at the officers around him as though he were weighing the value of
each.

"Gentlemen," he cried, "often in my life I have been prejudiced, and
often I have been deceived, and I think that it is time now that I
acted for myself. From the first, the burden of this expedition has
been carried by the Foreign Legion. I know that; you, who fought the
battles, certainly know it. We invaded Honduras with a purpose. We
came to obtain for the peons the debt that is due them and to give
them liberty and free government. And whether our allies run away or
betray us, that purpose is still the same."

He paused as though for the first time it had occurred to him that the
motives of the others might not be as his own.

"Am I right?" he asked, eagerly. "Are you willing to carry out that
purpose?" he demanded. "Are you ready to follow me now, to-night--not
to the coast"--he shouted--"but to the Capital--to the top of
Pecachua?"

Old man Webster jumped in front of us, and shot his arm into the air
as though it held a standard.

"We'll follow you to hell and back again," he cried.

I would not have believed that so few men could have made so much
noise. We yelled and cheered so wildly that we woke the camp. We could
hear the men running down the road, and the sentries calling upon them
to halt. The whole Legion was awake and wondering. Webster beat us
into silence by pounding the table with his fist.