The Veiled Lady

ke huge waffles set up on end-note the water-line of New York the next time you cross the ferry and see if you don't find the waffles-but an old-fashioned sort of a high building of twenty years ago-o

til I reach them, and an obliging la

mine. His outlook is a brick wall decorated with windows, behind which can be seen various clerks poring over huge ledgers, a section of the roof topped with a chimney, and in the blue perspective the square, squat tower of the Produce Exchange in which hangs a clock. Both of th

y a loud "Good-morning" from my chief addressed to the circumambient air, followed by the slamming of the corridor door. When I remonstrate with Mawkum, insisting that such subterfuges are beneath the dignity of the office, he contends that they help business,

lock, he strolls leisurely into my room, plants himself at my window-this occurs during one of those

y morning its broken outline is softened by a veil of silver mist embroidered with puffs of steam; at midday the glare of light flashing from the river's surface makes silhouettes of the ferry-shuttles threading back and

panting tugs towing chains of canal boats; on the great floats loaded with cars and the s

ile. "She's loaded pretty deep. Hides and tallow, I guess. 'Bout time we heard from that Moccador Lighthouse, isn't it?

client assuring him that he had, to use his own words, "a dead sure thing on the award." When the bids were opened, Mawkum congratulated him on his foresight and offered to atten

three sections, but can sometimes be c

t?" I knew, but I wanted some

our Fowey Rocks, off the Florida coast. She's backing in." His eyes were still on the Tampico, the floes of North River ice

the contents of a rack of drawings piled one on top of th

one of those dear sisters who collect for the poor. At a second summons, a little louder than the first, t

every part of his body from his chin to the knees of his cotton ducks. From where I sat he looked like a conspirator in the play, or the assassin who lies in wait up the dark alley. Once inside he wrinkled his shoulders with the shivering movement o

ssed his face: Mawkum was still staring at him. "It is a mistake then, perhaps? I have a letter from Senor Law-TO

, crooked his back, and without the slightest allusion to the fact that the original and only

rights. Pushing back my chair, I walked rapidly thr

ur coming-and how is the Senor and his family?" And in a few minutes we three were seated at my desk with Mawkum unrolling plans, making sketches on a pad, figuring the cost of this and that and the o

letters tied with a string, the envelopes emblazoned with the arms and seal of the Republic of Moccador, asked if we might be alone. I immediately answer

like the rattle of a ticker in a panic: of Alvarez, the saviour of his country-his friend!-his partner; of the future of Moccador under his wise and beneficent influence, the Lighthouse being one of the first improvements; of its being given to him to erect because of his loyalty to the cause, and to the part he had taken in overturning that despot, the Tyrant Paramba, who had ruled the republic with a rod of iron. Now it was all over-Paramba was living in the swamps, hunted like a dog. When he was caught-and they expected it every day-he would be brought to the capital, San Juan, in chains-yes, Senor, in chains-and put to work on the roads, so that everybody could spit upon him-traitor! Beast, that he was! And there would be other lig

, cloudy expression crossed my face;

I would be paid for the structure

ndered, and agai

willing to pay for the ironwork alone as s

away in camphor. Much of his talk was therefore lost on me; but the last sentences

eros as General Alvarez, the saviour of his country, and my distinguished guest, was an honor that few men could resist, but-BUT-here I picked up a lead pencil and a pad-BUT-the only way I could permit myself to rob him of his just desserts would be-here I traced a

ulders-a sort of plural shrug-rolled his cigarette tighter between his thumb and forefinger, remarked that the memoranda were entirely satisfactory, and folding the paper slid

of a First Order Light, to be made of iron, to be properly packed, and to have three coats of red lead before shipment-together with a cross-section of foundation to be placed on the reef known as "La Garra de Lobo"-The

Hook and started in on other work. The next day the incident, like so many similar ventures-his racks were full of just such estimates-was forgotten. If any of the