“Kindly give me your attention, Mr. Martin, and I will try to satisfy both your very reasonable requirements.  You have $300,000; those you will hand over to me, receiving in return Government six per cent. bonds for that amount, I will then hand back to you $65,000; 45,000 you will retain as security for your interest.  In the event of any failure on the part of Aureataland to meet her obligations honorably, you will pay the interest on the whole 300,000 out of that sum.  That secures you for more than two years against absolute failure of interest, which in reality you need not fear.  Till the money is wanted you will have the use of it.  The remaining 20,000 I shall beg of you to accept as your commission, or rather as a token of my esteem.  Two hundred thousand absolutely—­45,000 as long as Aureataland pays interest!  You must admit I deal with you as one gentleman with another, Mr. Martin.  In the result, your directors get their interest, I get my loan, you get your bonus.  We are all benefited; no one is hurt!  All this is affected at the cost of a harmless stratagem.”

I was full of admiration.  The scheme was very neat, and, as far as the President and myself were concerned, he had been no more than just in pointing out its advantages.  As for the directors, they would probably get their interest; anyhow, they would get it for two years.  There was risk, of course; a demand for evidence of my alleged investments, or a sudden order to realize a heavy sum at short notice, would bring the house about my ears.  But I did not anticipate this contretemps, and at the worst I had my twenty thousand dollars and could make myself scarce therewith.  These calculations were quite correct at the moment, but I upset them afterward by spending the dollars and by contracting a tie which made flight from Aureataland a distasteful alternative.

“Well, Mr. Martin,” said the President, “do you agree?”

I still hesitated.  Was it a moral scruple?  Probably not, unless, indeed, prudence and morality are the same thing.

The President rose and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Better say yes.  I might take it, you know, and cause you to disappear—­believe me, with reluctance, Mr. Martin.  It is true I shouldn’t like this course.  It would perhaps make my position here untenable.  But not having the money would certainly make it untenable.”

I saw the force of this argument, and gulping down my brandy and soda, I said: 

“I can refuse your Excellency nothing.”

“Then take your hat and come along to the bank,” said he.

This was sharp work.

“Your Excellency does not mean to take the money now—­to-night?” I exclaimed.

“Not to take, Mr. Martin—­to receive it from you.  We have made our bargain.  What is the objection to carrying it out promptly?”

“But I must have the bonds.  They must be prepared, sir.”

“They are here,” he said, taking a bundle from the drawer of a writing-table.  “Three hundred thousand dollars, six per cent. stock, signed by myself, and countersigned by Don Antonio.  Take your hat and come along.”