Harley," returned the Colonel a trifle
brusquely, "I am dealing with possibilities which are remote, because
in your own words it is sometimes the remote which proves to be the
intimate. It was then rather more than twenty years ago, at a time when
great political changes were taking place in the West Indies, that my
business interests, which are mainly concerned with sugar, carried me
to one of the smaller islands which had formerly been under--my
jurisdiction, do you say? Here I had a house and estate, and here in
the past I had experienced much trouble with the natives.
"I do not disguise from you that I was unpopular, and on my return I
met with unmistakable signs of hostility. My native workmen were
insubordinate. In fact, it was the reports from my overseers which had
led me to visit the island. I made a tour of the place, believing it to
be necessary to my interests that I should get once more in touch with
negro feeling, since I had returned to my home in Cuba after the
upheavals in '98. Very well.
"The manager of my estate, a capable man, was of opinion that there
existed a secret organization amongst the native labourers operating--
you understand?--against my interests.
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