considered worthless swamps, but this is all changed now.

"Well, Lyman entered into negotiations with the president of this
alleged republic and got his concession. There is no knowing how
much he paid for it, for every new president of Paraguay--and they
have new ones quite frequently down there--seems to do business on
the theory that what he doesn't get while the getting is good he
never will get at all. There have been four or five new official
heads of this alleged republic within a couple of years.

"The country is on the verge of revolution most of the time and as
the army goes so goes the election. Jara was made prisoner last
July, and one Rojes put in power. Now, in order to keep in good
standing with the army, the government is obliged to have generals
who are loyal to whoever is in power. These generals must be paid
for their services, of course.

"It seems that Lyman fell under the displeasure of one of these
powerful military chaps, probably because he refused to give up all
his profits in the cattle business. Anyway, Lyman disappeared from
home, quite suddenly, and his manager was notified that settlement
could be made with one Senor Lopez, an army chief, said to be a
relative of a former president. So Lopez was appealed to.

"Now Lopez is a slippery chap. He denied knowing anything about
Lyman, but declared that unless the cattleman appeared shortly and
took up his work on the cattle concession the grant would be taken
from him. That is like South American justice. Lock a man up and
then deprive him of his rights because he can't appear and claim
them!"