THE COURTS OF THE MORNING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE COURTS OF THE MORNING.

BY JOHN BUCHAN,

CHAPTER lll.—(Continued). • i 'ArtJiie stared at his companion's face. The moon was very bright, and the face which it revealed was grave and set. w ' You are talking in riddles," said . 'Archil. " I wish you would be more explicit. You tell me to get out of the country, because if I stay I may have trouble, You can hardly leave it at that, you know. What kind of trouble ? Perhaps it's the kind that Janet and I might rather fancy." " That is why I warn you. You are a young man with a wife. It ,is easy to see that you are not. the type which avoids danger. But a wife makes a differ- ' , ence— especially such a lady as yours. You .would not wish to involve her and yet ;you may unwittingly, if you do not leave 1 Olifa." f " Supposing I were a bachelor, what "would you say?" Don Luis laughed. " Ah, (hen I should f speak otherwise. I should make of you a confident— perhaps an ally. You wish to visit the Gran Seco, but your passports are unaccountably delayed. I might offer to take you to the Gran Seco, but not by Santa''Anna and the Company's railway." Archio pondered. " Everything in this country seems to turn on the Gran Seco," he said, " and we don't seem to be able to get there."

" It may be that that blunder of officialdom is doing you a service," said Don Luis solemnly. " Well, I've no desire to go there and get tangled up in a local shindy, which 1 take, it is what you are hinting at. I remember Mr. Wilbur said that the miners seemed to be an ugly crowd. I'm very much obliged to you, Don Luis. " You will not tell anyone that I have framed you 1" "Certainly not. I'm rather inclined to take vour advice and teU Gedd to drop the passport business. L didn't como here looking for trouble—and besides, there's .my wife." But in this Archie was not ' wholly/ candid. He told himself that what he called a "dago revolution" had no charms for him, especially with Janet to take care of. But he realised that this phrase 'did not exhaust the mystery in Olifa, //which had been slowly accumulating in his mind till the sense of it was like an atmosphere about him. Also lie liad taken a strong liking to Don Luis. The young man had a curious ..appeal in his alternate gaiety and gravity. There was that in him which seemed to beckon to high /adventure; he was such a companion as Archie a dozen years ago would nave welcomed to ridowith over the edge of the world. But Archie, married lame, Of one leg, decided with a halfsigh th&t such vistas and such comrades .were 110 longer for him. On their return to the city they were met by an incensed Don Alejandro. Not only had the" permits for the Gran Seco not arrived, they had been definitely refused. It was not the work of the Government —this he had ascertained from his second cousin, the Minister for External Affairs. . \The refusal came from the company itself, and Don Alejandro was positive that it was due to the interference of the American consul. No doubt Wilbur had meant well, but apparently lie had pressed the request so that the company had assumed that he was its principal sponsor, and had naturally refused, since tbey thought they had done enough for his unpopular country by permitting the entrance of the party trom the Corinna There was no doubt about it. Don Alejandro had heard from a friend who was deep in the company's affairs that Wilbur jWas the cause of the refusal. To Janet's surprise, Archie seemed rather relieved than otherwise. "Just as well, he said. "We should probably have got fever or something, and we didn't come six thousand miles to look at a mining district. We have plenty of them at home." He not told Janet of Don Luis's warning, but he had brooded over it, and .with separation from the giver its good sense seemed to grow more convincing. Why on earth should Janet and he waste time in visiting a dusty plateau, even thpugh it was the source 0: Olifa's prosperity and might have importance in Olifa's future politics ? He would learn little iii a hurried torn 1 , and it wasn't his line to pick up gossip and go home and raise a racket ia Parliament about Gran Seco atrocities. . . . They would go south to Cardanio and Alcorta, and might make a short trip into the mountains. The Twelve Apostles would bear inspection from closer quarters. . . . After that they .would go home by Panama and perhaps visit Jamaica. His family had once owned big plantations there, established by an ancestor Who had left the country .hurriedly affer Culloden. So they / fell back upon Olifa society, and Archie played polo daily at the club and they gave a dinner at the hotel, and .were jusi preparing to set out for Cardanio when they were bidden to luncheon by no less* a person than the President. A superb card of invitation, surmounted by the jOlifa arms in gold, gave Archie the tile yt " Right Honourable " and designed Janet as the "Honourable Lady A. Roylance." Archie consulted Don Alejandro as to his garments and was informed that the manners of Olifa were English and that they might both wear what th,ey pleased. So Janet and he appeared at the President's mansion in their ordinary clothes to find most of the men in evening dress with ribands and star and all the women in Paris hats and what looked lilce wedding gowns. Janet promptly had a fit of giggles, and it was n flushed and embarrassed pair who made their bow to the heavy, sallow, bull-necked Excellentiosmo. • The day was hot, the place where they sat was as heavily upholstered as a Victorian dining-room, and the conversation ihad the languor of a ceremonial banquet. Janet, as the guest of honour, sat on the ■President's right hand, while Archie, at the other end, was sandwiched between a voluminous elderly woman who was the President's wife, and a sleepy French woman whose husband was Don Alejandro's /kinsman. head had been confused by many introductions, but he had made out that kinsman, a Sanfuentes of the younger branch, and a tall man with a forked 1 ->ard who was Aviba, the Minister of finance. '.There was a vacant chair 011 • Janet's right side. The meal seemed interminable. The food was prententiouslv good, and the jguests seemed to have been starved for days, for they refused none of the dishes. Sweet champagne was served, and the Olifa Tokay,' but when Archie, greatly daring, sisked for a whisky and soda, it was brought him, and to his surprise it was pre-war whisky. There seemed to be about twenty footmen, all in kneebreeches, mestizos, who, in their gaudy liveries, had an air of comic opera. Suddenly there was a movement in the company. had entered and taken <he vacant chair by Janet's side. The light in the room was very dim and Archie saw only a tall figure, to greet whom the 'President and the other men rose and bowed. The man, whoever he was, was not in evening dress Later, he saw Janet's fair head inclined towards him, and from lthe vivacity of her manner she seemed to be finding interest in the new guest. • At last, with a marvellous course cf fruits and sweetmeats, the. meal came to an end. Madame le President rose 1 cavily and led the Iddies from the rxim, a;;.I . the men moved up to a semi-circle round - their host. Room was made fcr Archie , next to the President, and beyond that impressive figure sat the lat-3 arrival. 1 With a thrill he Tecognised the man he shad seen the first day leaving the office ?}} o Avenida, the great Serior Castor, "the Gobernador of the province of the LUran Seco: and the head of the company. Huge cigars had been provided, but the

A BRILLIANT SERIAL OF LOVE, MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE,

Gobernador had refused them, and, after asking his host's permission, had lit a short briar pipe. It was some minutes before the President formally introduced them being himself engaged in a whispered conversation, so Archie had • the opportunity to study the great man's features.

Seen at close quarters they were not less impressive than in the fleeting view 111 the Avenida. The brow was broad and high, and had the heavy frontal development above the eyebrows which Archie remembered to have heard betokened mathematical genius. The complexion was pale but clear and healthy, the nose short but finely formed and springing from the forehead like (he prow of a ship. The mouth was hidden by the beard, but it might be guessed that the lips were full. The eyes were the compelling feature. They were large and grey and set rather wide apart, and though narrcw-lidded, gave their posessor an-air of steady, competent watchfulness. There was thought in (hem and masterfulness, but no hint of passion, only a calm, all-embracing intelligence. Among the beady- opaque eyes around him, this man's were like pools of living light contrasted with scummed morasses. The face was grave and composed, but when Archie'!) name was spoken it broke into a curiously pleasant smile. v

The Gobernador of the Gran Seco addressed him in flawless English. He inquired arter his journey, spoke of the pleasure with which he had made Janet's acquaintance, and, on being informed by the President that Archie was a member of the British Legislature, asked one or two shrewd questions about current British politics. In five minutes' talk across the table he seemed to take soundings of Archie's mind, and elicited his special interests. He even delected his love of birds, and had something to say of the need for a sound ornithologist to investigate certain of the mountain areas. Archie had a feeling that this astonishing man, if he had been told that his hobby was. marine zoology or Coptic antiquities, would have talked about it with the same intimate intelligence. " You will visit us, I hope, in our little mountain kingdom. Perhaps you have heard of-our Gran Seco?"

" I've heard about nothing else. But there's a hitch somewhere, and I've been told that we can't get passports for the present." The Gobernador frowned.

"What incomprehensible follyi That is a matter which shall at once be set right. I cannot think how the mistake has arisen. Your hotel ? The Constitucion ? Permits shall be sent round to you this afternoon, and you have only to fix the day of your journey and we shall make all arrangements. What must you think of us, Sir Archibald ? Believe me, we are not accustomed to treat distinguished strangers with such impoliteness."

The manner of the Gobernador was so open and friendly that Archie's distaste for the Gran Seco and his memory of Don Luis' talk straightaway vanished. The President observed that in old days the Gran Seco had been a closed country, and that, as Sir Archibald would understand, it could not be thrown open in a day.

" I am positive Sir Archibald will understand," said the Gobernador. "We have established as it were, a Sheffield and a Birmingham in a rude hill country, and we must limit our administrative problems. The sixteenth century and the twentieth can co-exist only if the latter is given in small doses. Slowly they will harmonise—but slowly. You have the same problem in your India. I understand that you do not permit tourists, however well accredited, even to enter some of the hill States like Nepaul and Bhopal." . . " That's true," said Archie. " When I was there, they wouldn't let me put a toot across the Nepaul border." " Also we are a great business, with our secrets, and we cannot have agents of our rivals prowling about the place, which is, so to speak, all one workshop. But we welcome visitors who recognise our difficulties and submit to our modest rules."

"It is the Americans who give trouble," said the President, darkly. > " There was an American party at the hotel," said Archie. " Noisy young devils from a yacht. I think they went up to the Gran Seco a week ago." The Gobernador shrugged his shoulders. "We do not antagonise the great, we who are business men. But those young Americans will not be given the-privileges which await you, Sir Archibald." Archie felt as if he were being treated with especial frankness and friendliness, and bis susceptible soul was in a pleasant glow. Then the conversation became general, and he had leisure to observe the company. The Gobernador said little, the Olifero statesmen much, but it seemed to Archie that they all talked under his eye and for his approbation. After an argument there came a hush, as if they deferred to him for the ultimate word. But he scarcely spoke. He sat silent, watchful, now and then smiling,tolerantly Only once he intervened. The Minister of Finance was discoursing on some aspect of the policy of the United States, and his comments were caustic. The Gobernador looked across at Archie and spoke in English. \ " Americans are unpopular in England ?" he asked.

"No. I shouldn't say that.-Americans are popular with us, as they always have been. You see, we get the best of them. But the abstract thing, America, is unpopular. She always seems to have a rather left-handed Government."

" A spark seemed to kindle in the other's eye. " That is right. No section of humanity deserves blame. It is governments, not peoples, that offend." Then the spark died out.

As Janet and Archie walked back to the hotel they spoke of the luncheon party. They had taken the road, through the old town, and were in the marketplace among the stalls. " That man Castor doesn't belong here," said Archie. "He has nothing in common with these bland Oliferos. He's nearer to that lot," and he pointed to a group of Indians in shaggy ponchos squatted by the fonntain. " He is one of the most extraordinary people I ever met," said Janet. " Can you guess what bo talked to me about ? Ossian—Papa's bete-noir, you know— Lord Balfour and Marcel Proust! And I believe lie could have talked just as well about clothes and Paris models."

" I never in all my life got so strong an impression of all-round competence. . . I like him, too. I think he's a good fellow. Don't you ?"

" I'm not so sure," said Janet. I should liko to see him clean-shaven. I've an idea that the mouth under that beard of his might be horribly cruel."

CHAPTER IV. TiJE MYSTERIOUS GRAN SF.CO. . The Gran Seco has not often appeared rn , , ™ r,d ' s literal ure. Francisco de Joledo first entered it in the sixteenth century, but after that there is no mention of it till Calamity Brawn 'wandered thither from the coast in the late years ot the eighteenth. That luckless and probably mendacious sailor has little good to say of it; it was the abode of devilish insects and devilish men, and, if we are to believe him, lie barely escaped with his life.

In the nineteenth century it was partially explored by the Spanish naturalist Mendoza, and a Smithsonian cxpedll.'on investigated its peculiar geology. Its later history is writen in the reports of its copper companies, but Sylvester Perry visited it in his celebrated journey round

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the globe, and it lias a short and conminatorv chapter in his '' Seeing Eyes." Mr. Perry did not like (he place, and in his characteristic way lias likened it to a h&lfhealed abscess, sloughed over with an unwholesome skin.

Ten years ago a new city began to rise, when the sulphuretted ores were first mined and smelting was started. Thcvj was a furious rivalry among the companies till they were united in a great combine, and the whole mineral wealth gathered under a single direction. Process succeeded process, furnaces wore multiplied till they covered many acres, wells were sunk and pumping stations erected, great dams wero built in the hills (o catch the winter rains, and street after street rose in the dust. Castor methods of calcination and electrolytic refining soon quadrupled its size. To one looking down from (he surrounding ridges the place seems a hive of ugly activity; on one side a wilderness of furnaces and converters, with beyond them the compounds where the workmen are housed ; 011 the other a modern city with high buildings and clanking electric trams —by day an inferno of noise and dust and vapours, with a dull metallic green (he prevailing tint; by night a bivouac of devils warmed by angry fires.

In the streets the first impression is of extreme orderliness. The traffic is meticulously conducted by vigilant police in spruce uniforms —men for the most part of the Indian type, with European superintendents. The main -street, the Avenida Bolivar, is broad and paved with concrete, and along it rise structures which would not disgrace New York. The Rcgina Hotel is larger .than the Ritz, and there are others: the offices of the Company's administration form a block scarcely smaller than Carlton House Terrace; there are clubs and many apartment houses, all built of the white local sandstone.

But the shops are few and poor, and there are no villas' in the environs, so that the impression grows that the Gran Seco is a camp, which its inhabitants regard as 110 continuing city. Hourly the sense of the bivouac grows in the traveller's mind. The place is one great caravanserai for pilgrims. These busy preoccupied people are here for the day only and to-morrow will lie gone. Other things .will soon strike him. There seems to be 110' peasants. No neighbouring country obtrudes itself into this monastic indusry. Every manthere are few woman—is regimented by the company. If the traveller is escorted to the area of the smelting and refining plant (and his passports must be very high-powered to ensure this privilege) lie will see the unskilled work dope by Indians and mestozos—men with faces like mechanical automata —but the skilled foremen are all European. He will puzzle over these Europeans, for, however wide his racial knowledge, he will find it hard to guess their nationality, since their occupation seems to have smoothed out all differences into one common type, with a preoccupation so intense as to be almost furtive. In the streets, too, in the clubs and hotels, he will be struck by the waxwork look of the welldressed employees of the different grades. They are all inhumanly pale, all so concentrated upon some single purpose that their faces are expressionless and their eyes unseeing.

He will be much shepherded and supervised, and, though his permission de sejour is for only <1 few days, he will be apt to find these days pass heavily. If he is a mining expert he will not be allowed to indulge his curiosity, for the Castor processes are jealously guarded. If he is the ordinary tourist lie will find no sights to repay him, and for the only amusement an occasional concert of austerely clasical music, given by the administration staff. He will probably leave the place with relief, glad to have seen the marvel, but thankful that his lines are cast among ordinary humanity. The young party from the Corinna did not appear to find the time hang heavy on their hands. There were ten of them, five of each sex, with no.older person to look after them, though a very moderate chaperonage seemed to be exercised by a tall girl with fine eyes and a pleasant Southern voice. That their purchase was considerable was shown by their entertainment, for they were shown everything and went everywhere: that they were unwelcome visitors, unwillingly privileged was proved by their close oversight: Indeed, they were uncomfortable guests, for they made a patch of garish colour in the drab of the Gran Seco and a discord in its orderly rhythm. The mere sight of them in the streets was enough to send the ordinary policeman to the Commissary to ask for instructions.

They were patiently harmless, but deplorably silly. The Regina was turned by them into a cabaret. They danced every night in the restaurant, to the disquiet of the diners and they chaffed mercilessly an unsmiling staff. Bedroom riots seemed to be their speciality, and it was an unlucky official of the company who had his quarters in their corridor. When they were entertained to luncheon by the Administration they asked questions so sublimely idiotic that the Vice-President a heavy sallow man, called Rosas, of Mexican extraction, actually coloured, thinking that ha was being made a fool of; and their visit to the smelting plant was attended by the same exasperating buffoon ery.

Presently it appeared that their idiocy was congential, and nota pose. Their jazz chatter and jazz manners were the natural expression of jazz minds, and must be endured because of the prestige of Mr. Burton Rawlinson. So "Baby" and "Bawby" and "Honey" and "Gerry" went their preposterous way, and the Gran Seco shrugged outraged shoulders and spat. Nevertheless there were signs, had there been eyes to noto them, that the yacht party was not quite what it seemed. In unguarded moments, as Janet had already observed, they could be betrayed into sanity and good breeding. At nights, too, when their ragging was over, thtfre were odd discussions in the privacy of bedrooms. At least one of the young men would sit far into the dawn working at notes arid plans.: Presently, as if they had had enough of the city, they extended their revels into the surrounding country. They procured two touring cars, and after some trouble with the Commissary of Police, embarked 011 long excursions. The mines lie in three main groups —the San Thome, the Alhuema, and the: Universum —and they visited all three. There they seemed to find much to interest them, and the managers feverishly telephoned to headquarters for instructions. These children were imbeciles doubtless,' they reported, but they were poking their noses into forbidden places. So on their return the troupe had to interview the Commissary of police, who politely cautioned them against breaches of the laws of the province.

Their next escapade was more serious. They packed luncheon baskets and departed, as they said, for a visit to the caves of Marequito—a permitted excursion. Then for three days they disappeared, the police were furious and anxious, and a posse was sent out in motorcars to discover their whereabouts. Six of the party—five girls and a man—and one of the cars were found 200 miles off inn valley under the high peaks called the Spanish Ladies. They told a pitiful story; they had lost their rcjad, exhausted their food, and had had to spend chilly nights on the ground. The other car had gone off the day before to find supplies, and had not returned. The inspector of police wrung his hands. Do you know that in these parts the natives are dangerous ? You have narrowly escaped throat-cutting." The party was sent back to the city in disgrace, but they did not seem to feel their position. They were inordinately cheerful, and scarcely looked if they had suffered a three day's fast. .(To be continued daily.).