyway."
Then there was a ringing of steel on stone, and she looked round with a
little impatient gesture as she said, "Here is that odious Morales
again!"
The banker rose, and brought a chair as the colonel came forward, but
the little pressure of the girl's hand on his arm warned Appleby that
she desired him to remain, and for an hour they discussed the campaign.
Then Appleby decided to relate what had happened at the hacienda a few
nights earlier, though he said very little about the papers and nothing
concerning the hidden receptacle. Morales, he fancied, listened with
eagerness, and once his dark eyes flashed.
"You were wrong when you let him go," he said. "If it happens again I
should suggest the pistol. One gains nothing by showing those gentlemen
toleration."
Then he shrugged his shoulders, and turned to the banker's wife with a
smile; but Appleby had noticed the vindictiveness in his tone, and as he
surmised it was not accounted for by the fact that the man had broken
into Harding's office, wondered whether it was because he had failed to
accomplish his purpose. He, however, felt that Nettie Harding desired
him to outstay the colonel, and was content with the little grateful
glance she cast at him when Morales went away. Ten minutes later Appleby
also rose, but the banker detained him a minute or two.
"You have a consignment of sugar to be shipped," he said "Some one will
go down to the port. Yourself, I think?"
"Yes," said Appleby.
"Then it would be a kindness if you would hand this letter to the
captain to post in America," he said. "It is of some importance to the
Senor Harding and others."
"With pleasure, but why not post it here?"
The banker laid his hand on Appleby's shoulder, and shook his head
significantly. "One does not trust anything of importance to the post
just now," he said. "This is an affair in which the greatest discretion
is necessary. When one puts anything he does not wish the administration
to know in a letter he burns the blotting paper."
Appleby was not altogether astonished, but he took the packet the banker
handed him; and when they shook hands the latter once more glanced at
him warningly.
"The discretion!" he said. "You will remember--the discretion."