“If you feel that way, I certainly will help you,” said the other, warmly.  “Of course, I’ll try to help you anyhow, but—­I like your spirit.  With Mrs. Cortlandt to back me up, I’ll see you go forward as fast as you deserve.”

By now they were out of the Cut and once more upon the main line at Bas Obispo, heading back toward the Pacific.

“You asked me to tell you something about her,” Runnels continued.

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure my information is entirely correct, but, knowing who she is, I think I understand why she is in Panama.  It is politics —­big politics.  The Spiggoties have an election next year, and it is necessary to get our wires well laid before it comes off.  General Alfarez will probably be the next president.”

“Alfarez!  Not Ramon?”

“His father.  You know we Americans occupy a peculiar position here, set down as we are in the midst of an alien people who hate us.  Oh, they hate us, all right—­all except a few of the better class.”

“Why?”

“There are a good many reasons.  For one thing, there’s a sort of racial antipathy.  You don’t like them, do you?  Well, they don’t like you, either, and the same feeling exists from Mexico to Patagonia, although it is strongest in these regions.  It is partly the resentment of an inferior race, I suppose.  Then, too, when we stole Panama we made the Colombians sore, and all Central America besides, for they realized that once we Yankees got a foothold here we’d hang on and not only dominate this country but all the neighboring republics as well.  That’s just what we’re beginning to do; that’s why the Cortlandts are here.  The stage is clearing for a big political drama, Mr. Anthony, which may mean the end of Latin Central America.”

“I had gathered something of the sort—­but I had no idea there was so much in it.”

“The United States must protect its Canal, and to that end it is building ‘stone quarries’ on Ancon Hill which are really fortifications.  American capital is coming in here, too, and in order to protect the whole thing we must dominate Panama itself.  Once that is done, all the countries between here and the Texas border will begin to feel our influence.  Why, Costa Rica is already nothing but a fruit farm owned by a Boston corporation.  Of course, nobody can forecast the final result, but the Mexicans, the Hondurans, the Guatemalans, and the others have begun to feel it, and that’s why the anti-American sentiment is constantly growing.  You don’t read much about it in the papers, but just live here for a while and you’ll find out.”

“Oh, I have,” Kirk acknowledged, dryly.  “But we don’t want these jungle countries.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.  By-and-by we’ll need room to expand, and when that time comes we’ll move south, not north or west.  Tropical America is richer than all our great Northwest, and we’ll grab it sooner or later.  Meanwhile our far-sighted government is smoothing the way, and there’s nobody better fitted for the preliminary work than Mr. Stephen Cortlandt, of Washington, D. C., husband and clerk of the smartest woman in the business of chaperoning administrations.”