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contemptible, and infinitely more manageable in the very outspoken
cynicism of motives. It was more clearly a brazen-faced scramble for a
constantly diminishing quantity of booty; since all enterprise had been
stupidly killed in the land. Thus it came to pass that the province of
Sulaco, once the field of cruel party vengeances, had become in a way
one of the considerable prizes of political career. The great of the
earth (in Sta. Marta) reserved the posts in the old Occidental State
to those nearest and dearest to them: nephews, brothers, husbands
of favourite sisters, bosom friends, trusty supporters--or prominent
supporters of whom perhaps they were afraid. It was the blessed province
of great opportunities and of largest salaries; for the San Tome mine
had its own unofficial pay list, whose items and amounts, fixed in
consultation by Charles Gould and Senor Avellanos, were known to a
prominent business man in the United States, who for twenty minutes or
so in every month gave his undivided attention to Sulaco affairs. At
the same time the material interests of all sorts, backed up by the
influence of the San Tome mine, were quietly gathering substance in that
part of the Republic. If, for instance, the Sulaco Collectorship was
generally understood, in the political world of the capital, to open the
way to the Ministry of Finance, and so on for every official post, then,
on the other hand, the despondent business circles of the Republic had
come to consider the Occidental Province as the promised land of safety,
especially if a man managed to get on good terms with the administration
of the mine. "Charles Gould; excellent fellow! Absolutely necessary to
make sure of him before taking a single step. Get an introduction to
him from Moraga if you can--the agent of the King of Sulaco, don't you
know."
No wonder, then, that Sir John, coming from Europe to smooth the path
for his railway, had been meeting the name (and even the nickname) of
Charles Gould at every turn in Costaguana. The agent of the San Tome
Administration in Sta. Marta (a polished, well-informed gentleman, Sir
John thought him) had certainly helped so greatly in bringing about the
presidential tour that he began to think that there was something in
the faint whispers hinting at the immense occult influence of the Gould
Concession. What was currently whispered was this--that the San Tome
Administration had, in part, at least, financed the last revolution,
which had brought into a five-year dictatorship Don Vincente Ribiera, a
man of culture and of unblemished character, invested with a mandate
of reform by the best elements of the State. Serious, well-informed
men seemed to believe the fact, to hope for better things, for the
establishment of legality, of good faith and order in public life. So
much the better, then, thought Sir John. He worked always on a great
scale; there was a loan to the State, and a project for systematic
colonization of the Occidental Province, involved in one vast scheme
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