The presidential snapshot : $b or, The all-seeing eye — John Shaqi
The presidential snapshot : $b or, The all-seeing eyeLebhar, Bertram
General
The presidential snapshot : $b or, The all-seeing eye
Lebhar, Bertram
Americans -- South America -- Fiction; Dime novels; Photographers -- Fiction; Political prisoners -- Fiction
Not once since she had come ashore had the señora appeared to notice
the Camera Chap--he suspected that she studiously refrained from
doing so for reasons which he fully appreciated--but just before the
automobile started she whispered something to her fair companion, and
the latter turned in her seat and looked deliberately toward where he
was standing. There were several other persons in his vicinity, and
it might have been any of these at whom her glance was directed, but
Hawley, modest man though he was, felt positive that he was the object
of her scrutiny, and somehow the thought afforded him much satisfaction.
He was not left long in ignorance as to the identity of this
prepossessing young woman, for, as the car started off, the
conversation of two natives standing near him supplied him with that
information.
“Is it not somewhat surprising that the daughter of the American
minister should be on such friendly terms with the wife of the
abominable Felix?” Hawley overheard one of them remark in Spanish. To
which the other responded, with a shrug: “Nothing is surprising about
those Yankees.”
The Camera Chap was too much absorbed in the information he had gleaned
even to feel like resenting the slur upon his countrymen. So the girl
in pink was Miss Throgmorton, the daughter of the American minister to
Baracoa! And she was on such intimate terms with Señora Felix that she
alone had come to welcome the latter back to her native land! Here was
an interesting discovery, indeed.
At that moment there flashed through his mind what his friend and
managing editor, Tom Paxton, had said about the sentiments of the
United States minister to Baracoa toward the _Sentinel_, and all
men connected with it. He devoutly hoped that the daughter did not
share her father’s prejudices in that respect, for he had already
fully decided that if it were possible he was going to make Miss
Throgmorton’s acquaintance before he had been many days in Baracoa.
CHAPTER X. AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE.
The Camera Chap did not linger long at Puerto Cabero. He had decided
to make Santa Barbara, the capital, his headquarters, that city being
only ten miles away from the seaport. It is situated on a highland
three thousand feet above the sea level, and, as Hawley traveled on
the antiquated railroad, he marveled at the manner in which the line
twisted and turned like a huge corkscrew.
When he arrived at his journey’s end he found the city in gala attire.
The streets and shops were decorated with flags and bunting, and a band
was playing in the plaza. At the Hotel Nacional, where he registered,
he inquired whether he had struck town on a national holiday, and was
informed that the festivities were the result of the extraordinary
scene he had witnessed at Puerto Guerra the previous day.
“You see, señor,” explained the hotel clerk, who spoke very good
English, “President Portiforo has ordered a day of public rejoicing
because of the defeat of General Rodriguez.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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