“James Markham—­where’s your hand?”

Markham, embarrassed but subjugated, disengaged it timidly from his wife’s waist.

“Give it to that gentleman—­for a gentleman he is, from the crown of his head to the soles of his boots!  There!  Shake his hand!  You don’t get such a chance every day.  You can thank him again, later.”

As the two men’s hands parted, after this perfunctory grasp, and the Commander passed on, she turned again to her husband.

“Now, James, I am ready to hear all about it.  Perhaps you’ll tell me where you have been?”

There was a moment of embarrassing silence.  The Doctor and Secretary had discreetly withdrawn; the Alcalde, after a brief introduction to Mr. Brimmer, and an incomprehensible glance from the wife, had retired with a colorless face.  Dona Isabel had lingered last to blow a kiss across her fan to Eleanor Keene that half mischievously included her brother.  The Americans were alone.

Thus appealed to, Mr. Markham hastily began his story.  But, as he progressed, a slight incoherency was noticeable:  he occasionally contradicted himself, and was obliged to be sustained, supplemented, and, at times, corrected, by Keene and Brimmer.  Substantially, it appeared that they had come from San Francisco to Mazatlan, and, through the influence of Mr. Brimmer on the Mexican authorities, their party, with an escort of dragoons, had been transported across the gulf and landed on the opposite shore, where they had made a forced march across the desert to Todos Santos.  Literally interpreted, however, by the nervous Markham, it would seem that they had conceived this expedition long ago, and yet had difficulties because they only thought of it the day before the steamer sailed; that they had embarked for the isthmus of Nicaragua, and yet had stopped at Mazatlan; that their information was complete in San Francisco, and only picked up at Mazatlan; that “friends”—­sometimes contradictorily known as “he” and “she”—­had overpowering influence with the Mexican Government, and alone had helped them, and yet that they were utterly dependent upon the efforts of Senor Perkins, who had compromised matters with the Mexican Government and everybody.

“Do you mean to say, James Markham, that you’ve seen Perkins, and it was he who told you we were here?”

“No—­not him exactly.”

“Let me explain,” said Mr. Brimmer hastily.  “It appears,” he corrected his haste with practical businesslike precision, “that the filibuster Perkins, after debarking you here, and taking the Excelsior to Quinquinambo, actually established the Quinquinambo Government, and got Mexico and the other confederacies to recognize its independence.  Quinquinambo behaved very handsomely, and not only allowed the Mexican Government indemnity for breaking the neutrality of Todos Santos by the seizure, but even compromised with our own Government their claim to confiscate the Excelsior for treaty violation, and paid half the value of the vessel, besides giving information to Mexico and Washington of your whereabouts.  We consequently represent a joint commission from both countries to settle the matter and arrange for your return.”