Decoud's gun-running experience mirrors his larger experience in Costaguana, where his newspaper and his Separation plan are attempts to "keep up the hopes" of the very people he believes to be deluded, manipulative idealists, in other words "swindlers." It may be a stretch on my part, but the phrase "all sorts of gaspipe weapons" reminds me of the voluble speech associated with every warlike cause in Costaguana. At any rate, "the real affair" of Part Two -- Decoud's battle between skepticism and idealism -- is conducted in an entirely different "quarter" from his political battles.