“Thank you,” Kit said gently and went off to look after his men.

In the afternoon he left the mission, and a week later reached Havana, where he found a cablegram waiting.  He got a shock when he opened it, and stood for a time with the message crumpled in his hand, for it told him that Peter Askew was dying at Ashness.  Then he sat down on the long, arcaded veranda of the hotel, with a poignant sense of loss, for the last blow was heavier than the first.  It would be too late when he got home; Andrew, his English relative, would not have sent the message had there been any hope.

After a time, Kit began to pull himself together.  He felt dull and half stunned, but saw that he must brace up.  Although one duty was denied him, another was left.  He could not bid his father good-by, but he could keep his promise to Adam, and there was much to be done.  Getting up with a resolute movement, he went to the telegraph office.

Although Peter had not hinted that he was ill, Kit felt he ought to have gone home before, and now blamed Alvarez for keeping him.  He knew this was not logical, but he hated the country, with its turmoils and plots.  It was not worth helping, and in very truth he did not know if by supporting the president he were helping it or not.  After all, however, this was not important; Alvarez needed a last supply of munitions that Adam had agreed to send.  Kit doubted if they would be paid for, but the doubt did not count for much.  Adam knew the risk when he agreed and his engagements bound his nephew.  The goods must be delivered and then Kit would let the business go.  When he reached the office he wrote a cablegram to Andrew at Ashness and another to Mayne, who had left Havana before Kit arrived.

CHAPTER XII

THE LAST CARGO

Dusk was falling and Kit urged his tired mule up the winding road.  His skin was grimed with dust, for he had ridden hard in scorching heat, and was anxious and impatient to get on.  The Rio Negro was in the lagoon and some cargo had been landed, but Kit stopped the work when nobody came to take the goods.  It looked as if the message he had sent through a secret channel had not reached the president, and this was ominous.

He had heard rumors of fighting when he was in Cuba and the United States, but the newspapers gave him little information and he had driven the Rio Negro across at full speed in order to finish the contract before the revolution spread, which was all he wanted.  Adam’s staunch loyalty had cost him his life, but the president had no claim on Kit.  Besides, his stopping in the country had kept him away from Ashness when he was needed there.  He smiled as he admitted that he was hardly logical, since he was stubbornly pushing on when almost exhausted in order that Alvarez might get the goods he required; but after all, this was for Adam’s sake.