His was an
irascible, brooding face; it had in it something of the sternness,
the exalted detachment, of the eagle, and O'Reilly gained a hint
of the personality behind it. Maximo Gomez was counted one of the
world's ablest guerrilla leaders; and indeed it had required the
quenchless enthusiasm of a real military genius to fuse into a
homogeneous fighting force the ill-assorted rabble of nondescripts
whom Gomez led, to school them to privation and to render them
sufficiently mobile to defy successfully ten times their number of
trained troops. This, however, was precisely what the old Porto-
Rican had done, and in doing it he had won the admiration of
military students. He it was, more than any other, who bore the
burden of Cuba's unequal struggle; it was Gomez's cunning and
Gomez's indomitable will which had already subjugated half the
island of Cuba; it was Gomez's stubborn, unflagging resistance
which was destined to shatter for all time the hopes of Spain in
the New World.
With a bluntness not unkind he asked O'Reilly what had brought him
to Cuba, Then before the young man could answer he gestured with a
letter in his hand, saying:
"Major Ramos gives you splendid credit for helping him to land his
expedition, but he says you didn't come to fight with us. What
does he mean?"
When O'Reilly explained the reason for his presence the old
fighter nodded.
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