I said I considered that that was a most excellent use to make of the money; that from what I had seen of the native troops, it would turn our prisoners of war into our most loyal adherents. “Of course it will!” Aiken agreed. “Why, if the government troops out there in the hills with Alvarez knew we were paying sixty pesos for soldiers, they’d run to join us so quick that they’d die on the way of sunstroke. But that’s not it. Where do we come in? What do we get out of this? Have we been fighting for three months just to pay the troops who have been fighting against us? Charity begins at home, I think.” “You get your own salary, don’t you?” I asked. “Oh, I’m not starving,” Aiken said, with a grin. “There’s a lot of loot in being chief-of-police. This is going to be a wide-open town if I can run it.” “Well, you can’t,” I laughed. “Not as long as I’m its provost marshal.” “Yes, and how long will that be?” Aiken retorted. “You take my advice and make money now, while you’ve got the club to get it with you. Why, if I had your job I could scare ten thousand sols out of these merchants before sunrise. Instead of which you walk around nights to see their front doors are locked. Let them do the walking. We’ve won, and let’s enjoy the spoil. Eat, live, and be merry, my boy, for to-morrow you die.” “I hope not,” I exclaimed, and I ran down the steps of the palace and turned toward the barracks. “To-morrow you die,” I repeated, but I could not arouse a single emotion. Portents and premonitions may frighten some people, but the only superstition I hold to is to believe in the luck of Royal Macklin. “What if Fiske can hit a scarf-pin at twenty paces!” I said to myself, “he can’t hit me.” I was just as sure of it as I was of the fact that when I met him I was going to fire in the air. I cannot tell why. I was just sure of it. The dining-room at the Continental held three long tables. That night our officers sat at one. Mr. Fiske and his party were at the one farthest away, and a dining-club of consular agents, merchants, and the Telegraph Company’s people occupied the one in between. I could see her whenever the German consul bent over his food. She was very pale and tired-looking, but in the white evening frock she wore, all soft and shining with lace, she was as beautiful as the moonlit night outside. She never once looked in our direction. But I could not keep my eyes away from her. The merchants, no doubt, enjoyed their dinner. They laughed and argued boisterously, but at the two other tables there was very little said. The waiters, pattering over the stone floor in their bare feet, made more noise than our entire mess.