He chuckled over his irony and I smiled back at him, with my thanks. That evening, after Halstead had loudly announced in the hotel office that he expected a visitor at eleven o’clock and wished him sent directly to his room, he and I slipped out by a back way, went to a lonely spot on the beach where he had a boat in waiting, and rowed out to the Dutch ship. On account of his newspaper connection Halstead had much influence with the captain and when the ship was searched for me the next morning, on the pretence that I was a political prisoner who was attempting to escape, I was not found. We went to Jamaica, where Halstead formerly had lived, and there I got in touch with General Mannigat, and went over his plans against Hippolyte. He impressed me as a fighter and reasonably honest and he convinced me that he had a considerable following in Hayti. He was positive that if he had enough arms he could capture the country, so I arranged with him that the International Export & Trading Co., my concern for promoting revolutions, would ship him twenty-five thousand dollars’ worth of munitions of war on the receipt of three thousand dollars in cash and in the further consideration on his part of a pledge that thirty-three per cent of the customs receipts at Port au Prince would be turned over to us, until we had been paid two hundred and twenty thousand dollars, which was at the rate of ten dollars for every one dollar that we risked. I drew up a contract to this effect, which he signed, and sent the order for the arms to New York, with instructions to fill it when Mannigat sent the three thousand dollars. The money never was sent, but I still hold the contract, as a souvenir. Mannigat was in doubt as to how soon the requisite amount of cash could be raised, so it was arranged that I should be advised when it was forwarded to New York, in order that I might return and take an active part in his operations, and I went on to the Isthmus of Panama, then a part of Colombia. I stopped at the International Hotel, probably so named because it was the worst in the world, at Colon, and made no secret of my business there, or anywhere else; in fact I rather boasted of it, because of the novelty of being engaged in legitimate commerce, even though I was filibustering on the side when the inducements were attractive. Within a few days I was approached by a young Colombian who had been educated in New Jersey and was a good deal of an American in his ideas. Without telling me what they were for, but giving me grounds for drawing my own conclusions, he ordered three thousand Winchester rifles and the same number of revolvers, with a large quantity of ammunition. He said he would give me New York exchange in part payment of the bill the following day, and that the balance would be paid when they were delivered, at a point to be designated later.