At Macuto， on the coast of Venezuela， the company scored its greatest success.Imagine Coney Island translated into Spanish and you will comprehend Macuto.
The fashionable season is from November to March.
Down from La Guayra and Caracas and Valencia and other interior towns flock the people for their holiday sea-son.There are bathing and fiestas and bull fights and scandal.And then the people have a passion for music that the bands in the plaza and on the sea beach stir but do not satisfy.The coming of the Alcazar Opera Com-pany aroused the utmost ardour and zeal among the pleasure seekers.
The illustrious Guzman Blanco， President and Dic-tator of Venezuela， sojourned in Macuto with his court for the season.That potent ruler -- who himself paid a subsidy of 40，000 pesos each year to grand opera in Caracas -- ordered one of the Government warehouses to be cleared for a temporary theatre.A stage was quickly constructed and rough wooden benches made for the audience.Private boxes were added for the use of the President and the notables of the army and Government.
The company remained in Macuto for two weeks.
Each performance filled the house as closely as it could be packed.Then the music-mad people fought for room in the open doors and windows， and crowded about， hundreds deep， on the outside.Those audiences formed a brilliantly diversified patch of colour.The hue of their faces ranged from the clear olive of the pure-blood Span-iards down through the yellow and brown shades of the Mestizos to the coal-black Carib and the Jamaica Negro.
Scattered among them were little groups of Indians with faces like stone idols， wrapped in gaudy fibre-woven blankets -- Indians down from the mountain states of Zamora and Los Andes and Miranda to trade their gold dust in the coast towns.
The spell cast upon these denizens of the interior fastnesses was remarkable.They sat in petrified ecstasy， conspicuous among the excitable Macutians， who wildly strove with tongue and hand to give evidence of their delight.Only once did the sombre rapture of these aboriginals find expression.During the rendition of "Faust，" Guzman Blanco， extravagantly pleased by the "Jewel Song，" cast upon the stage a purse of gold pieces.
Other distinguished citizens followed his lead to the extent of whatever loose coin they had convenient， while some of the fair and fashionable se駉ras were moved， in imita-tion， to fling a jewel or a ring or two at the feet of the Marguerite -- who was， according to the bills， Mlle.
Nina Giraud.Then， from different parts of the house rose sundry of the stolid hillmen and cast upon the stage little brown and dun bags that fell with soft "thumps"and did not rebound.It was， no doubt， pleasure at the tribute to her art that caused Mlle.Giraud's eyes to shine so brightly when she opened these little deerskin bags in her dressing room and found them to contain pure gold dust.If so， the pleasure was rightly hers， for her voice in song， pure， strong and thrilling with the feeling of the emotional artist， deserved the tribute that it earned.
But the triumph of the Alcazar Opera Company is not the theme -- it but leans upon and colours it.There happened in Macuto a tragic thing， an unsolvable mystery， that sobered for a time the gaiety of the happy season.
One evening between the short twilight and the time when she should have whirled upon the stage in the red and black of the ardent Carmen， Mlle.Nina Giraud dis-appeared from the sight and ken of 6，000 pairs of eyes and as many minds in Macuto.There was the usual turmoil and hurrying to seek her.Messengers flew to the little French-kept hotel where she stayed； others of the company hastened here or there where she might be lingering in some tienda or unduly prolonging her bath upon the beach.All search was fruitless.Mademoi-selle had vanished.
Half an hour passed and she did not appear.The dictator， unused to the caprices of prime donne， became impatient.He sent an aide from his box to say to the manager that if the curtain did not at once rise he would immediately hale the entire company to the calabosa， though it would desolate his heart， indeed， to be com-pelled to such an act.Birds in Macuto could be made to sing.
The manager abandoned hope for the time of Mlle.
Giraud.A member of the chorus， who had dreamed hopelessly for years of the blessed opportunity， quickly Carmenized herself and the opera went on.
Afterward， when the lost cantatrice appeared not， the aid of the authorities was invoked.The President at once set the army， the police and all citizens to the search.
Not one clue to Mlle.Giraud's disappearance was found.
The Alcazar left to fill engagements farther down the coast.
On the way back the steamer stopped at Macuto and the manager made anxious inquiry.Not a trace of the lady had been discovered.The Alcazar could do no more.The personal belongings of the missing lady were stored in the hotel against her possible later reappearance and the opera company continued upon its homeward voyage to New Orleans.
On the camino real along the beach the two saddle mules and the four pack mules of Don Se駉r Johnny Armstrong stood， patiently awaiting the crack of the whip of the arriero， Luis.That would be the signal for the start on another long journey into the mountains.The pack mules were loaded with a varied assortment of hard-ware and cutlery.These articles Don Johnny traded to the interior Indians for the gold dust that they washed from the Andean streams and stored in quills and bags against his coming.It was a profitable business， and Se駉r Armstrong expected soon to be able to purchase the coffee plantation that he coveted.
Armstrong stood on the narrow sidewalk， exchanging garbled Spanish with old Peralto， the rich native merchant who had just charged him four prices for half a gross of pot-metal hatchets， and abridged English with Rucker， the little German who was Consul for the United States.
