prove successful. More than that, she quickly learned that it was
best to go alone, that it was she, quite as much as the promised
concessions for tobacco, salt, telegraph, telephone monopolies, that
loosed the purse strings.

Her first week's report of pledges ran into the thousands with a
substantial immediate payment of real dollars.

"How did you do it?" asked Santos in undisguised admiration, as she
was telling him one night of her success, in the dusty, cobwebbed
little ship chandlery on South Street where the Junta headquarters
had been established.

"Dollar diplomacy," she laughed, not displeased at his admiration.
"We shall soon convert American dollars into Vespuccian bullets."

They were alone, and a week had made much difference in the
fascinating friendship to Constance.

"Let me show you what I have done," Ramon confided. "Already, I have
started together the 'counterfeiting plant,' as you call it."

Piece by piece, as he had been able to afford them, he had been
ordering the presses, the stamping machine, and a little "reeding"
or milling machine for the edges of the coins.

"The paper, the ink, and the bullion, we shall order now as we can,"
he explained, resting his head on his elbow at the table beside her.
"Everything will be secured from firms which make mint supplies for
foreign governments. A photo-engraver is now engaged on the work of