Generally he wears a shamrock, which he matches pridefully against the extravagant palms; and it is he who has driven Melpomene to the wings, and set Comedy to dancing before the footlights of the Southern Cross.

    So, there is a little tale to tell of many things. Perhaps to the promiscuous ear of the Walrus it shall come with most avail; for in it there are indeed shoes and ships and sealing-wax and cabbage-palms and presidents instead of kings.

    Add to these a little love and counterplotting, and scatter everywhere throughout the maze a trail of tropical dollars - dollars warmed no more by the torrid sun than by the hot palms of the scouts of Fortune - and, after all, here seems to be Life, itself, with talk enough to weary the most garrulous of Walruses.

    

    

I. "FOX-IN-THE-MORNING"

    

    Coralio reclined, in the mid-day heat, like some vacuous beauty lounging in a guarded harem. The town lay at the sea's edge on a strip of alluvial coast. It was set like a little pearl in an emerald band. Behind it, and seeming almost to topple, imminent, above it, rose the sea-following range of the Cordilleras. In front the sea was spread, a smiling jailer, but even more incorruptible than the frowning mountains. The waves swished along the smooth beach; the parrots screamed in the orange and ceiba-trees; the palms waved their limber fronds foolishly like an awkward chorus at the prima donna's cue to enter.

    Suddenly the town was full of excitement. A native boy dashed down a grass-grown street, shrieking: "Busca el Señor Goodwin. Ha venido un telégrafo por el!"

    The word passed quickly. Telegrams do not often come to anyone in Coralio. The cry for Señor Goodwin was taken up by a dozen officious voices. The main street running parallel to the beach became populated with those who desired to expedite the delivery of the despatch.