THE DICTATOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 56

THE DICTATOR.

'A. Striking Scene From Spanish-American Life. Mrs Mary Bradford Crowninshield, author of " Where the Trade-Wind Blows," contiibutes to the August Century a striking rtmance of Spanish America, called " Sangre de Christo. " It begins as follows : — The President sat in his private room. His desk was near the window. Occasionally he glanced down into the plaza, for there ■fyp.,3 some disturbance below. As he looked there came within his range of vision four men They were dressed in the uniform of the President's body-guard. The four were bondine over and carrviniz a fifth, whose form

' hung limp and lifeless," for indeed he was : beyond all help. Only a few moments ago, ' a bullet, fired by an unerring marksman, had stopped the beating of his heart. His blood was streaming upon the ground, and splashing upon the feet of the men who carried him. The President arose and leaned out a little way His eye caught sight of the pools of blood which had settled in the worn foot- ! marks upon the palace steps. As he rested himself his eye followed the movements of the four men who with their dead weight of burden stumbled across the hot, white plaza. Ie was 9 o'clock in the morning, but the su'i was already beating fiercely down upon th <,t treeless square. By the bearers of the dead no indignation was' expressed. No muttering or threat of vengeance was heard for the sudden taking " off of this their dead comrade. Alvarez had m^t his death fairly; there was nothing to be said. It was too late for remonstrance, and should svmpcithv for the dead man be shown, the S3'-mpatliiser would be in a fair .way to follow in his wake, when four other I men would carry his lifeless body across the plaza, and out of sight of the windows. I Ie had oil happened in a moment. The President was mounting the steps of the palace. olq walked quickly. For so ponderois a man he was lithe and active. His perceptions were keen, his hearing was sharp. He carried a revolver in his belt, and one in his nocket/ He had been brought up in a school where treachery obtained the highest ! mark. ! As the President had passed briskly in front of his body guard, while the company stood at "attention," no one who had scanned that inscrutable countenance could have imagined what manner of thought 'was passing j through that cunning brain. As the Pre- : sident reached the broad stone landing a man J sprang quickly from the ranks. In a second he had reached the lower tread. His hand was in his pocket, but he had no time to withdraw it. The President's well-trained ear discerned the ominous click for which he was ever waiting. In a flash he had wheeled and fired and his true aim, learned in many an uprising, had lain the assassin in his own dusty tiacks, where he drew up his knees, opened his eyes to the blue, and then lay still. The Piesident drew his monocle from his breast pocket, and fitted it to his eye, an accomplishment that he had learned in Paris. '■' Ah," he said, showing his teeth as he smiled, " I thought Alvarez had seemed very fond of me of late." He ejected the glass from his eye, turned, and entered the time-stained doorway, and mounted the inner steps. The officer on guard came forward to meet hitn in the upper corridor. " Have that carrion removed," he said. At the man's unci mprehending look, he added, " Down below, there, at the foot of the entrance stairs."