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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Island Mystery, by George A. Birmingham
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Island Mystery
+
+Author: George A. Birmingham
+
+Release Date: August 9, 2009 [EBook #29644]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ISLAND MYSTERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+ ISLAND MYSTERY
+
+ BY
+
+ G. A. BIRMINGHAM
+
+ _Author of "Gossamer," "General John Regan,"
+ "Spanish Gold," etc._
+
+ NEW YORK
+ GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+ _Copyright, 1918,
+ By George H. Doran Company_
+
+ _Copyright, 1918,
+ By The Frank A. Munsey Company_
+
+ _Printed in the United States of America_
+
+
+
+
+BY G. A. BIRMINGHAM
+
+ THE ISLAND MYSTERY
+ GOSSAMER
+ MINNIE'S BISHOP AND OTHER STORIES
+ GENERAL JOHN REGAN
+ THE LOST TRIBES
+ SPANISH GOLD
+ LALAGE'S LOVERS
+ THE SEARCH PARTY
+ THE SIMPKINS PLOT
+ THE MAJOR'S NIECE
+ PRISCILLA'S SPIES
+ THE RED HAND OF ULSTER
+ THE ADVENTURES OF DR. WHITTY
+ THE SEETHING POT
+ THE BAD TIMES
+ HYACINTH
+ FROM DUBLIN TO CHICAGO
+
+ NEW YORK
+ GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+ TO
+
+ THEODOSIA
+
+ WHOSE DISLIKE OF SUBTLE BOOKS
+ AND "BRAINY" PEOPLE I SHARE
+
+
+
+
+THE ISLAND MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+In 1914 there were not twenty men in England who had ever heard of the
+island of Salissa. Even now--I am writing in the spring of 1917--the
+public is very badly informed about the events which gave the island a
+certain importance in the history of the war. A couple of months ago I
+asked a well-known press-cutting agency to supply me with a complete
+collection of all references to Salissa which had appeared in our
+newspapers. I received a single short paragraph from a second-rate
+society weekly. It ran thus:
+
+"Is it true that our new Minister for Balkan Problems has a curious
+story to tell about a certain island in the Mediterranean, and is
+there a lady in the case?"
+
+The Minister referred to is, of course, Sir Bartholomew
+Bland-Potterton. The island must be Salissa. It is a clear proof, if
+proof is required, of the efficiency of our press censorship that this
+should be the only reference to the island in any newspaper in the
+course of three years. We have blundered a good deal during the war;
+but it cannot be said of us that we have allowed our press to supply
+the enemy or any one else with information likely to be of value.
+
+Such knowledge as the public now possesses has come to it, not through
+newspapers, but by way of gossip. Sir Bartholomew sometimes talks, and
+the words of a man in his position are repeated in the smoking-rooms
+of clubs, round tea tables and elsewhere. Unfortunately gossip of this
+kind is most unreliable. The tendency is to exaggerate the picturesque
+parts of the story and to misinterpret motives. It is slanderous, for
+instance, to suggest that Sir Bartholomew was in any way attracted by
+the lady who bore the title of Queen of Salissa. He never spoke to her
+or even saw her. His interest in the Salissa affair was that of a
+patriotic statesman. He told me this himself, yesterday after dinner.
+
+It was Sir Bartholomew who drew my attention to the exhaustive
+monograph on the Island of Salissa written by Professor Homer Geldes,
+of Pearmount University, Pa., U.S.A. The book was published ten years
+ago, but has never been widely read. I am indebted to the professor
+for the following information.
+
+Salissa is derived by Professor Geldes from a Greek word Psalis, which
+means an arched viaduct. It is a doubtful piece of etymology, but if
+it were reliable the name seems appropriate enough. The island,
+according to the maps published in the book, appears to be a kind of
+roof supported by the walls of caverns. It is possible that the
+professor has exaggerated this peculiarity. He was naturally anxious
+to make good his derivation of the name. But there are certainly many
+caves under the fields and vineyards of Salissa. There is one
+excellent natural harbour, a bay, about a mile wide, in the south
+coast of the island. It is protected from heavy seas by a reef of
+rock, a natural breakwater, which stretches across and almost blocks
+the entrance of the bay.
+
+In the chapter on Ethnography I find that the people are of a mixed
+race. A Salissan, I gather, might boast with equal truth of being a
+Greek, a Turk, a Slav, or an Italian. His skull is dolichocephalic.
+His facial angle--but it is better for any one interested in these
+points to read Professor Geldes' book for himself. No regular census
+has ever been made on the island; but in 1907 there were forty-three
+inhabitants. The number has probably increased since then.
+
+The principal industries are set down, rather grandiloquently, as
+agriculture and fishing. A small quantity of poor wine is made by the
+inhabitants for their own use. The religion of these islanders, like
+their race, is mixed. It seems to consist of some vague pagan beliefs
+and the observance of a few Christian ceremonies. The people are
+not in any way bigoted. Their priesthood--if it can be called a
+priesthood--is patriarchal. There are no taxes, no police, no courts
+of justice, no regular laws, indeed no government, though the island
+is, or was, part of the Kingdom of Megalia.
+
+My friend Gorman, who spent some time there, says that Salissa was a
+delightful place to live on until the Great Powers discovered its
+existence. But I do not quote Gorman as a reliable authority on a
+question of this kind. He is an Irishman, Member of Parliament for
+Upper Offaly, and therefore naturally at home on an island with no
+government. There are people who prefer to live under settled
+conditions, who like paying taxes, who appreciate policemen. It is not
+likely that they would have been happy on Salissa three years ago.
+They would certainly not like to live there now.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to add--any one who possesses an atlas can
+find this out for himself--that Salissa lies 47 miles (nautical)
+south-east of the nearest point of the Megalian coast, and thus
+occupies a position of supreme strategic importance. Sir Bartholomew
+kindly allows me to quote him on this subject. I took down the words
+he used and read them over to him afterwards.
+
+"The Power," he said, "which controls the Near East controls the
+world. The Power which dominates the Cyrenian Sea holds the Near East
+in its grasp. The Island of Salissa is the keystone of the Cyrenian
+Sea. The German dream of world power depends, at the last analysis, on
+the use of the Island of Salissa as a submarine base."
+
+This reads like a quotation from a political speech. It is nothing of
+the sort. Sir Bartholomew always talks in that way. He made this
+statement to me yesterday evening after dinner, when I told him that I
+had undertaken to write the story of recent events in the island. The
+pronouncement, coming from a man like Sir Bartholomew, admittedly the
+greatest living authority on all Near Eastern questions, justifies the
+writing of this book.
+
+Whether I am the man to attempt the work is another question. Gorman,
+Michael Gorman, M.P., would no doubt do it better. Though he has no
+financial interests in the island, he was mixed up in its affairs and
+knows a great deal about them. But Gorman will not do it. He says,
+perhaps truly, that there is no money in histories of recent events.
+William Peter Donovan paid heavily for his knowledge of Salissa and is
+certainly entitled to such credit as may be won by writing a history
+of the recent troubles. But Donovan has devoted his later years to the
+cult of indolence, and he suffers from disordered action of the heart.
+Miss Daisy Donovan--I prefer to use her original name--might have
+given us a picturesque account of the events in which she played the
+leading part. But she is now very fully occupied with more personal
+affairs. Lieutenant-Commander Phillips, R.N.R., is barred by
+professional regulations from writing the story, and in any case he
+had no direct knowledge of the beginning of it. King Konrad Karl II of
+Megalia knows most of the facts, but it is doubtful whether the
+British public would tolerate a book from the pen of a man who is
+legally an alien enemy.
+
+I have, at all events, leisure to devote to the work, and I have heard
+the story from the lips of those chiefly concerned. They have allowed
+me to question them on various points, and placed all, or almost all,
+they knew at my disposal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Konrad Karl II began to reign over Megalia in 1908. He obtained the
+throne through the good offices of his uncle, who wanted to get rid of
+him. Konrad Karl, at that time prince, was the hero of several
+first-rate scandals, and had the reputation of being the most
+irrepressible blackguard of royal blood in all Europe. He was a
+perpetual source of trouble in the Imperial Court. Gorman says that
+the Emperor pushed him on to the vacant throne in the hopes that the
+Megalians would assassinate him. They generally did assassinate their
+kings, and would no doubt have cut the throat of Konrad Karl II if he
+had not left the country hurriedly after reigning two years.
+
+As king in exile Konrad Karl made a tour of the central European
+courts, staying as long as he could in each. He was never allowed to
+stay very long because of Madame Corinne Ypsilante. This lady had
+shared with him the palace, but not the throne, of Megalia. She
+accompanied him in his flight and subsequent wanderings. In these
+democratic days Grand Dukes, Kings, and even Emperors, must have some
+regard for appearances if they wish to keep their positions. It is
+painfully necessary to avoid open and flagrant scandal. Madame
+Corinne was a lady who showed wherever she was. It was impossible to
+conceal her. Konrad Karl did not even try.
+
+Some time in 1912 or 1913 he arrived, still accompanied by Madame,
+in London. His reputation, and hers, had preceded him. English
+society did not receive him warmly. He occupied a suite of rooms at
+Beaufort's, the expensive and luxurious hotel which is the London home
+of foreign royalties and American millionaires. Kings, I suppose, can
+hold out longer than ordinary men without paying their bills. Konrad
+Karl was in low water financially. His private fortune was small.
+Madame Corinne had no money of her own, though she had jewels. Perhaps
+Mr. Beaufort--if the proprietor of the hotel is indeed a Mr.
+Beaufort--makes enough money out of the millionaires to enable him to
+entertain impecunious kings.
+
+My friend Gorman made the acquaintance of Konrad Karl early in 1913.
+Gorman is a man who lives comfortably, very much more comfortably than
+he could if he had no resources except the beggarly L400 a year which
+his country pays him as a reward for his popularity with the people of
+Upper Offaly. He makes money in various ways. His journalistic work
+brings him in a few hundreds a year. Enterprises of a commercial or
+financial kind add very considerably to his income. In 1913 he was
+interested in the Near Eastern Winegrowers' Association, a limited
+liability company which aimed at making money by persuading the
+British public to drink Greek wine. He heard of Konrad Karl, and at
+once invited that monarch to become one of the directors of the
+company. Konrad Karl was not a Greek, and his country did not produce
+wine which any one except a Megalian could drink. His value to Gorman
+lay in the fact that there was not another limited liability company
+in all England which had a King on its Board of Directors.
+
+One of the least objectionable of the wines which Gorman's company
+sold was put on the market as Vino Regalis. The advertisements hinted
+without actually stating that the King had succeeded in carrying off a
+thousand dozen bottles of this wine out of the royal cellars when he
+fled from his subjects in Megalia. The bottles in which Vino Regalis
+was sold had yards of gold foil wrapped round their necks. They were
+in their way quite as splendid and obtrusive as Madame Corinne was in
+hers. I always think that Gorman must have had the lady before his
+eyes when he arranged the get-up of that wine.
+
+The company prospered for a while, until the public became aware of
+the quality of the wine sold. Then came a collapse. But Gorman did
+pretty well out of it. The King also did pretty well. He drew fees as
+a director, a special honorarium in recognition of the value of his
+title, and his share of the profits. The profits were large, but he
+spent all he got as he received it. Madame Corinne is an expensive
+lady, and the King was just as badly off after the collapse of the
+company as he had been before he became a director. He consulted
+Gorman about his future. This was a very wise thing to do. Gorman
+probably knows more ways of making money than any man in London.
+
+The consultation--the true starting point of the story of the Island
+of Salissa--took place in one of the King's rooms in Beaufort's.
+Madame Corinne was not there. She had, I think, gone to the opera.
+Gorman and the King dined well, as men do who can command the services
+of the chef at Beaufort's. The wine they drank was not Vino Regalis.
+After dinner they sat in front of a fire. Brandy and coffee were on a
+small table set between their chairs. They smoked large and excellent
+cigars.
+
+"My friend," said the King, "I find myself in a tight place. I am, as
+the English say, broke like a stone."
+
+The King prided himself on his mastery of that esoteric English by
+which the members of various sets, smart, sporting and other, conceal
+the meaning of what they say from outsiders, especially from
+foreigners who have acquired their knowledge of our language by
+painful study of dictionaries and grammars.
+
+"Since the wine company went on the burst," said the King, "I have not
+a stiver, not a red cent, not in all my pockets the price of one
+damned drink."
+
+"If I might venture to advise you, sir," said Gorman.
+
+"Advise? Certainly advise. But drop or, as you say in England, knock
+up calling me 'sir.' I am no longer a king. I resign. I abdicate. I
+chuck up the sponge of royalty. What the hell, my dear Gorman, is the
+good of being a king when there are no shekels?"
+
+"I shouldn't do that if I were you," said Gorman. "After all, royalty
+is an asset. A title like that--kings aren't at all common, you
+know--is worth money in the market."
+
+The King drank a glass of brandy with an air of great dejection.
+
+"In what market? Who will buy?"
+
+"Well," said Gorman, "I suppose you might marry. There must be lots of
+wealthy girls who would like to be called queen."
+
+The King leaned forward and smacked Gorman heartily on the knee.
+
+"You have hit the business end of the nail," he said. "I am ready. I
+shall marry. Produce the lady, or, as you say in England, cough her
+up."
+
+Gorman had not expected this prompt and enthusiastic approval of his
+suggestion. He had not a list of heiresses in his pocket.
+
+"But," he said, "there's Madame Ypsilante."
+
+"Corinne is reasonable," said the King. "I should not, of course, show
+my cold shoulder to Corinne. She would share the loot. She and I
+together."
+
+Gorman knew that the King was a blackguard entirely without principle
+or honour; but this proposal startled him.
+
+"I have it," said the King. "Something has happened--no, occurred to
+me. There is in this hotel at this moment an American, an oof-bird, a
+king of dollars."
+
+"Donovan?"
+
+Gorman knew Donovan pretty well; as indeed he knew all wealthy
+Irish-Americans. It was Gorman's business to cross the Atlantic from
+time to time to get money for the support of the Irish Party. Donovan
+had been for many years a generous subscriber to these funds.
+
+"There is a daughter," said the King. "I have not put eyes on her. She
+may be--but it does not matter what she is, not a curse, not a damn
+from the Continent. I shall still have Corinne. The American oof-girl
+may have the eyes of a pig. I do not care."
+
+It is not easy to shock Gorman. Indeed, I should have said beforehand
+that it was impossible to shock him. But I have his assurance that
+Konrad Karl did it. It is true that Gorman himself had suggested
+marriage to the King as a way out of his difficulties. But marriage
+with an unnamed and unknown heiress is one thing. The King's plan,
+frankly worked out, for insulting and robbing a girl whom Gorman knew
+personally was quite a different matter. Miss Daisy Donovan is a
+bright-faced, clear-eyed, romantic-souled girl. She had finished her
+course of study in one of the universities of the Middle-west without
+becoming a cultivated prig. In spite of the fact that history,
+economics, emasculated philosophy and a kind of intellectual
+complexion cream called literature had been smeared all over her by
+earnest professors, she had never learned to take herself, life or
+society at all seriously. She had all the vitality which gives
+American women their singular charm and none of the appalling
+earnestness of high endeavour which sometimes leads even very charming
+women into repulsive kinds of foolishness. The thought of a marriage
+between Miss Daisy and King Konrad Karl--with Madame Ypsilante in the
+near background--affected Gorman with a feeling of physical nausea.
+
+The King possessed a certain capacity for sympathy. He guessed
+something of what was in Gorman's mind.
+
+"After all," he said, "she would be a queen. It is something. You have
+said so yourself, my friend. You cannot have an omelette without the
+sacrifice of an egg. But I see--I see very plainly that you do not
+wish me to marry the Donovan oof-girl. You will not back me up. Good.
+I back down. I bear no malice. I wish you success. I shall eat cake at
+your wedding without envy. To you the American with pigs' eyes--yes, I
+am sure she has pigs' eyes. To me Corinne. To which of us happiness?
+eh, my friend?"
+
+Gorman felt that it would be perfectly impossible to convince the King
+that he had no wish to marry Miss Daisy or her fortune.
+
+"All right," he said. "Leave it at that if you like."
+
+"I have left it," said the King, "at that, precisely at that, though I
+do not like it at all."
+
+"And now," said Gorman, "let's get back to your own affairs. You say
+that you're in a tightish place just for the moment."
+
+"I am in a hell hole," said the King.
+
+"Why not go back to the Emperor? He must do something for you. After
+all, he's your uncle. He can't let you go under altogether. Of course
+you'll have to eat humble pie, do the repentant prodigal and all that
+sort of thing."
+
+"I should with gladness eat any pie--even pie made of the fatted calf
+of the prodigal; but--there is Corinne. The Emperor regards Corinne
+very much, my dear Gorman, as you regard me. I do not complain. You
+and the Emperor are no doubt right. You hit your nails on the head,
+both of you, when you say of Corinne and me--they are blackguards. But
+I prefer Corinne and no veal pie to veal pie and no Corinne. Yes, my
+friend, I choose Corinne every time."
+
+I have met King Konrad Karl once or twice, and I have, of course,
+heard a good deal about him. He is, unquestionably, a scoundrel. But I
+agree with Gorman that he is a frank and therefore an attractive
+scoundrel. Besides, his fidelity to Corinne is a redeeming feature,
+perhaps the only redeeming feature of his character.
+
+Gorman is, if not a blackguard, at all events an adventurer, and
+therefore kin to the King. He saw the impossibility of leading Corinne
+to the foot of the imperial throne; and he felt that, after all, the
+King was right from his own point of view. Corinne was more desirable
+than many fatted calves. He cast about for some other way out of the
+difficult position.
+
+"We might," he said, "make something out of Megalia."
+
+"Nothing," said the King. "I have been in Megalia and I know it. It is
+a one-dog country. There is nothing in it. I have tried it, and I
+know."
+
+"We might start a Megalian Development Company," said Gorman.
+
+"A company, perhaps," said the King, "but development of Megalia,
+never."
+
+"I was not thinking of actually developing it. That would be the
+company's business afterwards. Not that it will be easy to start the
+company. It won't. Nobody knows anything about the damned place."
+
+"That is our best chance," said the King. "If any one did know
+Megalia, the company would be--what is it you say--a scrub down--no--a
+wash-up--ah, I have it--a wash-out."
+
+"You'd grant concessions, I suppose," said Gorman.
+
+"I do not know exactly what a concession means," said the King, "but
+if any one will pay for it I will give them permission to make the
+people of Megalia into sausages and kidneys. Believe me, my friend,
+that is the only development of which the Megalians are capable. They
+are pigs--Gadarene pigs."
+
+"We won't suggest that in the prospectus," said Gorman. "Our company,
+if we ever get it started, must be humanitarian, altruistic; I'm not
+sure that it ought not to be a little religious--mission of
+civilization. That's the note to strike."
+
+"And you expect to make money out of--out of _that_? out of what you
+teach in your schools for Sunday?"
+
+"It's just exactly out of that that money is made."
+
+"The English," said the King, "are a great people, very wonderful.
+You--even you, my friend, who are not English, but Irish--you will
+not let me marry because of Corinne. You wish me to eat humble pie
+while poor Corinne goes hungry, and yet you will make money out of
+a company for reforming the people of Megalia, making them civilized,
+Christian--a thing that is not at all possible--ever, in any way. Tell
+me, my friend, could you not start a company to develop, reform,
+improve Corinne and me. Believe me, it would be easier to do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Gorman realized that the development of Megalia was not an enterprise
+likely to attract the British capitalist. Still all things are
+possible in business, the business of company promoting. He set to
+work to collect what information he could about the country. The
+library of the House of Commons was useless to him. Megalia is the
+only country in the world about which no Blue Book ever has been
+published. A belief existed among certain city men interested in
+mining speculation, that there was copper in the mountains of Megalia;
+but no one had any exact information on the subject. Longwood, the
+Balkan correspondent of the New York Press, was in London at this
+time, and Gorman got hold of him. He had little to say about Megalia
+except that all the inhabitants are brigands. Steinwitz, managing
+director of the Cyrenian Sea Steam Navigation Company, professed to be
+interested in Megalia. He was certainly interested in the fact that
+Gorman was making inquiries about the country. He said that there were
+no harbours or possible ports of call on the Megalian coast.
+
+"Nothing," he said, "can be done with that country. Nothing at all.
+There is no trade, no traffic of any kind. And there cannot be. If
+there were anything to be done in Megalia, we should have had a
+steamer going there. Our ships pass the coast. But they do not call.
+Never."
+
+This interview, curiously enough, was the one thing which gave Gorman
+any hope. Steinwitz was plainly anxious to discourage inquiries about
+Megalia. And Steinwitz had the reputation of being a very astute man.
+
+Gorman tabulated the information he had acquired. He produced, after
+some thought, a few notes on Megalia which might be embodied in a
+plausible prospectus.
+
+     1. A Megalian Development Company would have a clear field
+     and no competition to face. Gorman felt that this was a fair
+     deduction from the fact that nobody knew anything definite
+     about the country.
+
+     2. The mineral wealth of Megalia is untapped. Nobody had
+     ever taken any copper from the mountains and nobody denied
+     that it was there. It was therefore fair to say that the
+     mineral wealth of the country was untapped.
+
+     3. The inhabitants are energetic and enterprising, a
+     vigorous and courageous race. Sluggards and decadents, so
+     Gorman felt, do not become brigands.
+
+That was all the material Gorman had to work with. Except the one
+fact, which could not be published, that Steinwitz, the director of a
+German Shipping Company with its headquarters in London, did not want
+public attention turned to Megalia. The floating of a company, even if
+the King offered every concession, did not seem to be a hopeful
+enterprise.
+
+Gorman did not, in the end, attempt to form that company. A second
+dinner at Beaufort's showed him another way of saving the unfortunate
+King Konrad Karl from ruin. This time the invitation came from Mr.
+Donovan.
+
+The Donovans occupied one of the best suites of rooms in that
+sumptuous hotel. The old gentleman had the satisfaction of stretching
+himself in beautifully upholstered chairs and dropping cigar ashes on
+highly gilt tables. He was suffering, so he believed, from disordered
+action of the heart, induced by the toil and excitement of making a
+large fortune. Several doctors agreed in recommending complete rest
+and quiet. Mr. Donovan was convinced that rest and quiet would be
+pleasant as well as beneficial. He left Chicago, where such things are
+certainly not to be found, and sought them in London. For a time he
+believed he had found them. He sat all day in his room at Beaufort's,
+waited on by footmen who wore gold-braided coats, crimson breeches and
+silk stockings, looking like very dignified ambassadors. He signed
+cheques payable to Miss Daisy. He exerted himself in no other way. But
+rest and quiet are hard to come by. Letters pursued him from Chicago.
+Thoughtless people even cabled to him. Secretaries of benevolent
+societies discovered him. The London agents of American financiers
+rang him up on telephones. Finally Miss Daisy, having drunk deep of
+the delights of London, became restless.
+
+At first she had enjoyed life thoroughly. She had a marble-fitted
+bathroom for her sole use. She slept in a beautiful bed under a
+painted ceiling. She tried on dresses for hours every day in front of
+huge gilt mirrors. She gathered in immense quantities the peculiar
+treasures of Bond Street. Then she began to yearn for something more.
+Her father considered her demands, thought of his own disordered heart
+and asked Gorman to dinner.
+
+The conversation at first ran along natural lines. The sights of
+London were discussed. The plays which Miss Daisy had seen and the
+picture galleries she had visited were criticized. Then Gorman was
+called on to give opinions about the books she had not found time to
+read. London and its attractions were compared with Chicago and
+Detroit; Miss Daisy preferred London. Her father said there were
+points about Detroit, but that quiet was no more obtainable in one
+than the other. Afterwards politics were touched on. Miss Daisy gave
+it as her opinion that the Irish Party was rather slow about getting
+Home Rule. She displayed a considerable knowledge of affairs, and told
+Gorman frankly that he ought to have been able to buy up a substantial
+majority of the British House of Commons with the money, many hundred
+thousand dollars, which her father and other Americans had subscribed.
+
+Gorman has always been of opinion that women are incapable of
+understanding politics. Miss Daisy's direct and simple way of
+attacking great problems confirmed him in his belief that Woman
+Suffrage would be a profound mistake.
+
+He was relieved when, after dinner, Donovan himself started a new
+subject.
+
+"I hear," he said, "that there is a king, a European monarch, resident
+in this hotel. That so?"
+
+"King Konrad Karl II of Megalia," said Gorman.
+
+"Friend of yours?"
+
+"Well, yes," said Gorman. "I've had some business connection with
+him."
+
+"I'm interested in that monarch," said Donovan. "It was Daisy drew my
+attention to him first, and then I made inquiries. He's not considered
+a first-class king, I reckon. Doesn't move in the best royal circles.
+He could be approached, without diplomatic formalities, by a plain
+American citizen."
+
+"There's not the least difficulty about approaching him," said Gorman.
+"I don't believe you'd care for him much if you knew him, and----"
+
+Gorman cast about for the best way of saying that King Konrad Karl
+would not be a desirable friend for Miss Daisy. Donovan saved him the
+trouble of finding a suitable phrase.
+
+"He could be approached," he said, "by a plain American citizen, if
+that citizen came with a business proposition in his hand."
+
+Gorman saw what he believed to be an opportunity. Donovan apparently
+wanted to do business with the King. Such business must necessarily
+be connected with Megalia. A company for the development of that
+country could be founded without difficulty if a man of Donovan's
+enormous wealth took up a substantial block of shares. Gorman poured
+out all the information he had collected about Megalia. Donovan
+listened to him in silence. It was Miss Daisy who spoke at last.
+
+"What you say about the enterprising nature of those inhabitants
+interests me," she said, "but I am not much taken with the notion of
+copper mining. It seems to me that copper mines would be liable to
+spoil the natural beauty of the landscape."
+
+Gorman was, for the moment, too much surprised to speak. He had been
+in America several times and knew a good many American women. He
+realized their independence of character and mental vigour. But he did
+not expect that a young girl, fresh from college, enjoying the first
+taste of London, would take a leading part in discussing a matter of
+business. Before he had made up his mind what line to take with Miss
+Daisy, Donovan shot a question at him.
+
+"What size is that monarchy?" he said.
+
+"The actual boundaries are a little uncertain," said Gorman, "but I
+think we may say a hundred miles by about thirty."
+
+"Inhabitants? Is it considerably settled?"
+
+"I should guess the population at about 10,000."
+
+Gorman glanced at his daughter. Miss Daisy's eyes gleamed with
+pleasurable excitement.
+
+"I'll buy that monarchy," said Donovan, "money down, and I expect the
+King and I won't fall out about the price. But if I buy, I buy the
+section and all fixings, royal palace, throne, crown and title. I'm
+particular about the title."
+
+Miss Daisy jumped from her chair and ran round the table. She flung
+her arms round her father's neck and kissed him heartily, first on one
+cheek, then on the other.
+
+"You darling!" she said.
+
+Donovan disengaged his head from her embrace and turned to Gorman.
+
+"My little girl has taken a notion," he said, "that she'd like to be a
+queen. The thing might be worked by marrying; but we don't either of
+us care for that notion. She'd be tied up if she married, and she
+might tire. My idea--and hers--is that it's better to buy what we want
+right out. I don't say that Megalia is precisely the kingdom I'd have
+chosen for her. I'd have preferred a place with a bigger reputation,
+one better advertised by historians. But I realize that the European
+monarchy market has been cornered by a syndicate, and I can't just
+step down and buy what I like. Your leading families, so I understand,
+have secured options on the best kingdoms and won't part."
+
+Miss Daisy was still standing with her arms round her father's neck.
+She hugged him as she spoke.
+
+"I shall just love Megalia," she said. "I'd far rather have it than
+one three times the size."
+
+"Well," said her father, "I guess there's no reason why you shouldn't
+have it."
+
+Gorman saw several reasons, excellent ones, why Daisy Donovan could
+never be queen of Megalia. He began to explain them. Kingdoms cannot
+be bought and sold like horses. There are emperors and other kings to
+consider. There is the Balance of Power in Europe. There are
+ambassadors, chancelleries, statesmen. He was not at all sure that the
+Monroe Doctrine, in an inverted form, might not be an absolute bar to
+the purchase of a European kingdom by an American. Donovan brushed the
+difficulties aside.
+
+"Those points," he said, "will be considered in settling the price.
+I'm aware that Europe has its prejudices. I'm not out to trample on
+them. Genuine vested interests owned by other monarchs will be paid
+for. Ambassadors and chancellors will be taken on and employed at
+their old salaries as part of a going concern."
+
+Gorman is, like the Megalians, enterprising and full of courage. He
+did not believe that the sale of the Crown of Megalia could possibly
+be carried through; but something might be done which would satisfy
+Donovan. An estate, carrying with it a title like that of Grand
+Duchess, might be made over to Miss Daisy. All kings possess the power
+of conferring titles. If such honours are freely sold in a country
+like England, there could be no possible objection to the King of
+Megalia taking a reasonable price for creating a Grand Duchess, even,
+perhaps, a princess. Donovan's next words made Gorman determine to
+try what he could do.
+
+"There'll be a rake-off from the purchase price," said Donovan, "for
+the man who arranges the sale. I don't kick against a reasonable
+percentage."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+It was Gorman's misfortune that all through the Megalia negotiations
+he had to deal with women as well as men, indeed sometimes with women
+rather than men.
+
+Donovan held it as an article of faith that anything in the world can
+be bought for money, if only there is money enough. But Donovan would
+not have insisted on justifying his faith by putting it to the test.
+No one does that. Not even a church, though firmly convinced of its
+own infallibility, will bludgeon the world into an acceptance of its
+claim by making decisions about matters which are susceptible of
+proof. Donovan would have been quite content to believe that he could
+purchase the Crown of Megalia without actually doing so. It was Miss
+Daisy, who had no theories about the power of money, who insisted on
+becoming a queen.
+
+King Konrad Karl knew perfectly well that he could not sell what
+Donovan wanted to buy.
+
+"I would," he said, "sell Megalia with damnable pleasure. Your
+friend's daughter might be Queen or Empress or Sultana. You, my dear
+Gorman, might be king consort when you married her. But you know and I
+know and Corinne knows--alas! we all know--that if I attempted a
+_coup d'etat_ of that kind the Emperor would at once put in my wheel a
+spoke. It is a cursed pity; but what can we do? We must, as you once
+said to me, Gorman, be content to leave it at that."
+
+Madame Ypsilante was present when Gorman first suggested the sale of
+Megalia. She cut into the conversation with a very pertinent remark.
+
+"The price," she said, "would be enormous."
+
+Madame is a lady of expensive tastes and appreciates the advantage of
+possessing money. There was at that time in Goldsturmer's Bond Street
+establishment a rope of pearls which she very much wished to possess.
+Miss Daisy Donovan had seen it and admired it greatly. This fact
+rendered Madame's desire almost overwhelming.
+
+"The price of a kingdom," she said. "Consider."
+
+Her fine eyes opened very wide as she considered the price which
+Donovan might be induced to pay for Megalia. The King sighed deeply.
+
+"Alas!" he said. "The Emperor."
+
+"Damn the Emperor," said Madame.
+
+She had every reason to wish evil to the Emperor. His malignant
+respect for conventional morality had driven her from the precincts of
+his court, had been the prime cause of the misfortunes which had
+nearly overwhelmed her and Konrad, and now the Emperor stood between
+her and the possession of the most magnificent pearls in Europe. It
+was no wonder that she cursed him. Konrad Karl did not rebuke her
+disloyalty. He merely shrugged his shoulders, feeling that it was no
+use damning the Emperor. That potentate would not moult a feather
+though Madame Ypsilante cursed him all day long. Madame herself felt
+the uselessness of losing her temper with some one she could not hurt.
+She asked the King to give her a glass of brandy. That stimulated her
+imagination.
+
+"This American," she said, "is no doubt a fool, and his daughter
+imbecile. Do not contradict me. All young girls are imbecile. As for
+the father, if he were not a fool would he wish to buy Megalia?
+Megalia, my God! The world is full of things desirable to buy; and he
+asks for that."
+
+The King nodded. He knew Megalia. The man who wanted to buy it was
+certainly a fool. Gorman was forced to admit that Donovan showed less
+wisdom than might be expected in wishing to spend money on a kingdom
+of that kind.
+
+"Then," said Madame, "the affair is simple. He buys. You sell. He
+pays. You take. We skip. I love London--yes, very well. But after all
+there are other cities. We skip. The Emperor acts. The American
+curses. What is that to us?"
+
+The King shook his head. The plan was simple. Unfortunately the world
+is not big enough for the working out of really great conceptions.
+
+"We should be pursued. They would take us by the collar. We should be
+compelled to disgorge the swag."
+
+"We should not be so compelled," said Madame. "I should at once buy
+pearls and diamonds, and I should conceal them. You, Konrad, would
+have nothing to disgorge."
+
+It is certain that the King had a real affection for Madame Corinne.
+Gorman called it an infatuation. No doubt he even trusted her. It is
+just conceivable that he would have allowed her to wander off by
+herself with several hundred thousand pounds worth of jewels while he
+argued with the Emperor and Donovan and the U. S. Ambassador. But
+Gorman pointed out a fatal defect in the scheme.
+
+"I don't deny," he said, "that there's a soft spot somewhere in
+Donovan. But he's not that particular kind of fool. You may take it
+from me, Madame, that the price won't be paid till you have delivered
+the goods. You won't get more than a few thousands in advance until
+Miss Daisy is actually sitting on a throne with a gold crown on her
+head."
+
+"There is no crown in Megalia," said the King. "There never was. If
+there had been it would not be there now. I should have brought it
+with me when I made my scoot."
+
+"Donovan won't bother about that point," said Gorman. "In fact, I
+expect he'd buy a new crown in any case. He wouldn't like the idea of
+his daughter appearing in anything second-hand. What he wants for her
+is the right to wear a crown."
+
+"That," said the King, "is exactly the pinching shoe. That she cannot
+have. We are at a dying--no, a dead lock."
+
+"Somehow," said Madame, "we must have the money. If that girl, that
+miss, who is more imbecile than all other _jeunes filles_--if she
+obtains that rope of pearls from Goldsturmer, those pearls which ought
+to be mine, I shall go mad and take poison, very terrible poison, and
+die in front of your eyes, Konrad."
+
+With a view to showing how mad she could go if she tried, she threw
+her brandy glass on the floor and hacked at it with the heel of her
+shoe. The carpets in Beaufort's hotel have the softest and deepest
+pile of any carpets in Europe. Madame's first two or three hacks did
+no more than snap the stem of the glass. To complete its destruction
+she stood up and stamped on it.
+
+Gorman may have feared that she would trample on him next. He told me
+that she really was a very alarming sight. Stimulated by terror, his
+mind worked quickly.
+
+"Look here," he said to the King, "I've got a suggestion to make. Get
+Madame to sit down and keep quiet for a few minutes."
+
+The King had an experience, gathered during six years of intimacy, of
+Madame's ways. He knew what to do with her. He got another glass of
+brandy and a box of cigarettes. He set them on a table beside a deep
+armchair. Madame suffered herself to be led to the chair.
+
+"Now, my friend Gorman," said the King, "if you have a key which will
+open the dead lock, make it trot out."
+
+"What Donovan wants," said Gorman, "is a kingdom for his daughter. Not
+Megalia in particular, but some kind of right to wear a crown. Any
+other kingdom would do as well."
+
+"But there is no other," said the King. "In all the courts of Europe
+there is no other king in such a damned hole as I am, no other king
+who would sell even if he could."
+
+"I don't know Megalia well," said Gorman, "but there must surely be
+some outlying corner of that interesting country--an island, for
+instance--which you could make over, sporting, mineral and _royal_
+rights, to Donovan; just as England gave Heligoland to the Germans and
+somebody or other, probably the Turks, gave Cyprus to the English. The
+thing is constantly done."
+
+"But the Emperor," said the King. "Again and always the Emperor. All
+roads lead to Rome. All _Real Politik_ brings us in the end back to
+the Emperor."
+
+"My idea," said Gorman, "would be, to choose a small island, quite a
+small one, so small that the Emperor wouldn't notice it was gone. As a
+matter of fact I expect a small island would suit Donovan better than
+the whole country. He has a weak heart and has come over to Europe for
+rest and quiet. He won't want to be bothered with the politics and
+revolutions and complications which will be sure to arise in a large
+tract of land like Megalia."
+
+"A revolution," said the King, "arises there regularly. A revolution
+is biennial in Megalia."
+
+"In a really small island," said Gorman, "that would not happen. A man
+like Donovan would feed the inhabitants until they got too fat for
+revolutions. Now the question is, do you own an island of that kind?"
+
+"There is," said the King, "Salissa. There is certainly Salissa. My
+predecessor on the throne, my cousin Otto, resided in Salissa
+until----. He thought it a safe place to reside because it was
+so far from the land. He even built a house there. It is, I am
+told, a charming house. Hot and cold. Billiard and No Basement.
+Self-contained, Tudor and Bungalow, ten bed, two dressing, offices of
+the usual, drainage, commanding views, all that is desirable. But,
+alas for poor Otto! Salissa was not safe. He had forgotten that
+Megalia has a navy, a navy of one ship only, but that was enough. It
+cooked the goose of Otto, that Megalian Navy. The Prime Minister and
+the Commander of the Forces and the Admiral arrived at Salissa one day
+in the Navy. That was the end of Otto."
+
+"I hope," said Gorman, "that the inhabitants of Salissa aren't a
+bloodthirsty lot. I wouldn't like to think of Miss Daisy being
+murdered. Besides, there'd be complications. The assassination of
+an odd prince doesn't much matter to any one. But an American
+millionaire! The sudden death of a man like Donovan would mean a
+panic in Wall Street, and there'd have to be a fuss."
+
+"The inhabitants!" said the King. "They would not kill a baby. They
+are lambs, ducks, kids, doves. They bleat. They coo."
+
+"The Prime Minister," said Gorman, "the Commander of the Forces and
+the Admiral could be squared, I suppose?"
+
+"They would not want to kill her," said the King. "She would not be
+their queen."
+
+"Sounds all right," said Gorman, "if you can be sure of selling
+the whole thing without reservation of any kind to him. The
+royal rights are essential. Remember that. There must be no
+'subject-to-the-Crown-of-Megalia' clause in the deed."
+
+"The Emperor need not know," said the King. "Salissa is very small,
+and far, very far, from the land. If we keep the transaction
+shady--that is to say, dark--the Emperor will not tumble into it."
+
+Madame swallowed her last sip of brandy.
+
+"The price?" she said.
+
+"You cannot," said Gorman, "expect as much for a small island like
+that as if you were able to sell the whole kingdom; the revenue can't
+be anything much."
+
+"There is no revenue in Megalia either," said the King.
+
+"But Donovan is getting what he wants. His daughter will be a reigning
+queen. I daresay we'll be able to screw him up to----"
+
+"The price of that rope of pearls," said Madame, "is ten thousand
+pounds."
+
+"Oh," said Gorman, "we'll get that and a bit over."
+
+"At once," said Madame, "cash down. For if we have to wait and wait
+for months that imbecile girl will buy the pearls. Do not say no. I
+know it. I have a feeling. There is a presentiment. And if she gets
+those pearls I shall----"
+
+Gorman did not want her to go mad again.
+
+"Couldn't you see Goldsturmer," he said, "and arrange with him to give
+you the refusal of the pearls, say, three months from now?"
+
+"Goldsturmer," said Madame, "is a devil. He will not trust me for one
+day, although he knows Konrad well."
+
+Goldsturmer would probably have said that he refused to trust Madame
+_because_ he knew Konrad well.
+
+Gorman promised to lay the Salissa proposal before Donovan, and to get
+him, if possible, to pay at least ten thousand of the purchase money
+in advance.
+
+"But above all," said the King, "let him hold tight to his tongue,
+and you, my friend Gorman. This is no affair about which a song
+can be made in the market place. If the Emperor were to hear a
+whisper--Gorman, you do not know the Emperor. His ears are long. If he
+were to hear there would be an end. There would be no sale."
+
+"Donovan," said Gorman, "would probably offer the Emperor five per
+cent. of the purchase money if there was any trouble."
+
+"Five per cent.!" said the King. "The Emperor! God in heaven!"
+
+King Konrad Karl probably feared God in heaven very little. But there
+is no doubt that he had a nervous dread of the Emperor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Donovan was, I believe, relieved when he heard that he could not buy
+the whole kingdom of Megalia. The price would have been enormous, but
+he would not have hesitated to pay it if, by paying, he would have got
+what he wanted. The more he looked into the business of kingship, the
+less he liked it. The idea of Court etiquette worried him. Donovan
+disliked dressing for dinner, a form of activity to which he was
+unaccustomed. He got it into his head that the father of the reigning
+monarch in a state like Megalia might be called on to wear uniforms,
+troublesome things with unusual buttons and straps, and change them
+two or three times a day. He feared that such a combination of
+exertion and worry would still further disorder the action of his
+heart. He saw no prospect of quiet indolence among a people which went
+in for revolutions as a pastime. Salissa, on the other hand, seemed
+almost an ideal spot. There were not likely to be any regular postal
+arrangements. There was certainly no cable. Since there were less than
+a hundred inhabitants a liberal pension could be given to each.
+Pensioners are notoriously peaceful and unobtrusive people.
+
+Miss Daisy was a little disappointed at first; but only at first. Once
+she hit on the idea that her kingdom would be the "dinkiest" in
+Europe, indeed in the world, she was pleased. The negotiations were
+rushed through at a pace which struck even Gorman as indecent. But
+everybody concerned was in a hurry. Konrad Karl was afraid that the
+Emperor might hear of the sale through the Megalian ambassador in
+London. But that gentleman--he was a Count, I think--was under the
+influence, probably in the pay of the Emperor, and had been instructed
+to ignore King Konrad Karl as much as possible. He heard nothing about
+the matter. Madame Ypsilante was in a hurry for obvious reasons. Miss
+Daisy Donovan had looked at the pearl necklace two or three times, and
+there was a horrible possibility that she might regard it as a
+suitable ornament for a queen. Miss Daisy was eager to see her island
+kingdom as soon as possible. Donovan himself was finding London less
+restful than ever. He wanted to get the Salissa business settled out
+of hand.
+
+It was settled early in April. I never heard the exact date of the
+signing of the papers, but April the 1st would have been appropriate.
+An immense document was drawn up by a solicitor, a cousin of Gorman's
+who lived in a small west of Ireland town. Gorman said he gave the job
+to this particular man because no London lawyer would have kept the
+matter secret. My own impression is that no London solicitor would
+have undertaken the job at all. There cannot be any recognized legal
+form for the sale of kingdoms. However, Gorman's cousin did his work
+excellently. The document looked well. He attached eight enormous
+seals to it, and he had several of the most important clauses
+translated into Latin. It must have been as good as it looked.
+Later on nearly every ambassador in Europe had a look at the
+"instrument"--Gorman called it an instrument sometimes, sometimes a
+protocol--and they were all baffled. The American ambassador in
+Megalia offered Gorman's cousin a post in the U. S. A. diplomatic
+service, a high testimonial to his abilities. Miss Daisy and her heirs
+became the independent sovereigns of the Island of Salissa. Donovan
+promised to pay down the purchase money as soon as he was satisfied
+that the island really existed. The most Gorman could screw out of him
+in the way of an advance was L5,000.
+
+The evening after the "instrument" was signed, Gorman had a visit from
+Goldsturmer, the well-known jeweller. The man, a rather unctuous, but
+very suave and polite German Jew, was shown into Gorman's
+sitting-room.
+
+"I think," he said, "that you are a friend of his Majesty, King Konrad
+Karl of Megalia?"
+
+Gorman was on his guard and determined to give away no information of
+any kind. The King's nervous fear of the Emperor's displeasure had
+impressed Gorman with the necessity of keeping the sale of Salissa as
+secret as possible; but he could hardly avoid admitting that he knew
+King Konrad Karl. The affairs of the wine company had occupied some
+space in the daily papers, and the names of the directors had been
+published. His name and the King's had appeared together very
+frequently.
+
+"And perhaps," said Goldsturmer, "you also know Madame Ypsilante?"
+
+"I have seen the lady," said Gorman.
+
+Goldsturmer was not in the least discouraged by Gorman's reticence.
+
+"I cannot," he said, "expect you to answer more frankly unless I am
+equally frank with you. I am at this time engaged in a business
+transaction of some importance with Madame Ypsilante. The sum of money
+involved is very large. It is"--Goldsturmer's tone became
+reverent--"L10,000."
+
+"Can she pay?" said Gorman, "not that it's any affair of mine whether
+she can or not."
+
+"The lady herself cannot pay; but the King--she tells me that his
+Majesty has recently sold an estate situated in Megalia to a wealthy
+American. Now if that is true----"
+
+"Perhaps in that case the King might pay," said Gorman.
+
+"I wonder," said Goldsturmer, "if the sale has taken place?"
+
+"Shouldn't think it likely," said Gorman.
+
+Goldsturmer paused. For quite a minute he sat looking at Gorman. Then
+he said:
+
+"In a matter of this kind I am prepared to pay for information which
+would be of use to me. I shall speak frankly. It would be worth my
+while to give one per cent. of the sum involved to any one who could
+tell me whether the sale which Madame mentioned to me has really been
+effected."
+
+"Ah," said Gorman, "one per cent. on, did you say, L10,000?"
+
+"It would amount to L100."
+
+"I wish I could earn it," said Gorman, "but unfortunately I know
+nothing at all about the matter."
+
+Political life, so Gorman has often told me, is the very best
+education obtainable in one respect. The politician learns to lie
+fluently and without discomfort. Even politicians are not, of course,
+always believed, but they know how to lie in a way which makes it very
+difficult for any one to give expression to unbelief. Goldsturmer may
+actually have believed Gorman. He certainly pretended to. He did not
+even offer a two per cent. bonus.
+
+"I must ask you to pardon me," he said, "for occupying your time with
+my inquiries. I thank you for the way in which you have received me.
+Good-bye."
+
+He bowed his way to the door. Then he turned to Gorman again.
+
+"You will understand, I am sure, that mine was a purely business
+inquiry. I am not interested in any of the scandal which unfortunately
+is connected with the name of his Majesty, or with that of the
+charming lady of whom I spoke. Still less am I concerned with the
+state affairs of Megalia. I have no connection with Megalia."
+
+Gorman sat thinking for a while after Goldsturmer left him. The
+jeweller's visit and his questions were natural enough. Such inquiries
+are made every day. There was nothing surprising in the offer of one
+per cent. on the money which was to change hands in return for
+information. Gorman was a politician. It was not the first time he had
+been offered a commission. He hoped it would not be the last. What
+puzzled him was Goldsturmer's final remark. Why should the man have
+said he had no interest in the state affairs of Megalia unless indeed
+he was interested, was on the track of a suspected secret?
+
+Once more Gorman lamented the fact that women were mixed up in a
+business affair.
+
+"Damn Madame Ypsilante," he said.
+
+Then, finding some relief for his feelings in expressing them aloud:
+
+"Damn that woman's tongue."
+
+Gorman was puzzled and therefore anxious. His commission on the sale
+of Salissa--his rake-off, as Donovan called it--was large, a sum
+which Gorman did not want to lose. He was most anxious that the
+transaction should be successfully completed and the money actually
+paid. The King's evident nervousness about the Emperor impressed him
+unpleasantly. Gorman was not a student of foreign politics. He did not
+know precisely what the Emperor's position was. Megalia was nominally
+an independent state. Its King could, he supposed, cede a portion of
+territory to a foreign power without consulting any other monarch. Yet
+the Emperor evidently had to be considered, might put a stop to the
+whole business. Konrad Karl had no doubts about that, and he ought to
+know.
+
+I am sure that I should be doing Gorman an injustice if I were to
+represent him as anxious only about the commission. He had a queer
+liking for the unfortunate Konrad Karl. He wanted--as everybody who
+knew her did--to gratify Miss Daisy Donovan. And he took a sporting
+interest in the sale of Salissa. There was a novelty about the
+purchase of the position of reigning monarch which appealed to Gorman,
+and there were all sorts of possibilities about the situation and its
+future developments.
+
+A week later, just as he was beginning to forget Goldsturmer's visit,
+Gorman had fresh cause for anxiety. I remember the day very well. I
+was lunching at my club, a club of which Gorman is also a member. As I
+entered the room I saw him sitting at a table near the window. I
+intended to join him, for Gorman is always good company. When I
+reached his table I saw that he already had a companion--Steinwitz,
+the director of the Cyrenian Sea Steam Navigation Company. I turned
+away at once, for Steinwitz is a man whom I particularly dislike.
+Gorman caught sight of me and called:
+
+"Come and sit here. There's plenty of room. The waiter can lay another
+place."
+
+"Thanks," I said, "but I've just caught sight of a man at the far end
+of the room whom I particularly want to talk to."
+
+"Talk to him later on," said Gorman, "Come and sit here now."
+
+There was something in Gorman's tone which made me think he really
+wanted me to sit at his table, that he had a motive in pressing me as
+he did. But I was not going to lunch in the company of Steinwitz. I
+have nothing definite against the man; but I do not like him. I shook
+my head and found a seat at the far end of the room.
+
+Afterwards--months afterwards--Gorman told me that he wanted me very
+badly that day, me or some one else. He wanted a third person at his
+table. Steinwitz was asking inconvenient questions, talking about
+matters Gorman did not want to discuss. The presence of a third person
+might have saved Gorman some awkwardness.
+
+Steinwitz was insistent and determined. He laid hold on Gorman before
+lunch and clung to him until they sat down together.
+
+"You remember asking me," said Steinwitz--"let me see, it must have
+been a couple of months ago--you remember asking me for information
+about Megalia."
+
+"Did I?" said Gorman.
+
+"And I told you it was a rotten country--no trade, no harbours, no
+tourist traffic, no anything. Well--rather an odd thing happened
+yesterday. A man came into my office--by the way, you know him, I
+think--Donovan, the American millionaire----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I know him. Owns a pretty daughter, doesn't he?"
+
+"She was with him," said Steinwitz--"a romantic sort of girl, I should
+say, by the look of her. Head stuffed full of silly fancies."
+
+Steinwitz' eyes were on Gorman all the time he was speaking. Gorman
+says he felt very uncomfortable, but I am sure he did not show it.
+
+"I scarcely know the girl," said Gorman. "What did old Donovan want
+with you?"
+
+"Wanted to charter a steamer, captain, crew and all, one of our boats.
+Said he was going for a cruise off the coast of Megalia and wanted a
+biggish ship and officers who know the Cyrenian Sea thoroughly."
+
+"Odd fancies the Americans have," said Gorman. "However, he can pay
+for what he wants. If half what they say about him is true, he could
+buy up your whole fleet without missing the money."
+
+"He certainly did not boggle over the figure I named."
+
+"Oh, you let him have the ship then?"
+
+"Certainly. Trade is dull in those parts now. As a matter of fact the
+_Ida_ was lying up."
+
+Gorman pretended to yawn by way of showing how very little interest he
+took in the matter.
+
+"Hope he'll enjoy the trip," he said. "Doesn't sound an attractive
+country by your account."
+
+"Well," said Steinwitz, "there are some interesting things to see.
+There's the Island of Salissa, for instance."
+
+Gorman was startled by the mention of Salissa. He may possibly have
+shown his surprise. Steinwitz went on:
+
+"By the way, talking of Salissa, Goldsturmer told me a curious thing
+the other day. You know Goldsturmer, don't you?"
+
+"The jewel man?"
+
+"Yes. He says your friend Donovan has bought the island of Salissa
+from that picturesque blackguard King Konrad Karl. I wonder if that
+can be true. Goldsturmer says he has it on the best authority."
+
+"Those 'best authorities'," said Gorman, "are invariably liars. I have
+known scores of them."
+
+"I daresay you're right," said Steinwitz; "anyhow, in this case the
+authority wasn't one that I should care to rely on. It was Madame
+Ypsilante--a very charming lady, but----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I wouldn't care to bet my last shilling," said Gorman, "on the truth
+of a statement made by Madame Ypsilante."
+
+"In this case," said Steinwitz, "her story was a ridiculous one,
+absurd on the face of it. She said that the American girl wants to set
+up as a monarch and that Konrad Karl had sold her the right to call
+herself Queen of Salissa."
+
+"Either Goldsturmer was pulling your leg," said Gorman, "or Madame
+was pulling his. Was she trying to get anything out of him?"
+
+"Pearls," said Steinwitz. "There is a certain rope of pearls----"
+
+"That accounts for the whole thing," said Gorman.
+
+Steinwitz seemed quite satisfied that it did. But he was not inclined
+to drop the subject altogether.
+
+"A sale of that sort," he said, "would be impossible. The Emperor
+wouldn't permit it."
+
+Then Gorman made a mistake. For the first time he showed a real
+interest in what Steinwitz said. There is every excuse for him. He
+wanted very much to understand the Emperor's position; and Steinwitz
+had already heard--possibly believed--the story of the sale of
+Salissa.
+
+"What on earth has the Emperor got to do with it?" said Gorman.
+"Megalia is an independent state, isn't it?"
+
+Steinwitz laughed.
+
+"Very few states," he said, "are independent of the Emperor."
+
+There was something in the way he spoke, a note of arrogance, a
+suggestion of truculence, which nettled Gorman.
+
+"Donovan," he said, "is a free citizen of the United States of
+America. That's what he says himself. I don't expect he cares a damn
+about any emperor."
+
+"Ah well," said Steinwitz, "it does not matter, does it? Since he has
+not bought the Island of Salissa, no question is likely to arise. The
+Emperor will not object to his wandering round the Cyrenian Sea in the
+_Ida_."
+
+Gorman was singularly dull when he joined me in the smoking-room after
+luncheon. I do not recollect any other occasion on which I found him
+disinclined to talk. I opened the most seductive subjects. I said I
+was sure Ulster really meant to take up arms against Home Rule. I said
+that the Sinn Feiners were getting stronger and stronger in Ireland,
+and that neither Gorman nor any member of his party would be returned
+at the next General Election. Gorman must have wanted to contradict
+me; but he did not say a word. It was only when I got up to go away
+that he spoke; and then he made a remark which had no bearing whatever
+on anything which I had said.
+
+"Women," he growled, "are hell. In business they're red hell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+The Donovans started for Salissa within three weeks of the completion
+of the sale of the island. This was a remarkable achievement, and the
+whole credit is due to the amazing energy of Miss Daisy. She was all
+eagerness to enter into the possession of her kingdom; but she had no
+idea of going to an unknown island without proper supplies. She bought
+furniture for her house. King Konrad Karl was of opinion that there
+must be furniture in it. The Prime Minister, the Commander-in-Chief
+and the Admiral had almost certainly carried off any jewellery or
+plate there might have been, after the assassination of the late king.
+Tables, chairs, carpets and beds, they must, he thought, have left
+behind, because the Megalian Navy was not big enough to carry very
+much cargo. But Miss Daisy took no risks. She bought everything
+necessary for a house of moderate size, and had the packing cases put
+into the hold of the _Ida_.
+
+She gave large orders for every kind of portable provisions. She
+entrusted a wine merchant with the duty of stocking the royal cellars.
+Certain dressmakers--eight, I believe--were kept busy. The new queen
+did not actually purchase royal robes; but she got every other kind
+of clothes from the most fantastic teagowns to severe costumes
+designed for mountaineering. There might be a mountain in Salissa. The
+Queen liked to be prepared for it if it were there.
+
+She engaged a staff of servants, hitting on twenty as a suitable
+number for the household of a queen of a small state. The chief of
+this band was a dignified man who had once been butler to a duke. Miss
+Daisy gave him the title of major domo, and provided him with a thick
+gold chain to hang round his neck. There were alterations to be made
+in the _Ida_, a steamer not originally intended to carry passengers.
+These were left to Steinwitz; but Miss Daisy managed to run down every
+day to see that the work was being done as quickly as possible. She
+had interviews with Captain Wilson, who commanded the _Ida_, and Mr.
+Maurice Phillips, the first officer. She asked them both to dinner.
+Captain Wilson, a Scot, was taciturn and suspicious. He regarded the
+job before him as an objectionable kind of practical joke, likely,
+before it was over, to impair his natural dignity. Mr. Phillips was
+filled with delight at the prospect. He was a young man with curly
+fair hair and cheerful eyes.
+
+The start might have been made in even less than three weeks, if it
+had not been for the Heralds' Office. Miss Daisy wanted a banner to
+hoist over the royal palace in Salissa. She consulted Gorman, and
+gathered from what he told her that heralds are experts in designing
+banners. She found her way to the office and explained what she
+wanted to a suave, but rather anaemic young gentleman who talked about
+quarterings. Miss Daisy was not to be cowed by jargon.
+
+"Put in any quarterings you fancy," she said. "I'm not particular. If
+ghules, argents and ramparts are extra, I am prepared to pay. But
+don't you meditate too much on the unforgotten glories of the past.
+Get a move on."
+
+That it appeared was the one thing the Heralds' Office could not do.
+Miss Daisy stormed at its doors. She telephoned at short intervals all
+day. She even tried to persuade her father to take part in the
+persecution. But Mr. Donovan was too wise.
+
+"There are things," he said, "which cannot be done. No man living, not
+even a railway boss--can speed up a state department."
+
+"Any firm in New York," said Miss Daisy, "would have sent in designs
+for a dozen banners in half the time that young man in the Heraldry
+Office has been thinking about one."
+
+"Heralds," said Mr. Donovan, "are mediaeval. If they laid hold on the
+idea of an automobile and went in for speed, they'd lose grip on the
+science of heraldry."
+
+In the end, goaded and worried by Miss Daisy into a condition of
+bewildered exasperation, the Heralds' Office produced a large
+pale-blue flag. In the middle of it was a white flower, said to be a
+daisy. It arrived at Southampton by the hand of a special messenger
+just before the sailing of the _Ida_. Later on--when that flag became
+a subject for argument among diplomatists--the heralds disclaimed all
+real responsibility for it. They said that they had no idea they were
+making a royal standard. They said that they understood that they were
+preparing a flag for a young lady's house-boat. Miss Daisy asserts, on
+the other hand, that her orders were quite distinct. She told the
+anaemic young man at their first interview that she wanted a "Royal
+Banner, done according to the best European specification."
+
+Nine of the servants refused to sail at the last moment. They alleged
+that the sleeping accommodation on board the _Ida_ was not what they
+were accustomed to. The major domo only agreed to go on board when he
+was given the cabin originally intended for Miss Daisy. She occupied
+that which had been allotted to a kitchen-maid, one of the deserters.
+Steinwitz and Gorman, who saw the party off, induced the other ten
+servants to go on board, apologizing humbly to them and explaining
+that the cabins in the _Ida_ had necessarily been very hurriedly made.
+For all the use any of the servants were on the voyage, or afterwards,
+they might as well have stayed at home. The major domo shut himself up
+in his cabin and was resolutely seasick even in the calmest weather.
+The others, though not as sick as he was, pretended to be incapable of
+doing anything.
+
+The Donovans, Captain Wilson and Mr. Phillips were waited on by a
+steward, a man called Smith who had been brought from London and added
+to the ship's company at the last moment by Steinwitz. He proved to be
+an excellent servant and a man of varied talents. He took a hand in
+the cooking, mixed cocktails, and acted as valet to Mr. Donovan,
+waited at table, made beds and kept the cabins beautifully clean. He
+even found time to save the major domo from starvation by bringing him
+soup and dry toast occasionally.
+
+Captain Wilson, who could not get over the idea that he was being made
+to look ridiculous, remained rather aloof during the voyage. He
+accepted the cigars which Donovan pressed on him, and was civil to
+Miss Daisy, but he made no pretence of enjoying himself. Mr. Phillips
+was in high spirits the whole time. He fell in love with Miss Daisy
+the moment he saw her. But there was nothing mournful or despairing
+about the way the great passion took him. He never brooded in silence
+over the hopelessness of his prospects; though as a subordinate
+officer in the merchant service, he had not much chance of marrying
+one of the richest heiresses in Europe. His devotion was like that of
+a frisky terrier which gambols round an adored mistress. Miss Daisy
+found him a most agreeable young man.
+
+It was he, and not Captain Wilson, who came to her one evening with
+the news that they might expect to sight Salissa next morning. Miss
+Daisy scarcely slept. At five o'clock she was on the bridge. Captain
+Wilson told her that she might safely go to bed again till seven or
+eight. But she stayed where she was. Mr. Phillips fetched a cup of tea
+for her at six and another at seven. She drank both and ate a good
+deal of bread and butter. When at last the island appeared, a dim
+speck on a clear horizon line, she danced with excitement, and sent
+Mr. Phillips below to fetch her father. Mr. Donovan was at breakfast,
+attended by Smith, and flatly refused to stir. Captain Wilson,
+satisfied that the island lay just where he expected it, left the
+bridge and joined Mr. Donovan. Miss Daisy and Mr. Phillips stood
+together, their eyes fixed on the island.
+
+Salissa is a beautiful island and had the good fortune to look its
+best when its new queen saw it. The sky was cloudless. The sea was
+almost calm. The island rose, clear outlined, from the blue water.
+There are some islands, as there are some complexions, which are best
+looked at in a light which is not too clear, which require a dimness,
+a little mist, to make them beautiful. Salissa--Phillips would have
+said the same of Salissa's mistress--was at its loveliest on a clear
+May morning. The island appeared first as a flattened cone, intensely
+green. Then, as the steamer drew nearer, the cliffs which embraced the
+natural harbour shone out dazzlingly white. The sea rolled lazily, a
+belt of foam across the reef which almost blocked the entrance to the
+bay. Beneath the cliffs, right under them, the colour of the water
+turned to the palest blue. On the south side of the bay was a sandy
+beach, and above it a small village, seen to be a village afterwards,
+at first no more than splashes of bright colour, blue and red. Behind
+the village, sloping upwards, was a broad stretch of cultivated land.
+
+"Vineyards," said Mr. Phillips, who had voyaged much about the
+Cyrenian Sea.
+
+On the north side of the bay, opposite the cottages, a promontory ran
+out into the water. On it, sometimes on its very edge, sometimes drawn
+a little back with a space of smooth rocks in front of it, was the
+house built by King Otto, Konrad Karl's unfortunate predecessor on the
+Megalian throne. Perhaps that king himself had a taste for the
+fantastic. Perhaps he was only a commonplace man who had the luck to
+employ an architect of airy genius. The house was the palace of a
+dream of fairyland. It was built of the white stone of the island.
+Long windows opened on balconies supported on white pillars which
+stood in the water. There were little glistening spires which rose
+from steep patches of red roof. There were broad shaded porches and
+flights of shallow white steps which led down into the water. The
+ground plan of the house followed the outline of the promontory on
+which it stood. Only in the upper storey did the eye find rest in a
+straight line. There nine great windows, green jalousied, gave upon a
+wide balcony. At one place where the rock had been eaten into by the
+sea, the architect had built over water which sighed and gurgled
+among mysterious green shades under vaulted roofs among the
+foundations of the house.
+
+Miss Daisy, standing on the bridge, clapped her hands and then stood
+silent and motionless in an ecstasy of delight. Mr. Phillips, his eyes
+on the girl, rang the ship's engines to "Dead Slow" and sent a man to
+summon Captain Wilson.
+
+The steamer slid slowly through the water towards the opening at the
+south end of the protecting reef. Captain Wilson came on deck. Mr.
+Donovan followed him. He stood leaning over the bulwarks just forward
+of the bridge. Miss Daisy ran to him and seized his arm.
+
+"Father," she cried, "isn't it all lovely? Isn't it just a dream? Look
+at the two cottages. Look at the cliffs and the blue water. Did you
+ever see such blue----? and now----"
+
+The ship swung slowly round the south end of the reef. The house on
+the promontory came full in view.
+
+"And now look at the castle. It's too fairy for anything, isn't it?"
+
+"Reminds me quite a bit," said Donovan, "of the hotel at the south end
+of the Marine Parade at Atlantic City. Kind of fanciful."
+
+"It's a dream come true," said Miss Daisy.
+
+Mr. Donovan turned round. Behind him, in a respectful attitude, stood
+the major domo. A little further back, grouped together, were his ten
+fellow-servants, all in respectful attitudes.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said the major domo.
+
+The man, though engaged by Miss Daisy, had from the first refused to
+recognize her as his mistress. The negotiations in Southampton about
+the cabin had been carried on with Mr. Donovan. It was to Mr. Donovan
+that he spoke now.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "but does the family propose to reside
+here for any length of time?"
+
+Mr. Donovan waved his hand towards Miss Daisy. She realized that, as
+queen of the island, it was her business to decide the movements of
+the court.
+
+"Always," she said. "For ever and ever and ever. I shall never live
+anywhere else, and when I die I'll be buried here."
+
+"In that case, sir," said the major domo, still ignoring the queen, "I
+must request, in the name of self and the rest of the staff, to return
+to England at once, sir, and if I may add a suggestion, sir, I'd say
+by rail. This ship is not what we've been accustomed to in places
+where we've lived before."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Donovan, "you can go back if you like. Salissa is a
+free state, though not a republic; but there's liable to be some delay
+if you wait for a train."
+
+"You nasty beasts!" said Miss Daisy. "You've spoiled the whole thing
+now by being cats. Just when everything was beautiful and I was so
+happy. I'd like to tell you what I think of you all. Oh, I do wish Mr.
+Phillips was here. He'd----Oh, father, would you? I'm sure you could."
+
+Mr. Donovan looked at her and waited. In time, such was his
+experience, Miss Daisy usually explained what she wanted pretty
+clearly.
+
+"I once heard Mr. Phillips talking to one of the sailors," she said.
+"He didn't know I was listening, of course. The sailor had been
+messing things about in a wrong way, and Mr. Phillips----"
+
+"Language?" said Mr. Donovan.
+
+"It was splendid. I never knew before that there were such words."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Donovan, "I haven't cursed any for quite a bit; but
+I'm willing to try. But you'd better run up the bridge, Daisy, right
+now, before I start. I might be kind of held back from some
+expressions if I knew you were listening."
+
+Miss Daisy, who was sometimes quite an obedient girl, reached the
+bridge in time to hear the order given, and to see the anchor splash
+into the blue water.
+
+Mr. Donovan began to speak slowly and very quietly. It took the women
+servants nearly two minutes to realize that he was using the most
+atrocious language. Then they fled. The three footmen stood their
+ground a little longer. Mr. Donovan raised his voice a little. He felt
+old powers returning to him. He became fluent. One by one the footmen
+slank away. Mr. Donovan went on, without passion or heat. He arrived
+at a terrific malediction which he had found effective many years
+before in dealing with Italian navvies. The major domo cowered, his
+hands held to his ears, and vanished into the cabin.
+
+Mr. Donovan took from his pocket a large purple handkerchief. He wiped
+away the sweat which had gathered on his upper lip. Then he looked
+round him with an air of satisfaction. There was no one left near him
+except Smith, the ship's steward, who stood in a respectful attitude
+apparently waiting for an opportunity to speak.
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Donovan, "that I can do any more real
+high-class cursing, without preparation; but if you're not satisfied
+I'm willing to try."
+
+"I was only going to suggest, sir," said Smith, "that if it would be
+any convenience to you, sir, and to her Majesty----" Mr. Donovan
+started. It was the first time Miss Daisy had been given her new
+title.
+
+"I'd be very glad, sir, to remain with you and do all I can, sir, to
+make you comfortable--subject to Captain Wilson's permission. Of
+course you'll understand, sir, that I signed on as ship's steward. I
+couldn't leave my duty, sir, if Captain Wilson required me."
+
+"Smith," said Mr. Donovan, "you're a white man. I'll square things up
+with Captain Wilson. He can have the use of that sausage skin of a
+butler on the voyage home. I hope he'll just set those able-bodied
+wasters of footmen to shovel coal in the stokehole. I shan't say a
+word if he corrects the women with a rope's end every time they're
+seasick. I'm a humanitarian, Smith, opposed to executions and
+corporal punishment on principle, in a general way; but I'm not a
+hide-bound doctrinnaire. There are circumstances--I kind of feel that
+the British domestic servant is one of these circumstances."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Smith. "Quite so, sir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+History says little about them, but there doubtless have been queens
+who lacked dignity, queens with high spirits and little sense of
+decorum, queens who outraged pompous chamberlains and brought shame
+into the lives of stately chancellors. The behaviour of the new queen
+of Salissa caused no scandal; but that was only because there was no
+one in her small court who had any sense of the dignity proper to
+queens. The major domo's feelings would certainly have been outraged
+if he watched Queen Daisy make her first royal progress. But he was
+shut up in his cabin. The other servants might have quivered with
+shame and disgust if they had seen--but they saw nothing, having
+turned away their eyes from beholding vanity.
+
+After the cable had ceased rattling through the hawse hole Miss Daisy
+demanded a boat. Scarcely waiting for Captain Wilson's word, Mr.
+Phillips rushed to lower one. Lashings were cast loose, the boat was
+swung outboard and manned with a speed which would have done credit to
+a smart yacht's crew. Miss Daisy ran to her cabin. The oarsmen sat
+ready to push off. Mr. Phillips stood in the stern sheets, the tiller
+between his feet. Miss Daisy appeared at the top of the accommodation
+ladder. She held a large parcel in her hand.
+
+"Catch," she said to Mr. Phillips, "it's the flag."
+
+She flung it. Mr. Phillips with a wild grab saved it from the sea.
+Miss Daisy laughed joyously.
+
+"Catch again," she said, "the palace keys."
+
+A bunch of keys crashed on the floor boards of the boat between the
+feet of the man who rowed stroke. Mr. Phillips picked them up. Miss
+Daisy, disdaining a helping hand held out by Smith, skipped down the
+steps; her skirt held tight in one hand she leaped into the boat.
+
+"Quickly," she cried, "oh, quickly, quickly! Please don't be long."
+
+"Shove off," said Mr. Phillips, "and pull like--pull like----"
+
+"Say it," said Miss Daisy, "say it, if it will make them go quicker."
+
+"Pull," said Mr. Phillips, "pull like--billy-o."
+
+The men pulled. Not even the expected invocation of bloody hell would
+have stirred them to greater exertions. The boat sprang forward. She
+sped towards the palace. The water bubbled round her bows, swished and
+foamed in the wake astern of her. Mr. Phillips brought her up
+alongside a broad flight of white steps. The men clawed at the smooth
+stone with their fingers. The Queen stepped ashore.
+
+She stood on the lowest step, a figure poised for swift eager motion,
+a flushed excited girl, a queen with palpitating heart and eyes full
+of dancing merriment. The steps, blazing white in the sunshine, led up
+to a broad platform where a tall flagstaff stood. Behind was all the
+fantastic wonder of the palace, the porticoes, slender carved columns,
+stone lacework of flying buttresses, spires, hollowed spaces of dark
+shade, points of sparkling light, broad surfaces of dazzling
+whiteness. Mr. Phillips leaped ashore and passed the Queen, bounding
+up the steps to the platform. He carried in his hand the parcel which
+she had flung into the boat. He reached the flagstaff. He knotted a
+light line round his waist. He swarmed up the bare pole. He rove the
+line through the block at the top of the staff and slid to earth
+again. He bent the halyard to the flag. It ran up, a neat ball. With a
+sharp chuck at the line Mr. Phillips broke it out. The Royal Standard
+of Salissa fluttered in the morning breeze, pale blue, glorious.
+
+Mr. Phillips shouted:
+
+"Long live the Queen! long live the Queen!"
+
+The Queen, still standing on the bottom step, gave a little cry of
+delight. The men in the boat sat still, with puzzled grins on their
+faces. Mr. Phillips bounded down to them, leaping the steps in threes
+and fours.
+
+"Cheer, you blighters," he said, "unless you want your silly skulls
+smashed. Cheer like billy-o. Long live the Queen!"
+
+The men scrambled to their feet and responded. Their cheers rang out.
+One of them, moved to enthusiasm, seized his oar and beat the water
+with the flat of the blade. Like a man with a flail he raised the oar
+high and brought it down with loud smacks on the water, splashing up
+sparkling drops, rocking the boat in which he stood. He was not a
+native of Salissa, not a subject of the Queen, but his action
+expressed the enthusiasm of devoted loyalty.
+
+The Queen bowed, blushing, laughing, breathless with excitement.
+
+Across the bay came the sound of shouting from the men on board the
+_Ida_, ragged cheers. The steamer's syren shrieked. Mr. Donovan stood
+on the bridge, the rope which controlled the syren in his hand. The
+Queen waved to him. Five revolver shots rang out in quick succession.
+
+"Good old Wilson!" said Mr. Phillips. "I wouldn't have thought he had
+it in him to fire a royal salute."
+
+He gave Captain Wilson credit which was not his due. It was Smith, the
+steward, who fired the revolver. Afterwards that loyal servant excused
+himself to Mr. Donovan.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "perhaps I oughtn't to have fired without
+orders; but it seemed the proper thing to do, sir."
+
+"Do you always carry a gun in your pocket?" said Mr. Donovan.
+
+"Only when I'm among Eastern peoples, sir. It's wiser then. Not in
+England, sir."
+
+The Queen, standing radiant in the sunshine before her palace, gave
+her first royal command.
+
+"Mr. Phillips," she said, "take the keys and come along."
+
+They ran up the steps together, past the flagstaff, crossed a space of
+smooth white rock, and reached the great door which faced them. Mr.
+Phillips fitted the key and flung the door wide. A gloomy cool space
+lay before them. They were standing in bright sunshine and a glow of
+reflected light. Their eyes failed to penetrate the darkness before
+them. It was as if a thick black curtain hung inside the door. The
+Queen hesitated on the threshold. Mr. Phillips entered the room. He
+threw open the shutters and flung the great windows wide. Broad belts
+of light crossed the room. The sunshine flooded it. The morning breeze
+blew in, driving before it the heavy stagnant air.
+
+The Queen entered.
+
+She stood in a great hall. Round the walls hung pictures in tarnished
+frames. Rich furniture, damp-stained and worm-eaten, stood stiffly
+arranged as if for some great function. Only here and there was
+evidence of some disorder. A table was upset near the fireplace. The
+covering of a chair had been torn, and the hair stuffing of its
+cushions bulged through the rent. The ashes of a wood fire and the
+charred remains of half-burnt logs were on the hearth. Some papers lay
+scattered on the floor near one of the windows.
+
+The Queen, subdued, quieter, went on tip-toe round the room. She
+touched the furniture and the pictures softly, as she passed them.
+There was in her a feeling, half fear, half reverence, for the things
+which had once belonged to the dead King Otto. Phillips, moved by an
+impulse of curiosity, crossed the room to where the torn papers lay.
+He stooped down and picked up some of the fragments. For the most part
+they were blank. On one or two there were words in a language he did
+not understand. Only one fragment interested him. It was the corner of
+a torn envelope. It bore an English stamp and a London postmark.
+
+"Your Majesty," he said.
+
+She did not hear or did not reply. Mr. Phillips was not used to
+intimate association with royal persons. He tried another form of
+address. "Your Serene Highness," he said.
+
+The Queen looked round.
+
+"Do you mean me?" she said.
+
+"Yes, your Excellency," said Phillips.
+
+The Queen laughed aloud. The sound of his voice and her own, the ready
+merriment of her laughter, awoke her from the fear and reverence,
+scattered the vague feeling of mystery which hung over her.
+
+"Don't you do it," she said. "I'm queen of this island right enough,
+but I don't mean to spend the rest of my life walking on stilts. I'm
+not that kind of queen. I'm a genuine democrat all the time. Don't you
+forget that. Now call me Miss Daisy, same as you used to on board."
+
+Mr. Phillips blushed.
+
+"Miss Daisy," he said, "how long is it since the last king lived
+here?"
+
+"I don't know," she said, "and I don't care. Centuries and centuries,
+I expect. Come and explore, I want to see the whole of the palace and
+let the light and air into every room."
+
+She had shaken off entirely all vestiges of the sense of oppression
+which had come on her when she first breathed the heavy stale air of
+the hall and saw it with its decayed furniture, huge and dim before
+her. It was full of sunlight now and she was merry again in the
+sunlight and fresh air.
+
+She ran from room to room, pulling shutters back, flinging wide the
+windows. Phillips followed her, listened to her while she planned
+these for her father's rooms, those for her own, how breakfast should
+be laid on summer mornings on a balcony right over the water, how
+midday meals should be eaten in a shaded portico.
+
+"And this," she said, "shall be your room, for you're to spend all
+your holidays here. See, if you open the window you can take a header
+right into the blue water--Oh, isn't it a beautiful colour?--and have
+a morning swim."
+
+Phillips was ready to take a header from any window at the Queen's
+command. He would ask nothing better than to spend, not holidays only,
+but all his days there on the island with her. If he could enter her
+service--he wondered whether the Queen of Salissa would start a Royal
+Navy of her own.
+
+They passed from room to room. They ran up winding staircases and
+emerged in tiny turret chambers, glass enclosed like the tops of
+lighthouses. They found a roof garden set round with huge stone urns
+full of dry caked earth. Once, no doubt, flowers had bloomed in them.
+Flowers, so the Queen determined, should bloom in them again. They
+descended to cool, spacious kitchens, to cellars where wine had been
+stored. They passed through a narrow doorway and found suddenly that
+the sea was lapping at their feet. They were underneath the centre of
+the house. Around them were high walls. From the water itself arose
+thick round pillars, supports of the vaulting on which the great hall
+rested. The light, entering for the most part through the water, was
+blue and faint. The stones beneath the water gleamed blue. The pillars
+as they rose changed from blue to purple. The water sighed, murmured,
+almost moaned. It seemed as if it tried to cling to the smooth stone
+work, as if it sank back again disappointed, weary of for ever giving
+kisses which were not returned. They stood in silence, looking,
+listening. Then Phillips spoke. His voice sounded strangely hollow. He
+sank it to a whisper.
+
+"Miss Daisy," he said, "how long is it since the last king lived
+here?"
+
+"Why do you ask me that again?" she said. "I don't know. A hundred
+years ago, perhaps. They killed him, you know. I wonder if they threw
+his body into the sea there?"
+
+"Was it last December?"
+
+"Of course not. How can you be so silly? As if any one would kill a
+king last December! They only did things like that centuries ago."
+
+Phillips took from his pocket the torn envelope he had picked up in
+the great hall.
+
+"Look," he said, "I found that near the fireplace in the hall we went
+into first."
+
+"It's an old envelope," she said. "It must have belonged to the king
+they killed. How interesting! Fancy their having had envelopes in
+those days!"
+
+"The postmark on it," he said, "is London, and the date is December
+15, 1913. Some one was in the house since then, living in it."
+
+The Queen clapped her hands.
+
+"Oh, splendid," she said. "A mystery. It was the one thing I longed
+for. A mystery, a ghost, a secret chamber and all those beautiful
+things. I was quite afraid the house was too sunny for mystery until
+we came down here. There might be anything here, in this blue light,
+brigands or wandering spirits, or the old gods of the island. Now I
+call it just perfect. Thank you so much, Mr. Phillips, for finding me
+that paper. Now we can just brood on that brigand. It must have been a
+brigand. Or do you think the assassins came back, driven by pangs of
+conscience, to the scene of their crime, and just dropped that
+envelope so as to give a clue? There always are clues, aren't there?
+Oh, I am glad you found it."
+
+As she spoke there came a thin high sound, a ghostly wail. It echoed
+back from the walls, repeating itself. The sound was broken among the
+pillars, came confusedly to the listening ears. The waters stirred
+uneasily, sucking at the walls and the pillars with a kind of fierce
+intensity. Her hand sought his arm, caught it, held it tightly.
+
+"It's the steamer's syren," said Phillips. "They must be signalling."
+
+She loosed her hold of his arm and turned from him.
+
+"How can you say such a thing? Just when I thought it was the ghost of
+the murdered king crying for vengeance."
+
+"I am sure they're signalling for us," he said. "We'd better go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The Queen, closely followed by Phillips, hurried through the cellars,
+along narrow passages, up a dozen different flights of stairs. They
+lost themselves several times. Twice they arrived by different routes
+at the large central kitchen. Twice they left it by different doors.
+They grew hot with laughter and bewilderment. Then they heard the
+steamer's syren and grew hotter still with impatience. At last,
+breathless and flushed, they reached the steps at which they had
+landed.
+
+Eight boats lay clustered round the steamer. One of them was her own,
+a heavy white boat, carvel built, with high freeboard. Four men sat in
+her, resting on their oars. The other seven were island boats, gaily
+painted red and green, high prowed, high sterned. The biggest of them
+had a mast stepped right forward, a mast which raked steeply aft,
+across which lay the yard of a lateen sail. Six oarsmen sat in her.
+The other island boats were smaller. There were only two rowers in
+each. They had the same high bows and high sterns curving inwards, the
+same low freeboard amidships where the rowers sat. In them were many
+women and children.
+
+On the deck of the _Ida_ stood a little group of men. Captain Wilson's
+neat alert figure was easily recognizable. Mr. Donovan's white Panama
+hat was unmistakable. Phillips declared that the smaller man who stood
+beside Mr. Donovan was Smith, the steward. A little apart from them
+stood a tall bare-headed man. He had a long white beard. There seemed
+to be some kind of consultation going on. When the Queen and Phillips
+appeared on the steps below the castle the group on the steamer broke
+up. Captain Wilson, Mr. Donovan and Smith took places in the _Ida's_
+lifeboat. The old man went into the largest of the island boats. He
+stood in the stern, his hand on the carved end of her huge tiller. The
+eight boats, tailing out in a long procession, rowed slowly towards
+the castle steps.
+
+"They must be your subjects," said Phillips. "They are coming to swear
+allegiance."
+
+"My!" said the Queen. "What shall I say? What shall I do? What will
+they do? They can't all kiss my hand. There must be forty of them."
+
+"I think," he said, "that you'd better stand beside the flagstaff.
+It's a commanding sort of position. They'll have to climb up the steps
+to get to you. I wish the breeze had not died away. The flag would
+look ever so much better if it blew out."
+
+The Queen climbed the steps and took her place beneath the limp royal
+standard. Mr. Phillips bared his head and stood behind her.
+
+The boats reached the steps. Mr. Donovan landed. Smith stepped ashore
+after him. Captain Wilson bade his men push off. He remained, a
+critical observer of the scene, some twenty or thirty yards from the
+shore.
+
+"Daisy," said Mr. Donovan, "there's going to be a pageant. The
+inhabitants of this island are going to demonstrate."
+
+"How shall I talk to them?" said the Queen. "What language do they
+speak?"
+
+"Don't you fret any about that. I've brought Smith along. Smith is the
+only living Englishman who speaks the Megalian language. He's been
+explaining the situation to the high priest of the island for the last
+half-hour while we blew bugle calls on the syren to attract your
+attention. Smith is a wonderful man, worth any salary to a firm with a
+big foreign business."
+
+Smith bowed.
+
+"It's hardly a language, sir," he said. "A dialect, a patois. Partly
+Turkish, partly Slavonic, with a Greek base."
+
+"Some language that," said Mr. Donovan. "It would interest our college
+professors. If you found a university on the island, Daisy, you must
+institute a system of visiting lecturers from the colleges on our
+side."
+
+"Oh, here they are!" said the Queen. "How lovely! Look at all their
+bright dresses. And the men are as gay as the women. Oh! there's the
+dinkiest little baby with a brown face. He's smiling at me. I know I
+shall just love them all, especially the brown babies."
+
+The islanders were disembarking from their boats. They crowded
+together on the lower steps of the staircase which led up to the
+flagstaff. They talked rapidly in low voices and gazed with frank
+curiosity at the little group above them. Women held babies high in
+their arms. Men took up toddling children and set them on their
+shoulders. Evidently all, even the youngest, were to have their chance
+of gazing at the new queen.
+
+The old man who had stood at the tiller of the leading boat disengaged
+himself from the crowd. He mounted the steps slowly, pausing now and
+then to bow low. He was a picturesque figure. He wore a short black
+jacket, heavily embroidered with gold thread. Underneath it was a blue
+tunic reaching to his knees. Round his waist was a broad crimson sash.
+He advanced with a grave dignity. Each bow--and he bowed often--was an
+act of ceremonial courtesy. There was no trace of servility, nor of
+any special desire to please or propitiate in his manner. He reached
+the step below the terrace on which the flagstaff stood. He bowed once
+more and then stood upright, looking straight at the Queen with calm,
+untroubled eyes.
+
+He spoke a few words in a soft, low tone. Smith stepped forward to
+explain and interpret.
+
+"This is Stephanos," he said, "the Elder of Salissa."
+
+"Minister of religion?" said Donovan.
+
+"He acts as such, sir," said Smith, "at marriages and such-like among
+his own people; but I don't know that the Church of England would
+consider him as a regular clergyman. He appears to be more of the
+nature of a Lord Mayor than an Archbishop."
+
+"What does he say?" asked the Queen.
+
+"Does your Majesty wish me to translate literally?"
+
+The Queen nodded.
+
+"I Stephanos," Smith began, "elder of Salissa and father of the
+dwellers on the island."
+
+"Does he mean that they're all his children?" asked the Queen, "even
+the babies?"
+
+"I think not, your Majesty," said Smith, "though I expect he's father
+or grandfather of half of them."
+
+"Go on," said the Queen.
+
+"I Stephanos, elder of Salissa and father of the dwellers on the
+island, bid the English lady welcome. All that we have is hers."
+
+"Oh," said the Queen, "how lovely! But of course I won't take anything
+from them--tell him that--though I would rather like a brown baby to
+play with, just loaned to me for a few hours every day, and of course
+I would pay the mother whatever she asked."
+
+"And you might explain," said Donovan, "that we're American citizens,
+not English."
+
+"I'll tell him, sir," said Smith, "but I expect it'll be the same
+thing to him."
+
+Smith made a long speech. Apparently he failed to make the difference
+between an Englishman and an American clear to Stephanos, but he
+conveyed the Queen's request for a baby.
+
+Stephanos' answer was translated thus:
+
+"Every baby from three years old and under shall be laid at the white
+feet of the English lady and she shall take them all. There are five
+such on the island. They are hers."
+
+Stephanos turned while his speech was being translated, and addressed
+his people. Apparently they were quite prepared to fulfil the promise
+he had made on their behalf. Five smiling young women with babies in
+their arms detached themselves from the crowd. They mounted two steps
+and then stood, with bowed heads, waiting for the next command.
+
+"The darlings," said the Queen. "But I don't want them all laid at my
+feet. They'd be sure to roll away and fall into the sea. Tell them
+to-morrow will be time enough, and--and I'd like mothers to come too.
+I'm not sure that I could manage a baby all by myself."
+
+She did not wait for Smith to translate this speech. She ran down the
+steps to where the five young women stood. She took one of the babies
+in her arms. She kissed another. The women stood round her, smiling
+shyly. The babies cooed and gurgled. She kissed them all, and took
+them one after another in her arms. She sat down on the steps and laid
+a crowing baby on her lap. The mothers smiled and drew nearer to her.
+Other women from the crowd below gathered round her. Their shyness
+disappeared completely, too completely. They stroked her hair. They
+patted her face and hands. They were filled with curiosity about her
+clothes. They felt the texture of her dress, fingered the brooch she
+wore, knelt down and took her feet into their hands that they might
+examine her shoes. They explored the clocks on her stockings. Miss
+Daisy--no queen for the moment--was seriously embarrassed. She jumped
+to her feet, thrust the baby she held into its mother's arms.
+
+"You mustn't pull my clothes off altogether," she said.
+
+She smoothed her skirt down with her hands and brushed exploring
+fingers from her blouse. But the island women were not easily
+repulsed. They were ready to give their babies to her if she asked for
+them. They would not forgo if they could help it the delight of
+examining new and fascinating kinds of clothes. Miss Daisy--still Miss
+Daisy, not a queen--burst from them and ran, with tossed hair and
+ruffled garments, up the steps again.
+
+"Oh, Smith," she said, "tell them that they mustn't do it. I'm sure
+they don't mean any harm, but I can't bear to be pulled about."
+
+Smith translated; but it is doubtful if the women understood or even
+heard. There was a babble of soft voices. They were discussing eagerly
+the strange garments of the English lady.
+
+Stephanos spoke again, gravely, gently.
+
+"It is in my mind," so Smith translated, "that one of our daughters
+should be the servant of the English lady; seeing that she has no
+maidens of her own people round about her. Kalliope is the fairest and
+the deftest. If it be the good pleasure of the English lady Kalliope
+shall serve her day and night, doing in all things the bidding of the
+Queen wherein if Kalliope fail by one hair's breadth of perfect
+service, I, Stephanos the elder, her grandsire, will beat her with
+pliant rods fresh cut from the osier trees until the blood of full
+atonement flows from her."
+
+"My!" said the Queen. "After that I shan't dare say a word to Kalliope
+even if she steals the last hairpin I own."
+
+"Tell that high priest," said Donovan, "that I admire his loyalty. He
+may trot out the young woman. You must have a maid of some sort,
+Daisy, and I expect Kalliope will do her darnedest with that threat
+hanging over her."
+
+Stephanos the elder was an old gentleman of quick apprehension. He did
+not wait for Smith to translate what Donovan said. He turned to the
+women crowded below him. He raised one hand. Their babbling ceased at
+once. Through the silence Stephanos the elder spoke.
+
+"Kalliope."
+
+A young girl, perhaps eighteen or nineteen years of age, came forward.
+Bowing low at each step she mounted, she climbed slowly towards the
+flagstaff. Her bowing suggested profound humility, but her eyes, when
+she raised them, sparkled, and her lips were parted in a gay smile.
+She was evidently in no fear of an immediate beating with fresh-cut
+osier rods. Yet Kalliope had some cause to be afraid. It was she who
+had endeavoured to explore to their source the clocks on the Queen's
+stockings.
+
+Stephanos the elder spoke to her briefly but very solemnly. Kalliope
+remained unimpressed. She took quick glances at the Queen's face and
+her eyes were full of laughter and delight. Stephanos took her by the
+hand, led her forward and formally presented her to the Queen.
+Kalliope immediately fell on her knees and kissed the toes of the
+Queen's shoes.
+
+"Tell the high priest," said Donovan, "that I'll pay the girl the same
+wages that I undertook to give to the pampered English maid who went
+on strike this morning."
+
+Kalliope completed her obeisance and realized almost at once that she
+had won the position of lady's maid to the Queen. She took her place
+meekly behind her mistress. There she stood smiling at her sisters and
+cousins who stood below. She was at the moment the most fortunate, the
+most envied young woman on the island. Hers would be the inexpressible
+joy of examining at her leisure all the wonderful clothes worn or
+possessed by the Queen. She realized this; but neither she nor any
+other woman on the island guessed, or, by the wildest flight, could
+have imagined, how many and how various were the garments packed by
+the English maid into the trunks which lay in the steamer's hold.
+
+Kalliope was never beaten by her grandfather with osier rods. She
+devoted herself utterly to the service of the Queen. The only fault
+that could be found with her was that her devotion was too complete,
+her service too untiring. At meals she stood behind the Queen's chair.
+During the day she followed the Queen from room to room. She would
+stand silent in a corner for an hour waiting while her mistress read
+or talked. There was no escaping from the girl. At night she slept on
+the floor at the end of the Queen's bed, wrapped in a rug, her head
+pillowed on her own arm. She was quick to learn what was wanted, and
+acquired, after a while, an uncanny power of anticipating the Queen's
+wishes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Next morning the work of unloading the ship began. It went on at high
+pressure for three days. On the fourth it slackened. Before the end of
+the week everything was landed.
+
+The donkey engine on the _Ida's_ fore-deck clanked and snorted. Down
+in the hold the sweating sailors toiled. Packing-cases, great and
+small, huge bales and brass-studded trunks were hoisted high, swung
+clear of the ship's bulwarks and lowered, with much rattling of chains
+and gear, into the waiting boats. The ship's lifeboats and the five
+largest of the island boats plied to and fro between the steamer
+and the shore. On the palace steps, islanders--men, women and
+children--waited to take charge of the cargoes which the boats
+brought. Captain Wilson was in command on board the _Ida_. On shore
+Mr. Phillips directed the unpacking. He had the cases and bales hauled
+up the flagstaff terrace. There they were prised or cut open. Tables,
+chairs, carpets, beds, bedding, every article of household furniture
+were unpacked and carried into the rooms of the palace. The islanders
+worked willingly. Only when they set down a load in its appointed
+place, a tall mirror perhaps or a wardrobe, they stood in a group
+around it, admiring, wondering. Often Mr. Phillips had to pursue
+them, drag them, push them, to induce them to return for some new
+burden.
+
+Smith, the steward, worked with amazing energy. Very early on the
+first day of the unloading, Phillips found him in the large hall of
+the palace. He was sweeping up the hearth. He had already gathered and
+burnt the litter of torn papers which lay on the floor. It was a
+natural act in a good servant; but it seemed to Phillips a waste of
+energy. Smith apologized at once.
+
+"Yes, sir, as you say, sir, it'll be time enough to clean up when we
+get things a bit settled. Perhaps I oughtn't to have done it, sir. But
+it seemed to me as how I'd like to clear away the mess, sir, when her
+Majesty would be passing through the room."
+
+Phillips was annoyed. The torn papers had interested him. He intended
+to have collected them all. But Smith, with ill-directed zeal, had
+burnt them. Not a scrap was left, except the torn envelope which
+Phillips had in his pocket.
+
+Afterwards Smith proved most useful. He acted as interpreter on shore
+or aboard whenever an interpreter was wanted. He was active in the
+opening of packing-cases, careful and skilful in handling glass and
+china. He planned store-rooms for the provisions which came ashore,
+arranged the wine in cool cellars, had linen packed away securely.
+
+The Queen ran eagerly from room to room. The arrival of each piece of
+furniture was a fresh joy to her. She kidnapped small parties of women
+from among Phillips' workers and set them to laying carpets or
+hanging curtains, explaining what had to be done by means of vivid
+gestures. She moved things which seemed comfortably settled from room
+to room. Whenever she came across Smith or met Phillips she talked
+excitedly about colour schemes. She spent a good deal of time in
+rescuing the brown babies from peril. The mothers, determined to miss
+no chance of handling strange and wonderful things, laid their infants
+down in all sorts of odd places, behind doors or in corners at tops of
+staircases. The Queen tripped over them occasionally, went all the
+time in terror that one of them would be crushed by passing feet.
+
+Kalliope was deliriously happy. She was a quick-witted girl. Very
+early in the day she grasped the fact that packing-cases never
+contained clothes; that trunks might or might not, but generally
+did. She learned almost at once four English words from the
+sailors--"damned box" and "bloody trunk." Armed with the full
+authority of maid in waiting to the Queen, she stood beside the boats
+when they arrived. With a gesture of contempt she committed each
+"damned box" to the care of the men and the less favoured women. She
+took possession of all personal luggage. Only her special friends were
+allowed to handle the Queen's trunks. She put herself in command of
+four girls, and marched in front of them as they staggered under the
+weight of great trunks. She had them carried up to the Queen's rooms.
+Then with joyful cries of "Bloody trunk, bloody trunk," she ran
+through the palace seeking her mistress and the keys. Kalliope
+unpacked all the clothes herself. Not even the most favoured of her
+helpers was allowed to touch a garment. It was enough for the others
+to gaze.
+
+Mr. Donovan took no part whatever in the unloading of the ship or the
+unpacking on the island. He said frankly that he disliked fuss
+intensely, and that the weather was far too hot for movement of any
+kind. He added to Captain Wilson--it seemed necessary to excuse
+himself to Captain Wilson--that the action of his heart always became
+more disordered if he mixed himself up with people who suffered from
+activity. The deck of the _Ida_ was no place for him. The cabins were
+stuffy and the clamour of the donkey engine made him restless. He went
+ashore. Smith, who was a wonderfully sympathetic man, led him to a
+high balcony, well shaded, pleasantly airy. There Mr. Donovan
+established himself on a deck chair. He smoked a great deal and slept
+a little. He drank the cocktails which Smith found time to prepare for
+him. He ate the food Smith brought up to him. He found Salissa a
+pleasant island and looked forward to great peace, when the _Ida_, her
+cargo unloaded, should sail away. He had only one real trouble. Not
+even Smith could find ice on Salissa. Mr. Donovan sighed over his own
+want of foresight. The patent freezer had been packed in the very
+bottom of the hold.
+
+Early in the third day the Queen tired of unpacking and arranging
+furniture. The excitement of running to and fro through the rooms of
+the palace faded. The merriment which came of seeing kitchen chairs
+placed in her bedroom palled. She began to feel that Mr. Phillips
+would never fully understand the beauty and value of a colour scheme.
+Her clothes were all safely gathered, unpacked and stored away in
+fragrant heaps. She wanted rest from the ceaseless laughter of the
+islanders and the noise of pattering bare feet.
+
+"Kalliope," she said, "we'll go for a row."
+
+Kalliope smiled joyously. "Go row," she repeated. She had not the
+faintest idea what the thing meant, but life was for her a passing
+from one rapturous experience to another. "Go row" was no doubt some
+untried pleasure. She stood smiling, waiting further enlightenment.
+
+The Queen made the motions of a rower with her arms. Kalliope,
+pathetically eager to understand, repeated, "Go row, go row."
+
+The Queen led her to a window and pointed to one of the island boats
+which had just left the steamer. She went through the pantomime of
+rowing again. She touched her own breast with her forefinger, then
+Kalliope's. The girl understood. She ran from the room, through
+passages, down steps. She reached the landing place.
+
+"Go row," she cried.
+
+Then, condescending to the language of her people, she spoke to the
+men who sat in one of the smaller island boats. In obedience to her
+command they stepped on shore. They gave their coats and their
+coloured sashes to the girl. She piled them in the stern, a cushion
+for her mistress. She took the oars. The Queen came down the steps,
+carrying in her arms one of the brown babies. She had tripped over it
+at the end of the passage leading from her room. She sat on the
+cushion prepared for her with the baby on her knees. Kalliope rowed
+out across the harbour.
+
+That night the Queen slept for the first time in her new palace. A bed
+had been arranged for her, and she was eager to leave the small close
+cabin on the ship. The great room she had chosen for herself attracted
+her. She thought of the cool night air blowing in through the window,
+of the wide balcony on which she could sit awhile till sleepiness came
+over her. No other room in the palace was ready for use. Nor did Mr.
+Donovan seem anxious to go ashore.
+
+Mr. Phillips was a lover. He was also a young man. He reverenced the
+lady who was mistress of his heart and queen. He also, as is the way
+of lovers very much in love, suffered from a conviction that she ought
+to be guarded and protected. It seemed to him wrong that she, with no
+other companion than Kalliope, should sleep in a great lonely house on
+an island where strange people lived. Thus young men, the best of
+them, show contempt for the courage and ability of the women they
+admire. The Queen herself laughed at his fears. Mr. Donovan rebuked
+him.
+
+"Your notions about girls," he said, "are European. You take it from
+me, young man, that an American girl knows how to take care of
+herself. Daisy can go without a leading rein. She can take hold on any
+situation likely to arise."
+
+No situation was in the least likely to arise. It was impossible to
+suspect the gentle islanders of wishing any harm to their new queen.
+There were no wild animals, no animals at all, except a dog or two and
+some small cattle.
+
+Phillips was a lover and therefore a prey to anxiety; but he was a
+healthy young man and had worked hard all day. He turned into his
+berth and went to sleep at once. Very early in the morning, about
+three o'clock, he awoke. Nor, for all his twistings and turnings,
+would sleep come to him again. His imagination, picturing a hundred
+impossible dangers for the Queen, tormented him. Suddenly he
+remembered the torn envelope which lay in his pocket. He puzzled
+himself to find some explanation of its being on the island, in the
+palace. Some one must have brought it there. Some one sitting in the
+great hall had read the letter that envelope contained. Some one with
+assuredly no right to be there, some one--the inference seemed
+inevitable--with evil in his heart had entered the palace and dwelt
+there.
+
+Phillips could stand his imaginings no more. He got up, dressed
+himself and went on deck.
+
+The man who kept--or was supposed to keep--the anchor watch lay fast
+asleep, coiled up under the shadow of the bridge. The ship was silent
+save for the lapping of the water against her sides. The island lay, a
+grey mystery in the half light of earliest dawn. The light increased,
+and Phillips, standing in the shadow of the deck-house, could fix his
+eyes on the windows of the room where the Queen lay. He heard,
+suddenly, the splash of oars, dipped very gently in the water. He
+looked round and saw a boat, one of the island boats, moving from the
+ship's side. There was one man in her, Smith the steward. Phillips
+reasoned quickly. Smith must have left his cabin stealthily, must have
+come on deck, must have dropped on board the boat and cast her loose
+without making a sound. What was he doing? What did he want?
+
+Phillips, deep in the shadow of the deck-house, stood and watched. The
+boat moved more quickly as she drew further from the steamer. She
+headed for the sandy beach below the village. A man stood on the shore
+awaiting her. The light grew brighter every moment. Phillips
+recognized the waiting man--Stephanos the elder. His long white beard
+and stately figure were not easily mistaken. The boat grounded and
+Stephanos stepped on board. Smith pushed off, and rowing rapidly now,
+coasted the shore of the bay, keeping close inland. The boat was hard
+to see, for she moved in the shadow of the cliffs. Suddenly she
+disappeared altogether. Phillips waited and watched. In half an hour
+the boat appeared again, plainly visible now. She came from the mouth
+of a great cave, a darker space in the grey face of the cliff. Smith
+pulled hard. In a few minutes he had landed Stephanos and was on his
+way back to the steamer.
+
+Phillips met him as he climbed the side and came on board.
+
+"You're out early this morning, Smith," he said.
+
+"Yes, sir, pretty early, sir. There's a lot to be done in the day. I
+thought as how, if I went ashore, sir, I might get a couple of eggs
+for Mr. Donovan's breakfast. He likes a fresh egg."
+
+"Seagulls' eggs," said Phillips.
+
+Smith looked up quickly. For an instant there was a sharp gleam of
+suspicion in his eyes. Then he dropped them again.
+
+"No, sir; hens' eggs. There's hens on the island, sir."
+
+"Got any?" said Phillips.
+
+"Two, sir, only two."
+
+He took them from his pocket as he spoke and held them out for
+inspection. He had certainly got two eggs. Phillips was puzzled. Men
+seldom search for hens' eggs--they never find them--in sea caves.
+
+"Just enough for Mr. Donovan's breakfast, sir."
+
+"Do you happen to know, Smith"--Phillips asked his question
+abruptly--"whether any one has been living in the palace lately? Last
+year, for instance, or at any time since the last king was murdered
+there?"
+
+"Murdered, sir, how horrible! Was it long ago, sir?"
+
+The assassination of King Otto had been mentioned, even discussed, a
+dozen times while Smith was waiting at table. Very good servants--and
+Smith was one of the best--are able, it is believed, to abstract their
+minds from the conversation of their masters, will actually hear
+nothing of what is said in their presence. Yet it seemed to Phillips
+as if Smith were overdoing his pose of ignorance.
+
+"It was years ago, I believe. What I want to know is whether any one
+has been living in the palace since."
+
+"Don't know, sir, I'm sure. Never been here before till I arrived with
+you, sir. Would you care for me to make inquiries? Some of the natives
+would be sure to know."
+
+"Ask that patriarch," said Phillips, "Stephanos or whatever he's
+called. Ask him next time you take him out for a row at six o'clock in
+the morning."
+
+He knew that he had startled Smith once when he referred to the
+seagulls' eggs. He hoped to take him off his guard this time by
+showing that he had watched the whole of the morning row. But this
+time Smith was not to be caught. He made no sign whatever that
+anything unexpected had been said. He was not looking at Phillips. His
+eyes were fixed on the palace.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," he said after a slight pause, "but perhaps we
+ought to leave the deck, to go below. Seems to me, sir, that the
+Queen is going to bathe. She mightn't like it, sir, if she thought we
+were here watching her."
+
+The Queen was descending steps clad in a scarlet bathing dress. It is
+not likely that she would have resented the presence of spectators on
+the deck of a steamer nearly half a mile distant. Nor, indeed, is it
+likely that Kalliope would have been seriously embarrassed, though she
+saw no sense in wearing clothes of any kind when she intended to
+bathe. But Mr. Phillips was a young man and modest. One fleeting
+glimpse of Kalliope poised ready for her plunge was sufficient for
+him. He turned and left the deck. Smith was already busy with his
+cooking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The peculiarity of Smith's proceedings highly stimulated the curiosity
+of Mr. Phillips. The envelope in his pocket helped him to the belief
+that he held the clue of an exciting mystery. He pondered the matter
+while he shaved. He was dull company at breakfast because he could not
+get it out of his head. He made up his mind at last to confide his
+vague suspicions to Mr. Donovan. This was a difficult decision to
+arrive at. He would have much preferred to unravel his mystery
+himself, to go to the Queen with evidence completely sufficient to
+condemn a whole band of conspirators. But he saw no chance of getting
+any further in his investigations. Smith's morning expedition remained
+obstinately unconnected with the torn envelope. A sense of loyalty to
+his employers combined with devotion to the Queen decided him to tell
+Mr. Donovan all he knew.
+
+The work of unloading the _Ida_ went on briskly all the morning. Mr.
+Donovan sat, remote from the turmoil, on his balcony. Mr. Phillips,
+seeking a moment when Smith was busy elsewhere, climbed to the
+balcony. Mr. Donovan welcomed him.
+
+"Sit right down," he said. "There's another chair knocking about
+somewhere. Take a cigar."
+
+Mr. Phillips hauled a deck chair from the sunshine into the shade and
+stood leaning over the back of it.
+
+"This island," said Mr. Donovan, "seems likely to be restful. Once
+we're through with the job of landing our trunks we shall be able to
+settle down and just stay put. I don't say but it's pleasant for a man
+like me who's worked some in his time to sit here and watch other
+people sweating----"
+
+He waved his hand towards the islanders, who staggered up the steps
+under their loads. He included with a sweeping gesture two boats which
+had just left the ship's side. The day was exceedingly hot. All these
+men were certainly sweating. The clanking and rattling of the donkey
+engines were plainly audible across the water. The engineman was
+probably sweating too. Captain Wilson, standing erect in the full
+blaze of the sun on the steamer's fore-deck, cannot possibly have been
+cool. Mr. Donovan sighed with satisfaction.
+
+"I don't deny that it's pleasant," he said, "kind of aggravates the
+sense of restfulness; but for real calm give me a country where nobody
+works at all. That's what I am looking forward to. That's why I reckon
+this island is going to suit me."
+
+"Mr. Donovan," said Phillips, "there's a matter I want to speak to you
+about. I daresay there's nothing in it; but I can't help feeling----"
+
+Mr. Phillips' hand went to his breast pocket. He clutched the torn
+envelope.
+
+"Here's something I picked up the day before yesterday," he said.
+
+Smith stepped suddenly between him and Mr. Donovan. Smith was a hard
+worker, and a loud shouter when shouting was desirable. He was also,
+as Phillips knew, a quiet mover when he chose. He held a tray in his
+hand with two glasses on it. He handed one to Mr. Donovan and the
+other to Phillips.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "but there's some cases of books come
+ashore, sir. I thought you'd like to arrange about them yourself, sir,
+seeing as how I don't understand libraries."
+
+He spoke to Phillips. He did not expect Mr. Donovan to arrange
+anything.
+
+"You're young, Phillips," said Mr. Donovan. "According to the prophets
+and other wise men it's a good thing to be young. I'm getting on for
+sixty, but there are compensations. I don't feel called on to see
+after things. I don't have to toil any. Smith!"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"There exist in the U. S. A. more than two hundred formulae for the
+compounding of cocktails. They vary from the simple dry Martini to the
+more poetic Angel's Smile. How many of them do you know, Smith?"
+
+"About eight, sir, eight or ten."
+
+"Few men, except professional bar-tenders, know more," said Mr.
+Donovan. "But you can learn. I see before you, Smith, years of
+artistic endeavour. Eight from two hundred leave a hundred and
+ninety-two. I think I have a book containing the formulae. It was
+compiled by one of our leading citizens after a term of residence in a
+dry State. I shall give you the book, Smith. My digestion remains
+unimpaired up to date. I shall sample the results of your labours."
+
+Mr. Phillips swallowed his cocktail and went away without saying any
+more about the torn envelope. He had no intention of telling his story
+in the presence of Smith.
+
+He tried again an hour later. He calculated on not being interrupted
+this time. Smith had gone off to the steamer. From time to time he had
+to go to the steamer to act as interpreter there. Captain Wilson
+seemed curiously incapable of making himself understood by the
+islanders.
+
+"That you again, Mr. Phillips," said Donovan. "Sit down. Take a cigar
+and sit down."
+
+"There's something I want to speak to you about, sir," said Phillips.
+
+"If you must speak," said Donovan, "I hope you'll sort of murmur. That
+engine has stopped clanking for a moment and Smith isn't shouting any
+at those poor devils of islanders. 'Silence,' says the poet, Oliver
+Wendell Holmes, 'like a poultice came to heal the wound of sound.'
+It's a kind of advanced sample of what this island's going to be."
+
+This was not encouraging to Mr. Phillips. He hesitated. Far away,
+under the shadow of the cliffs, a small boat moved slowly. In it was
+the Queen, seated in the stern with a huge box of chocolates in her
+lap. Kalliope rowed, her mouth full of chocolates. Phillips could not
+see the box or Kalliope's mouth. The boat was too far away for that.
+But he knew the chocolates were there. Early in the day the Queen had
+come to him and demanded candies. She had come at a fortunate moment.
+He was in the act of opening a large case, sent out, so the label
+declared, by Fuller, and Kalliope had carried down to the boat a huge
+box of chocolates. It was the sight of that boat--perhaps, too, the
+thought of the chocolates--which spurred Mr. Phillips to tell his tale
+in spite of all discouragement. Is there anything which is more
+eloquent of innocent helplessness, anything which makes a stronger
+appeal to the protective instinct of a man, than the vision of two
+girls eating chocolates?
+
+"The day I first landed, sir," he said, "I found this."
+
+He handed the torn envelope to Mr. Donovan.
+
+"The postmark, sir," he said, "is London, December 15, 1913. Now how
+do you think it got here?"
+
+Donovan looked at the envelope curiously. He turned it over, felt the
+texture of it with his fingers. At last he spoke.
+
+"Mr. Phillips," he said, "I may be wrong in my interpretation of
+facts. I don't know that any recognized minister of religion would
+support me; but it's my belief that if Eve hadn't stirred that serpent
+up, kind of annoyed him by poking round, the creature would have lain
+quiet enough and there'd have been no trouble about the apple. That's
+the nature of snakes. I've seen quite a few and I know. Now this
+island is about the nearest thing to a real restful paradise that I've
+bumped into since I first started my pilgrimage through this vale of
+tears. I don't say there's no snakes in it. There may be. But my
+notion is to let those snakes lie unless they start in molesting me."
+
+"But," said Mr. Phillips, "there must have been somebody in the house
+here, somebody who had no right to be in it. Otherwise how would that
+envelope with the London postmark----"
+
+"The British nation," said Donovan, "is at the present moment exciting
+itself quite a bit about the effect of the Movies--what you call
+cinemas your side--on the minds of the young. What your leading
+reformers say is that it upsets the budding intellect of the rising
+generation to present life to it as life is not. As a general rule I'm
+not much taken up with eminent reformers. They're a class of citizens
+I don't admire, though I admit they have their uses in supplying
+loftiness of view and generally keeping up the more serious kinds of
+charm practised by the female sex. But in the matter of the effect of
+movies on the young mind those reformers may be right. It seems to me
+you've gathered in some foolish notions about life, Mr. Phillips.
+Desperate villains dropping envelopes and generally scattering clues
+along their tracks would be interesting things, a darned sight more
+interesting than eminent reformers. Only there aren't any. They don't
+exist outside of novels and picture houses."
+
+Mr. Donovan held out the torn envelope. Phillips took it and stuffed
+it into his pocket again. He was unconvinced. Cinema exhibitions are
+responsible for many vain imaginings, no doubt; but his envelope was a
+fact. He had found it. The postmark was plain and clear. He moved over
+to the edge of the balcony and gazed out across the sunlit bay. It
+seemed impossible then and there to tell the story of Smith's morning
+expedition. Mr. Donovan's logical rationalism was invincible.
+
+"If you happen to come on that book about cocktails," said Donovan,
+"just give it to Smith. It's somewhere. In giving the order for the
+library for this island, I specially mentioned that book along with
+complete illustrated editions of all standard American and European
+authors."
+
+Phillips turned and left the balcony. It was, after all, absurd to
+worry and puzzle over his envelope. It could have no meaning. Some
+stray tourist perhaps, sight-seeing far from all beaten tracks, had
+made his way into the house. Tourists are notorious for leaving paper
+behind them. As for Smith and his boating at dawn--could Smith
+possibly have gone to search for breakfast eggs in a sea cave?
+
+He glanced once more at the bay before he returned to his work. The
+Queen's boat was no longer in sight. The girls had landed perhaps in
+some quiet creek, or the Queen had taken a fancy to cross the bay and
+explore the village where her subjects lived.
+
+Kalliope rowed easily and was well content to go on rowing all day.
+She was almost perfectly happy. Fuller's sweets were a revelation of
+unimagined delight to her, and she could gaze without interruption at
+the Queen. There was little in the world left for her heart to desire.
+
+The girls rowed round the shore of the bay. The shadow of the white
+cliffs was grateful. The Queen delighted to drag her hands through the
+cool water. The sound of its lapping against the steep rocks soothed
+her. She liked to peer into the blue depths. When she looked up it was
+pleasant to meet Kalliope's soft brown eyes and to see the ready smile
+broaden on the girl's lips. Now and then, laughing, she leaned forward
+and pressed a chocolate into Kalliope's mouth. The Queen's fingers
+were often wet with salt water, but that did not spoil the flavour of
+the sweets for Kalliope.
+
+The boat slipped past high sheer cliffs, past little coves, on whose
+sand men's feet had surely never trodden, past the mouths of great
+caves, gloomy, mysterious, from the depths of which came a hollow
+murmuring of water. The caves had a strange fascination for the
+Queen. Her eyes followed their steep walls up to the arches of their
+high dripping roofs, tried to pierce the dim and darkening shades
+within, gazed down through the water at round boulders and flat
+shelves of rock, seen magnified and strangely blue in the depths. At
+first she was half fearful and would not allow the boat to be taken
+near the mouths of the caves she passed. At the mouth of one cave
+Kalliope shouted suddenly. Echoes answered her from within, repeating
+her shout and repeating it till the cries seemed to come from far off,
+from the very centre of the island. Opposite another cave Kalliope
+shouted again and banged her oars against the gunwhale of the boat. A
+flock of grey birds, some kind of rock pigeons, flew out, making a
+sound of rushing with their wings. The Queen became, little by little,
+less fearful and more curious.
+
+They came at last to a cavern with a wide entrance. The daylight shone
+far inside. The water was blue far into the depths, not purple or
+black as it seemed to be just inside the narrower caves. The Queen
+signed to Kalliope. The boat turned, slipped into the wide entrance,
+rose and fell upon the swelling water under the high roof. Kalliope
+rowed on. For awhile she rowed with her oars full stretch on their
+rowlocks. Then the walls narrowed more and more till she must ship her
+oars. The boat glided on slowly from the impulse of her last stroke.
+The walls narrowed still. Kalliope stood up. Pushing against one wall
+and then the other with an oar grasped midway in her hands she drove
+the boat forward. Suddenly the space widened. The roof was higher,
+almost out of sight. The boat passed into a huge cavern very dimly
+lit. The Queen gasped, sat open-mouthed in breathless silence for a
+moment; then looking round she saw that the cavern was lit by several
+thin shafts of pale-blue light. More than one of the caves whose
+entrance the boat had passed led into this great cavern. Kalliope,
+laughing, plunged an oar into the waters. It shone silver like some
+long fish. The Queen gazed at it. She plunged her own arm in and saw
+it turn silver too.
+
+The water was still deep and seemed scarcely to shallow at all as the
+boat moved forward into the depths of the cavern. Suddenly the Queen
+saw before her a steep beach covered with large, round stones. The
+boat grounded. Kalliope leaped on shore. She held her hand out to the
+Queen. The two girls stood together on the beach. Kalliope, still
+holding her Queen's hand, led the way upwards, away from the boat and
+the water. Her bare feet moved lightly over the stones which shifted
+and rolled under the Queen's shoes, making a hollow sound. Echoes
+multiplied the sound until the air was full of hollow mutterings,
+like the smothered reports of very distant guns. Kalliope led on.
+To her the way was familiar. The dim light and hollow noises were
+commonplace. At last she stopped and with a little cry pointed
+forward.
+
+The Queen looked. Her eyes were well accustomed now to the dim light.
+She saw.
+
+There in the depths of the mysterious cavern, it would not have
+surprised the girl to see strange things. She would scarcely have been
+astonished if Kalliope had pointed to a group of mermaids combing damp
+hair with long curved shells. Old Triton with his wreathed horn would
+have been in place, almost an expected vision, if he had sat on a
+throne of rock, sea carved, with panting dolphins at his feet. The
+Queen saw no such beings. What she did see called from her a little
+cry of surprise, made her cling suddenly to Kalliope's arm.
+
+"Oh!" she said. "Oh, Kalliope, what are they?"
+
+"Damn boxes," said Kalliope.
+
+Before the eyes of the Queen, stretching along the back of the cave,
+was a long row of large galvanized iron tanks, strongly made, with
+heavily studded seams, each with a great copper tap. They were ranged
+in a most orderly line, like some grey monsters carefully drilled.
+They were all exactly the same width, the same height, and the copper
+spouts exactly matched each other.
+
+"Damned boxes," said Kalliope cheerfully.
+
+Any one looking at them might almost have agreed with her. They were
+not precisely boxes. They were cisterns, tanks, but they gave the
+impression of being damnable and damned.
+
+"But," said the Queen, "what are they for? What's the meaning of
+them? How did they get here? Who brought them?"
+
+Kalliope did not understand the questions, but guessed at what her
+mistress asked. She had been learning English for three days only. She
+had been quick to pick up certain words from the Queen, words in
+frequent use between them. But in face of questionings like these the
+vocabulary of millinery and hair dressing failed her hopelessly. She
+fell back on what she had picked up from the sailors' lips and from
+her brothers who were already enriching the island language with
+English slang.
+
+"Blighters," she said, "mucky ship--go row, go row--damn boxes."
+
+In spite of the pale light and the sinister mystery of the tanks
+in front of her the Queen laughed aloud. The pursuing echoes
+made Kalliope's English irresistibly absurd. Then she pondered.
+Men--whether "blighters" in Kalliope's mouth conveyed reproach or
+were simply a synonym for men she did not know--men in a ship--"mucky"
+described the ship as little probably as "damn boxes" described the
+packing-cases of furniture or "bloody" her trunks of clothes. Men
+in a ship had brought the tanks, had rowed them--"go row" was plain
+enough--ashore in boats.
+
+"But who," said the Queen, "and why?"
+
+Kalliope was beaten. Who and why were too much for her, as indeed they
+have been for people far wiser than she. Are not all theology and all
+philosophy attempts, and for the most part vain attempts, to deal
+with just those two words, who and why?
+
+"Blighters," said Kalliope, and the echoes repeated her words with
+emphasis, "blighters, blighters, blighters," till the Queen came to
+believe it.
+
+Then Kalliope, memory wakened in her, grew suddenly hopeful. She began
+to hum a tune, very softly at first, making more than one false start;
+but getting it nearly right at last. The Queen recognized it. She had
+heard it a hundred times in old days at prayers in the chapel of her
+college. It was a hymn tune. The words came back to her at once.
+"Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God." She took
+Kalliope by the arm and led her back to the boat.
+
+"Come away," she said, "quick, quick. I'm going mad."
+
+Kalliope entered into the spirit of a new game. She ran down across
+the rolling pebbles.
+
+"Go row," she said. "Quick, quick."
+
+The boat, Kalliope pushing, dragging, rowing, burst from the cavern,
+fled beyond the shadow of the cliffs, glided into the blaze of
+sunshine and the sparkling water of the outer bay. The Queen lay back
+in the stern and laughed. Kalliope, resting on her oars, laughed too.
+The Queen's laughter passed into an uncontrollable fit. Tears rolled
+down her cheeks. Her sides were sore. She gasped for breath. The
+thought of that row of portentously solemn grey tanks was irresistibly
+comic. They looked like stranded codfish with their tongues out. They
+looked like a series of caricatures of an American politician, a
+square-headed ponderous man, who had once dined with her father. He
+had the same appearance of imbecile gravity, the same enormous
+pomposity. The copper spouts were so many exaggerated versions of his
+nose.
+
+Her imagination flew to a vision of the men who had brought the tanks
+and cisterns there in a "mucky ship." She seemed to see them, thin
+scarecrows of men, crawling over the rusty sides of some battered
+tramp steamer; mournful men with brown faces and skinny arms, singing
+their hymn with sharp cracked voices while they laboured at their
+utterly preposterous task. Laughter conquered the Queen. She lay back
+helpless in the merciless grip of uncontrollable merriment. Kalliope
+could not laugh so much. The joke was beyond her. She sat with a
+wavering half-smile on her lips watching the Queen. The box of
+chocolates lay in the bottom of the boat. Kalliope stretched her foot
+out, touched the box, pushed it gently towards the Queen. It seemed to
+her waste of a golden opportunity to leave the box, no more than half
+empty, at their feet. The movement broke the spell of the Queen's
+laughter. She picked up the box, pushed chocolates into Kalliope's
+mouth, filled her own with them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+I find it necessary to remind myself from time to time that the Queen
+of Salissa is a young girl, in mind and experience little more than a
+child. If I think of her as a woman or allow myself to credit her with
+any common sense, that blight which falls on the middle-aged, her
+actions become unintelligible.
+
+She ought, no doubt, to have gone straight to her father and told him
+about the cisterns in the cave. That was the sane thing to do. Donovan
+was a man of clear understanding and wide knowledge. He would have--I
+do not know precisely what he would have done, but it would have been
+something entirely sensible. The Queen dreaded nothing so much as
+that. She found herself for the first time in her life in touch with a
+mystery, surrounded by things fascinatingly incomprehensible. Her
+island held a secret, was the scene--there could be no doubt about
+it--of a deep, dark, perhaps dangerous plot. She was thrilled. The
+more she thought of the cavern and the mysterious tanks, the more
+delightful the thrills became.
+
+She made a confidant of Phillips, choosing instinctively the only
+person on the island likely to be in full sympathy with her. Phillips
+was older than she was. He was twenty-eight; but he was a simple,
+straightforward young man with his boyish taste for adventure
+unspoiled. He was also deeply in love with the Queen.
+
+I have found it very difficult to get either from the Queen or from
+Phillips a complete and coherent account of what happened between the
+discovery of the cisterns and the day when the _Ida_ sailed, taking
+Phillips away from the island. I gather that they were both the
+victims of a bad attack of detective fever. They have talked to me
+quite freely and cheerfully of the "Island Mystery." That was the
+Queen's phrase. About a much more important matter the Queen will not
+speak at all, and Phillips cannot be induced to dwell on details. I
+have been obliged to depend mainly on Kalliope for information, and
+even now Kalliope does not speak English well.
+
+"We have three clues," said the Queen hopefully, "three really good
+clues. We ought to be able to unearth the mystery. Detectives hardly
+ever have so many."
+
+Phillips named the three clues, ticking them off on his fingers.
+
+"First, the torn envelope; second, Smith's expedition to the cave
+before dawn----"
+
+"Before dawn," said the Queen with rapture.
+
+"Third, the cisterns in the cave. Let's go and see the cisterns."
+
+"No," said the Queen. "The great thing is not to be carried away by
+passion. We must be cold, purely intellectual. We must be thoroughly
+systematic. We'll begin with the torn envelope. It happened first."
+
+They retired to a shady corner of the balcony outside the Queen's
+rooms and studied the torn envelope for two hours. They were
+analytical, keenly and minutely observant, coldly cautious in forming
+conclusions. They tried every method of detection known to detective
+science. They held the envelope up to the light in order to discover a
+watermark. They examined the texture of the paper, the ink and the
+postage stamp, carefully through a powerful magnifying glass. They
+scraped one corner of the envelope with the blade of a penknife. They
+took four photographs, two of the front and two of the back, with the
+Queen's hand camera. They talked a good deal about fingerprints.
+
+Phillips had a logical mind and a capacity for synthetic induction.
+The Queen was perhaps the more careful observer. She had certainly the
+more brilliant imagination. After two hours' work they summed up their
+conclusions, making careful notes with the Queen's fountain pen on the
+blank pages at the end of a large diary.
+
+"A man or men----" said Phillips.
+
+The Queen wrote down "A man or men" in the diary.
+
+"Has," said Phillips, "or have, been present on the island of Salissa
+at some date between December 15, 1913, and April 30, 1914. The said
+man or men was or were during part of that period in occupation of the
+royal palace."
+
+"Royal palace," said the Queen, writing rapidly.
+
+"This man--or men, of course--was in correspondence with some person
+at present unknown, resident in the city of London."
+
+"That's very important," said the Queen. "Anything more?"
+
+"No," he said, "that's all I've got."
+
+The Queen handed over the diary. It was Phillips' turn to write.
+
+"I observed," she said, "that the envelope is of the kind used by
+business men, an office envelope; also that the stamp is put on
+crooked."
+
+Phillips looked at the stamp. It was put on crooked.
+
+"From this I infer," said the Queen, "either that the man in
+London----What did you call him?"
+
+"Person at present unknown," said Phillips.
+
+"Either that the person at present unknown was (a) habitually careless
+about details, or that (b) though usually careful he was in a hurry
+when he despatched this letter."
+
+"By Jove!" said Phillips, "but, I say, mightn't somebody else, an
+office boy or some one, have put on the stamp?"
+
+"Not on a letter of this kind," said the Queen. "The writer wouldn't
+have trusted any one else."
+
+"It's frightfully clever of you," said Phillips, "to have thought of
+all that."
+
+"It does not lead to anything very definite yet," said the Queen. "But
+you'll find it will all fit together--like a jigsaw puzzle you
+know--when we get to work on the other two clues. We can't expect to
+solve a mystery of this sort straight off. We've only been at it two
+hours."
+
+Kalliope stood all the time at the far end of the balcony watching the
+Queen. She knew nothing about the investigation of the island mystery
+which was going on under her eyes. But she was a young woman who had
+lived a simple and natural life. In some things she was far wiser than
+her mistress. She seems to have realized that the Queen and Phillips
+were making, without knowing it, considerable progress into the heart
+of another, much more enthralling, mystery. As a chaperone Kalliope
+was negligible.
+
+"The next clue," said the Queen, "is Smith. We must shadow him."
+
+"Day and night," said Phillips.
+
+"And Stephanos. Stephanos was with him when he went to the cavern that
+morning."
+
+"Stephanos is in it up to the neck," said Phillips. They shadowed
+Smith for the rest of that day. They stole on tip-toe about the house
+and burst suddenly into rooms where Smith was at work, coming upon him
+unexpectedly. They hid in cupboards and behind curtains in rooms which
+Smith was likely to enter. They left letters, written in cipher, and
+marked coins in prominent places where Smith could hardly fail to see
+them. Kalliope conceived that an elaborate game of hide-and-seek was
+being played. She joined in, enthusiastically but unintelligently,
+concealing herself in various parts of the house without regard to
+Smith's habits. Once she remained obstinately hidden for more than an
+hour under the Queen's bed.
+
+The results were most unsatisfactory. Smith spent his day sweeping
+floors, making beds, cooking food and compounding cocktails for Mr.
+Donovan. His few leisure moments were spent in polishing silver. He
+was totally uninterested in cipher documents and never looked at
+marked coins.
+
+Smith still slept on the steamer, so it fell to Phillips to keep guard
+over him at night. He adopted the ingenious, though not very novel
+plan of pasting a strip of paper across the door of Smith's cabin. In
+the morning, very early, he went to look at the door. The paper was
+intact.
+
+So far as could be discovered Smith led a dull, laborious but innocent
+life, working hard all day and sleeping sound at night. But the time
+spent in shadowing him was not wholly wasted. The Queen and Mr.
+Phillips enjoyed themselves thoroughly. So did Kalliope. So, I have no
+doubt, did Smith.
+
+"I do call this sleuth work jolly," said the Queen. "Let's try old
+Stephanos."
+
+They gave a whole day to Stephanos the Elder. During the early hours
+he sat outside the door of his cottage, rolling cigarettes in thin
+brown paper and smoking them. When the Queen came near him he stood
+up and bowed gravely. When she passed he sat down again. At noon he
+went indoors and dined. The Queen sent Kalliope across the harbour to
+the palace with a note to Smith. She returned with a large basket. The
+Queen and Phillips picnicked on the beach.
+
+Early in the afternoon Stephanos walked through the vineyards which
+lay behind the village and sat down under a mulberry tree. The Queen
+stalked him. She made her approach in a most approved fashion,
+creeping through some low bushes with the utmost caution. She was even
+careful to advance against the wind in case Stephanos should have an
+unusually acute sense of smell. Phillips and Kalliope watched her from
+a hiding-place near the village. When she got within twenty yards of
+the old man, he rose to his feet, laid his hand on his heart and bowed
+to the Queen with dignified courtesy. If he felt any surprise at
+seeing the Queen crawling along the ground on her stomach he did not
+show it. His face expressed paternal but quite respectful benignity.
+The Queen returned from this expedition very much heated, with her
+hair dishevelled. Kalliope spent some time trying to rub the dirt off
+the front of her frock.
+
+An hour later Stephanos climbed slowly to the high plateau of the
+island and sat down on the edge of a cliff. This time Phillips stalked
+him, making his way up the steep gully which led to a part of the
+cliff behind the old man's seat. Stephanos sat gazing at the sea,
+apparently unconscious that any one was near him. But when Phillips
+emerged from his gully the old man was there waiting for him, bowing
+with placid politeness just as he had bowed to the Queen.
+
+The complete failure of this sleuth work would have been a
+disappointment to many people. The Queen and Phillips remained
+perfectly cheerful and laughed happily at their own misfortunes.
+
+Kalliope regarded them with some wonder. The ways of highly civilized
+people were strange to her. She became slightly contemptuous of
+Phillips and wondered that the Queen tolerated him so long. Kalliope
+had a lover of her own, a young man much more direct and rapid than
+Phillips was. She was of opinion that a very diffident lover was
+unsatisfactory. He wasted time. It seemed to her foolish to spend
+hours talking and consulting in the corner of a balcony, playing
+hide-and-seek about a house, and a whole day climbing over an island,
+when it was quite easy to kiss and be happy at once. She longed to
+express her sympathy, condole with the Queen over Phillips' insulting
+apathy. It was, perhaps, fortunate that Kalliope's English was wholly
+insufficient for such confidences.
+
+Before the next day was over Kalliope thought better of Phillips.
+
+The envelope yielded little useful information. The shadowing of Smith
+and Stephanos was entirely useless. But neither the Queen nor Phillips
+lost heart. They were as eager as ever to solve the mystery. There
+remained the third clue, the cisterns in the cave.
+
+The Queen, Phillips and Kalliope started early next day. They went in
+the small island boat which Kalliope rowed. Smith was on the palace
+steps to see them off. He had with him a large basket packed with
+food.
+
+"Thank you, Smith," said the Queen. "I expect we'll be back for
+luncheon, but we may not. One never knows. We meant to be back
+yesterday, but----"
+
+"Yes, your Majesty," said Smith. "Not knowing where you thought of
+going, I packed the basket."
+
+"Oh, not far," said the Queen. "Still, we may not be back."
+
+Smith stood respectful as a footman who has closed his mistress'
+carriage door until the boat pushed off. Then he sat down on the steps
+below the flagstaff and lit a pipe. It was, perhaps, an idle morning
+with Smith. He seemed in no hurry to go back to his work. He sat
+smoking and watched the boat as she crossed the harbour. He saw her
+reach the mouth of the cave and disappear into its depths. Soon
+afterwards another boat put off from the beach below the village.
+Smith watched it too. There was one man on board. It also headed for
+the mouth of the cave. Smith knocked the ashes out of his pipe, stood
+up and went into the palace.
+
+Kalliope poled the boat through the narrow part of the cave, rowed
+her briskly across the lagoon within and beached her on the steep
+slope beyond. Phillips leaped ashore and held out his hand to the
+Queen. They stumbled a little on the round stones. It is very
+difficult to walk steadily over stones which roll under the feet. The
+Queen laid her hand on Phillips' arm. She went more securely with this
+support, so she held to it, leaning a good deal of her weight on it.
+
+"There!" she said. "Look at them. Aren't they the most ridiculous
+things you ever saw?"
+
+No doubt the tanks, with their grey fronts and great spouts sticking
+out of them, had an absurd appearance. They reminded Phillips of the
+prehistoric monsters which artists sometimes draw in our comic papers.
+They had the same look of stupid largeness. There was the same
+suggestion of gaping malevolence. In the cool blue light of the cave
+they looked grotesquely inappropriate. Phillips' first impulse was to
+laugh aloud. But he was a young man with a conscience. It was his duty
+to examine the cisterns, to find out if possible what they were, not
+to make fun of them.
+
+He walked up to the nearest one and turned on the tap. Nothing came
+out. He tried the next one with the same result. He walked along the
+whole line of tanks and turned on every tap. The tanks were apparently
+empty. Mr. Phillips picked up a stone and struck each tank several
+times. The sound was hollow. If there had been any doubt about that
+the echoes would have convinced him. There was a fusillade of hollow
+tappings.
+
+Phillips, placing his foot on the tap of one of the tanks, climbed up.
+
+"Well," said the Queen from below. "What have you found?"
+
+"They're very large," said Phillips. "They go back a long way. They'd
+hold gallons and gallons of whatever they're supposed to hold, and
+there are round lids with handles to lift them off by."
+
+"Oh," said the Queen. "I would like to see. I think I could get up."
+
+Phillips thought so too. He stretched out a helping hand. The Queen
+put her foot on a tap and grasped the hand. Phillips pulled. The Queen
+sprang upwards, holding the hand tight. She reached the top of the
+tank breathless and sat down. Phillips still held her hand.
+
+It is doubtful whether the Queen ever realized the full size of those
+tanks, or even saw the lids which Mr. Phillips had mentioned. The
+light was very dim. The situation, in spite of the grotesque
+appearance of the tanks, was exceedingly romantic. Long stalactites
+hung, faintly gleaming, from the roof. The water, strangely blue,
+mourned against the stones of the beach, sighed through the deep
+recesses of the cave. The world and all common things seemed very
+remote.
+
+Ten minutes later the Queen suddenly started. She wriggled rapidly
+along the edge of the tanks until she sat five or six yards away from
+Phillips.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "there's Kalliope!"
+
+They had left Kalliope at the boat, but she had not stayed there. She
+was standing in front of the tanks looking up at the Queen and
+Phillips. She stood quite still. It was impossible to know how long
+she had been there.
+
+"Damn Kalliope!" said Mr. Phillips fiercely.
+
+Kalliope smiled quietly. She showed no signs of embarrassment. She did
+not pretend to be looking in any other direction. She had been kissed
+herself more than once by her own lover, and had found it pleasant. It
+did not strike her as in any way odd that the Queen should like kisses
+too.
+
+"Help me down, quick," said the Queen.
+
+She did not wait for the help she asked. Disdaining even the foothold
+of the tap she slid over the edge of the tank and came down with a
+crash on the rolling stones at Kalliope's feet. Phillips followed her
+with a single bound.
+
+Kalliope pointed with her finger to a boat, another boat, which had
+just grounded on the beach. Stephanos the Elder stepped from it and
+bowed low to the Queen, bowed so low that his long beard almost
+touched the ground.
+
+"Well, I'm blest!" said Phillips.
+
+"My!" said the Queen, "isn't it lucky I saw Kalliope just when I did?
+Fancy if that old fellow had caught us! I don't so much mind about
+Kalliope, though of course it was awful. But I never could have looked
+the old man in the face if he had seen us."
+
+Later on, while they sat at luncheon on the sand of a little cove
+near the entrance of the cave, the Queen suddenly burst into a peal of
+merry laughter.
+
+"Say," she said, "he stalked us rather better than we stalked him
+yesterday, didn't he?"
+
+Next day the _Ida_, with Phillips on board, set sail for England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+     "GRAND HOTEL DES CHAMPS D'ELYSEES, PARIS,
+                         _June 4, 1914_.
+
+     "My dear Gorman,--
+
+     "I arrive at the excellent Beaufort's Hotel the day after
+     to-morrow. I hope that you will dine with me that evening at
+     8 p.m. There are matters of importance. Corinne accompanies
+     me. She is adorable as ever, in good form and full of peas.
+     We have had a time of a life, rattling, since I saw you.
+     Now--alas and damn--there are matters of importance. The
+     Emperor--but I can write no more--Corinne awaits me. We go
+     to paint Paris blue, she and I, once again. Then--damn and
+     alas--London and the virtuous life of your English middling
+     class.
+
+                         "KONRAD KARL."
+
+Gorman did not hesitate for a moment. He made up his mind to accept
+the invitation even if he had to miss the most important division
+which Parliament enjoyed during its whole session. The prospect of
+seeing Konrad Karl and Madame Ypsilante practising middle-class virtue
+in Beaufort's Hotel was by itself sufficiently attractive. The
+promise of important affairs for discussion was another lure. Gorman
+loves important affairs, especially those of other people. But the
+mention of the Emperor interested him most. The introduction of his
+name made it certain that the important affairs were those of Salissa.
+And Gorman had always been anxious to understand in what way the
+Emperor was mixed up with Megalia and how he came to exercise an
+influence over that independent state.
+
+Gorman was dressing for dinner--was, in fact, buttoning his
+collar--when his landlord entered his room and handed him a card.
+Gorman looked at it.
+
+     "FRIEDRICH GOLDSTURMER,
+       _Dealer in Jewels and Precious Stones,
+         Old Bond Street._"
+
+Written across the corner of the card were the words: "Business
+important and urgent."
+
+Gorman glanced at his watch. He had no time to spare if he meant to be
+at Beaufort's at eight. Punctuality was no doubt one of the
+middle-class virtues which the King and Madame Ypsilante were at that
+moment practising. Gorman hesitated. The landlord, who had once been a
+butler, stood waiting.
+
+"Tell him," said Gorman, "to call to-morrow at eleven."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said the landlord, "but the gentleman says his
+business is most pressing."
+
+Gorman reflected. If Goldsturmer had given the landlord five
+shillings--and this seemed likely--the business must be very pressing
+indeed; and King Konrad Karl could not yet have become an absolute
+slave to the virtue of punctuality.
+
+"Show him in here," said Gorman; "that will save time."
+
+Goldsturmer slipped into the room and stood meekly near the door.
+
+"Sit down," said Gorman. "Sit on the bed if you can't find a chair,
+and tell me what you want with me, as quickly as you can."
+
+"It's very kind of you," said Goldsturmer, "to receive me at this
+hour. Nothing but the very pressing nature of my business--but I will
+get to the point. You will doubtless remember a certain rope of
+pearls. Let me see, it must have been in March----"
+
+"I don't remember any rope of pearls," said Gorman. "I take no
+interest in pearls."
+
+"No? Still I hoped you might recollect those pearls. They were the
+finest I ever had in my hands."
+
+Goldsturmer spoke in a tone of pained regret. It seemed to him a sad
+thing that there should be any man in the world who took no interest
+in pearls.
+
+"Madame Ypsilante bought them," said Goldsturmer.
+
+"There's no use coming to me," said Gorman, "if you've failed to get
+your money. I've nothing to do with the lady."
+
+Goldsturmer smiled.
+
+"She paid," he said. "Otherwise she would not have got the pearls.
+There was another lady who might have bought them, an American, a Miss
+Donovan."
+
+"But Madame got them," said Gorman.
+
+"Yes. But perhaps Miss Donovan might have them now, through me, at the
+original price."
+
+Gorman began to be interested.
+
+"Madame tired of them?" he asked. "Wants to sell?"
+
+"Tired of them!" said Goldsturmer. "No. For any one who loves pearls
+that would be impossible. But desires to sell. Yes."
+
+"Well," said Gorman. "That's her affair and yours. I don't see that I
+have anything to do with it."
+
+"Before I agree to buy," said Goldsturmer, "I should like to be sure
+that the American lady, Miss Donovan, still wishes for the pearls. I
+do not want to lock up my capital. I cannot afford to lock up so large
+a sum. I must be assured of a purchaser before I buy from Madame
+Ypsilante. It is not every one who can pay for such pearls. Ah! if you
+had seen them! They are suited for the wearing of a queen. Only a
+queen should have them."
+
+Miss Donovan was, of course, a queen. Gorman wondered whether
+Goldsturmer knew that. He looked at the little Jew sharply.
+Goldsturmer's face wore a far-away dreamy expression. He seemed to be
+thinking of his pearls draped round the neck of an Empress, a Czarina
+or some other lady of very high estate who would wear them worthily.
+
+"Only a queen," he murmured, "should wear those pearls."
+
+"Madame Ypsilante is the next best thing to a queen," said Gorman.
+
+A faint smile flickered across Goldsturmer's mouth.
+
+"I would rather," he said, "that a real queen, a queen by right of
+law, wore them. Tell me, Mr. Gorman, is Miss Donovan still willing to
+buy them?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," said Gorman. "I haven't seen her for weeks.
+She's yachting in the Mediterranean with her father. If I were you I'd
+give up Miss Donovan and look out for a queen."
+
+"Thank you," said Goldsturmer. "But if I give up Miss Donovan I think
+I shall not buy the pearls from Madame Ypsilante. There are, alas, few
+queens."
+
+Gorman was not, after all, more than five minutes late for dinner. The
+King was waiting for him, but without any sign of impatience. Madame
+Ypsilante entered the room a minute or two later.
+
+She was wearing a purple velvet dress which struck Gorman as a very
+regal garment. Round her neck was a magnificent rope of pearls. Gorman
+had no doubt that they were those of which Goldsturmer had spoken.
+They were finer than any he had ever seen. It was easy to believe that
+there was no other such necklace in the world and that only a queen
+should wear them. But they suited Madame Ypsilante. She would, so far
+as her appearance went, have made a very fine queen.
+
+During dinner the conversation was about Paris. The King spoke of
+pleasant adventures there, of the life he and Madame had lived, of the
+delight of having money to spend, really enough of it, in a city like
+Paris. He told his stories well, his vehemently idiomatic English
+emphasizing his points. He became lyrical in his appreciation of the
+joys of life. When dessert was on the table and port took the place of
+champagne he lapsed into a philosophic mood.
+
+"The damned gods of life," he said, "are blind of one eye. They are
+lame and they limp. They are left-handed. They give the oof, the
+dollars, the shekels, and do not give the power to enjoy. The
+Americans--your Donovan, for example. What does he know of pleasure?
+The English of your middling classes. What is Paris to them? They have
+money but no more. Those left-handed gods have given a useless gift.
+On me and on Corinne they have bestowed the power, the knowledge, the
+skill to enjoy; and we, damn it all, have no money."
+
+The King sighed deeply. Madame Ypsilante had tears in her eyes. She
+was in full sympathy with the King's new mood. Gorman was astonished.
+The price which Mr. Donovan had paid for the crown of Salissa was a
+large one. Even after ten thousand pounds had been spent on Madame
+Ypsilante's pearls there was a sum left which it would be difficult to
+spend in a few weeks.
+
+"Surely," he said, "you haven't got rid of all the money yet? You
+can't have spent it in the time. I didn't think you could be hard up
+again so soon. Even when I heard that Madame wanted to sell her
+pearls----"
+
+"Sell my pearls!" said Madame. "But never! Never, never!!"
+
+There were no tears in her eyes then. The mood of self-pity induced by
+the King's reflections on left-handed gods had passed away. She looked
+fierce as a tigress when she shot out her next question to Gorman.
+
+"Who has said that I wish to sell my pearls? Who has said it? I
+demand. I insist: Tell me his name and I will at once kill him. I
+shall pluck out his heart and dogs shall eat it."
+
+Gorman did not care whether Goldsturmer's heart was eaten by dogs or
+not. He did want to understand how it came that the astute Jew
+expected to have the pearls offered to him. It was plain that Madame
+Ypsilante did not want to sell them and that she had not suggested the
+sale.
+
+"It was Goldsturmer," said Gorman, "who told me. He seemed to think
+that Miss Donovan might buy them."
+
+Madame at once knocked down two wine-glasses and a vase of flowers.
+
+"That cursed offspring of the litter of filthy Jews who make Hamburg
+stink! Tell him that I will pull out his hair, his teeth, his eyes,
+but that never, never will that American miss touch one of my pearls.
+I will not sell, will not, will not."
+
+The King looked round. He satisfied himself that the waiters had left
+the room.
+
+"Alas," he said, "alas, my poor Corinne! But consider. There is an
+English proverb: the horse needs must trot along, trot smart, when it
+is the devil who drives."
+
+"He is the devil, that Emperor," said Madame. "But not for any Emperor
+will I part with one single pearl."
+
+"Look here," said Gorman. "There's evidently been some mistake about
+Goldsturmer and the pearls. I don't profess to understand what's
+happening, but if I'm to help you in any way----"
+
+"You are to help damnably," said the King. "Are you not our friend?"
+
+"In that case," said Gorman, "before I go a step further into the
+matter I must know what on earth the Emperor has got to do with
+Madame's pearls."
+
+"The Emperor," said Madame Ypsilante, "is a devil."
+
+"Take another glass of port," said the King. "No? Then light a
+cigar. If you will light a cigar and fill for yourself a glass of
+brandy--also for Corinne--I will tell you about the Emperor."
+
+Gorman filled Madame's glass and his own. He was particular about
+Madame's. Brandy had a soothing influence on her. He did not like her
+habit of throwing things about in moments of excitement. He also lit a
+cigar.
+
+"I will make my breast clean of the whole affair," said the King.
+"Then you will understand and help us. The Emperor has spilt cold
+water all over Salissa--that is over the sale of the island to the
+American."
+
+"The Emperor must have very little to do," said Gorman, "if he has
+time to waste in fussing about a wretched little island like Salissa.
+How did he hear about the sale?"
+
+"I think," said the King, "that Steinwitz must have permitted the cat
+to jump out of the bag. Steinwitz smelt rats, of that I am sure."
+
+"I daresay you're right," said Gorman. "I rather thought Steinwitz was
+nosing around. But why does the Emperor mind? That's what I'm trying
+to get at."
+
+The King shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Who knows?" he said. "_Real Politik_, perhaps. What you call----How
+do you call _Real Politik_?"
+
+"Haven't got a word for it," said Gorman. "For the matter of that we
+haven't got the thing. We manage along all right with sham politics,
+Ireland and Insurance Acts and the rest of it. If real politics lead
+to trouble over places like Salissa I prefer our home-made imitation.
+But _Real Politik_ or not, the thing's done; so what's the good of the
+Emperor talking?"
+
+"The Emperor," said the King, "says 'Buy back. Take again your
+island. Foot--no, it is foot of a horse--hoof, or boot away the
+American. Give him his price and let him go.' And I cannot. It is no
+longer possible to give back the oof."
+
+"I quite understand that," said Gorman. "Your six weeks in Paris and
+Madame's pearls----"
+
+"The Emperor shall not touch my pearls," said Madame Ypsilante.
+"Rather would I swallow them."
+
+"The American," said the King, "will perhaps accept a reduced price.
+The island is not an amusing place. Dull, my friend, dull as ditch
+mud. By this time he has found out that Salissa is as respectable as
+Sunday, as golf, as what you call a seasonable ticket. He will not
+want to keep it. He will accept a price, perhaps, if I offer."
+
+"I don't expect he'll accept a price at all," said Gorman, "reduced or
+increased. I don't _know_, of course. He may be dead sick of the place
+already; but I'll be surprised if he is. You'll find when you ask him
+that he'll simply refuse to part with the island."
+
+"But," said the King, "he must. As I have just said to Corinne, when
+the devil drives the horse to water it needs must take a drink. The
+Emperor has said that Salissa is once more to return to the Crown of
+Megalia."
+
+"The Emperor may say that," said Gorman, "but it doesn't at all follow
+that Donovan will agree with him."
+
+"But the Emperor----! It is not for Mr. Donovan to agree or disagree
+with the Emperor. When the Emperor commands it is a case of knuckles
+down. But you do not know the Emperor."
+
+"I do not," said Gorman, "but I'm inclined to think that you take an
+exaggerated view of him. After all, what can he do to Donovan or to
+you for that matter? Come now, suppose you won't or can't buy back the
+island, what happens? What's the alternative? There must be an
+alternative of some sort."
+
+"There is--yes, there certainly is an alternative."
+
+The King paused and looked apprehensively at Madame Ypsilante.
+
+"He can't lay hands on you," said Gorman, "if you stick to Paris or
+even London. That Emperor isn't particularly popular in either city."
+
+The King, his eyes still fixed on Madame Ypsilante, nodded sideways
+towards Gorman. The nod was a very slight one, barely perceptible. It
+suggested the need of extreme caution. Gorman is a quick-witted man
+and he saw the nod, but he failed altogether to guess what the
+alternative was.
+
+Madame Ypsilante noticed the expression of the King's face when he
+looked at her. She also saw the nod that was meant for Gorman. She
+became uneasy. Her eyes had a hard glitter in them. Gorman at once
+refilled her glass. That soothed her a little. She did not break
+anything. But she spoke:
+
+"Konrad, at once tell me all that the Emperor said."
+
+"Corinne," said the King, "my beloved Corinne, it will make no
+difference to you. The future and the past will be as six to one and
+half a dozen to the other. You will always be Corinne. Have no fear,
+and--as my friend Gorman would say, do not take off your hair."
+
+"Tell me," said Madame.
+
+"The Emperor," said the King, "has said to me, 'Buy back the island or
+else marry the American.' In that way also Salissa would return to the
+Crown of Megalia."
+
+Gorman fully expected that Madame Ypsilante would at once have broken
+every glass on the table. It would not have surprised him in the least
+if she had torn handfuls of hair off the King's head. To his amazement
+she laughed. It was a most unpleasant laugh. But it was not the laugh
+of a lunatic. It was not even hysterical.
+
+"That imbecile," she said, "that miss!"
+
+Her contempt for the girl left no room for jealousy. Madame Ypsilante
+did not seem to care whether the King married or did not.
+
+"I don't think much of that plan," said Gorman. "Your Emperor may be
+the everlasting boss you seem to think----"
+
+"In the register of Lloyd's," said the King, "he takes place in the
+class A 1st."
+
+"But," said Gorman, "he hasn't much sense if he thinks that a girl
+like Miss Donovan can be married off in that way to any one he chooses
+to name. I'm not saying anything against your character, sir----"
+
+"My Konrad," said Madame Ypsilante, "is Konrad."
+
+"Exactly," said Gorman. "Those are my points put concisely in two
+words. First he's yours and next he's himself. No. I don't think that
+you've much chance of buying back the island, but you've no chance at
+all of marrying the girl."
+
+"I do not want either the one or the other," said the King. "I do not
+care the cursing of a tinker, not a two-a-penny damn if I never put my
+eye on the island or the girl. Arrange which you prefer. I place both
+into your hands, my dear Gorman. I leave them there. I shall put my
+foot on the bill if you buy and the price is moderate. I shall toe the
+scratch if you arrange that I lead the American to the altar of Hymen.
+Settle, arrange, fix down which you will."
+
+Gorman gasped. He was always ready to give disinterested advice
+in the King's affairs. He was even willing to lend a helping hand
+in times of difficulty; but he was startled at being asked to act
+as plenipotentiary for the sale of a kingdom or the negotiation of
+a royal marriage.
+
+"Do you mean to say," he said, "that you expect me to arrange the
+whole thing?"
+
+"You have tumbled to the idea with precision," said the King. "You
+have caught it on. You are wonderful, my friend. Thus everything
+arranges. You go to Salissa and tell the American the wishes of the
+Emperor. Corinne and I return to Paris. If a sale is arranged----"
+
+"I will not part with my pearls," said Madame. "Neither for the
+Emperor nor for any one."
+
+"Corinne!" said the King reproachfully. "Would I ask it of you? No. If
+a sale is arranged I give a bill to the American, a bill of three
+months, and for security I place at his disposal--I pledge the revenue
+of Megalia for ten years; for a hundred years. If it seems more
+desirable that I marry; good, I am ready. The American girl comes to
+Paris. I meet her. We marry. The Emperor is satisfied. It is upon you,
+my dear Gorman, to fix it down."
+
+"I don't see," said Gorman, "how I can possibly undertake----It's
+asking a lot, you know. Besides----"
+
+"You are my friend," said the King. "Can I ask more than too much from
+my friend?"
+
+"Besides," said Gorman, "it's no kind of use. Donovan isn't likely to
+sell. He certainly wouldn't accept your bill if he did sell. And
+marrying the girl is out of the question. What's the good of my
+undertaking impossibilities?"
+
+The King stood up. With his cigar between his fingers he raised his
+right hand above his head. He laid his left hand upon his shirt front.
+It was an impressive and heroic attitude.
+
+"For Gorman, M.P.," he said, "there are in the world no
+impossibilities. For his talents all careers are open doors. When
+Gorman, M.P., says 'I do it,' the damned thing at once is done. I
+offer----But no. I do not offer where I trust----I confer upon
+Gorman, M.P., the Order of the Royal Pink Vulture of Megalia, First
+Class. You are Knight Commander, my friend. You are also Count Gorman
+if you wish."
+
+Madame Ypsilante slipped from her chair and knelt down at Gorman's
+feet. She took his right hand and kissed it with every appearance of
+fervour.
+
+"You will do it," she said, "for the sake of Konrad Karl. Oh, Sir
+Gorman, M.P., you would do it at once if you understood. Poor Konrad!
+He is having so much delight with me in Paris. This time only in our
+lives it has come to us to have enough money and to be in Paris. It is
+cruel--so cruel that the Emperor should say: 'No. Give back the money.
+Go from Paris. Be starved. Have no pearls, no joy.' But you will save
+us. Say you will save us."
+
+Gorman's position was an exceedingly difficult one. Madame Ypsilante
+had firm hold on his hand. She was kissing it at the moment. He was
+not at all sure that she would not bite it if he refused her request.
+
+"I'll think the whole thing over," he said. "I don't expect I can do
+anything, but I'll look into the matter and let you know."
+
+Madame mouthed his hand in a frenzy of gratitude. She wept copiously.
+Gorman could feel drops which he supposed to be tears trickling down
+the inside of his sleeve. The King seized his other hand and shook it
+heartily.
+
+"It is now as good as done," he said. "Let us drink to success. I ring
+the bell. I order champagne, one bottle, two bottles, three, many
+bottles in the honour of my friend Sir Gorman who has said: 'Damn it,
+I will.'"
+
+Under the influence of the second bottle of champagne the King escaped
+from his heroic mood. Gorman began to realize that a certain cunning
+lay behind the preposterous proposal he had listened to.
+
+"I shall inform the Emperor," said the King, "that you go to Salissa
+to arrange according to his wish. I shall say: 'M.P. Count Sir Gorman
+goes. He is a statesman, a financier, a diplomat, a man of uncommon
+sense.' The Emperor will then be satisfied."
+
+"He'll probably be very dissatisfied when I come back," said Gorman.
+
+"That will be--let me consider--perhaps eight weeks. In eight weeks
+many things may happen. And if not, still Corinne and I will have had
+eight weeks in Paris with oof which we can burn. It is something."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+In the end Gorman made up his mind to go to Salissa. I do not suppose
+that the King's gift of the Order of the Pink Vulture had much to do
+with his decision. Nor do I think that he went out of pure kindness of
+heart, in order to give Konrad Karl and Madame Ypsilante eight weeks
+of unalloyed delight in Paris. I know that he never had the slightest
+intention of trying to persuade Donovan to part with the island,
+and--Gorman has not much conscience, but he has some--nothing would
+have induced him to suggest a marriage between Miss Daisy and the
+disreputable King. He went to Salissa because that island seemed in a
+fair way to become a very interesting place.
+
+On the very evening of Gorman's dinner with the King I happened to
+meet Sir Bartholomew Bland-Potterton at another, a much duller dinner
+party. Sir Bartholomew was not yet Secretary of State for Balkan
+Problems, but he was well known as an authority on the Near East, and
+was in constant unofficial touch with the Foreign Office. He is a big
+man in his way, and I was rather surprised when he buttonholed me
+after the ladies had left the room. I am not a big man in any way.
+
+"Do you happen to know a man called Gorman?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," I said, "Michael Gorman. I've met him. In fact, I know him
+pretty well."
+
+"Nationalist M.P.?"
+
+"Sits for Upper Offaly," I said. "Can't blame him for that. Four
+hundred a year is something these times."
+
+"Bit of a blackguard, I suppose? All those fellows are."
+
+Now, an Irishman can call another Irishman a blackguard without
+offence. We know each other intimately and are fond of strong
+language, but we do not like being called blackguards by Englishmen.
+They do not understand us and never will. Sir Bartholomew's
+description of Gorman was in bad taste and I resented it. However,
+there was no use trying to explain our point of view. You cannot
+explain anything to that kind of Englishman.
+
+"He's a Member of Parliament," I said, "of your own English
+Parliament. I believe that all members are honourable gentlemen."
+
+Sir Bartholomew is a wonderful man. He actually took that remark of
+mine as a testimonial to Gorman's character. The thing is almost
+incredible, but he evidently felt that the word honourable, as
+officially used, had a meaning something like that of trustworthy.
+
+"I wonder," said Sir Bartholomew, "if he's a man to whom one could
+talk safely on a rather confidential subject?"
+
+"There's always supposed to be a kind of honour among thieves," I
+said.
+
+I was still rather nettled by the contemptuous assumption that Gorman
+must be a blackguard simply because he is an Irish Nationalist. After
+all, Sir Bartholomew's own profession is not a very respectable one.
+He is a diplomatist, and diplomacy is simply the name we have agreed
+to give to lying about national affairs. I cannot see that Sir
+Bartholomew has any right to take up a high moral tone when speaking
+of Gorman or any other Member of Parliament, Irish or English.
+
+"I'll look up the man to-morrow," said Sir Bartholomew. "I daresay
+I'll find him in the House of Commons during the afternoon."
+
+Sir Bartholomew gave me no hint about the nature of his confidential
+business. I suppose he did not feel I could be trusted. However,
+Gorman told me all about it next day.
+
+Sir Bartholomew came on Gorman in the smoking-room of the House of
+Commons. He was wearing, so Gorman assures me, the very best kind of
+official manner, that interesting mixture of suavity and pomposity
+with which our mandarins approach the public. They hope, in this way,
+to induce us to believe that they have benevolent dispositions and
+immense ability. I do not know whether any one is ever deceived by
+this manner or thinks of a mandarin otherwise than as a fortunate
+person who earns a large salary by being stupid. Certainly Gorman was
+not in the very least impressed. Being an Irishman, Gorman knows the
+official class thoroughly. Ireland is a kind of laboratory for the
+culture of the mandarin bacillus.
+
+"May I," said Sir Bartholomew, "intrude on your time, and ask you one
+or two questions on a matter of some little importance?"
+
+Gorman had no objection to being asked questions. Whether he would
+answer them or not was another matter.
+
+"I think," said Sir Bartholomew, "that you know King Konrad Karl of
+Megalia."
+
+That was not a question, so Gorman gave no answer. He merely puffed at
+his pipe which was not drawing well and looked at Sir Bartholomew's
+round plump face.
+
+"A rather wild young man," said Sir Bartholomew. "Dissipated would
+perhaps be too strong a word. What do you think?"
+
+"It is a strongish word," said Gorman.
+
+Sir Bartholomew tried another cast.
+
+"Mr. Donovan is a friend of yours, I think," he said, "and his
+daughter?"
+
+"I've met them," said Gorman.
+
+Sir Bartholomew realized that he was not getting on very fast with
+Gorman. He relapsed a little from his high official manner and adopted
+a confidential tone.
+
+"There has been a certain amount of talk in diplomatic, or shall we
+say semi-diplomatic circles, about King Konrad Karl, mere gossip, of
+course, but----"
+
+"I never listen to gossip," said Gorman.
+
+This was untrue. Gorman listens to all the gossip he can and enjoys it
+thoroughly.
+
+Sir Bartholomew found it necessary to unbend a little more. He
+unbuttoned, so to speak, the two bottom buttons of the waistcoat of
+pomposity which he wore.
+
+"I was told a story the other day," he said. "Perhaps I'd better not
+mention the name of my informant; but there can be no harm in saying
+that he is one of the attaches of the Embassy of a great Power, a
+friendly Power."
+
+I expect Sir Bartholomew thought this way of talking would impress
+Gorman. It impresses most people. Your story has a much better chance
+of being believed and repeated if you tell it on the authority of some
+one unnamed and vaguely described than it has if you merely say "young
+Smith, the cashier in my bank, told me to-day, that...."
+
+"I am alluding," said Sir Bartholomew, "to a report that has reached
+us of an escapade of Miss Donovan's. That young lady--very charming
+I'm sure--and her father's immensely rich, but--well, you know what
+young girls are."
+
+"Got engaged to a Royal Duke?" said Gorman, "or run away with the
+chauffeur?"
+
+"Oh no, nothing of that sort. Not at all. The statement with which I'm
+concerned is that her father has bought an island and some kind of
+title for her from that unfortunate young King of Megalia."
+
+"So long as he paid for it," said Gorman, "I don't see that it's
+anybody else's business."
+
+"You don't understand," said Sir Bartholomew. "I haven't made myself
+clear. The fact is----" He sank his voice to an awed whisper. "The
+young lady is understood to claim sovereign rights over the Island of
+Salissa. She calls herself--it's almost incredible, but she calls
+herself a queen."
+
+"Well," said Gorman, "why shouldn't she?"
+
+"But, my dear sir! To set up a new independent kingdom! In the
+existing state of Balkan affairs, when the Great Powers----But of
+course it can be nothing but a girlish joke, a piece of light-hearted
+playfulness. She can't mean----"
+
+"Then why worry?" said Gorman. "Why should you and that attache of the
+Embassy of a Friendly Power, the fellow you've been talking about--why
+should you and he start fussing?"
+
+"My dear sir! my dear sir! Nothing, I assure you, is further from our
+wishes than fuss of any kind. But unfortunately, the Emperor--the
+Emperor--I respect and admire him, of course. We all do. But if the
+Emperor has a fault it is that he's slightly deficient in humour. He
+does not easily see a joke. He's a little--well----"
+
+"Elephantine?" said Gorman.
+
+Sir Bartholomew looked round hurriedly. The Division bell had just
+rung. The smoking-room was almost empty. This was fortunate. It would
+have been very awkward for a man in Sir Bartholomew's position to be
+caught in the act of hearing an Emperor called elephantine.
+
+"The Emperor," said Sir Bartholomew, "has approached the United States
+Ambassador on the subject, indirectly, I need scarcely say. He
+requests, indeed insists that Salissa shall at once be restored to the
+Crown of Megalia. Now our idea is--and I think I know the views of the
+Foreign Office on the subject--our idea is that this little matter
+ought to be settled unofficially. A word to Mr. Donovan from a friend.
+A hint about the present critical condition of European politics. He
+might----"
+
+"I don't suppose," said Gorman, "that Donovan cares a damn about
+European politics."
+
+Sir Bartholomew's eyebrows went up in shocked surprise.
+
+"It is of the first importance," he said, "of absolutely vital
+importance that at the present moment, standing as we do, as all
+Europe stands to-day, on the verge of the smouldering crater of a
+volcano----"
+
+"This is the House of Commons, of course," said Gorman, "so I suppose
+you can talk that kind of language if you like. But we don't usually
+do it in the smoking-room."
+
+Sir Bartholomew had not attained to the eminent position he occupied
+without learning a few lessons in tact. He changed his tone at once.
+
+"The fact is," he said, "that just at present we all want to avoid
+friction with the Emperor."
+
+"Ah," said Gorman, "and your idea is----?"
+
+"Mr. Donovan must be persuaded to give up that island. Pressure could
+be put on him, of course, by his own Government and by ours. His
+position is preposterous. He can't set his daughter up as a European
+sovereign simply by writing a cheque. But we don't want--nobody wants
+any publicity or scandal. If Mr. Donovan would agree, privately, to
+resign all claim on Salissa----"
+
+"Why not ask him?"
+
+Sir Bartholomew's manner became most ingratiating.
+
+"We feel that the good offices of a mutual friend, some one who
+occupies no official position, some one unconnected with the Foreign
+Office----In short, Mr. Gorman, would you undertake this rather
+delicate mission?"
+
+"Why the devil do you hit on me for the job?"
+
+"Ah," said Sir Bartholomew, smiling, "you see we all know something
+about you, Mr. Gorman. Your business ability, your unfailing tact,
+your----"
+
+"Taken as read," said Gorman.
+
+Sir Bartholomew cannot possibly have liked Gorman's manner. No public
+men discuss serious and confidential matters with this kind of
+flippancy. But he had been obliged to meet even more disconcerting
+people in the Balkans. He prided himself on being able to negotiate
+with men of any manners or none.
+
+"Knowing the work you have done for your party in America," he went
+on, "knowing your friendship with the Donovans and your acquaintance
+with the King of Megalia, it seemed to us--not to me, you know. I
+don't really matter. It seemed to us that you were the best possible
+person."
+
+"I see. Well, supposing I undertake the job, what am I to say to
+Donovan? He's paid a big price for that island. Is he to get his money
+back?"
+
+"Of course, of course. No one expects Mr. Donovan to make any
+financial sacrifice."
+
+"Who's going to pay?"
+
+"The King. King Konrad Karl."
+
+"That King," said Gorman, "isn't very good at paying."
+
+"In this case he will have no choice. The Emperor will insist on his
+paying."
+
+"The Emperor is a powerful man," said Gorman, "but even he would
+hardly be able to make King Konrad Karl fork out what he hasn't got.
+You may safely bet your last shilling that most of what Donovan paid
+for that island is spent, chucked away, gone scat."
+
+"The Emperor," said Sir Bartholomew, "will be responsible for the
+return in full of the purchase price."
+
+"Very well," said Gorman, "and now suppose Donovan won't sell. Suppose
+he simply says 'No.'"
+
+"There is an alternative policy," said Sir Bartholomew. "It has
+occurred to some of us who are interested in the matter--I am not now
+speaking with the authority of any ambassador, certainly not with the
+formal approval of our Foreign Office. It has occurred to _me_--I will
+put it that way. It has occurred to me that the matter might be
+settled quite satisfactorily to all parties, to the Emperor certainly
+if----The King of Megalia is, I think, unmarried."
+
+"There's Madame Ypsilante," said Gorman, "a lady----"
+
+"A lady! Pooh! In these cases there is always a lady. But the King is
+unmarried. Miss Donovan, so we understand, wishes to be a queen. You
+catch my meaning?"
+
+"Perfectly. You want me to arrange a marriage between----"
+
+"My dear Mr. Gorman! I want nothing of the sort. I do not ask you to
+arrange anything. I merely say that if such a marriage were to take
+place the Emperor would probably be satisfied. I am aware that the
+personal character of King Konrad Karl is not such----But he is a
+young man. There are possibilities of improvement."
+
+"There's certainly room for it."
+
+"Exactly. And the influence of a good woman is just what is needed. A
+young, sweet, innocent girl has a marvellous influence. She appeals to
+that best which is present even in the worst of us." Sir Bartholomew
+liked this phrase. He repeated it. "That best, that astonishing best,
+which is always present even in the worst of us. She might call it
+out. She might make a new man of King Konrad Karl."
+
+Gorman looked at Sir Bartholomew with an expression of grave and
+interested inquiry.
+
+"You think that if Miss Donovan married the King she would save him
+from the clutches of Madame Ypsilante."
+
+"Not a doubt of it. And what a splendid thing that would be! It's just
+the sort of an idea which would make a strong appeal to a girl. Women
+like the idea of reforming their husbands. Besides, the prospect for
+her is in other respects most brilliant. She would be recognized by
+the Emperor. She would be received in the most exclusive Courts of
+Europe. But I need not expatiate. You understand the position."
+
+"I don't remember any case of an American heiress marrying a king,"
+said Gorman.
+
+"Just so. This would be unique, splendid. And I need not say, Mr.
+Gorman, that if you see your way to oblige us in this matter your
+services will not go unrecognized. If there is any particular way in
+which you would like us to show our appreciation you have only to
+mention it. The next Honours List----"
+
+"All right," said Gorman, "I'll go. Where is Salissa?"
+
+"In the Cyrenian Sea. It's an island. Quite charming, I believe. I am
+sure you will enjoy the trip. Your best plan will be to see Steinwitz
+about the matter. Steinwitz is managing director----"
+
+"Quite so. I know him. Cyrenian Sea Steam Navigation Company."
+
+"His ships go there," said Sir Bartholomew. "I have no doubt that he
+will arrange for you to make the voyage comfortably. I may mention,
+between ourselves, that Steinwitz is interested in the success of the
+negotiations."
+
+"Acting for the Emperor?"
+
+"Well, yes. Unofficially. He is in a certain sense the agent of the
+Emperor."
+
+"All right," said Gorman. "I'll see him. And if I pull the thing off I
+may count on----?"
+
+"You may ask for what you like," said Sir Bartholomew. "You've only
+got to drop me a hint. Anything in reason. A knighthood? Or a
+baronetcy? I think we could manage a baronetcy. A post in the
+Government? A Civil List pension? Your services to literature fully
+entitle you----"
+
+"On the whole," said Gorman, "I think I'll ask for Home Rule for
+Ireland."
+
+"Ah," said Sir Bartholomew, "you Irish! Always witty! Always
+sparkling, paradoxical, brilliant! I shall tell the Prime Minister
+what you say. He'll enjoy it. What should we do without you Irish?
+Life would be dull indeed. What is it the poet says? Wordsworth, I
+think. 'Turning to mirth, All things of earth, As only boyhood can.'
+You are all boys. That is why we love you. Your freshness. Your
+delightful capacity for the absurd. I feel that in choosing you for
+this delicate mission we have chosen the right man. Only an Irishman
+could hope to succeed in an affair of this kind. Good-bye, Mr. Gorman,
+and be sure to let me know in good time what we are to do for you.
+I'll charge myself with seeing that your claim is not overlooked."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+"I'm going, of course," said Gorman. "The whole thing is interesting,
+quite exciting."
+
+He had just given me a detailed account of his interview with Sir
+Bartholomew Bland-Potterton, and a rather picturesque version of the
+way King Konrad Karl presented his case.
+
+"Do you expect," I said, "to be able to persuade Donovan to sell?"
+
+"Of course not," said Gorman. "I don't even mean to try."
+
+"Gorman," I said, "I'm accustomed more or less to political morality,
+I mean the morality of politicians. I recognize--everybody must
+recognize--that you can't be expected to tie yourselves down to the
+ordinary standards. But----"
+
+"What _are_ you talking about?"
+
+"Oh, nothing much. Only you've accepted a Pink Vulture from Megalia
+and a baronetcy from England as a reward for services you don't mean
+to render. Now is that quite--quite----?"
+
+Gorman looked at me for a minute without speaking. There was a
+peculiar twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"If I were you," he said at last, "I'd go back to Ireland for a while.
+Try Dublin. You have been too long over here. You wouldn't say things
+like that if you weren't becoming English."
+
+I accepted the rebuke. Gorman was perfectly right. In English public
+life it is necessary to profess a respect for decency, to make aprons
+of fig leaves. In Ireland we do without these coverings.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," said Gorman, "if I got some sort of decoration
+out of the Emperor too before I'm through with this business. Once
+these ribbons and stars begin to drop on a man, they come thick and
+fast, kind of attract each other, I suppose. I wonder," he added with
+sudden irrelevancy, "what the Emperor's game is. That's what I've been
+trying to make out all along. Why is he in it?"
+
+"He wants the Island of Salissa restored to the Crown of Megalia," I
+said. "You've been told that often enough."
+
+"Yes, but why? Why? The island isn't worth having. As well as I can
+make out it's simply a rock with a little clay sprinkled on top of it.
+What can it matter to the Emperor who owns the place? It isn't as if
+it were his originally or as if it would become his. It belongs to
+Megalia. With all the fuss that's being made you'd think there was a
+gold mine there."
+
+The puzzle became more complicated and Gorman's curiosity was further
+whetted before he started for Salissa. After leaving my rooms he went
+to Cockspur Street and called at the office of the Cyrenian Sea Steam
+Navigation Company. Steinwitz was expecting him and received him in
+the most friendly manner.
+
+"Sir Bartholomew Bland-Potterton," said Steinwitz, "rang me up this
+morning, and told me that you'd undertaken our little negotiation. I
+need scarcely say that we're quite satisfied. We feel----"
+
+"By we," said Gorman, "you mean yourself and the Emperor, I suppose.
+Now what I want to know is this: Why is the Emperor so keen on----?"
+
+Steinwitz waved that question away with a motion of his hand.
+
+"I do not discuss the policy of the Emperor," he said.
+
+"You must be the only man in Europe who doesn't," said Gorman.
+"However, I don't mind. I suppose the Emperor must have some pretty
+strong reasons for wanting to get Donovan out of Salissa, or he
+wouldn't offer to pay a fancy price--it was a fancy price, you know."
+
+"King Konrad Karl will pay," said Steinwitz.
+
+"No, he won't. He can't. He hasn't got it. There's a cool ten thousand
+gone on a pearl necklace, as well as----"
+
+"Goldsturmer is prepared to buy back the necklace," said Steinwitz. "I
+have arranged that."
+
+"Well," said Gorman, "it's your affair, of course. But I wouldn't be
+too sure. I don't think Madame Ypsilante will sell at any price."
+
+"Madame Ypsilante will do what she must," said Steinwitz. "The
+Emperor----"
+
+"I don't envy the Emperor the job of tackling her," said Gorman. "He
+won't find it a bit pleasant. I daresay he doesn't know Madame
+Ypsilante. He wouldn't be so cocksure of himself if he did. She's the
+kind of woman who throws things about if she's the least irritated. If
+the Emperor suggests her selling those jewels there'll be a riot. But
+it's no business of mine. If that Emperor of yours really enjoys a rag
+with a woman like Madame Ypsilante--I should have thought a man in his
+position wouldn't care to be mixed up in the sort of scene there will
+certainly be."
+
+Steinwitz stiffened visibly. His hair always stands upright on his
+head. It actually bristled while Gorman was speaking.
+
+"I do not," he said, "discuss the Emperor in that way. It is enough
+for you to know this. Madame Ypsilante will sell. Goldsturmer will
+buy. I myself will settle these matters."
+
+Gorman was enjoying himself greatly. Nothing in the world gives him
+more pleasure than intercourse with a man who takes himself seriously.
+Steinwitz was a real delight. He was solemnly and ponderously serious
+about himself. He was pontifical about the Emperor.
+
+"Goldsturmer," said Gorman, "is a Jew, and the Jews are a cautious
+race. However, if you go to him and say 'The Emperor' in an _Open
+Sesame_ tone of voice he'll no doubt give in at once."
+
+"Exactly," said Steinwitz gravely.
+
+Gorman collapsed then. Steinwitz' portentous solemnity was too much
+for him. Sticking pins into a man or an ape is a pleasant sport. They
+have skins of reasonable density. It is dull work pricking a
+rhinoceros, even with a rapier.
+
+"About going to Salissa," he said meekly. "Can you manage to send me
+there?"
+
+"Certainly," said Steinwitz. "How soon can you start?"
+
+"At once," said Gorman. "I'll buy a tooth-brush on my way to the
+steamer. I realize that I must waste no time when conducting business
+for the Emperor."
+
+"That is so," said Steinwitz, "but you cannot start before to-morrow.
+To-morrow at 9 a.m. the _Ida_ leaves Tilbury. She is the steamer which
+Mr. Donovan chartered from us. She returns to the island according to
+his orders. If you care to sail on her----"
+
+Steinwitz took up the receiver of the telephone which stood on his
+desk.
+
+"Is Captain Wilson in the office?" he called. "Captain Wilson of the
+_Ida_. Oh, he's not, but Mr. Phillips is. Very well. Ask Mr. Phillips
+to come up and speak to me here. Mr. Phillips," he explained to
+Gorman, "is first officer on the _Ida_. I shall give him orders to be
+ready for you to-morrow."
+
+There was a brisk tap at the door. Phillips walked in.
+
+"Mr. Phillips," said Steinwitz, "Mr. Gorman will sail with you
+to-morrow on the _Ida_. You will see that a cabin is prepared for
+him, and tell Captain Wilson, with my compliments, that Mr. Gorman is
+to be made as comfortable as possible. If there are any particular
+directions you'd like to give, Mr. Gorman----"
+
+"I prefer Irish to Scotch," said Gorman, "but I don't insist on it."
+
+"Irish? Scotch?" said Steinwitz. "Ah, yes, whisky, of course. Make a
+note of that, if you please, Mr. Phillips."
+
+"And I detest tinned salmon," said Gorman.
+
+"You need not be uneasy," said Steinwitz. "On our ships no passenger
+is ever asked to eat tinned salmon. As the guest of the company----"
+
+"Of the Emperor," said Gorman.
+
+He deliberately winked at Phillips when he mentioned the Emperor.
+Phillips has a nice, round, sun-burned face, clear eyes and curly
+hair. Gorman felt that it would be easy to make friends with him.
+Phillips laughed and then checked himself abruptly. He saw no joke in
+a reference to the Emperor, but Gorman's wink appealed to him
+strongly. Steinwitz frowned.
+
+"That will do, Mr. Phillips," he said.
+
+He turned to Gorman when the young man left the room.
+
+"You will let me hear from you," he said. "I shall expect a letter.
+The _Ida_ will, no doubt, return after she is unloaded. You can give
+your letters to Captain Wilson."
+
+"I suppose there's no other way of sending letters?"
+
+"A coasting steamer, perhaps," said Steinwitz, "or a fishing boat
+might put in at the island; but the _Ida_ will be your best means of
+communicating with me."
+
+"All right," said Gorman. "I'll let you know how things go on. But
+don't be too sanguine. Donovan may refuse to sell."
+
+He rose to go as he spoke. Steinwitz made one more remark before the
+interview closed.
+
+"One way or other," he said, "I hear very often from the island."
+
+The words were spoken in a colourless tone; but Gorman felt vaguely
+that they were a kind of threat. Steinwitz said that he heard
+frequently from the island. Gorman thought the statement over.
+Evidently Steinwitz had a correspondent there, some one who made use
+of the _Ida_, of any coasting steamer which turned up, of the fishing
+boats which put in. Steinwitz would not be entirely dependent on
+Gorman's account of his mission. He would hear about it from some one
+else, would know whether the sale had been pressed on Donovan.
+
+Gorman left the office a little puzzled. The threat suggested by
+Steinwitz' last words was veiled but hardly to be mistaken. It
+certainly seemed to Gorman that he was to be watched by some one on
+the island, his life spied on, his actions reported to this perfectly
+absurd German shipowner; by him, no doubt, again reported to the
+Emperor. The thing seemed almost too good to be true. Gorman, himself
+a clever man, found it difficult to believe that another clever
+man--Steinwitz certainly had brains of a sort--could possibly be such
+an idiot as to practise melodrama, spies, secret reports and all the
+rest of it, quite seriously.
+
+Gorman found himself wondering what on earth Steinwitz expected to
+learn from his correspondent in Salissa and what use the information
+would be to him when he got it. Would Donovan be threatened with the
+implacable wrath of the Emperor? Would he himself, Michael Gorman,
+M.P. for Upper Offaly, incur some awful penalty if he did not persuade
+Donovan to sell, if he did his best--he certainly meant to do his
+best--to prevent a marriage between Miss Donovan and King Konrad Karl?
+He chuckled with delight at the prospect and was more than ever glad
+that he had promised to go to Salissa.
+
+The voyage turned out to be a very agreeable one. Captain Wilson was
+not, indeed, a cheerful companion. He maintained the attitude of stiff
+disapproval with which he had all along regarded Salissa and
+everything connected with that island. He gave Gorman to understand
+that he meant to do his duty to his employers, to obey orders
+faithfully, to carry ridiculous things and foolish people to and fro
+between Salissa and England; but that he in no way approved of the
+waste of a good ship, quantities of coal and the energies of officers
+like himself over the silly fad of a wealthy young woman.
+
+Phillips, on the other hand, was friendly from the start. He and
+Gorman spent many hours together on the bridge or in the cabin. The
+weather was fine and warm. The _Ida_ slipped quietly across the Bay,
+found calm days and velvety nights off the coast of Portugal, carried
+her good luck with her through the Straits of Gibraltar.
+
+A much duller man than Gorman would not have failed to discover that
+Phillips was deeply in love with the young Queen of Salissa. All talk
+worked back to her sooner or later. And Phillips became eloquent about
+her. With naive enthusiasm he praised her beauty. He raved about the
+sweetness of her disposition. He struggled hard for words which would
+describe her incomparable charm.
+
+Gorman says he liked listening to the boy. He himself has never
+married, so far as I know has never been in love. I suppose there was
+a certain freshness about Phillips' raptures. He must have been an
+attentive listener and he must have shown some sort of sympathy, for
+in the end Phillips became very confidential. I daresay, too, that
+Gorman found the whole thing highly amusing when he recollected the
+Emperor's plan of marrying Miss Donovan to King Konrad Karl. Phillips
+was just the sort of obstacle which would wreck the plan, and the
+Emperor would never condescend to consider that a subordinate officer
+in the British Merchant Service could be of any importance. There was
+a flavour about the situation which delighted Gorman.
+
+"When do you mean to marry her?" he asked, one evening.
+
+"Marry her!" said Phillips. "I never thought--I mean I never dared to
+hope----It would be such beastly cheek, wouldn't it? to expect----"
+
+He looked at Gorman, pathetically anxious for some crumb of
+encouragement.
+
+"She's a queen, you know," said Phillips, "and an heiress, and all
+that. I'm only----I haven't a penny in the world except what I earn."
+
+The boy sighed.
+
+"I don't see why that should stop you," said Gorman.
+
+"Do you really think--I mean wouldn't it be frightful cheek? It's not
+only her being a queen and all that; but other things. She's far too
+good for me in every way. I'm not clever or anything of that kind. And
+then there's her father."
+
+"I shouldn't worry about him, if I were you," said Gorman. "What
+you've got to consider is not the father but the girl. If she's as
+much in love with you as you are with her----"
+
+"She couldn't possibly be," said Phillips.
+
+"I don't suppose she could," said Gorman. "Let's say half. If she's
+half as much in love as you are she'll manage the old man."
+
+"I think----" said Phillips, "I really think she does like me a
+little."
+
+Then he told Gorman something, not very much, about the scene in the
+cave. He spoke in broken sentences. He never quite completed any
+confidence, but Gorman got at something like the facts.
+
+"If you've gone as far as that," he said. "If, as I understand, you've
+kissed her, then----I don't profess to give an expert opinion in
+matters of this kind, but I think you ought to ask her to marry you.
+In fact, it will be rather insulting if you don't."
+
+"And you really think I have a chance? But you don't know. She might
+marry any one in the world. She's the most beautiful girl that any one
+has ever seen. Her eyes----"
+
+Gorman knew that Miss Daisy Donovan was a nice, fresh-looking, plump
+young woman with no particular claim to be called beautiful. He
+stopped listening. His mind had suddenly fixed on a curious point in
+Phillips' story of the scene in the cave. He waited until the boy,
+like Rosalind's "very good lover," was "gravelled for lack of matter."
+Then he said:
+
+"Where did you say that you were when that happened--the kissing, I
+mean?"
+
+"In a cave," said Phillips. "In a huge cave. I had helped her to climb
+up on to the cisterns, and----"
+
+"Cisterns!" said Gorman. "What the devil did you put cisterns into a
+cave for?"
+
+"We didn't put them. They were there. Galvanized iron cisterns. Huge
+things. Oh, I promised I wouldn't tell any one about those cisterns.
+They're part of the secret of the island. The Queen made me promise.
+I wish I hadn't told you."
+
+"You've broken your promise now," said Gorman. "You may just as well
+go on."
+
+It took some time to persuade Phillips to go on; and all Gorman's
+sophistries would not induce the boy to say another word about the
+cisterns in the cave. They were the Queen's part of the mystery of the
+island and he would not speak of them. But he did at last confide in
+Gorman to some extent.
+
+"I think," he said, "I may tell you about this. I found this out
+myself."
+
+He took a letter-case from his pocket and produced from it a corner
+torn off an envelope.
+
+"Look at that," he said. "Look at it carefully."
+
+Gorman stared at the scrap of paper.
+
+"Bit of an envelope," he said. "Penny stamp, London postmark."
+
+"Now look at this," said Phillips.
+
+He handed Gorman part of another envelope, torn in exactly the same
+way. Gorman looked at it.
+
+"Same sort of envelope," he said. "Same postmark, different dates."
+
+"That last one," said Phillips, "is a corner of an envelope which I
+got through the post ten days ago. It came from the office, Mr.
+Steinwitz' office. The first one I found in the hall of the Queen's
+palace the day we landed on Salissa."
+
+"Well," said Gorman, "that's not much to go on. Lots of firms use
+envelopes like that, and I suppose there are thousands of letters
+every day with that postmark. Still it's possible that Steinwitz wrote
+a letter to some one who was on the island last September. Were there
+any other bits of paper on that floor?"
+
+"There were," said Phillips, "but I didn't pick them up. I intended to
+next day. But they were gone. The floor had been swept."
+
+"Oh! Who swept the floor?"
+
+"Smith. I saw him doing it."
+
+"Now who," said Gorman, "is Smith?"
+
+"Smith! He was steward on the _Ida_. Mr. Steinwitz sent him on board
+just before we sailed. He stayed on the island as servant to the
+Donovans. Oh, by the way, talking of Smith, perhaps I ought to tell
+you----"
+
+He told Gorman the story of Smith's early morning visit to the cave in
+company with Stephanos the Elder.
+
+"Does Smith ever write letters?" asked Gorman.
+
+"I don't know. Oh, yes. I remember. The day we docked at Tilbury,
+after our return voyage, Captain Wilson sent me up to the office with
+some letters of Mr. Donovan's. Just as I was starting he called me
+back and said I might as well take Smith's letters too. There were
+three of them, all addressed to Mr. Steinwitz."
+
+"I think," said Gorman, "that when I get to the island I'll have a
+look at those cisterns of yours."
+
+"I'll ask the Queen if I may take you," said Phillips.
+
+"You and the Queen," said Gorman, "seem to have formed yourselves into
+a kind of detective brotherhood for the discovery of the mystery of
+the island."
+
+"We thought it would be rather fun."
+
+"You don't appear to have found out very much. Suppose you take me
+into partnership. We could all three work together, except when it is
+necessary to climb cisterns. Then I'd stay round the nearest corner.
+What do you think?"
+
+"I'd like to; but I must ask the Queen first."
+
+"I might be some help."
+
+"You would," said Phillips. "I'm not clever, you know. I wish I was.
+And, of course, the Queen is very young."
+
+"I'm quite old," said Gorman, "and amazingly clever."
+
+"I can see that. I saw it directly I met you."
+
+"Then you'd better let me help. We'll see if we can't catch Smith at
+some little game."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+There is no doubt that the Donovans owed their comfort on Salissa very
+largely to Smith, the ship's steward, who had entered their service at
+the last moment, and, as it seemed, accidentally.
+
+Donovan would never have achieved the rest and quiet he desired
+without Smith. Advocates of the simple life may say what they like;
+but a man like Donovan would have lived in a condition of perpetual
+worry and annoyance if he had been obliged to go foraging for such
+things as milk and eggs; if it had been his business to chop up
+wood and light the kitchen fire. He would not have liked cleaning
+his own boots or sweeping up the cigar ends and tobacco ash with
+which he strewed the floors of the palace. He would not have slept
+well at night in a bed that he made himself. He would have gone
+without shaving most days--thereby becoming uncomfortable and most
+unsightly--if he had been dependent on his own exertions for a supply
+of hot water and a properly stropped razor.
+
+His daughter would have made a poor queen if it had fallen to her lot
+to cook meals for herself and her father, if she had spent a morning
+every week at a wash-tub and another morning with an iron in her
+hand. There were no labour-saving devices in the palace. King Otto had
+a remarkable taste for fantastic architecture; but it had not occurred
+to him to run hot and cold water through his house or to have a lift
+between the kitchen and the upper storeys. There was not even in the
+whole palace a single sink in which a plate could conveniently be
+washed. It is impossible to be a queen in any real and proper sense
+if you have to spend hours every day doing the work of a kitchen-maid.
+Queens, and indeed all members of aristocracies, ought to be
+occupied with thoughts of great and splendid things, wide schemes of
+philanthropy, sage counsels for the elevating of the masses. But the
+human mind will not work at social and political philosophy if it is
+continually worried with problems of scouring pans and emptying slops.
+That is why there must be a class of menials, perhaps slaves, in
+society, if any advance is to be made towards the finer civilization.
+
+It was Smith who saved the Queen from becoming a drudge and Donovan
+from unfamiliar kinds of toil which would probably have still further
+injured his heart, would certainly have broken his temper.
+
+Salissa was not by any means a desert island. It was inhabited by
+intelligent, kindly people, who kept milk-giving cows and hens which
+laid eggs. It was well cultivated. Grapes and wheat grew there. There
+were fish in the surrounding sea, and the islanders possessed boats
+and nets. Nor were the Donovans castaways of the ordinary kind. They
+had a large house, luxuriously furnished. They had ample stores
+of every kind. Nevertheless they could scarcely have lived on
+Salissa--they would certainly not have tried to live there long--if
+they had not had Smith with them. Picnicking is delightful for a short
+time. A picnic unduly prolonged degenerates rapidly through all the
+stages of discomfort, and ends in actual hardship.
+
+Smith organized the life of the palace. Every morning an island boat
+crossed the harbour bringing eggs, milk and fish. Every evening just
+at sunset it came again with more milk and if necessary more eggs.
+Four island girls were brought from the village by Stephanos the
+Elder, and--this was the impression left on the Queen's mind--solemnly
+dedicated to domestic service. Smith taught them the elements of
+housework. Two boys were taken from the fields and handed over to
+Smith. He taught them to polish boots, clean knives, and make all
+kinds of metal--silver, brass and copper--shine splendidly. Smith's
+work was made easier for him by Stephanos the Elder. That old man
+spent two hours every day in the palace. He did not bring osier rods
+with him, but the girls knew, and the boys knew still better, that his
+arm was strong and that pliant rods hurt horribly. There were no
+corners left unswept in the rooms of the palace, no plates unwashed,
+no failure in the supply of cans of hot water for Donovan's bedroom or
+the Queen's. At first Smith did all the cooking himself. Later, when
+one of the girls showed some intelligence, he attended only to the
+more difficult and complex dishes. He never allowed any one else to
+wait on Donovan. The organization was not accomplished at once.
+For a few days life in the palace was exciting, full of surprises
+and occasions for laughter. For a few days more it was a very
+well-arranged picnic, rather less exciting than it had been, with
+meals which could be confidently reckoned on and many minor comforts.
+At the end of a fortnight it had settled down into something like the
+smooth routine of a well-managed English country house.
+
+But the Queen, even when things in the palace were well ordered, did
+not find the island dull. She explored it all. With Kalliope as guide
+she climbed rocks, descended into lonely coves, walked through fields
+and vineyards, wandered over the pasture land of the upper plateau.
+She rowed, taking turns at the oars with Kalliope, into many caves and
+found fascinating landing-places among the rocks. One fine day she
+sailed all round her kingdom in the largest of the island boats,
+manned and steered by Kalliope's lover.
+
+She did not forget that she was a queen. She learnt the names of all
+her subjects. She made plans for many improvements. Roads should be
+built, houses rebuilt, water should run about in pipes and women turn
+taps instead of carrying great pitchers on their heads. Motor
+tractors, instead of small bullocks, should drag the island ploughs.
+Motor engines should drive the fishing boats. Every evening, Kalliope
+sitting by her, the Queen drew maps, designed cottages, and made long
+lists of things which the _Ida_ should, in due time, fetch from
+England.
+
+She started a school in the great hall of the palace. Smith explained
+to Stephanos the Elder what was wanted and he undertook the duties of
+attendance officer. The Queen's idea was to encourage the children
+with gifts of chocolates. Stephanos, who must have had the mind of a
+Progressive, established a system of compulsory education. The Queen
+spoke very few words of the children's language, and Kalliope, who
+acted as assistant mistress, did not know much English. But the laws
+of arithmetic, so the Queen felt, must be of universal application,
+two and two making four, by whatever names you called them. And the
+Alphabet must be a useful thing to learn whatever words you spell with
+it afterwards. So the Queen drew Arabic numerals on large sheets of
+paper and tried to impress on a giggling group of children that the
+figures corresponded in some way to little piles of pebbles which she
+arranged on the floor. She succeeded in teaching them that K, written
+very large, and held up for inspection, was in some way connected with
+Kalliope. She failed to persuade them that S could have anything to do
+with Stephanos the Elder. S, perhaps because it is so curly, always
+made the children laugh uproariously. The mention of the name of
+Stephanos made them suddenly grave again. He was no subject for
+merriment, and it seemed impossible that a sign so plainly comic as S
+could possibly be associated with him.
+
+The mystery of the island was the Queen's only disappointment. It
+remained obstinately undeveloped. No more suspicious scraps of paper
+were to be found anywhere. Smith hardly ever stirred outside the
+palace. The cisterns were, indeed, still in the cavern, but no change
+took place in them. They stood there, great, foolish, empty tanks of
+galvanized iron, entirely meaningless things. The Queen came to regard
+them without wonder. They were just there, that was all. Little by
+little the mystery ceased to interest her, ceased even to be a
+disappointment.
+
+Then one day, just as she was beginning to forget it, the mystery
+suddenly became exciting again.
+
+It was still Kalliope's habit to sleep, wrapped in a rug, on the floor
+at the foot of the Queen's bed. Smith commanded and the Queen
+entreated, but the girl refused to occupy a room of her own or to
+sleep on a bed. Every morning about seven she woke, unrolled herself
+from her rug, tiptoed across the room and pulled back the curtains.
+The flood of sunlight wakened the Queen and the two girls went
+together to bathe from the steps below the Queen's balcony.
+
+One morning Kalliope gave a sudden shout of excitement when she pulled
+back the curtains.
+
+"Mucky ship!" she cried.
+
+She ran from the window. The Queen, blinking and no more than half
+awake, was seized by the arms and pulled out of bed. Kalliope was the
+least conventional of lady's-maids. She loved, even worshipped and
+adored, her mistress, but she had no idea whatever of propriety of
+behaviour. Bedclothes were scattered on the floor. The Queen,
+staggering to her feet, was dragged across the room to the window.
+Kalliope pointed to the harbour with a finger which trembled with
+excitement.
+
+"Mucky ship," she said.
+
+Kalliope's English was improving in quality. The Queen had forbidden
+her to say "damn" or "bloody" but about "mucky" she had received no
+instructions. It still seemed to her a proper epithet for any ship. In
+this case it was unsuitable. The ship, a small steamer, which lay at
+anchor in the harbour, looked more like a yacht than a cargo boat.
+Her paint was fresh. Her hull had fine lines. Her two masts and high
+yellow funnel raked sharply aft. The brasswork on her bridge glittered
+in the sunlight. But Kalliope stuck to her epithet.
+
+"Mucky ship," she said, "once more."
+
+"Once more" was a recent addition to her English. She had picked the
+phrase up in the Queen's school, where indeed it was in constant use.
+She knew what it meant; but it was not clear why she used it about the
+steamer.
+
+The Queen was excited, almost as much excited as Kalliope. Even to
+dwellers in seaport towns there must, I think, always come a certain
+thrill when a ship arrives from the sea. In Salissa, where ships
+rarely come, where no steamer had been seen since the _Ida_ sailed,
+the sudden coming of a strange craft was a moving event. And the
+manner of her coming stirred the imagination. A ship which sails in by
+day is sighted far off. Her shape is seen, her flag is read, perhaps,
+long before she reaches the harbour. Half the interest of her coming
+disappears as she slips slowly in, gazed at by all eyes, speculated
+on, discussed by every tongue. But a ship which arrives by night is
+full of wonder. At sunset she is not there. In the darkness she steals
+in. No one sees her approach. She is there, rich in possibilities of
+romance, to greet eyes opening on a new day.
+
+The Queen and Kalliope had no morning swim that day. They were eager
+to dress, to go out, to row across to the strange ship. They had no
+time to waste in bathing. As they dressed they ran to and fro about
+the room, never willing to take their eyes off the steamer for very
+long. It was interesting to watch her. Men were busy about her decks
+and a tall officer could be seen on her bridge. A boat was swung out
+and lowered from the davits. She was manned by four rowers. The anchor
+cable of the steamer was hove short. A warp was passed down to the
+boat and made fast in her stern. Then the anchor was weighed and hung
+dripping just clear of the water. The rowers pulled at their oars. The
+boat shot ahead of the steamer. The warp was paid out for awhile and
+then made fast on board the steamer. The work of towing began. The
+boat, moving slowly in short jerks, headed for the shore. The officer
+on the steamer's bridge directed the rowers, shouting. They made for
+the entrance of the great cave. Close under the cliffs the steamer's
+anchor was dropped again. Another anchor was run out by the attendant
+boat, then another, and a fourth. At last the steamer lay, moored bow
+and stern, broadside on to the cliff, a few yards from the mouth of
+the cave.
+
+The Queen, fully dressed at last, ran to her father's room. Kalliope
+was at her heels. Donovan was in bed and still asleep. At that hour
+Smith had not even brought him his cup of coffee or his shaving water.
+The Queen was less ruthless than Kalliope had been. She did not pull
+her father out of bed; but she wakened him without pity.
+
+"Father," she said, "a steamer has arrived. She came during the night.
+She looks like a yacht. Do you think she can be a yacht? I wonder
+who's on board of her."
+
+Donovan sat up and yawned.
+
+"Is she going off again right now?" he asked.
+
+"Oh no," said the Queen, "she has gone in quite close to the shore.
+She has put out four anchors. She looks as if she meant to stay for
+weeks."
+
+"Then there's no darned hurry," said Donovan, "and no need for me to
+strain my heart by getting out of bed at this hour. Just you run away,
+Daisy, and take that girl of yours with you."
+
+"But, father, don't you want to see the yacht? Don't you want to know
+who's in her?"
+
+"We'll send Smith after breakfast," said Donovan, "and ask the
+proprietor to dine."
+
+Mr. Donovan lay down again and put his head on the pillow.
+
+"But I can't possibly wait till dinner-time," said the Queen.
+
+"Well, luncheon," said Donovan.
+
+His voice was a little muffled. After lying down he had taken a pull
+at the bedclothes and had arranged the corner of the sheet over his
+mouth and ear.
+
+The Queen gave him up; but she was not willing to wait even till
+luncheon-time or to trust Smith to deliver the invitation. Kalliope
+shared her impatience.
+
+"Go row," she said, "quick--quick--slick."
+
+"Slick" was a word which she had recently learned from Smith. He often
+used it in urging on his staff of housemaids. He was forced to use an
+English word now and then when he could not express his meaning in the
+Megalian language. There is no equivalent to "slick" in Megalian.
+
+What the Queen wanted most at the moment was to be quick and slick in
+getting off. She and Kalliope ran down to the steps where their boat
+lay moored. Smith was there, looking at the strange steamer.
+
+"Oh, Smith," said the Queen, "is it a yacht?"
+
+"Don't know, your Majesty," said Smith. "Never saw her before. She
+looks to me like a foreigner, your Majesty, not an English boat."
+
+"Well, I'll soon find out," said the Queen. "We're going off to her."
+
+Kalliope had already cast off the boat's mooring rope and sat ready at
+the oars.
+
+"Beg pardon, your Majesty," said Smith, "but it might be as well for
+me to go off first. Foreign sailors are not always as polite as they
+might be. Not knowing that your Majesty is Queen of the island they
+might say things which were disrespectful."
+
+The Queen would not listen to this suggestion.
+
+"Come along with us if you like," she said, "but I'm not going to wait
+till you come back."
+
+Smith stepped into the boat and took his seat in the bow. Kalliope had
+the oars. The Queen sat in the stern.
+
+The men on the deck of the steamer were very busy. They were
+overhauling and coiling down what looked like a long rubber hose. An
+officer, a young man in a smart uniform, was directing the work. When
+the boat was near the steamer, the officer hailed and asked in German
+what boat it was. Kalliope was rowing vigorously. Before any answer
+could be made to the hail the boat ran alongside the steamer.
+
+The Queen had learned German at school, carefully and laboriously,
+paying much attention to the vagaries of irregular verbs. She began to
+think out a sentence in which to describe her boat, herself and her
+servants. But Smith took it for granted that she knew no German.
+Before her sentence had taken shape he answered the officer. The
+young man leaned over the bulwark of the steamer and stared at the
+Queen while Smith spoke. Then he went away. Smith explained to the
+Queen what had happened.
+
+"I asked him to call the captain, your Majesty. I told him that you
+are the Queen of the island. I was speaking to him in German, your
+Majesty."
+
+The Queen knew that. She might be slow in framing a German sentence
+when an unexpected demand for such a thing was made on her, but thanks
+to the patience and diligence of a certain fat German governess, she
+could understand the language fairly well. She had understood every
+word that Smith said. He had not told the young officer that she was
+Queen of the island. He had described her as the daughter of the rich
+American who had bought Salissa from King Konrad Karl. She made no
+attempt at the moment to understand why Smith said one thing in German
+and offered her something slightly different as a translation; and she
+did not question him on the point. She was content to leave him to
+suppose that she knew no German at all.
+
+The boat, which had run quickly alongside of the steamer near her bow,
+now lay beside the accommodation ladder which hung amidships. A tall
+officer stood on the platform outside the bulwarks and looked down at
+the Queen. He was a heavily built blonde man with neatly trimmed beard
+and moustache. He wore a naval uniform and stood stiffly erect, his
+heels together, while he raised his hand to the formal salute. The
+Queen spoke to Smith.
+
+"Ask him," she said, "if he will come ashore and breakfast with us."
+
+Before Smith could translate, the officer replied to her.
+
+"I speak English," he said, "it is not necessary that he translate. I
+have the honour to present myself--Captain von Moll."
+
+"Very pleased to meet you, Captain von Moll. Won't you come ashore and
+breakfast with us?"
+
+"I regret that is impossible," said von Moll. "I am much occupied."
+
+He spoke slowly, pronouncing each word carefully. He looked steadily
+at the Queen, not taking his eyes from her face for a moment. His
+words were civil. His attitude was strictly correct. But there was
+something in his stare which the Queen did not like, a suggestion of
+insolence. She felt that this man regarded her as an inferior, a
+member of an inferior sex perhaps, or one of an inferior race.
+American women, especially American girls, are not accustomed to think
+of themselves as men's inferiors. American citizens find it impossible
+to believe that any one in the world can look down on them. The Queen
+was not annoyed. She was piqued and interested.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, "you will come for luncheon or dinner. We dine at
+half-past seven."
+
+Von Moll saluted again with formal politeness.
+
+"I will dine with you," he said, "at half-past seven. Meanwhile I am
+sorry that I cannot ask you to come on board and see my ship. My men
+are much occupied."
+
+The Queen signed to Kalliope and the boat left the steamer's side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+Donovan was no more than moderately interested in what his daughter
+told him about the strange steamer. She mentioned the fact that the
+Captain spoke English with precise correctness.
+
+"They're an educated people, the Germans," said Donovan. "I reckon
+there's ten of them know English for one American knows German.
+Couldn't do business with us if they didn't learn to talk so as we can
+understand them. That's the reason. It isn't fancy trimmings they're
+out for, but business; and they're getting it. I wouldn't call them a
+smart people. They haven't got the punch of our business men; but
+they're darned persevering."
+
+"It can't be business that brings him here," said the Queen.
+
+"No," said Donovan. "Salissa is not a business centre. It's my opinion
+that steamer is having trouble with her engines and has come in here
+to tinker a bit; or maybe she's short of water; or the captain's taken
+a notion that he'd like some fresh fish and a few dozen eggs. It
+doesn't seem to me that we need fret any about what brings him here."
+
+The Queen was not satisfied. She sat for some time on her balcony
+looking at the steamer. With the help of a pair of glasses she could
+watch what was going on. The long hose which she had seen in the
+morning was got on deck and coiled in three great heaps. Then the men
+knocked off work for breakfast. After that they became active again.
+One end of the hose was lowered into a boat. It seemed to the Queen to
+be a rubber hose like those used by firemen. The boat rowed towards
+the cave. Another boat lay close to the steamer's bow and received a
+loop of the hose, taking some of the strain and drag off the first
+boat. She too rowed towards the cave. A third boat followed in the
+same way. The Queen saw that the hose was being carried into the
+depths of the cave, drooping into the water between the boats, but
+sufficiently supported to be dragged on. The work was very slow, but
+it was carried on steadily, methodically.
+
+The Queen was much interested in what she saw. After awhile she became
+very curious. The proceedings of the men on the steamer were difficult
+to understand. There seemed no reason why they should tug a large
+quantity of rubber hose into the cave. It was a senseless thing to do.
+Then it occurred to her that the cave was hers, part of an island of
+which she was Queen, which her father had bought for her from its
+legal owner. Any householder would feel himself entitled to
+investigate the doings of a party of strangers who appeared suddenly
+and pushed a rubber hose through his drawing-room window. They might
+be the servants of the gas company or officials sent by the water
+board, or sanitary inspectors, but the owner of the house would want
+to satisfy himself about them. The Queen felt that she had every right
+to find out what von Moll's men were doing.
+
+She called Kalliope and they went off together in their boat, rowing
+across the bay towards the steamer.
+
+Kalliope was excited. She talked rapidly in her own language, turning
+round now and then and pointing towards the steamer. It was plain that
+she had something which she very much wanted to say, something about
+the strange steamer. The Queen's curiosity increased. She thought for
+a moment of turning back to the palace. There she would find Smith and
+he would interpret for her. Then she remembered Smith's odd mistake in
+translating his own German in the morning. She determined not to ask
+his help. Kalliope, hopeless of explaining herself in Megalian, fell
+back on her small store of English words. She kept on saying "Mucky
+ship," which conveyed nothing at all to the Queen, except the obvious
+fact that the steamer was there. She also repeated the words "Once
+more."
+
+At last, when the boat was getting near the steamer, Kalliope made a
+great effort.
+
+"It--is--once more," she said.
+
+The Queen jumped to a possible meaning of her words. The steamer, that
+steamer had been in the harbour of Salissa before, had been perhaps
+about some business similar to that which occupied her now. Kalliope,
+her eyes on the Queen's face, saw that she was making herself
+understood. She nodded delightedly, turned round on her seat and
+pointed to the steamer.
+
+"It--is--once more."
+
+Then she began to sing, softly at first, louder as she became sure of
+herself, until her voice rang clear across the water. Her song had no
+words, but the tune was that which she had sung to the Queen in the
+cave on the day when she first saw the cisterns. It was the tune of
+the hymn "Glorious things of thee are spoken."
+
+Three or four men were leaning over the ship's bulwarks, looking at
+the Queen's boat. They heard Kalliope's voice, and they joined in the
+hymn. A boat lay in the mouth of the cave, supporting part of the long
+hose. There were four men in her. They also joined in the hymn. They
+sang words, German words. The Queen listened intently, trying to hear
+what the words were.
+
+Captain von Moll, standing on the bridge of the steamer, shouted an
+order. The men stopped singing abruptly. Kalliope finished the tune by
+herself and then laughed.
+
+"It--is--once more," she said.
+
+The Queen understood. The ship had been in the harbour before. The
+crew had gone about some work, like that which she saw them doing.
+While they worked they had sung that hymn tune. The Queen frowned with
+perplexity. Then suddenly she recollected. She had been in the choir
+at school. She had sung hymns every morning at prayers. The fat German
+governess, an exile from the Fatherland and deeply sentimental, used
+to play the piano and teach the choir. There were always tears in her
+eyes when she played that particular tune. The girls understood that
+in some way it meant a great deal to her, was perhaps the tune of some
+national song, captured by an English musician and set to the words of
+a popular hymn. The Queen had never thought much about the matter. Now
+it occurred to her that the sailors were singing the song which the
+German governess had in mind, a song so popular that they often sang
+it at their work. Kalliope had learned it from them when they first
+visited the island. They recognized it and joined in it when they
+heard her singing it.
+
+Kalliope rowed slowly round the steamer. An engine on deck began to
+work. The Queen could hear it snorting and clanking. The boat crossed
+the ship's bows, passing under the length of hose which drooped in a
+long curve into the water. Suddenly the hose swelled, writhed,
+twisted. It seemed to be alive. It looked like some huge sea snake,
+wriggling from the ship into the water, swimming through the water
+towards the gloomy mouth of the cave. Kalliope stopped rowing and
+stared open-mouthed. The Queen realized almost at once what was
+happening. The engine on the steamer's deck was pumping some liquid
+through the hose.
+
+Kalliope held her dripping oars above the water and stared at the
+writhing hose. The boat lay still. The Queen remembered what her
+father had said at breakfast. The steamer might have come to the
+island for water. It was possible that the engine was sucking water in
+through the hose, not driving some other liquid out through it. But
+the Queen could not remember any spring or well of fresh water in the
+cave. She signed to Kalliope. The girl dipped her oars again. The boat
+moved towards the entrance of the cave.
+
+One of the ship's boats, with four men in her, lay right under the
+high archway of the entrance. A man stood up and signed to the Queen,
+shaking his head.
+
+"_Es ist verboten_," he said.
+
+Then, with gestures which could not be mistaken he repeated gruffly,
+"_Verboten._"
+
+To the Queen it seemed absurd that a strange sailor should try to
+prevent her from rowing into a cave in her own island whenever she
+chose. She took no notice of the man. Kalliope rowed on. Two of the
+men in the ship's boat leaned over her side and caught Kalliope's
+oars.
+
+Kalliope was a young woman of imperturbably good temper. She smiled
+amiably at the men and then turned to the Queen.
+
+"Blighters," she said. "Bloody blighters."
+
+She was also a young woman of spirit and ready presence of mind. With
+a swift jerk she dragged the slippery blade from the man's hands. She
+pulled it towards her beyond the man's reach. Then with a sudden
+vigorous thrust she drove the blade into the face of the nearest
+sailor. It took him full in the mouth and knocked him backwards. He
+picked himself up and spat out the broken fragments of some teeth.
+Kalliope laughed joyously.
+
+"Bloody blighters," she said, and for once the epithet was appropriate
+enough.
+
+The Queen felt that the situation was neither agreeable nor dignified.
+It is very well, no doubt, for wild, half-barbarous girls like
+Kalliope to engage in fights with German sailors; but for a civilized
+American, a graduate of a university, such things are impossible. And
+for a Queen! Can a queen brawl without hopeless loss of dignity? Her
+immediate impulse was to appeal to the captain of the steamer, to
+assert her right to enter the cave, to demand the immediate punishment
+of the men who had stopped her.
+
+She looked around. The captain was not on the bridge. He had been
+there a few moments before. He had been there when the engine began to
+work. He had disappeared. The Queen rowed back to the steamer. She
+asked for the captain. The young officer whom she had seen in the
+morning came to the side of the ship and told her that no one was
+allowed to enter the cave. She asked to see the captain, refusing to
+argue about her rights with a subordinate officer. She was told that
+the captain was very much occupied and could not be disturbed. The
+Queen, puzzled and angry, rowed back to the palace.
+
+It was nearly luncheon-time when she landed. Smith met her with the
+news that Mr. Donovan had been suffering severely with his heart all
+the morning, that he would not join the Queen at luncheon, that,
+further, he felt the need of absolute quiet and rest during the
+afternoon, but hoped to be able to meet the German captain at dinner.
+
+Donovan's balcony commanded a full view of the harbour. He had seen
+Kalliope's struggle with the German sailor. He felt sure that his
+daughter would tell him the whole story. He feared that she would want
+him to take some vigorous action. Donovan made a point of encouraging
+his heart in disordered action whenever demands of that kind were
+likely to be made upon him. He argued that the trouble of the morning
+would in all probability have died away before dinner. If it showed
+signs of reviving or increasing in intensity he intended to dine in
+his room and go to bed early.
+
+The Queen felt it her duty to lecture Kalliope severely. No
+well-conducted lady's-maid ought to attack strange sailors with oars
+and knock out their front teeth. Kalliope must be made to understand
+that such conduct was not only undesirable in a maid but was actually
+unwomanly. The lecture was, necessarily, delivered for the most part
+in pantomime, by means of frowns, nods, and shakings of the head. Up
+to a certain point the Queen succeeded very well. Kalliope easily
+understood that her assault on the sailor was the subject of
+discussion. After that the Queen's sign language began to fail her.
+Kalliope continued to be greatly pleased with herself and proud of her
+performance. After a long struggle the Queen made her understand that
+she had behaved not well, but very badly. Kalliope grovelled in abject
+apology. The impression finally left on her mind was that she was to
+blame for anticipating her mistress' action. The Queen, so she
+thought, would have liked to fell the German sailor herself, would
+indeed have brained the man instead of merely breaking his front
+teeth.
+
+The Queen, aware that she was failing badly, gave the business up and
+sent Kalliope away to make tea. It was easy enough to communicate with
+Kalliope about tea, clothes, and such ordinary subjects. The girl had
+picked up the English names for most things which her mistress
+commonly used.
+
+The Queen took advantage of this. After tea she made an inspection of
+her evening frocks. She wished to appear to the very best advantage
+before Captain von Moll when he came to dinner. The man had stared
+insolently at her in the morning; but then she had been wearing a
+simple cotton frock and a boating hat crammed hastily on the back of
+her head. In the evening she meant to be splendid, regal. Captain von
+Moll should look at her with respect. She determined that her manner
+should correspond with her attire. She would be gracious indeed, as a
+good hostess should be, but very dignified, a little remote, with more
+than a hint of condescending patronage in her tone when she spoke.
+
+Kalliope, greatly delighted, brought out frock after frock. She spread
+the garments on the backs of sofas and chairs, handling delicate lace
+and fine fabrics with tender affection. Sometimes, at the bidding of
+the Queen, she put on one of the frocks and paraded up and down the
+room in it, her brown face and strong, sunburnt arms making an odd
+contrast with pale-blue silk and fluffy chiffon. The occupation was
+fascinating. There were some frocks which the Queen had scarcely seen.
+She had, she supposed, chosen the material and the shape, had, it was
+likely, tried them on during the hurried days before sailing for
+Salissa. But she had forgotten what they were like, forgotten that she
+possessed them. It was a joy to see them spread out before her eyes or
+actually draped on Kalliope's slender figure.
+
+Neither girl noticed that shortly after six o'clock the _Ida_ slipped
+round the corner of the reef and dropped anchor in the harbour.
+Phillips, standing with Captain Wilson and Gorman on the bridge,
+scanned the palace steps, the balconies, the windows, and then, with
+eager eyes, the shores of the bay, for a sight of the Queen. Captain
+Wilson and Gorman stared with surprise and curiosity at the German
+steamer. Gorman had no special knowledge of ships, but he recognized
+that the vessel before his eyes was not an ordinary tramp. He was
+startled and interested to see any such vessel in the harbour of
+Salissa. Captain Wilson, a puzzled frown on his face, wondered at the
+odd way the steamer was moored and her nearness to the cliffs.
+Phillips, who had no eyes at all for the strange steamer, seized the
+line attached to the _Ida's_ whistle, and blew three long blasts. He
+hoped to announce his arrival to the Queen, wherever she might be.
+
+Captain Wilson, perplexed by the look and position of the German
+steamer, was irritable. He ordered Phillips off the bridge. But the
+whistle had done its work. The Queen and Kalliope ran to the balcony.
+They waved joyful greetings to the _Ida_, Kalliope an odd figure in a
+pale-grey evening dress. Phillips, standing on the deck below the
+bridge, waved back. It was a joyful moment. A few minutes later his
+joy was turned to sorrow of an almost unbearable kind. Captain Wilson
+forbade him to go ashore. A boat was lowered and Gorman was rowed off
+to the palace--to the gates of paradise. Phillips bitterly regretted
+that he had blown his blasts of greeting on the syren. But, in fact,
+it was not for that he was punished. Captain Wilson was simply in a
+very bad temper. The sight of Salissa always annoyed him. The position
+of the German steamer irritated him vehemently. She lay dangerously
+near the cliffs in a position in which no seaman would willingly put
+his ship. She was absurdly moored with four anchors. She was occupied
+in a perfectly incomprehensible manner. No man likes to be puzzled by
+things which it is his business to understand. Doctors have been known
+to deny the existence of symptoms which do not accord with those
+proper to the patient's taste. Politicians are baffled and infuriated
+by men who, indifferent to the sacred etiquette of the profession,
+speak the truth in public. Engineers are angry when water persists in
+oozing out of the top of a hill--as it sometimes does to the confusion
+of all known laws--instead of trickling into the drains dug for it in
+the valley underneath. So Captain Wilson's temper gave way because the
+German steamer lay as no steamer in the charge of sane men ought to
+lie; and Phillips was punished. Kings fly into a rage, said an ancient
+poet, and the common people suffer for it.
+
+Perhaps Phillips would have been consoled, he would have certainly
+been less sulky during the evening, if he had seen what happened in
+the palace. The Queen stood on the balcony all eagerness, her lips
+parted, her eyes sparkling, a flush coming and going on her cheeks.
+She watched the boat lowered, saw the men take their places, saw
+Gorman climb cautiously down and seat himself in the stern. She
+waited. Phillips was on deck. She could see him. The boat pushed off.
+Phillips was not in her. He still stood on the steamer's lower deck
+leaning over the bulwarks. The Queen turned and went into her room.
+She flung herself down on a chair. She had much ado to hold back most
+unqueenly tears of disappointment. Kalliope slipped off the grey and
+silver dress she wore. Very silently she folded and put away the
+clothes which lay scattered about the room. Then she sat down at the
+Queen's feet and cried softly. She had a sympathetic soul. She
+understood the Queen's feelings.
+
+Gorman was received by Smith. After a few minutes he was led up to the
+balcony where Donovan lay stretched on a deck chair with a box of
+cigars at his elbow.
+
+"I am very, very pleased to see you, Gorman," he said.
+
+"I'm afraid," said Gorman, "that I've come to bother you. There's been
+a lot of fuss in London about your purchase of this island. The
+Emperor----"
+
+Donovan waved his hand feebly and lay back in his chair with every
+appearance of extreme exhaustion.
+
+"Ill?" said Gorman.
+
+"Two years ago," said Donovan, "after I had realized my little pile,
+before I came over to Europe I sent for a doctor--leading man in his
+own line in America--heart specialist. 'Doc,' I said to him, 'here's
+200 dollars. You take a good look at my heart.' Well, he tapped me
+some and fooled around in the usual way. 'Sir,' he said, 'your heart
+is as sound as a bell.' 'Doc,' I said, 'you're mistaken, and the fee I
+offered was unworthy of your acceptance. I'll write out a cheque for
+500 dollars, and you take another look at my heart. I've a feeling,' I
+said, 'that what I want is rest and quiet now that my pile's made.'
+Well, he tapped me again and kind of listened to the throbbing of the
+darned machine. 'Sir,' he said, 'you're suffering from disordered
+action of your heart, and I recommend rest and quiet. No excitement
+and no worry.' 'Doc,' I said, 'I'm a business man--or I was before you
+passed that sentence on me. I'd be obliged if you'd put that on paper
+with your signature underneath.' Well, he did that, and I paid him
+another 200 dollars. But I reckon the money was well spent. That paper
+is a protection to me."
+
+"I see," said Gorman, "I'll let the Emperor know----"
+
+"The Emperor be damned," said Donovan, "and, say, Gorman, there's a
+kind of German naval officer wandering around this island. I gather
+that some trouble arose this morning between his men and my daughter's
+maid. Seems to me that there may be explanations, especially as that
+German captain is to dine here to-night. Now my idea is to stay where
+I am--on account of the condition of my heart. Smith will bring me up
+a bit of chicken and a half-bottle of Heidsieck. That's all I feel
+inclined for. But I don't care to leave Daisy alone with that man. I'm
+not scared of anything happening to the girl. She's pretty well able
+to look after herself. But there might be more trouble for the
+officer."
+
+"There will be," said Gorman, "if he's come here with any kind of
+message from the Emperor."
+
+"Daisy," said Donovan, "is liable to speak out at times. And that girl
+of hers is handy in the use of weapons. I don't want to have to
+officiate at the funeral of a German naval officer."
+
+"It might very well come to that," said Gorman.
+
+He was thinking at the moment of the Emperor's suggestion that Miss
+Donovan should be married out of hand to King Konrad Karl. It seemed
+to him likely that there would be very serious trouble if the German
+officer made that proposal, especially if he made it with the manner
+of a man who is conferring a favour.
+
+"You see," he went on, "that Emperor--silly old fool he is--has got it
+into his head----"
+
+Donovan lay back and closed his eyes.
+
+"My heart isn't up to the strain," he said. "I'd rather leave the
+affair in your hands."
+
+"All right," said Gorman. "I'll see it through."
+
+"Thank you. It's asking a good deal, I know."
+
+"Not at all," said Gorman cheerfully. "I shall probably enjoy it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Captain von Moll thought that a certain assertion of dignity was due
+to his position as a naval officer. He was to dine with two Americans,
+no doubt vulgar representatives of a nation which did not understand
+class distinctions and the value of a von before a surname. He had no
+idea of being friendly. The dinner was an official affair. He was for
+the moment the representative of the Emperor. He dressed himself with
+great care in a uniform resplendent with gold braid. He combed and
+brushed his beard into a state of glossiness. He twisted the ends of
+his moustache into fine points. He reflected that if the American girl
+were really enormously wealthy and if, which he doubted, her manners
+were tolerable, it might be worth while to marry her. He would, no
+doubt, lose caste to some extent if he did so; but her money would be
+very useful to him and it would be unnecessary afterwards to see much
+of the girl herself. He rubbed on his head a strongly scented
+preparation guaranteed to give a shine to the dullest hair. He went
+ashore in a boat rowed by six men. A flag drooped from the staff at
+the stern, just touching the water with its lowest corner.
+
+Gorman received him in the large hall of the palace.
+
+"Mr. Donovan, I presume," said Captain von Moll. "It gives me pleasure
+to meet you."
+
+Gorman explained who he was and said that Donovan was unable to be
+present at dinner owing to the condition of his heart. Von Moll said
+that he derived equal pleasure from meeting Mr. Gorman. Then the Queen
+swept into the hall, followed by Kalliope. She was dressed in a
+pale-blue gown which glittered with sequins. She wore a diamond star
+in her hair. She walked slowly and held herself very erect. Kalliope,
+walking behind her, added to the dignity of her entrance.
+
+Von Moll stepped forward, stood in the middle of the floor, clicked
+his heels together and bowed low. The Queen, ignoring him for the
+moment, shook hands warmly with Gorman and welcomed him to Salissa.
+Then she held out her hand to von Moll. He bent over it and touched it
+with his lips.
+
+"I have to tender an apology," he said. "This morning, much to my
+regret, some of my men stopped your boat. They have been placed under
+arrest."
+
+Gorman is of opinion that von Moll was genuinely anxious to make
+himself agreeable to the Queen. He probably could not help looking her
+over from head to foot as a man might look over a horse he thought of
+buying. That was simply his nature. He regarded women as useful and
+desirable cattle. It would not have occurred to him that any woman
+would think of herself as his equal.
+
+The Queen flushed a little under his gaze; but she accepted the
+apology at its face value.
+
+"Oh, it's all right," she said. "But I hope you have not punished the
+men. I wouldn't like to think of their getting into trouble through
+me."
+
+"You are kind," said von Moll, "but it is necessary to maintain
+discipline. The men exceeded their orders."
+
+Then Smith announced that dinner was served. The Queen led the way
+into the dining-room. She took her place at the head of the table.
+Gorman and von Moll sat one on each side of her. Von Moll's eyes
+wandered over the appointments of the meal, the tall silver
+candlesticks, the exquisite linen, the fine glass. They rested with
+particular pleasure on the menu card which stood in front of him. It
+promised a luxurious dinner. He tucked his napkin under his chin with
+an air of satisfaction.
+
+Kalliope stood behind the Queen's chair and waited on her. Smith
+served the two men. At the vacant end of the table stood the three
+island girls whom Smith had in training. They were no particular use,
+but they were pretty girls and they added something to the dignity of
+the scene. They were elaborately dressed in a glorified form of the
+bright costume of the island women. Gorman noticed that von Moll eyed
+them with appreciation.
+
+"I do wish you'd tell me," said the Queen, "why you didn't want me to
+go to the cave this morning."
+
+"My orders," said von Moll, "were not meant to apply to you. I merely
+wished to prevent the islanders from interfering with my men at their
+work. That is all."
+
+"It sounds very interesting," said Gorman, "but I don't know what
+happened. Do tell me."
+
+"It was rather exciting," said the Queen. "Two of Captain von Moll's
+men stopped our boat and Kalliope hit one of them with an oar. Did he
+lose many teeth?"
+
+Von Moll drew himself up stiffly. He would have been better pleased if
+the Queen had tendered some apology to him and promised that the
+over-daring Kalliope should be punished. It is a serious thing to
+strike a seaman of the Imperial navy, a man wearing the Emperor's
+uniform. In von Moll's opinion such conduct could not, without grave
+impropriety, be described as "rather fun." He was not at all sure that
+the German navy would not suffer in prestige among the islanders.
+
+"The man," he said stiffly, "had three teeth broken."
+
+"Oh," said the Queen, "I'm so sorry, and I'm afraid there's no dentist
+on the island. Still it was his own fault, wasn't it?"
+
+"I am sure," said von Moll, "that you will punish the girl suitably."
+
+The Queen looked at him with astonishment. She had not the slightest
+intention of punishing Kalliope. It seemed to her extraordinary that
+von Moll should suggest such a thing. She was a little inclined to be
+angry. Then she thought that von Moll must be making a joke. He looked
+rather grim and solemn; but perhaps that was the way all Germans
+looked when they made jokes. She laughed in polite appreciation of von
+Moll's attempt at humour.
+
+Gorman, watching with twinkling eyes, was greatly pleased. Von Moll
+was evidently another Steinwitz in seriousness and pompous dignity. It
+was a delightfully amusing trait in the German character.
+
+"I'm still rather in the dark," he said. "Who's Kalliope?"
+
+"My maid," said the Queen. "There she is."
+
+Gorman glanced at Kalliope who was at the moment placing a plate
+before her mistress. The girl grinned at him in a friendly way. She
+was quite aware that she was the subject of conversation.
+
+"It strikes me, von Moll," said Gorman, "that your navy hasn't come
+very well out of its first regular sea battle."
+
+Von Moll's face hardened disagreeably. It was an outrageous thing that
+an Irishman, a mere civilian, who apparently had no right to wear a
+uniform of any kind, should poke fun at the Imperial navy. He wished
+very much to make some reply which would crush Gorman and leave him
+writhing like a worm. Unfortunately it is very difficult to make that
+kind of reply to a man who insists on laughing when serious subjects
+are under discussion. Gorman, still watching von Moll closely, felt
+pleased.
+
+"I hope the Press won't get hold of the story," he said. "Just imagine
+the headlines. 'Grave International Crisis.' 'Naval Encounter in the
+Cyrenian Sea.' 'Imperial Gunboat'--they'd be sure to say gunboat, you
+know--'attacked by a girl.' If it had been a man! But a girl! However,
+I won't mention the matter. If you fix that fellow up with a set of
+false teeth I daresay nobody will ever hear about the business."
+
+Von Moll was angry; but he was no more ready than he had been at first
+with a suitable answer for Gorman. He was dimly aware that if he gave
+way to his feelings, if he even allowed his anger to appear, this
+grey-haired, bantering Irishman would be gratified. He had just sense
+enough to realize that he must make some pretence at laughing. It was,
+of course, impossible for him to regard disrespectful remarks about
+the German navy as a joke, but he succeeded in giving a kind of hoarse
+cackle.
+
+Smith was conscious of a want of harmony in the party. He became most
+vigilantly attentive to the two men on whom he waited. Von Moll drank
+sherry with his soup and two glasses of hock while he ate his fish.
+Smith poured him out a glass of champagne. For Gorman he opened a
+bottle of Irish whisky. Then he handed round an entree, a fine example
+of his powers as a cook.
+
+The Queen, too, was aware that von Moll's temper had been ruffled. She
+turned to him with a smile and made a banal, but quite harmless
+remark.
+
+"I think Salissa is a perfectly sweet island," she said, "don't you?"
+
+Von Moll thought it an exceedingly dull hole and wished to say so
+plainly. Perhaps it was the sight of the champagne foaming pleasantly
+in his glass which made him restrain himself.
+
+"No doubt it is pleasant as a holiday resort," he said. "For a few
+weeks one might find life agreeable enough; but after that----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Oh," said the Queen, "I've been here for more than two months already
+and I like it better every day."
+
+"Really?" said von Moll. "What a pity that you are leaving so soon."
+
+"But I'm not leaving. What makes you think I am?"
+
+"I understand," said von Moll, "that Mr. Donovan has resold the island
+to King Konrad Karl."
+
+"Whatever put that into your head?" said the Queen.
+
+"I am perhaps mistaken," said von Moll, "in saying that the island has
+already been resold; but very soon it will be."
+
+"Oh no, it won't," said the Queen. "It's my island, you know, my very
+own, and I wouldn't part with it for anything you could offer me."
+
+"I understand," said von Moll, "that it is the Emperor's wish that the
+island should revert to the Crown of Megalia."
+
+He spoke with a certain ponderous assurance. There was evidently no
+doubt whatever in his mind that the Emperor's wish settled the matter.
+The Queen's next remark must have startled him.
+
+"What on earth has the Emperor got to do with it?" she said. "Who is
+the Emperor, anyway?"
+
+"Now that," said Gorman, "is what I'm always asking. Where does the
+Emperor come in? I asked Steinwitz. I asked King Konrad Karl. I asked
+that footling ass Bland-Potterton. They don't any of them seem to be
+able to do more than just gasp and say 'The Emperor' over and over
+again."
+
+"The Emperor's wish----" said von Moll.
+
+"There you go," said Gorman. "That's exactly what I'm complaining
+about. I ask what the Emperor has got to do with it and all the answer
+I get is 'The Emperor.'"
+
+"Anyway," said the Queen decisively, "the Emperor has nothing to do
+with me and I'm not going to sell Salissa to him or any one else."
+
+Von Moll was master of himself this time. No doubt it appeared to him
+that this defiance of the Emperor's wish was childish, unworthy of the
+attention of a serious man. The silly girl who sat at the end of the
+table playing at being a queen would pack up her boxes and leave the
+island on the day fixed by the Emperor. Meanwhile she looked quite
+pretty, prettier than he thought she could look, with her heightened
+colour, sparkling eyes, and slightly parted lips. He began to think
+that it might be worth his while to marry her in spite of her
+bourgeoise blood. He looked at her with cool, appraising eyes. The
+slight smile on his lips was the only evidence of the contempt he felt
+for a girl who thought she could resist the Emperor.
+
+After that, conversation at the dinner table became rather difficult.
+Smith did the best he could with the champagne bottle, but the wine
+seemed only to increase von Moll's conviction of his own superior
+wisdom. The Queen drank nothing but water, so her temper preserved its
+raw edge. It fell to Gorman to keep things going. He told a series of
+stories about Ireland, all of them good stories, some of them partly
+true. No one laughed, except Kalliope, who did not understand the
+stories but liked the twinkle in Gorman's eyes. At the end of each
+story he asked von Moll how he thought the Emperor would deal with a
+country like Ireland. Von Moll twisted his moustaches fiercely and
+told Gorman that if Ireland had been a German dependency she would
+have ceased to trouble the world early in the eighteenth century.
+Gorman listened with every appearance of deference and docility, while
+von Moll explained the Prussian way of dealing with people like the
+Irish.
+
+The Queen could not cut the dinner short. Smith had provided many
+courses and it was impossible to skip any of them. But at the earliest
+possible moment she got up and left the room. Gorman closed the door
+behind her and then drew his chair close to that on which von Moll
+was sitting. Smith brought in coffee and liqueurs. Gorman took the
+brandy bottle off the tray and set it on the table at von Moll's
+elbow. Smith made an effort to recover the bottle and carry it away.
+He seemed to think that von Moll had had enough to drink. Gorman was
+of the same opinion, but he did not allow Smith to carry off the
+brandy bottle. He thought that von Moll might be very interesting if
+he took rather more than enough to drink. When Smith, after hovering
+about for some time, left the room, Gorman refilled von Moll's glass.
+
+"Silly little thing, Miss Donovan," he said, in a confidential tone.
+
+"That is so," said von Moll.
+
+"In Germany," said Gorman, "you put that sort of young person into her
+place at once, I suppose."
+
+"In Germany," said von Moll, "she would not exist."
+
+He spoke with ponderous gravity. Gorman was pleased to see that he was
+becoming more ponderous as he drank glass after glass of brandy.
+
+"That cave incident, for instance," said Gorman. "I call it cheek her
+trying to get into the cave when you had sentries posted outside to
+stop her. By the way, what had you in the cave that you didn't want
+her to see? A girl?"
+
+Von Moll leered in a most disgusting manner. Gorman poured him out
+another glass of brandy.
+
+"You naval men," he said, "you're always the same. No girl can resist
+you. But, I say, you'd really better keep it dark about that man of
+yours getting his teeth knocked out. If there were any kind of inquiry
+and it came out about your being in the cave with one of the island
+girls----"
+
+"There was no girl in the cave," said von Moll.
+
+"Come now! I won't give you away. Between ourselves. We are both men
+of the world."
+
+"I have said. There was no girl."
+
+"Oh well," said Gorman, "I suppose you were writing poetry and didn't
+want to be disturbed. What was it? An ode to the Fatherland, 'Oh,
+Deutschland, Deutschland!'--that kind of thing."
+
+Von Moll strongly suspected that Gorman was laughing at him again. It
+seemed almost incredible that any one would dare to do such a thing,
+but Gorman was plainly an irresponsible person.
+
+"I was," said von Moll, "carrying out the orders of the Emperor."
+
+"The Emperor again," said Gorman. "But this time it won't do. It
+really won't. You can't expect me to believe that the Emperor sent you
+all the way to Salissa to write poetry in a cave."
+
+"There was no poetry. The Emperor's orders were not about poetry. They
+were about----"
+
+Von Moll stopped abruptly and winked at Gorman with drunken solemnity.
+
+"I don't give your Emperor credit for much intelligence," said Gorman,
+"but he must surely have more sense than to give orders of any kind
+about a cave in an out-of-the-way potty little island like this. Why
+can't you tell the truth, von Moll?"
+
+Von Moll straightened himself in his chair and glared at Gorman. His
+eyes were wide open, so wide that a rim of white showed all round the
+pupils. His forehead was deeply wrinkled. His nostrils were distended.
+
+"_Gott in Himmel!_" he said, "you doubt my word."
+
+Gorman chuckled. Von Moll was decidedly amusing when partially drunk.
+His glare--he continued to glare in the most ferocious manner--was a
+most exciting thing to see.
+
+"There is no use looking at me like that," said Gorman. "I shan't
+fight. I never do. I'm not that kind of man. The fact is I don't like
+fighting."
+
+"I believe it," said von Moll.
+
+He spoke with a sneer, a heavily accentuated sneer. It was more like
+the sneer of the villain of old-fashioned melodrama than anything
+Gorman had ever seen.
+
+"If you want a scrap," said Gorman, "really want it, you know, you
+ought to knock up Phillips on your way back to your boat. He's the
+first officer of the _Ida_. He'll take you on. He's six foot one and
+weighs about fourteen stone. He'll simply wipe the floor with you; so
+unless you're really keen on fighting some one you'd perhaps better
+leave him alone."
+
+"I stay here no longer," said von Moll.
+
+He rose and crossed the room quite steadily, but putting his feet
+down with extreme care. He reached the door and bowed to Gorman.
+
+Gorman leaned back in his chair and lit a cigar. He had enjoyed the
+evening. He had also found out something that he wanted to know. The
+Emperor really did intend to make use of the island of Salissa in some
+way. He wondered whether the cave which the Queen had been forbidden
+to enter was the same cave which contained the iron cisterns.
+
+The Queen, sitting at her window, heard von Moll leave the house and
+go down the steps towards the landing place. Smith was with him,
+seeing him safely to the boat which waited for him.
+
+"So," said von Moll, "I telegraph to Berlin and I forward your
+letters."
+
+He spoke in German, but he spoke very deliberately, pronouncing each
+word carefully. The Queen had no difficulty in understanding what he
+said. Smith replied in a much lower tone. She could not hear him.
+
+"_Ach_," said von Moll, "the old man is a fool, good. And the girl--do
+you know, Fritz, I think I shall marry the girl!"
+
+The Queen shut her window. She had no wish to hear more of von Moll's
+plans. She was insulted and very angry. It was not until she thought
+the matter over coolly next day that it occurred to her as strange
+that von Moll should have addressed Smith as Fritz. The man's
+Christian name was Edward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+I am uncomfortably aware that this history of recent events in Salissa
+is sadly deficient in the matter of dates. I am not to blame. If I
+could I should date each chapter accurately. Unfortunately, not one of
+the people chiefly concerned kept a diary. They all remember events
+very well and are most willing to describe them for me, but they
+cannot remember exactly when things happened. I am therefore
+particularly pleased to be able at this point to give two definite
+dates. The _Ida_ arrived at Salissa with Gorman on board on July 8.
+She left again on July 11. I dragged this information out of Captain
+Wilson. He no longer has access to the _Ida's_ log-books. They passed
+into Steinwitz' hands and disappeared when his office was closed at
+the outbreak of war. But Captain Wilson kept a private notebook. He
+referred to it, with considerable reluctance, when I pressed him.
+
+Taking these two dates as fixed, we are able to say for certain that
+von Moll reached the island during the night of July 7 and 8, ten days
+after the Serajevo assassinations. He was occupied with his business
+in the cave all day of July 8. He left Salissa early on July 9. He
+might easily have made any one of three or four ports on the mainland
+before evening that day. A telegram sent to Berlin might have been in
+the hands of some responsible person that night. Smith's letters would
+follow at once by a special messenger. We may take it that the
+Emperor's secret service agents, perhaps the Emperor himself, knew on
+July 10 that the island would not be resold to King Konrad Karl.
+
+The sailing of the _Ida_ so soon as three days after her arrival
+puzzled me at first. Captain Wilson would say nothing except that he
+obeyed orders. As a matter of fact he seems to have worried everybody
+until he got the order he wanted. The _Ida_ carried very little cargo
+to the island on her second voyage and was unloaded in a few hours.
+Captain Wilson received from the Queen the lists she had prepared of
+tools, engines and material for carrying out her schemes of
+improvement. He was given a few letters by Donovan and by Smith. Then
+there was no reason why he should not start.
+
+Nor was there any reason why Gorman should not have gone with him. It
+was, indeed, plainly Gorman's duty to get back to England as quickly
+as possible. His mission had completely failed. The Queen would not
+sell the island. She would certainly not marry Konrad Karl. Ireland
+was at the moment passing through a crisis, and Gorman, as one of her
+statesmen, ought to have been at hand with advice. But Gorman--he owes
+a good deal of his attractiveness to this--never allows himself to be
+hampered by words like "ought" and "duty."
+
+An Irish crisis is an interesting thing; but it is by no means
+uncommon, and the details are always more or less the same. The
+affairs of Salissa had certain novel features which were exceedingly
+attractive and Gorman had never before had an opportunity of mixing
+himself up in foreign politics. English statesmen, especially
+Liberals, who regard Ireland with serious intensity of feeling, offer
+great opportunities to men of Gorman's temperament. But he thought
+that still more amusement might be obtained by playing politics with
+people like Steinwitz, von Moll, and the immensely pompous Emperor.
+
+Donovan was anxious that Gorman should stay on the island. He
+listened, reluctantly, to all the Queen had to tell him. He heard
+about the cisterns in the cave. He was told of von Moll's mysterious
+activities, of Smith's suspicious conduct, of the Emperor's fixed
+determination to get the island back for Konrad Karl. He professed to
+regard the whole business as a bore.
+
+"Buried treasure, pirate hoards and other mysteries," he said, "have
+no kind of attraction for me. I feel sort of discouraged when they
+bubble up round me. You're young, Daisy, and naturally inclined to
+romantic joys. Just you butt in and worry round according to your own
+fancy. There's only one thing I'd rather you didn't do. Don't get
+interfering in any serious way with Smith. Smith's a valuable man."
+
+Later on he spoke to Gorman.
+
+"As a public man," he said, "your time has got value. You're wanted,
+Gorman, and that's a fact. The cause of Ireland is a sacred trust and
+I'm not speaking against it; but if a subscription to the party funds
+would set you free for a month----Now can another patriot be hired at
+a reasonable salary to take your place? If he can, you name the figure
+and I'll write the cheque. The fact is, it'll be a mighty convenient
+thing to me if you'll take hold of things here. Daisy's dead set on
+unearthing mysteries. I don't say there aren't any mysteries. There
+may be. But it doesn't suit me to be wrapped up in them. Then I
+understand that one of your European monarchs is fidgeting round,
+wanting to take this island off my hands. Daisy says he's an Emperor.
+Now I won't have emperors worrying me. I've never gone in for emperors
+to any extent, and I'm not inclined to begin now. I'm a plain American
+citizen with democratic principles and a disordered heart. I'd be
+obliged to you, Gorman, if you'd stay here and kind of elbow off that
+Emperor when he intrudes. There's only one point about which I'd like
+you to be careful. I mentioned it to Daisy. She tells me that Smith
+answers to the name of Fritz and she regards that as a suspicious
+circumstance. Now, it doesn't matter a cent to me whether Smith calls
+himself Fritz or Leonardo da Vinci or Ivanovitch Ivanokoff. So long as
+he isn't signing cheques one name is as good as another. And if Smith
+writes letters to the Emperor--that's what Daisy says--I don't see
+that it hurts me any. Every man has his own little pleasures, and in
+a free country he oughtn't to be hindered in the pursuit. I've known
+men who collected stamps. It seemed foolish to me, but it didn't
+interfere with me. Same thing with Smith. I don't happen to care about
+writing letters to emperors, but Smith does. See?"
+
+Gorman did not want to worry or annoy Smith in any way. He recognized
+the man's value. His mind was more actively curious than Donovan's. He
+wanted to know what was going on, what von Moll had been doing, what
+the Emperor aimed at, what Smith's real business was, but he also
+appreciated, no less than Donovan, good food, comfort and smooth
+service. He liked to be sure that his wants would be supplied, his
+wishes anticipated, his habits intelligently studied. Without Smith
+life on Salissa would be robbed of a great deal which made it
+attractive.
+
+When Gorman made up his mind to stay on Salissa he wrote three
+letters. One of them was to King Konrad Karl and was addressed to an
+hotel in Paris. He said briefly that the Donovans would not sell the
+island and that it was not the least use trying to arrange a marriage
+with the Queen. He advised the King to enjoy himself as much as he
+could in Paris and to spend his money before it was taken from him. He
+added a postscript.
+
+"If the Emperor sends a man called von Moll to negotiate with you--a
+sort of naval officer who likes giving orders--ask him whether he had
+many casualties in his last sea battle."
+
+His next letter was to Steinwitz. In it, too, he announced the
+complete failure of his mission.
+
+"The fact is," he added, by way of explanation, "that these Americans
+don't know enough about your Emperor to be properly impressed. Could
+you send along a good-sized photo of him, in uniform if possible? I am
+sure it would have a great effect."
+
+Then he wrote to Sir Bartholomew Bland-Potterton. Knowing how all
+members of our governing classes delight in official fussiness he
+threw his letter into a telegraphic form.
+
+     "Things more complicated than anticipated," he wrote. "Will
+     Government recognize Salissa as independent state? Query
+     attitude President U. S. A. Urgent.--GORMAN."
+
+He read over what he had written with extreme satisfaction. It pleased
+him to think that Steinwitz would immediately go out and buy an
+enormous photograph of the Emperor; that he would send it out to
+Salissa with perfect confidence in the effect it would produce. It was
+also pleasant to think of Konrad Karl and Madame Ypsilante making
+efforts to get rid of the remains of Donovan's money by scattering it
+about the streets of Paris. But his despatch to Bland-Potterton
+pleased him most of all. He imagined that gentleman, swollen with the
+consciousness of important news, dashing off to the Foreign Office in
+a taxi-cab, posing Ministers of State with unanswerable conundrums,
+very probably ruffling the calm waters of Washington with cablegrams
+of inordinate length and fierce urgency.
+
+He rang the bell for Smith.
+
+"I've just written some letters," he said; "will you send them off to
+the _Ida_ and ask Captain Wilson to have them posted when he arrives
+in London or earlier if he calls at any intermediate port."
+
+"Yes, sir. Certainly, sir. Beg pardon, sir, but will you be staying on
+in the palace?"
+
+"For a week or two, Smith."
+
+"Thank you, sir. I'll make all arrangements. Your luggage will be
+fetched from the steamer. If you leave your keys with me I'll see to
+the unpacking."
+
+Gorman had no keys.
+
+"By the way, Smith, what's your Christian name?"
+
+"Edward, sir."
+
+"I asked," said Gorman, "because I'd a sort of idea that Captain von
+Moll called you Fritz last night."
+
+"Very likely, sir. I didn't notice. It struck me, sir--I don't know
+whether you noticed it--that the German gentleman wasn't quite himself
+after dinner. He might have called me Fritz, mistaking me for some one
+else. I understand, sir, that Fritz is a common name in Germany."
+
+"Very likely," said Gorman.
+
+Smith left the room. In ten minutes he was back again.
+
+"Luncheon is served, sir. In the small verandah at the south end of
+the palace. Shall I show you the way?"
+
+He guided Gorman to the small verandah, a pleasant, shady place,
+opening off the room in which they had dined the night before.
+
+"Is the Queen coming?" asked Gorman.
+
+"I've sent a maid to inform her Majesty the luncheon is served, sir."
+
+Smith stood ready for his duties at the end of the table. Gorman
+noticed that three places had been laid.
+
+"Mr. Donovan coming?" he asked.
+
+"No, sir. Mr. Donovan scarcely feels well enough. I'm expecting Mr.
+Phillips, sir. He's with her Majesty."
+
+"Ah," said Gorman. "They may be late."
+
+They were late. A quarter of an hour late. Gorman guessed the reason
+at once. No formal announcement was made, but he felt certain that in
+the course of the morning they had arrived at a satisfactory
+understanding and were engaged to be married. Gorman felt satisfied
+that the Emperor's plan for the Queen's future was not quite hopeless.
+
+Luncheon was a difficult meal for him. He did his best to keep up a
+conversation, but neither the Queen nor Phillips seemed capable of
+understanding what he said. If they answered him at all they said
+things which were totally irrelevant. For the most part they did not
+answer. They gazed at each other a good deal and Gorman detected
+Phillips trying to hold the Queen's hand under the table. Philips
+dropped his fork three times. The Queen looked very pretty, much
+prettier than she had the night before when she was angry with von
+Moll.
+
+Gorman, in spite of his cynicism, is a kind-hearted man. It gave him a
+great deal of pleasure to see a girl and a boy in a condition of
+almost delirious happiness. But he felt that they ought not to be
+entirely selfish. They intended, apparently, to go off after luncheon,
+to a distant part of the island, accompanied by Kalliope, whom they
+could not well shake off. Gorman did not want to be left alone all the
+afternoon.
+
+"What about going to that cave?" he said. "I'd rather like to find out
+what von Moll was doing there yesterday."
+
+The Queen and Phillips looked at each other. They had done little less
+except look at each other since they came in to luncheon. But this
+time they looked with a new expression. Instead of fatuous felicity,
+their faces suggested disappointment.
+
+"I think we ought to do it," Gorman went on. "That fellow may have
+been up to any kind of mischief. By the way, is his cave the one the
+cisterns are in?"
+
+"Yes," said the Queen.
+
+"That seems to me to settle it," said Gorman. "We certainly ought to
+take the matter up vigorously and at once."
+
+"I suppose so," said Phillips.
+
+Gorman was really anxious to find out what had been going on in the
+cave. The fact that von Moll had been acting under the Emperor's
+orders stimulated curiosity. It had been puzzling enough to discover,
+in England, that the Emperor was very anxious to remove the Donovans
+from the island, and was prepared to adopt all sorts of tortuous ways
+to get rid of them. It was much more puzzling to find a German naval
+officer engaged in storing large quantities of rubber tubing in a
+cave. Gorman confesses that he was utterly unable to make any sort of
+guess at the meaning of the affair. He was all the more anxious to
+begin his investigation.
+
+The Queen and Phillips cheered up a little when the party started for
+the cave. Kalliope rowed, as usual. Gorman--all successful politicians
+are men of tact--settled himself in the bow of the boat. The Queen and
+Phillips were together in the stern and held each other's hands.
+Gorman pretended to look at the scenery. Kalliope made no pretence at
+all. She watched the lovers with a sympathetic smile. She was in no
+way embarrassed by them.
+
+No one--I judge by Gorman's description--was ever more helplessly in
+love than Phillips. But even he was roused to other feelings when the
+boat grounded on the stony beach in the cave. He slipped his hand from
+the Queen's and sprang ashore. Even from the boat, before crossing the
+steep stretch of stones, there were some interesting things to be
+seen. Von Moll had left his rubber tubing in three great coils in
+front of the cisterns. Gorman and the Queen followed Phillips. The
+three stood together and stared at the hose. Phillips estimated that
+there must have been three or four hundred yards of it. The ends of
+each coil were fitted with brass caps intended to screw together. Any
+one of them might have been screwed to the cocks of the cisterns.
+
+There were also many large packing-cases, stacked at the end of the
+row of cisterns. These were strong, well-made cases and carefully
+nailed up. The only tool possessed by the party was Phillips' clasp
+knife, a serviceable instrument for many purposes, but no use for
+opening well-secured packing-cases. Gorman fetched one of the iron
+rowlocks from the boat, but nothing could be done with it. The cases
+were very heavy. Gorman and Phillips together could not lift one. It
+seemed likely that they contained metal of some sort.
+
+The cisterns stood exactly where the Queen and Phillips had seen them
+before. But now they were full instead of being empty. Phillips and
+then Gorman tapped them one after another. They were all full, up to
+the very tops. Phillips wasted no time in speculating about what they
+contained. The rubber hose was unintelligible. The packing-cases could
+not be opened. It was at all events possible to find out what the
+cisterns contained. Phillips turned on one of the taps. A thin,
+strongly smelling liquid streamed out.
+
+"I know that smell," said the Queen. "It's--it's----"
+
+It is extraordinarily difficult to recognize a smell in such a way as
+to say definitely what it belongs to. Phillips and Gorman sniffed.
+Like the Queen they knew the smell but could not name it. It was
+Gorman who fixed it first.
+
+"Petrol," he said.
+
+"Of course," said the Queen. "I knew I recognized it."
+
+"That's it," said Phillips. "I was thinking of Elliman's Embrocation;
+but it's petrol, of course."
+
+"There must be gallons of it here," said Gorman. "Thousands of
+gallons."
+
+Phillips, stretching his arms wide, began to make rough measurements
+of the cisterns.
+
+"Now why on earth," said Gorman, "should the Emperor want to store up
+huge quantities of petrol in this cave?"
+
+It seems odd now that any one could possibly have failed to guess what
+the petrol was for and why it was there. But early in 1914 very few
+people were thinking about a war with Germany. Gorman, as a
+politician, must have heard some talk of such a possibility; but no
+doubt he regarded all he heard as part of the game that politicians
+play. Gorman is a man with the instincts of a sportsman. He thought,
+without any bitterness, of the war threat as a move, not a very astute
+move, on the part of an imperialist party anxious for office. It was
+comparable to those which his own party played. The Queen and
+Phillips had never thought about European politics at all.
+
+And nobody, at that time, had guessed at the part which submarines
+were to play in war. Civilians, even well-informed men like Gorman,
+regarded submarines as toys, chiefly dangerous to the crews who manned
+them. Phillips probably knew how they were propelled. Gorman did not.
+He had never given a thought to the subject. Like most of the rest of
+us he associated petrol only with motor-cars or possibly with flying
+machines. It did not connect itself in his mind with submarines.
+
+"That Emperor!" said Gorman. "I'm hanged if I understand."
+
+"The Emperor?" said the Queen. "Why should the Emperor be mixed up
+with it?"
+
+"Why should the Emperor be mixed up with the island?" said Gorman.
+"Why should the Emperor be mixed up with you? Why should the Emperor
+be mixed up with anything? I don't know. I can't guess. But it was the
+Emperor who sent the stuff here."
+
+Phillips was a young man of practical mind, very little given to
+inquiring into causes and reasons. But he had a thoroughly British
+respect for the rights of property and the privileges of ownership.
+
+"Anyhow," he said, "he's no earthly right to dump his stuff here
+without asking leave. Salissa isn't his island."
+
+From the tap which he had already turned on the petrol was flowing
+freely. It trickled down among the stones, and some of it had already
+reached the sea. It was spreading, a smooth, thin film across the
+water of the cave.
+
+"I vote we run it all off," he said.
+
+He looked at the Queen and then at Gorman.
+
+"If a man puts his cow on my lawn," said Gorman, "I suppose I've a
+right to turn it out again."
+
+That was approval enough for Phillips. He walked deliberately along
+the line of cisterns, turning on the taps as he went.
+
+"Hold on a minute," said Gorman. "We don't want the stuff flowing over
+the Queen's shoes. She must get into the boat."
+
+A few minutes later the water of the cave was entirely covered with
+petrol. The air was acrid with the smell of it. The Queen held her
+handkerchief to her nose.
+
+"Let's get out of this as quick as we can," she said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+The next fortnight was something of a disappointment to Gorman. He
+admits that. He had made his choice between Ireland and Salissa. It
+certainly seemed as if he had chosen wrongly. I remember--everybody
+remembers--how exciting Irish affairs were during the latter half of
+July, 1914. The country was like a pot, full of water on the verge of
+boiling. Every day an event of some sort formed like a bubble far down
+in the depths of Irish life, rose rapidly, and burst on the surface
+with a little splash. The bubbles were large or small, sometimes no
+more than pinheads in size, but they were evidences that the boiling
+point was very near. The surface of the water, that region where
+governing persons and leaders of public opinion air themselves,
+was already agitated with odd-looking swirls, sudden swayings,
+unaccountable swellings, all very ominous of imminent turmoil.
+
+There were landings of arms here and there, furiously denounced by the
+people who had run their own cargoes the week before or intended to
+run them the next week. There were hurried gatherings of committees
+which sat in private conclaves and then issued manifestos which nobody
+read. Minor officials were goaded into orgies of fussiness. Major
+officials, statesmen, escaped when they could, to the comparative calm
+of suffragette-haunted public meetings in England. A Buckingham Palace
+Conference set all sorts of people arguing about constitutional
+precedents. It was recognized on all sides that a settlement of the
+Irish question must somehow be reached. Gorman, if he had stayed at
+home, would have been in the thick of it all. It is perhaps wrong to
+say that he would have enjoyed himself thoroughly; but life would have
+been an interesting and exciting thing. Salissa remained provokingly
+dull and uneventful.
+
+Gorman went to the cave again, on the day after he had first seen the
+tanks and run von Moll's petrol to waste. He went by himself. The
+Queen and Phillips took no further interest in the mystery for the
+moment. They went off together early in the day and did not return
+until evening. Even Gorman could not blame them. It was their last day
+together. It was gloriously fine. The island, with its white cliffs,
+its golden-sanded coves, its vineyards, its pleasant, shaded groves,
+was a paradise for lovers. And the _Ida_--Captain Wilson insisted on
+that--sailed the next day, carrying Phillips away with her.
+
+Gorman achieved very little by his second visit to the cave. He took
+with him several tools, a short axe, a screw-driver and a hammer. He
+forced open some of the packing-cases which were piled near the
+cistern. They were filled with steel bars of various sizes, steel
+wrought into various shapes and odd-looking coils of copper wire.
+Gorman knew little of engineering or mechanics. He was merely puzzled
+by what he saw. It seemed to him that von Moll had used the cave as a
+storehouse for uncompleted machines of a complicated kind. What the
+machines were he did not know. Why von Moll, acting no doubt by the
+Emperor's orders, should have dumped them there was beyond guessing.
+
+Though Gorman was disappointed he found life on Salissa pleasant
+enough. He was exceedingly comfortable, thanks to Smith's devotion to
+duty. He had many long talks with Donovan, which he enjoyed, for
+Donovan was always amusing and stimulating. He saw a great deal of the
+Queen, helped her to make plans for the future of the island, listened
+when she talked about Phillips. There was a mixture of shyness with
+frank simplicity in the way she spoke about her lover which Gorman
+found very attractive. Sometimes he went out with Kalliope's lover in
+the largest island boat and watched the casting of nets. Once or twice
+he tried to get into intimate conversation with Smith, hoping that the
+man, caught off his guard, might drop a hint that would give some clue
+to the meaning of the cisterns, the petrol, the machinery and the
+Emperor's curious interest in the island. But Smith took shelter
+behind the manner of a good servant, the most impenetrable of all
+defences. Gorman never got anything out of him except a deferential
+"Yes, sir," or, in reply to some leading question, "Don't know, sir,
+I'm sure." Or perhaps, "Indeed, sir!" in a tone of respectful
+surprise.
+
+Gorman was at that time inclined to think that he had made a mistake
+in not going home on the _Ida_. Apart from the exciting movements of
+Irish affairs about which he could only speculate, he felt sure that
+it was in London, not on the island, that the most important
+developments of the Salissa mystery would take place. He wanted to
+know what Steinwitz was doing, and whether Konrad Karl was still
+enjoying his spendthrift holiday in Paris. He would have liked to be
+in a position to watch the fussy activities of Sir Bartholomew
+Bland-Potterton. Later on I was able to tell him something, not of
+Steinwitz or Konrad Karl, but about Sir Bartholomew. It was impossible
+to live in London during the latter part of July without perpetually
+bumping against Bland-Potterton. He was like the ball on a rapidly
+spun roulette board. He seemed to be flung about from place to place
+with extreme rapidity in an utterly irregular manner. It was
+impossible to guess where he would be or in what direction he would
+move. I came across him one day in Cockspur Street. He was signalling
+wildly for a taxi-cab. He grasped my arm with his left hand and shook
+it with frenzied vehemence.
+
+"Just off to the Foreign Office," he said. "Can't wait to talk now.
+Haven't a minute. See you later."
+
+There was no reason why he should have stopped to talk to me even
+if he had not been going to the Foreign Office. I should certainly
+not have tried to detain him. Bland-Potterton bores me. I did
+indeed see him later, though I certainly did not want to. It was at
+a reception, a gorgeous but uncomfortable affair in Ellesmere House.
+Bland-Potterton was in a corner with a highly decorated foreigner who
+looked like a stage brigand. I found out afterwards that he was the
+Megalian ambassador. Bland-Potterton was talking to him with intense
+earnestness.
+
+Another day he dashed at me in the smoking-room of the club. I was
+half asleep at the moment and desired nothing in the world so much as
+to be let alone. But Bland-Potterton woke me by whispering in my ear.
+He might just as well have spoken in the ordinary way. There was only
+one other man in the room and he was quite asleep. Besides,
+Bland-Potterton's whisper carries further than most men's
+conversational voices.
+
+"Have you," he hissed, "any news from Gorman? A letter? A message?
+Anything?"
+
+"No," I said, "I haven't. Why the deuce should I? Is he gun-running,
+or threatening to vote against the Government, or likely to be
+arrested?"
+
+"No, no, no. Nothing of that sort. Nothing to do with Ireland. It's
+this unfortunate business with the Emperor. But I mustn't say any
+more. The Embassies are nervous, you know."
+
+"I don't know," I said. "Which Embassies?"
+
+"The--the--the--well, practically all except the Chinese."
+
+"Wonderful people the Chinese," I said. "So calm. We ought to imitate
+them more than we do."
+
+Bland-Potterton did not think so. He went on fussing. He rushed about
+London, creating small whirlpools behind him as if he had been a
+motor-boat. I had the greatest difficulty at times in not being sucked
+into his wake.
+
+All this Gorman would have enjoyed hugely. I felt sorry that he was
+missing it. However, in the end he had his compensation.
+
+One day during the last week in July--Gorman is no more to be relied
+on for an exact date than Donovan or the Queen--a steamer arrived in
+Salissa. She was a remarkable looking steamer and flew a flag which
+neither Gorman nor Donovan had ever seen before. She had two small
+guns, mounted one on the fore-deck and one right aft. She had a smart,
+well-cared-for look, as if she were a yacht, or belonged to some navy.
+But she was very old. Gorman says that she reminded him of the
+pictures of the royal yacht in which Queen Victoria came to Ireland to
+open Kingstown harbour at the very beginning of her reign. She was a
+paddle steamer. She had an exaggerated form of fiddle bow, a long
+bowsprit and two tall masts on which sails might easily have been set.
+
+Gorman is nothing of a sailor and is almost totally uninterested in
+ships. This steamer must have been very old-fashioned indeed to have
+struck him as being odd. She arrived in the harbour at midday and
+splashed about a good deal with her paddles as if she were rather
+pleased with herself and thought she had a right to the admiration of
+the islanders. There was only one modern thing about her. The
+splayed-out wires of a Marconi installation stretched between her
+masts.
+
+Gorman was sitting with Donovan when the steamer arrived. They had
+spent a pleasant hour discussing, in a desultory manner, whether a
+nation gains or loses by having a titled aristocracy. Donovan
+preferred the British to the American system. Statesmen, he pointed
+out, must make some return to the rich for the money which they
+provide to keep politics going. It is on the whole better to give
+titles than to alter tariffs in return for subscriptions to party
+funds. The subject was not a very interesting one and both men were
+pleased when the arrival of the steamer gave them a new topic.
+
+"Seems to me," said Donovan, "that Daisy might gather in some revenue
+by charging harbour dues. This is the second ship, not reckoning the
+_Ida_, which has put in here since I arrived."
+
+"I don't know that flag," said Gorman. "Not that that means anything.
+I don't suppose there are half a dozen flags that I do know."
+
+"There was some mention made of an Emperor," said Donovan. "Daisy
+seemed to think that one might come nosing round, thinking to buy the
+island. Perhaps that's him."
+
+"Hardly in that steamer," said Gorman. "She looks as if she'd been
+built a hundred years ago. One of the first ever launched, I should
+think."
+
+"Well," said Donovan, "I'm not an expert in the habits of European
+Emperors; but I've always been told that the state coach in which the
+King of England goes to open Parliament dates back quite a bit in the
+matter of shape. An Emperor might feel that he owed it to his historic
+past to sail the ocean in the nearest thing he could get to the ark of
+the patriarch Noah."
+
+The argument was sound; but Gorman was not inclined to think that the
+Emperor was paying a visit to Salissa in person. He was just going to
+say so when Smith came on to the balcony. He carried a pair of field
+glasses in his hand, which he laid on the table beside Donovan's
+chair.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said. "I brought up the glasses thinking you
+might want to look at the strange steamer."
+
+"Do you know the flag, Smith?" asked Gorman.
+
+"No, sir, can't say I do. But she looks like a foreigner. Not English.
+Shall you want anything more, sir?"
+
+Gorman did not at the moment want anything which Smith would supply.
+He wanted information, but it was useless to ask for that. Smith, who
+seemed uninterested in the steamer, left the balcony.
+
+Donovan gazed at the steamer through the glasses.
+
+"Well," he said, "if it's not an Emperor, it's the next thing. That's
+our little friend Konrad Karl standing on the deck."
+
+He handed the glasses to Gorman.
+
+King Konrad Karl stood beside the gun on the after-deck of the
+steamer. He looked neat and cool. He was dressed with care in
+well-fitting light grey clothes, a soft grey hat and white shoes. The
+glasses were powerful. Gorman could even see that he wore a pale mauve
+tie.
+
+"I'm pleased to see that monarch," said Donovan. "He seemed to me less
+starched than most members of your aristocracies when I met him in
+London. Where's Daisy? She'll be sorry if she misses the opportunity
+of welcoming a fellow monarch to her shores."
+
+"I'm afraid," said Gorman, "that she's off at the far side of the
+island. She told me this morning that she was going over there to plan
+out an electric power station. There's a waterfall somewhere. I
+haven't seen it myself. The Queen's idea is to make use of it to light
+the island."
+
+Donovan took up the glasses when Gorman laid them down. He watched the
+steamer.
+
+"The King is wasting no time," he said. "He's coming ashore right now.
+They're lowering a boat. I wonder what brings him here."
+
+"He's probably come to persuade you to give the island back to him,
+re-sell it."
+
+"That deal," said Donovan, "is closed. I'll be obliged to you, Gorman,
+if you'll make that plain to him."
+
+"I expect the Emperor has sent him."
+
+"I'd expect some pretty lively bidding," said Donovan, "with the
+Emperor and a king in the ring, if the island was up for auction. But
+it's not. I'm not going back on my bargain. I'm very well satisfied
+with Salissa as a place of residence. I feel I might live a long time
+on Salissa. Come to think of it, there's no reason why any one should
+ever die here. It's worry and annoyance preying on the human heart,
+which kill men."
+
+A boat put off from the steamer's side as Donovan spoke. It rowed
+towards the palace steps. King Konrad Karl sat in the stern.
+
+"Gorman," said Donovan, "it will prolong my days if you go down and
+meet that king. Make it plain to him that it's no kind of use his
+trying to talk me round, because I'm not going to listen to him. He's
+welcome to stay in the palace as long as he likes. But he's not to
+worry me. If he seems any way determined on talking business, you
+quote the certificate of that doc."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+King Konrad Karl took Gorman's hand and wrung it heartily.
+
+"My friend Gorman," he said. "How are you? But I need not ask. I see.
+You are top-tipping."
+
+"Thanks," said Gorman. "Salissa agrees with me. And Paris does not
+seem to have done you any harm."
+
+"Paris! Ah, in Paris one lives, and I am in the pink. But, alas and
+damn, I leave Paris. I take trains. I travel fast. I embark." He waved
+his hand towards the steamer. "Finally, I arrive."
+
+"How did you come to embark in that curious-looking ship? I never saw
+a steamer like her before."
+
+"That," said the King, "is the navy of Megalia. I come as a King, in a
+state."
+
+"I rather wonder that you trusted yourself to that navy," said Gorman.
+"After what you told me about the fate of the late king. It was that
+same steamer, I suppose, which brought the Prime Minister and the rest
+of them out here to cut your predecessor's throat."
+
+"Otto? Yes. It was the navy. You are right. They killed poor Otto. No
+doubt they would jump up to the chance to kill me too. But just now
+they cannot, and I am safe as a bank in England. The Emperor----"
+
+"Ah," said Gorman, "I thought we'd get to the Emperor soon."
+
+"The Emperor said, 'Carry the King to Salissa in the navy of Megalia.'
+That is all, but that is enough. No, my friend, they will not kill me
+now. Afterwards perhaps. But afterwards I shall not be here. I shall
+return to Paris."
+
+"I wonder you ever left Paris," said Gorman, "but I suppose that was
+the Emperor too."
+
+"You are right. You hit it the first time you shoot. The Emperor sends
+to me Steinwitz--a cursed pig--a cur dog with mange on him--an
+outsider from the ranks, that is, I think you say a rank outsider--a
+bounder, my friend Gorman--a sweeper of chimneys--a swine----"
+
+"I'm sure he's all that. I don't care for the man myself, but tell me
+what he said to you."
+
+"Steinwitz came into my hotel. He said, 'The American will not sell
+Salissa. It is necessary that you marry the girl.' I said 'Good. Where
+is she? To-morrow I will do it.' But he said, 'The girl is not here.
+It is for you to go to Salissa at once. She is there.' Conceive it, my
+friend. I did not want to leave Paris. We were happy there, Corinne
+and I. But at once, in a jiffy, I am off to this place and without
+Corinne. It is a hard line, for me the hardest line."
+
+"But why the deuce did you do it? Oh, I needn't ask that. The Emperor,
+of course. Well, I don't know whether you'll be pleased to hear it or
+not, but you can't marry the girl."
+
+"But--you do not quite understand. For me there is no choice. It is:
+Damn it, I must. The Emperor----"
+
+"Even the Emperor can't make the same girl marry two men. I happen to
+know that Miss Donovan is engaged to a young fellow called Phillips,
+and fifty Emperors yelling at her at once wouldn't make her give him
+up."
+
+The King seized Gorman's hand and shook it heartily. His face
+expressed great delight.
+
+"Where," he said, "is the young fellow called Phillips? I wish to see
+him at once, to embrace him. I shall bestow on him the Order of the
+Pink Vulture of Megalia, First Class. I shall make him a Count. Do you
+think, my friend, that he would wish to be a Count? His action is most
+noble. He is a good sporter. I will now go back to Paris. The Emperor
+can say no more to me. The young fellow Phillips has married the
+girl."
+
+"Not quite married her," said Gorman, "but it's nearly the same
+thing."
+
+The King waved his hand airily.
+
+"It is quite the same thing. No man of honour--the young fellow
+Phillips is above all a man of honour--would go backwards from his
+word. Besides there is your English court of broken promises of
+marriage. He would not face that. I write at once to the Emperor. I
+tell him that I regret, that I am desolate, but I can do no more. The
+young fellow Phillips has cut me up--no, has cut out--that is, he has
+cut me in. Then I return to Paris. To-day I shall start. The navy of
+Megalia will get up steam and----"
+
+The King stopped abruptly. The smile died on his face. He had all the
+appearance of extreme dejection.
+
+"My friend," he said, "it will not work. I forgot one thing. I am up
+in a tree. What am I to do?"
+
+"What's the matter?" said Gorman. "You were just saying you'd go back
+to Paris. That strikes me as an excellent plan. What's the matter with
+it?"
+
+"I had forgotten one thing," said the King. "If I cannot marry the
+girl, I am no longer any use. The Emperor will not care a damn what
+happens to me. The Admiral of Megalia is there, Gorman, on the navy.
+The Emperor's command no longer protects. The admiral will say, 'Hell
+and Hurrah! Now is my chance.'"
+
+"Do you mean to say you think the admiral will assassinate you?"
+
+"It is as certain as two and two and four. If I return to my navy I
+follow poor Otto at once. The admiral will know that if I cannot marry
+the girl the Emperor will not care about me. Perhaps it is better
+after all that I marry her."
+
+"I've told you already that you can't."
+
+"Pooh! You are thinking of the young fellow Phillips. A word to the
+admiral and Phillips will no longer blockade the way."
+
+"Look here," said Gorman, "there's no use talking that kind of
+nonsense. Your admiral appears to be a man with a taste for murder,
+but he can't be allowed to run amok in that way. And Miss Donovan
+would not marry you even if Phillips was out of the way. Get that into
+your head once for all."
+
+"Great Scott and damn!" said the King. "Do you think I want to marry
+her. No, my friend, there is nothing I desire less except to follow
+poor Otto. I do not want to marry the girl. To be married to her would
+make me bored, but it would make me much more bored to die."
+
+"The thing for you to do," said Gorman, "is to stay where you are.
+Don't go on board your navy. Donovan has asked you to stay at the
+palace. You'll be safe here. We won't even ask the admiral to dinner
+if you'd rather we didn't."
+
+"It will be dull, dull as the water of a ditch," said the King
+mournfully.
+
+"You needn't stay here for ever," said Gorman. "There'll be an English
+ship back in a short time and you can go home in her. Madame will be
+waiting for you all right."
+
+"Poor Corinne!" said the King. "I left her in Paris. Steinwitz said
+so, and he spoke for the Emperor. 'You go to marry,' he said,
+'therefore Madame must stay.'"
+
+"From his point of view he was right there," said Gorman, "and it's
+just as well that Madame did not come with you. Donovan is a
+broad-minded man; but you couldn't expect him to put up you and
+Madame in the palace. It would be trying him rather high."
+
+"Ah," said the King. "Poor Corinne! She will be desolate."
+
+"Well," said Gorman, "you'd better come along now and see Donovan.
+He ought to be down here to receive you, of course. But these
+Americans--I'm sure you'll understand--they're not accustomed to
+kings."
+
+"Say no more," said the King, "not a word. I go to pay my respects. I
+bow. I abase myself. I am a king. It is true. But I have no money,
+only a little, a very little left. He is not a king, but he has money.
+Gorman, I am not a Bourbon. I am able to learn and forget. He who can
+write a cheque is a greater man than he who can confer the Order of
+the Pink Vulture of Megalia. I have learned that. Also I can forget,
+forget that I am a king."
+
+We must do Konrad Karl justice. No king was ever more willing to
+forget his rank than he was. The real trouble with him was that he
+seldom remembered it.
+
+"Come along then," said Gorman, "but don't get talking business to
+Donovan."
+
+"Business! Why do you so often misunderstand me, you who ought to know
+me well? First you think that I desire to marry that girl--as if it
+were possible that I should. Then you fear that I will talk business.
+Am I one that talks business ever, to any one, if I can help it?"
+
+"I mean," said Gorman, "don't say anything about buying the island or
+marrying the girl. Donovan's heart is dicky, or he thinks it is, which
+comes to the same thing--and any sort of worry upsets him."
+
+"I see it," said the King. "I understand. Trust me. Mumm will be the
+word. Mumm extra sec. Mumm at 190 shillings a dozen. You can trust
+me."
+
+King Konrad Karl made himself most agreeable to Donovan. He did
+not once mention the sale of the island or hint at a marriage
+with the Queen. He talked about the scenery. He discussed the
+character, manners and customs of the inhabitants. He inquired whether
+Donovan were satisfied with the palace, admitted frankly that the
+accommodation was not all that could be desired. In just such a way an
+English gentleman might converse with a satisfactory tenant to whom he
+had let his country house for the hunting season. Donovan repeated the
+invitation which Gorman had given in his name, and pressed the King to
+treat the palace as his own during his stay in Salissa. The King
+accepted the invitation with profuse thanks. Donovan rang a bell which
+lay on the table beside him.
+
+"I'll tell Smith," he said, "to get your luggage ashore right now and
+fix up a room for you."
+
+I have always admired Smith. He is not only competent in practical
+affairs. He has nerve and coolness of a very high order. He found
+himself in a difficult position when Donovan's bell sounded. He knew
+that the King had landed, knew that he was with Donovan and Gorman on
+the balcony. In Smith's position I think I should have sent some one
+else to take Donovan's orders, one of the island girls, or one of the
+boys who were by that time presentable footmen. I should, I feel sure,
+have concealed myself, feigned sickness, made any excuse, rather than
+face the King in the presence of Donovan and Gorman. But Smith is
+greatly my superior. He appeared at once in answer to the summons of
+the bell. He stood half-way between Donovan's chair and the door which
+opened on the balcony. He did not even glance at the King. But the
+King recognized him at once.
+
+"Ah," he said. "It is, yes. Hell's delight! It is the excellent Fritz.
+It is so long since I have seen you, Fritz, I began to think you were
+dead."
+
+"No, your Majesty, not yet," said Smith. "I hope your Majesty is quite
+well, and Mr. Steinwitz, if you'll excuse my asking. I hope Mr.
+Steinwitz is quite well."
+
+"That swine," said the King, "is, as always, swallowing in the mire."
+
+"You'll excuse my asking, your Majesty," said Smith, "but I like to
+hear about Mr. Steinwitz. It was Mr. Steinwitz who got me my present
+situation--a very good situation, your Majesty."
+
+"Smith," said Donovan, "get the King's luggage ashore. He's going to
+stay here for a bit. You must make him as comfortable as you can."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Smith. "I'll see to that, sir, at once. Anything
+else, sir?"
+
+"Not now," said Donovan.
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Smith.
+
+Then he left the balcony. Many men, perhaps most men, would not have
+gone far away, would have lingered near one of the open windows which
+gave on the balcony, nervously anxious to hear what was said about
+them. Smith was not in the least nervous. He went straight to the
+landing steps and was to be seen a few moments later rowing out to the
+steamer. He probably guessed pretty accurately what questions Donovan
+and Gorman would ask. He must have known what King Konrad Karl would
+tell them. He would discover in due time what they decided to do.
+There was no real need for eavesdropping. Yet I think most men would
+have tried to listen.
+
+"Seems to me," said Donovan to the King, "that you're acquainted with
+Smith. I'm not asking questions. It's no affair of mine, anyway. Don't
+say a word unless you like. I'm not curious."
+
+"I am," said Gorman, "infernally curious. Who is Smith?"
+
+"For five years," said the King, "perhaps for more--who knows--he has
+walked on my shadow. He has been a beagle hound, nose down, on my
+smell, pursuing it. Never until last April has he run off the tracks."
+
+"Blackmail?" said Donovan.
+
+The King looked puzzled, though "blackmail" is a word he might have
+been expected to know. Gorman explained.
+
+"Getting money out of you," he said, "for hushing up any inconvenient
+little episodes, undertaking not to tell stories he happened to have
+heard. You know the sort of thing I mean."
+
+"No man," said the King sadly, "can get money out of me. It is
+like--how do you say?--the riding breeches of the Scottish soldiers,
+not there. Nor do I say hush about my little episodes. Pooh! my friend
+Gorman. These episodes, what are they? The English middling classes
+like to pretend that there are no episodes. But there are, always, and
+we others--we do not say hush."
+
+"If it wasn't blackmail," said Donovan, "what kept him tracking you?"
+
+"Ask my friend Gorman," said the King. "He knows."
+
+"I do not," said Gorman, "unless----"
+
+King Konrad Karl smiled pleasantly.
+
+"Unless----" said Gorman. "Oh, damn it all. I suppose it was the
+Emperor."
+
+"You have it," said the King. "He is of the Emperor's secret service.
+He and Steinwitz. Steinwitz I do not like. He is an arrogant. He
+assumes always the attitude of the dog on top. But of Fritz I make no
+complaint. He is always civilian."
+
+"I'd gather that," said Gorman, "from the little I've seen of him. If
+we must have a spy here--and of course there's no help for that since
+the Emperor says so--it's better to have an agreeable one. His job at
+present, I suppose, is to keep an eye on Donovan and the island
+generally."
+
+"That Emperor," said Donovan, "seems to me to butt in unnecessarily.
+But I'm obliged to him. Smith is the best servant I've struck since I
+first took to employing a hired help."
+
+"It will be sad," said the King, "when you kill him. A great loss."
+
+"I don't know," said Donovan, "that I mean to kill him. He's a
+valuable man."
+
+"The proper thing to do," said Gorman, "is to put him on board the
+Megalian navy and leave him to the admiral."
+
+"Seems a pity," said Donovan. "I don't see how I could make my way
+along the rugged path of life without Smith. He hasn't done me any
+kind of harm so far. I think I'll wait a bit. It would worry me to
+have to step down and take hold now. My heart----"
+
+"What I can't get at even yet," said Gorman, "is the idea in the
+Emperor's mind. He piles up scrap iron and ridiculous-looking cisterns
+in a cave. He deluges the place with petrol. He sets a spy on Donovan.
+Now what the devil does he do it for?"
+
+The King shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"_Real Politik_, perhaps," he said. "But how do I know? I am a king,
+certainly. But I am not a whale on the sea of _Real Politik_. Your
+whale is a fish that bores, always. Perhaps if you ask Fritz he will
+know."
+
+"By the way," said Donovan, "what's the man's real name?"
+
+"Once," said the King, "he was Calmet, M. de Calmet. At that time he
+was French. Later he was Heyduk, a Captain in the army of Megalia.
+Also he was Freidwig, and he came from Stockholm. He was for some time
+the Count Pozzaro. I have also heard----"
+
+"That's enough for me," said Donovan. "I'll stick to Smith as long as
+he'll answer to it. Seems simpler."
+
+Gorman rose from his chair and crossed the balcony. He stood for a
+minute or two looking out at the bay. Smith's boat, rowed steadily,
+reached the side of the steamer. Smith climbed on board.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," said Gorman, "if we've seen the last of our
+friend Smith."
+
+"I hope not," said Donovan. "Why do you think so?"
+
+"Well," said Gorman, "if I were in his shoes I think I should stay in
+the Megalian navy. It'll be rather awkward for him now we've found him
+out."
+
+"He will return," said the King.
+
+"I shouldn't," said Gorman. "Of course that admiral, being the kind of
+man he is, it's risky to stay with him; but then Smith has got to take
+risks whatever he does. And he may have some sort of safe conduct from
+the Emperor which will make the admiral nervous about cutting his
+throat."
+
+"He will return," said the King. "It is plain that the Emperor has
+said to him: 'Follow the smell of the American.' He will not leave
+it."
+
+"Oh, of course," said Gorman. "I'm always forgetting the Emperor. If
+he has given definite orders of that kind they'll be obeyed. I daresay
+Smith is telegraphing for definite instructions at this moment. They
+have a wireless installation, so I suppose he can."
+
+"Behold," said the King. "My luggage descends to the boat. Smith will
+follow. Did I not tell you?"
+
+Two sailors were lowering various suit-cases and bags into the boat. A
+few minutes later Smith dropped from the steamer's side and took the
+oars.
+
+"Donovan," said Gorman, "the Emperor is evidently really anxious about
+your smell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+I do not think that the Emperor's plan for restoring Salissa to the
+Crown of Megalia by means of a marriage would have worked, even if
+there had been no such person as Maurice Phillips. The Queen did not
+like Konrad Karl. She was not, of course, openly disagreeable or
+uncivil to him. She was too sweet-tempered and good-hearted to be
+disagreeable to any one, and she had a strong sense of what was due to
+a guest in her house. But it was plain enough not only to Gorman, but
+to the King himself, that she did not like him. This does not appear
+to have been the King's fault. Konrad Karl had many of the instincts
+of a gentleman. It is an odd fact, but I think undeniable, that a man
+may be a blackguard and remain a gentleman. There was, for instance,
+no fault to be found with Konrad Karl's behaviour towards the Queen,
+though he had come to the island intending to insult her by marrying
+her. He did his best to talk pleasantly to her, and he could be very
+pleasant when he chose. He never attempted to flirt with her. His
+manner was always respectful and he tried to help her in various ways,
+even going to her school in the mornings and giving the children
+drawing lessons. She could not herself have told why she disliked
+him. She certainly had no idea that there was any question of his
+marrying her. But she slipped into the habit of spending most of her
+time in the boat with Kalliope. Konrad Karl used to go down to the
+palace steps and see her off. He never ventured into a boat himself.
+He had an uneasy feeling that the Megalian admiral was watching him
+and would kidnap him at once if he left the security of the land.
+
+The Queen's unfriendliness did not trouble him much.
+
+"The American girl," he said to Gorman, "would not have done for me,
+or do I say she would have done for me? Which is it?"
+
+"Well," said Gorman, "either expresses your meaning and I quite agree
+with you. She would not have done for you, and in the long run if you
+didn't do for her she would certainly have done for you."
+
+"The English language is wonderful," said the King. "She would not,
+and she would. It is the same in English. But my meaning is true. It
+is well I did not marry her. I must give many thanks to Phillips. If
+Phillips had not done for her I should have been done for."
+
+"As it is," said Gorman, "it's the Emperor who's done."
+
+"Ah," said the King. "I give in. I give up. I give out. That word
+'done'--it is too much for me."
+
+It was not like the King to give in to an English idiom. As a rule he
+rushed at one the minute he heard it with reckless confidence. But he
+was depressed and lonely on Salissa. He chatted cheerily enough to
+Donovan. He was always bright and talkative at meals. But he confessed
+to Gorman several times that he missed Madame Ypsilante very much.
+
+It was Gorman's curious fortune at this time to receive the love
+confidences of three different people. Phillips had poured raptures
+into his ear during the voyage to the island. The Queen, having no one
+else to treat as a confidant, often talked to him about Phillips. The
+King was expansive about Madame Ypsilante. One evening he became very
+sentimental, almost lachrymose. He and Gorman were sitting together
+near the flagstaff, smoking and looking out towards the harbour where
+the Megalian navy still lay at anchor.
+
+"Ah," said the King, "my poor Corinne! She will languish. I think of
+Corinne and I see that her eyes are full of mourning, like the eyes of
+a wood dove. Gorman, I cannot bear the weight. It will be better that
+I take the risk, that I go on the navy. The admiral will make me walk
+a plank. That is certain. But it might be that I should survive. And
+then I should rejoin Corinne, poor Corinne who mourns."
+
+"I don't expect she's mourning as much as all that," said Gorman.
+"She's got those pearls, you know."
+
+"I," said the King, "I alone am her pearl. But, alas, I cannot even
+write to her. She will think that I am dead and her heart will fall to
+pieces."
+
+"She's much more likely to think that you've married Miss Donovan,"
+said Gorman.
+
+"Of course she will think that. It was what I came to do. That she
+will not mind. But if she thinks that I am dead, that the admiral has
+cooked a goose for me; then she will indeed be sad. Gorman, my friend,
+what shall I do to reassure her?"
+
+"I can't possibly advise you," said Gorman. "I don't understand women.
+I should have thought she'd much rather you were dead than married to
+Miss Donovan."
+
+"Ah no," said the King. "Believe me, my friend, you know much; but you
+do not know the heart of Corinne."
+
+The King's faith was very touching. But Gorman still maintains that he
+was not far wrong about Madame Ypsilante's feelings. She might not
+actually have preferred the King's death; but she certainly did not
+want to see him married to Miss Donovan.
+
+The King drew a last mouthful of smoke from his cigar and then flung
+the end of it into the sea.
+
+"Gorman," he said, "what is it that your great English poet had so
+beautifully said? 'If you were the only girl in the world and I were
+the only boy.' That is Corinne and me. 'A garden of Eden just made for
+two.' That is Paris. I have always admired the English poets. It is
+so true, what they say."
+
+He gazed out across the bay as he spoke. The sun was setting. The
+water was exquisitely calm. It was a moment for the most luscious
+sentiment. Even Gorman, to whom sentiment is an abhorrent kind of
+indecency, felt uncomfortable.
+
+A small boat slipped round the southern headland of the bay. She was
+rowing fast. The King jumped to his feet suddenly. He pointed to the
+boat. He waved his arms wildly.
+
+"Buck up," he shouted, "it is--I will eat my hat--it is Corinne! She
+comes to me!"
+
+"Nonsense," said Gorman. "That's Miss Donovan's boat. She's coming
+home for dinner. Sit down and don't get excited."
+
+"I am sorry," said the King, "but I cannot. It is impossible for me to
+keep on my hair when Corinne is coming."
+
+"Corinne isn't coming," said Gorman. "How could she?"
+
+"I see her. I see her. The dickens, and Great Jupiter, my eyes see
+her."
+
+"You can't tell one woman from another at that distance. What you see
+is either Miss Donovan or Kalliope."
+
+The boat drew rapidly nearer. Gorman stared at her.
+
+"There _are_ three women," he said. "I wonder who the other is."
+
+"Corinne. Corinne," said the King.
+
+To Gorman's amazement the King was right. The boat reached the
+landing steps. In her were the Queen, Kalliope and a very dishevelled
+Madame Ypsilante. That lady was never, at any time of her life, an
+outdoor woman. When she travelled it was in the wagons-lits of
+trains-de-luxes, and in specially reserved cabins of steamers. Her
+journey to Salissa had been performed in far less luxurious ways and
+her appearance had suffered. Her complexion was streaky. Her hair
+straggled about a good deal, and several damp-looking locks hung like
+thick bootlaces around her face. Her dress was crumpled and had two
+large patches of dirt on it. But all this made no difference to the
+King. He folded her in his arms and kissed her directly she got out of
+the boat.
+
+"Corinne," he said, "now I shall be no longer sad."
+
+Madame returned his kisses with vigour.
+
+"My Konrad," she said, "and you are not married after all."
+
+It was that remark, her greeting to the King, which made Gorman feel
+sure that he had been right about her feeling, that she really did not
+like the idea of the marriage.
+
+Konrad Karl took her by the hand and led her into the palace.
+
+The Queen was still sitting in the stern of the boat. Since Madame
+Ypsilante fell into Konrad Karl's arms the Queen had turned her back
+on the landing slip and gazed steadily out to sea. Only when the
+sound of their footsteps made her sure that her guests were going into
+the palace did she venture to look round cautiously.
+
+"It's all right," said Gorman. "You can come on shore."
+
+He held out his hand to her.
+
+"And do tell me," he said, "where you found her. She looked to me
+rather as if she had been washed up some time yesterday and had spent
+last night in a cave."
+
+"Who is she?" said the Queen.
+
+"Her name," said Gorman, "is Ypsilante, Madame Corinne Ypsilante."
+
+"She told me that much. But I want to know what is she?"
+
+The question was an awkward one to answer. Gorman did the best he
+could.
+
+"A friend of the King's," he said.
+
+"Well," said the Queen. "He'll be able to marry her now. The poor
+thing was in dreadful distress. She thought he was going to marry me.
+And she's engaged to him. She told me so herself."
+
+I am sure that Gorman did not smile; but there must have been a
+twinkle in his eyes which betrayed him. The Queen is extremely quick
+at reading such signs. She turned on him sharply.
+
+"Aren't they engaged to be married?" she asked.
+
+"Kings," said Gorman, "are in a peculiar position with regard to these
+matters. Their matrimonial arrangements are not made in what we regard
+as the normal way. To speak of a king as being 'engaged' is----"
+
+"I'm a queen."
+
+"Of course. Of course."
+
+"And I'm engaged to be married; so why can't he be? Anyhow he is, for
+she told me so. I asked her and she said yes!"
+
+Gorman did not feel equal to arguing about the precise nature of
+Madame Ypsilante's claims on the King.
+
+"You haven't told me yet where you found her," he said.
+
+"Kalliope and I," said the Queen, "were picnicking in a little bay a
+long way from this, quite the other side of the island. There was a
+fishing boat standing in towards the shore. It came to our beach and
+she got out. That's all."
+
+"Quite simple after all," said Gorman. "I suppose you were scarcely
+even surprised."
+
+"Well, I was rather," said the Queen, "just at first until she told
+me."
+
+"Told you what?" said Gorman. "You're skipping all the interesting
+part."
+
+"Don't be stupid," said the Queen. "She told me about being engaged to
+the King and thinking that he was going to marry me. Of course, when
+she thought that she came here as quick as ever she could to see him.
+Any one would. Not that I'd ever think such a thing about Maurice. But
+then he wouldn't. Still, I quite understand her coming here in a boat.
+But I do wonder what made her think he was going to marry me. He
+never even tried. Who could have told her such a thing?"
+
+"Probably the Emperor," said Gorman.
+
+The Queen burst out laughing.
+
+"I believe," she said, "that if the house fell down and Kalliope
+eloped with Smith and father took to rowing races with old Stephanos
+you'd put it all down to the Emperor."
+
+"I would," said Gorman.
+
+"Anyhow, I'm going to dress now. Come along, Kalliope."
+
+Madame Ypsilante, very much to Gorman's relief, did not appear at
+dinner. She went straight to bed, intending, so the King said, to stay
+there for twenty-four hours at least.
+
+Later in the evening, after the Queen had left them, Konrad Karl,
+Donovan and Gorman sat together smoking. For a while no one spoke. At
+last Konrad Karl, who had no gift of silence, began:
+
+"My poor Corinne! She was desolate. I told you, Gorman, that she would
+be desolate, but you would not believe. Yet it was so. Steinwitz said,
+'No. You cannot go with the King.' But she was more than too much, she
+was the equal of Steinwitz. She told him all she thought of him. It
+was much."
+
+"I don't like Steinwitz," said Gorman, "but what I know of Madame's
+conduct in moments of strong emotion I'm inclined to pity the man."
+
+"Then," said the King, "she was like a bee, making lines for Salissa."
+
+"She did pretty well," said Gorman, "considering that she could only
+get a fishing boat for the last part of the journey. I wonder she got
+here so soon. But look here, you know--it seems a beastly thing to
+say, but----"
+
+Here Donovan roused himself.
+
+"I'm not a narrow-minded man," he said, "and I hope I'm not the victim
+of prejudice; but I'm afraid----"
+
+King Konrad Karl waved his hand. Then he stood up, swallowed half a
+glass of brandy and laid down his cigar.
+
+"I am Konrad Karl of Megalia," he said. "I am a black sheep, very
+black. I am a blackguard. You say it, Donovan. You say it, Gorman, my
+friend."
+
+"I didn't," said Gorman.
+
+"Cut that part," said Donovan. "Nobody wants to start in abusing you."
+
+"I am," said the King with an air of simple pride, "I am a blackguard,
+the blackest guard of all. Good. But I am a King and I am a gentleman.
+Good. I know that poor Corinne must go. She cannot stay here. That is
+what you would say, and you are right. I know it. There are _les
+convenances_. There is the charming Miss Donovan."
+
+"That's it," said Donovan. "If it were simply a matter of Gorman and
+me----I don't like saying these things--but----"
+
+"But you are right," said the King. "Right as nails. Corinne must go.
+But I go with her. To-morrow we depart, she and I. We take a boat. I
+row with oars. We fly. The navy of Megalia pursues. It overtakes.
+Good. We die. Perhaps the navy mistakes. It pursues by another route,
+a way we have not gone. Good. We live. Either way you shut us. No. We
+shut you. No. I have it. We are shut of us."
+
+"That's rather a hopeless programme," said Gorman. "I don't suppose
+you can row much."
+
+"I cannot row at all," said the King.
+
+"The navy is a pretty rotten-looking tub," said Gorman. "But it can
+hardly help catching you. You won't even be out of sight before it has
+steam up."
+
+The King sat down, looking very miserable. He made no pretence of
+liking the prospect before him.
+
+"And Corinne," he murmured, "will be sick, as a dog is sick. She is
+sick always at sea."
+
+Gorman and Donovan felt sorry for him. Donovan was particularly
+irritated at the situation in which he found himself.
+
+"If it wasn't for my daughter----" he said. "But, damn it all, what
+can I do?"
+
+"I wonder," said Gorman, "if it would be possible to--well, shall we
+say regularize the situation?"
+
+He looked inquiringly at Donovan and then at the King. Donovan grasped
+the idea first.
+
+"That's it," he said. "Look here," he turned to the King. "Why the
+hell don't you marry her at once? Then everything would be all right."
+
+"Marry her!" said the King. "But that----Oh, damn! Oh Great Scott!
+That is impossible. You do not understand."
+
+"It's the right thing to do," said Donovan, "besides being the only
+possible way out of the hole we are in. And I don't see the
+impossibility. If you're holding back on account of any mediaeval
+European notions about monarchs being a different kind of flesh and
+blood from other people----"
+
+"It is not that," said the King.
+
+"If it is," said Donovan, "you may just go off in a boat and be
+drowned. I shan't pity you."
+
+"But it is not that." The King jumped about with excitement. "I am a
+king, it is true. But I am a man of liberated soul. I say 'Kings, what
+are kings?' Democracy is the card to play, the trump. I play it now
+and always. I have no prejudices. But when you say to me: 'There is no
+impossibility, marry Corinne,' I reply: 'You do not understand. There
+is one thing more to reckon with.' Donovan, you have forgotten----"
+
+"I haven't forgotten," said Gorman. "I never get a chance of
+forgetting. It's the Emperor, as usual."
+
+"You have shot the bull in his eye," said the King. "Donovan, it is
+that. Gorman knows. There is the Emperor. Therefore I cannot marry
+Corinne."
+
+"I'd see that Emperor a long way," said Donovan, "before I'd allow him
+to dictate to me."
+
+"Ah," said the King, "but you do not understand the Emperor."
+
+"I don't believe any one does," said Gorman.
+
+"Well," said Donovan, "I do _not_ understand your Emperor. I own up to
+that. But you think over my suggestion, and you'll find, Emperor or no
+Emperor, there isn't any genuine obstacle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+King Konrad Karl slept badly that night. Donovan's plan seemed to him
+quite hopeless. He went to bed fully persuaded that he and his beloved
+Corinne would have to embark next day and make a considerable voyage
+in an open boat. I do not blame him for being disturbed at the
+prospect. I am fond of boats myself and can enjoy a ten-tonner very
+well; but nothing would induce me to go to sea with Madame Ypsilante
+in anything less comfortable than a well-equipped steam yacht of 1,000
+tons. Besides there was the pursuit of the Megalian navy to be
+considered.
+
+The King was not the only person who missed his proper sleep. Gorman
+lay awake for two hours. He was tormented by the feeling that it was
+barbarous to turn Konrad Karl and Madame Ypsilante adrift in a boat.
+Donovan was more fortunate. He slept untroubled by any worry about his
+guests. It seemed to him the simplest thing in the world that the King
+should marry Madame next day. Stephanos should perform the ceremony.
+Stephanos officiated at all the islanders' marriages.
+
+There was, as it turned out, neither a flight nor a wedding next day.
+Madame Ypsilante developed a feverish chill. She was plainly quite
+unfit for a boat voyage and in no condition to be married. The Queen
+and Kalliope took up the work of nursing her with enthusiasm. The
+Queen would not listen to a word Gorman said to her. Her view was that
+Madame Ypsilante was the heroine of a splendid romance, that she had
+fled to her fiance across land and sea, braving awful dangers,
+enduring incredible hardships for dear love's sake. She felt that she
+would have done the same thing herself if Phillips, by any trick of
+fate, had been marooned on a South Pacific island. There was plainly
+no use trying to hint at delicate proprieties to a girl in such a
+mood. Gorman, after one or two attempts, gave it up.
+
+He had, indeed, quite early in the day, other things to attend to. At
+about ten o'clock there were signs of great activity on board the
+Megalian navy. The crew--there appeared to be about fifteen men
+altogether--was paraded on deck and addressed from the bridge by the
+admiral. The speech must have been an exciting and important one, for
+the admiral gesticulated violently. When he stopped, the crew cheered.
+Gorman watched the proceedings. He was interested--as an expert--in
+the effects of oratory.
+
+When the cheering was over, the admiral gave two or three orders. The
+crew immediately began to run about the deck in a confused and
+tumultuous manner. After a while they settled down to the work of
+getting the covers off the steamer's two guns. Some shells--Gorman
+supposed they must be shells--were carried on deck. The guns were
+swung round and pointed at the palace. Then they were loaded. A solemn
+business, very carefully carried out under the immediate eye of the
+admiral.
+
+King Konrad Karl came running to Gorman. He was in a state of
+considerable excitement.
+
+"That admiral," he said, "has it in mind to stone the palace. He has
+stones for those guns. I know it."
+
+"If it was a matter of stones," said Gorman, "but they look to me more
+like shells."
+
+"Shells, stones, it is the same. He will batter, destroy, slay.
+Gorman, my friend, it must not be."
+
+"Why the devil does he want to do it?" said Gorman. "Now don't say
+_Real Politik_ or the Emperor. I simply can't believe that either one
+or the other would set that pirate shooting at us."
+
+"It is _Real Politik_, without doubt," said the King. "And it is the
+Emperor. But it is also me, me, Konrad Karl of Megalia. I am--what is
+it you say in English?--I am wanted. And I go. I offer myself. I
+become a ewe lamb of sacrifice. I say good-bye. I leave Corinne. I go.
+Then the admiral will not stone the palace."
+
+"Don't start for a minute or two yet," said Gorman. "The pirate is
+sending a boat ashore. We may as well hear what he has to say."
+
+It was the admiral himself who landed. He was in full dress. His
+uniform was almost entirely covered with gold braid. Gold cords with
+tassels at their ends hung in festoons across his chest and down his
+back. He carried a large sword in a highly gilt sheath. On his head
+was a cocked hat with a tall pink feather in it, perhaps a plume from
+the tail of the Megalian vulture.
+
+Gorman received him with great respect and led him up to Donovan's
+room.
+
+The admiral saluted Donovan gravely, and held out a large paper
+carefully folded and sealed. Donovan offered him a cigar and a drink,
+in a perfectly friendly way. The admiral replied by pushing his paper
+forward towards Donovan. He knew no English. That was the only
+possible way of explaining the fact that he ignored the offer of a
+drink. Donovan nodded towards Gorman, who took the document from the
+admiral and opened it.
+
+"Seems to me to be a kind of state paper," he said. "Rather like an
+Act of Parliament to look at; but it's written in a language I don't
+know. Suppose we send for the King and get him to translate."
+
+"If it's an Act of Parliament," said Donovan, "we'd better have Daisy
+up too. She's responsible for the government of this island."
+
+The admiral guessed that his document was under discussion. He did not
+know English, but he knew one word which was, at that time, common in
+all languages.
+
+"Ultimatum," he said solemnly.
+
+"That so?" said Donovan. "Then we must have Daisy."
+
+I am inclined to think that Miss Donovan will never be a first-rate
+queen. She is constitutionally incapable of that particular kind of
+stupidity which is called dignity. In that hour of her country's
+destiny, her chief feeling was amusement at the appearance of the
+admiral. She did not know, perhaps, that the guns of the Megalian navy
+were trained on her palace. But she ought to have understood that
+dignified conduct is desirable in dealing with admirals. She sat on
+the corner of the table beside her father's chair and swung her legs.
+She smiled at the admiral. Now and then she choked down little fits of
+laughter.
+
+King Konrad Karl took the matter much more seriously.
+
+He unfolded the paper which Gorman handed to him. He frowned fiercely
+and then became suddenly explosive.
+
+"Deuce and Jove and damn!" he said. "This is the limitation of all.
+Listen, my friends, to the cursed jaw--no, the infernal cheek, of
+this: 'The Megalian Government requires----'"
+
+He stopped, gasped, struck at the paper with his hand.
+
+"Go on," said Gorman. "There's nothing very bad so far. There is a
+Megalian Government, I suppose?"
+
+"But I--I am the Megalian Government," said the King.
+
+"It will be time enough to take up those points of constitutional law
+afterwards. Let's hear what's in the paper first."
+
+The King read on. His anger gave way by degrees to anxiety and
+perplexity.
+
+"I cannot translate," he said. "The English language does not contain
+words in which to express the damned cheek of these flounders. They
+say that you," he pointed to the Queen, "and you, Donovan, and you, my
+friend Gorman, must go at once on the Megalian navy. It will carry you
+to Sicily. It will put you there in a dump, and you must embark before
+noon. Great Scott!"
+
+"Oh, but that's just silly," said the Queen. "We shan't take any
+notice of it."
+
+"In that case the admiral shoots," said the King. "At noon, sharp up
+to time, precise."
+
+"Well," said Donovan, "I guess I don't mean to move."
+
+"But," said the King, "he can shoot. The navy of Megalia has shells
+for its guns. It has six. I know it, for I bought them myself when I
+sat on that cursed throne. Six, my friends."
+
+"That's a comfort, anyway," said Donovan. "According to my notion of
+the efficiency of that navy it will miss the island altogether with
+the first five and be darned lucky if it knocks a chip off a cliff
+with the sixth."
+
+The Queen stopped swinging her feet and laughing at the admiral. She
+was much more serious now. There was a gleam in her eyes which caught
+Gorman's attention.
+
+"Father," she said, "I'm going to hoist the American flag. I have one
+in my room."
+
+"Seems a pity," said Donovan. "Your blue banner is nice enough."
+
+"No one," said the Queen, "would dare to fire on the Stars and
+Stripes."
+
+Miss Donovan, though an independent queen, was a patriotic American
+citizen. In those days there were a good many patriotic American
+citizens who believed that no one would dare to fire on the Stars and
+Stripes. King Konrad Karl knew better.
+
+"Alas," he said, "your Stars! your Stripes! if it were the Megalian
+Government it would not dare. But this is not the ultimatum outrage of
+the Megalian Government. Behind it, in the rear of its elbow,
+stands----"
+
+"Of course he does," said Gorman.
+
+"That darned Emperor?" said Donovan.
+
+Gorman nodded.
+
+"Daisy," said Donovan, "I just hate to shatter your ideals, but I
+reckon that Emperor would as soon fire on one flag as another; and
+what's more, I'm not inclined to think that Old Glory is liable to do
+much in the way of putting up a battle afterwards. It's painful to
+you, Daisy, as a patriotic citizen; but what I say is the fact. In the
+Middle West where I was raised we don't think guns and shooting
+constitute the proper way of settling international differences. We've
+advanced some from those ideas. We're a civilized people, specially in
+the dry States where university education is rife and the influence
+of women permeates elections. We've attained a nobler outlook upon
+life."
+
+The Queen was on her feet. Her eyes were flashing. Her lips trembled
+with indignation.
+
+"Father," she said, "are you going to let yourself be bullied by--by
+that thing?" She pointed to the admiral with a gesture of contempt.
+"Are you going to sneak on to his ship? Oh, if I were a man I'd hoist
+the Stars and Stripes and fight. If they killed us America would
+avenge us."
+
+"You take me up wrong, Daisy," said Donovan. "I don't say I wouldn't
+fight if I had a gun. I might, and that's a fact. But the way I'm
+fixed at present, not having a gun, I intend to experiment with the
+methods of peaceful settlement. I'm not above admitting that I share
+the lofty notions of the cultivated disciples of peace. I'm a
+humanitarian, and opposed on principle to the sacrifice of human life.
+I just hate butting in and taking hold. The disordered nature of my
+heart makes it dangerous for me to exert myself. But it seems to me
+that this is a case in which I just have to. But if I do, I want to
+handle things my own way. So you run away now, Daisy. Get that blue
+banner of yours fluttering in the breeze, defying death and destiny."
+He turned to Konrad Karl. "I'd be obliged to you," he said, "if you'd
+tell that highly coloured ocean warrior that I count on him not to
+start shooting till the time mentioned in his ultimatum. That leaves
+me an hour and a quarter to work with the nobler weapons of civilized
+pacifist conviction. Tell him to go back to his ship and see that his
+men don't get monkeying with those six shells. Gorman," he went on,
+"you get hold of Smith and send him up here to me."
+
+I think it was then that Gorman first realized the strength of
+Donovan's personality. The Queen, though she was in a high passion of
+patriotism and defiance, left the room without a word. Konrad Karl
+spluttered a little, uttering a series of ill-assorted oaths, but he
+walked off the Megalian admiral and put him into a boat. Gorman
+himself did what he was told without asking for a word of explanation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Gorman led Smith to Donovan's room. The man must have known all about
+the Megalian admiral's threat. He probably understood, better than any
+one else on the island, the meaning and purpose of the ultimatum
+presented to Donovan. But he showed no signs of embarrassment or
+excitement. When Gorman summoned him--he was brushing a pair of Konrad
+Karl's trousers at the moment--he apologized for having put Gorman to
+the trouble of looking for him. When he entered the room where Donovan
+waited he stood quietly near the door in his usual attitude of
+respectful attention.
+
+Donovan greeted him as if he had been a friend and not a servant.
+
+"Take a chair, Smith, and sit down. I want to talk to you."
+
+Smith refused to accept this new position.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "but if it's all the same to you, I'd
+rather stand. Seems more natural, sir."
+
+Gorman, who had followed Smith into the room, hovered uncertainly near
+the door. He very much wanted to hear what Donovan had to say; but he
+was not quite sure whether he was meant to be present.
+
+"Any objection to my staying?" he asked. "I'm interested in
+international peace movements and Hague Conferences. I'd like to hear
+how you mean to work this affair."
+
+"Sit down," said Donovan, "but don't get interrupting. Now that I've
+taken hold I mean to handle this damned business my own way."
+
+Gorman sat down and lit his pipe. Donovan turned to Smith.
+
+"You're a valuable man, Smith," he said, "and I'd like to retain your
+services."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Smith. "I've done my best to give
+satisfaction."
+
+"But if you're to stay on with me," said Donovan, "we've got to have
+some straight talk. I'd like it to be clearly understood that your
+engagement with me is to be a whole-time job for the future."
+
+"More satisfactory, sir, certainly."
+
+"At present," said Donovan, "you're also engaged by Mr. Steinwitz."
+
+"Not by Mr. Steinwitz, sir, if you'll excuse my correcting you. By the
+Emperor."
+
+Gorman groaned deeply. Smith turned to him, solicitous, anxious to be
+of use.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir, can I do anything for you, sir? Anything wrong,
+sir?"
+
+"No," said Gorman, "no. The mention of the Emperor upsets me a little.
+That's all. Don't do it again, if you can help it, Smith. I'm sorry,
+Donovan. I didn't mean to interrupt."
+
+Smith turned to Donovan again.
+
+"Perhaps I should say, sir, the Imperial Secret Service."
+
+"Salary?" said Donovan.
+
+He showed no surprise, anger or disgust. Smith was equally cool. He
+answered the question snapped at him as if it had been the most
+natural in the world.
+
+"Well, sir, that depends. The salary varies according to
+circumstances. And there are allowances, travelling, sir, and
+subsistence, sometimes."
+
+"Average?" said Donovan, "average net profit?"
+
+Smith thought for a minute before answering. He was apparently anxious
+to be accurate and honest.
+
+"I think, sir, I may say L200 a year, taking one thing with another."
+
+"Well," said Donovan, "I'll double that, in addition to what I'm
+paying you at present; on condition that you're in my service only. As
+I said before, Smith, you're a valuable man."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Smith. "Very generous of you. I appreciate the
+offer, but----"
+
+He paused. He had some objection to make, but he hesitated to put it
+into words.
+
+"I treble the Emperor's two hundred pounds," said Donovan.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir. I wasn't meaning to stand out for a larger
+salary. That's not my point, sir. What I was going to say, sir,
+was----"
+
+Again he hesitated.
+
+"Patriotic scruples?" said Donovan. "Loyal to the Emperor? Feel kind
+of mean deserting the service of your country?"
+
+"Oh no, sir, not at all. Scruples aren't in my line, sir, and I am
+Swiss by birth. No particular feeling of loyalty to anybody. The fact
+is, sir, a man must keep his self-respect. I daresay you'll
+understand. I had no objection to taking on a valet's job, sir, in the
+way of business, as an agent of the Intelligence Department. But it's
+rather a different thing, sir--if you catch my point--to enter
+domestic service as a profession. A man doesn't like to lose caste,
+sir."
+
+"That's a real difficulty," said Donovan. "As an American citizen I
+understand your feeling and respect it. See any way out?"
+
+"It occurs to me, sir--it's for you to decide, of course. But it
+occurs to me that if I might enter the Intelligence Department of
+Salissa, there'd be no interference with my work in the palace.
+Anything I could do to make you comfortable. But as agent of the
+Queen's Secret Service I should be----I hope you catch my point, sir.
+You see I held a commission at one time in the Megalian Army."
+
+"You may consider yourself engaged, Smith," said Donovan, "or perhaps
+I ought to say nominated, as head of the Intelligence Department of
+the Kingdom of Salissa."
+
+"Thank you, sir. When would you like me to take over my new duties?"
+
+"You can begin right now," said Donovan.
+
+"Very good, sir. I beg to report that England declared war on Germany
+this morning. The news came by wireless to the admiral."
+
+Gorman dropped his pipe and sat upright suddenly.
+
+"Good Lord!" he said. "England. Germany. I say, Donovan, if this is
+true----"
+
+Donovan motioned him to silence with a wave of his hand.
+
+"Salissa," he said, "is a neutral State."
+
+"But," said Gorman, "if there's a European war----"
+
+Donovan ignored him.
+
+"Smith," he said, "that admiral informs me that he has orders to
+deport us from this island and dump us down somewhere in Sicily. That
+so?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Smith. "Those are the Emperor's orders. Very urgent
+orders. In the case of your refusal to obey, the admiral is to fire on
+the palace."
+
+"So I understand," said Donovan. "Now what I want you to do is to go
+off to the steamer and negotiate with the admiral."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Shall we say L500? or ought I to go higher?"
+
+"I don't think," said Smith, "that it will be necessary to give so
+much. If you will allow me to suggest, I'd say an offer of L10."
+
+For the first time since the interview began Donovan was startled.
+
+"Ten pounds!" he said. "Do you mean ten?"
+
+"Giving me permission to rise to twenty pounds if necessary," said
+Smith.
+
+"But an admiral!" said Donovan. "Remember he's an admiral."
+
+"Yes, sir. But admirals aren't quite the same thing here as in
+England. Don't belong to the same class. Don't draw the same salary."
+
+"Make it twenty-five pounds," said Donovan. "I'd be ashamed to offer
+less to a Tammany boss."
+
+"Very good, sir, just as you please, sir."
+
+"Right," said Donovan. "And now we've got that settled, and we've
+three-quarters of an hour to spare, before the bombardment is timed to
+begin. There are one or two points I'd like to have cleared up. But I
+wish you'd sit down, Smith, and take a cigar. As head of the
+Intelligence Department of this kingdom----"
+
+"If you're quite sure, sir, that there isn't anything you want me to
+fetch. A drink, sir?"
+
+"Not for me," said Donovan. "I want to talk."
+
+Smith sat down, stretched himself comfortably in a deep chair and lit
+a cigar.
+
+"What's the Emperor's game?" said Donovan. "What's he after? What the
+hell does he mean by monkeying round this island ever since I bought
+it?"
+
+"Well," said Smith, "I haven't got what you could call official
+knowledge of the Emperor's plans. My orders came to me through
+Steinwitz, and Steinwitz doesn't talk unnecessarily."
+
+The servant manner and the cockney accent disappeared when Smith sat
+down. He talked to Donovan as one man of the world to another.
+
+"Still," said Donovan, "you've got some sort of idea."
+
+"Last December," said Smith, "I was in London keeping an eye on King
+Konrad Karl. The Emperor liked to know what he was doing. One day I
+got orders to take delivery of some large cisterns from a firm in
+Germany, paying for them by cheque drawn on my own account. They were
+consigned to me as water cisterns. My business was to ship them to
+Hamburg and hand them over to Captain von Moll. That's all I was told.
+But I happened to find out what von Moll's orders were. He was to land
+those cisterns in Salissa. I satisfied myself that they were here as
+soon as I arrived with you on the _Ida_. Von Moll concealed them very
+well; but he was a bit careless in other ways. He seems to have lived
+in the palace while he was here and he left some papers lying about,
+torn up but not burnt. One of them was a letter from Steinwitz.
+Phillips, the officer of the _Ida_, had his eye on those papers. I
+swept them up and destroyed them."
+
+"And the cisterns?" said Donovan. "What are they for?"
+
+"If you consider the geographical position of Salissa, you'll see in a
+moment. The island lies a bit off the main steamer route between
+Marseilles and the Suez Canal; but not too far off. Now I happen to
+know that the Emperor places great reliance on submarines. In the
+event of a war with England he depends on submarines to cut the trade
+routes and sink transports. But submarines operating in the
+Mediterranean require bases of supply."
+
+"Petrol?" said Gorman.
+
+"And spare parts," said Smith. "That was the idea, I think. So long as
+the island was under the Crown of Megalia there was no difficulty.
+Megalia wasn't in a position to interfere with the Emperor's plans."
+
+"The Megalian navy certainly isn't first-rate," said Donovan.
+
+"But when you purchased the island," Smith went on, "things were
+different. You might object to the use the Emperor proposed to make of
+it. Your Government might have backed you up. How far do you think
+your Government will back you?"
+
+"Darned little," said Donovan.
+
+"So Steinwitz seemed to think. But the Emperor wasn't taking any
+unnecessary risks. He preferred that the island should return to the
+Crown of Megalia. I think that's the whole story so far as I know it.
+Perhaps now I ought to be getting off to see that admiral."
+
+"You can make sure of managing him, I suppose," said Donovan.
+
+"Oh, yes. But it may take a little time. He'll want to talk and I must
+consider his self-respect."
+
+"Quite so," said Donovan. "We all like to keep our self-respect, even
+admirals."
+
+Smith stood up.
+
+"Very well, sir," he said, "and if there's nothing you want, sir----"
+
+"Nothing," said Donovan.
+
+"I shall be back in time to serve luncheon, sir."
+
+The Smith who left the room was Donovan's valet, not the head of the
+Intelligence Department of Salissa.
+
+"Now that," said Donovan, "is an example of the pacifist method of
+settling disputes, without appealing to force or sacrificing human
+life."
+
+"I admire it," said Gorman. "I have a higher opinion of pacifism this
+minute than I ever had before."
+
+"It's civilized," said Donovan, "and it's cheap. I don't say it can
+always be worked as cheap as this; but it's cheaper than war every
+time."
+
+"I wonder," said Gorman, "if it would work out on a large scale. Take
+the case of the Emperor now."
+
+"There are difficulties," said Donovan. "I don't deny that there are
+difficulties. It isn't always easy to get hold of the right man to
+pay, and it's no use paying the wrong one. You must find the real
+boss, and he has a trick of hiding behind. I remember a case of an
+elevated street car franchise in a town in the Middle West. We paid
+three times and didn't get it in the end owing to not striking the man
+who mattered. Still, the thing can be done, and according to my
+notion it's the best way out, better than fighting. You mentioned this
+darned Emperor. Well, I don't know. He'd have to be paid, of course;
+but the big grafter, the man who'd take the six-figure cheque, is
+likely not the Emperor. I don't know. You'd have to find that out. But
+the principle's sound. That's why I call myself a pacifist. There's
+tosh talked about pacifism, of course. There always must be tosh
+talked--and texts. I don't undervalue texts as a means of influencing
+public opinion. But the principle is the thing. It's business. Pay a
+big price to the man who can deliver the goods. If you pay a big
+enough price he'll hand over."
+
+"That's all right," said Gorman, "when you're dealing with business
+men. But there are other men, men who aren't out for money, who
+want----"
+
+Donovan yawned.
+
+"There are lunatics," he said, "but lunatics don't run the world. They
+get shut up. Most men aren't lunatics, and you'll find that the
+pacifist idea works out. It's the everlasting principle of all
+commerce."
+
+It is impossible to say whether Donovan's pacifist principles would
+have been of any use in Europe in 1914. They were not tried, and he
+admitted that they would not work with lunatics. But the everlasting
+principle of all commerce proved its value in the case of the Megalian
+admiral. He did not even bargain at any length. Smith returned in
+rather less than half an hour, with the news that the admiral had
+accepted L26 10s. He made only one stipulation. It may have been a
+desire to preserve his self-respect or a determination to observe his
+orders in the letter which made him insist on firing one shot before
+he left Salissa.
+
+"He won't aim at the palace, sir," said Smith.
+
+"There'd be a better chance of his missing it, if he did," said
+Donovan. "It makes me nervous to see men like those sailors playing
+about with guns."
+
+"Yes, sir. That's so, sir. But in this case I don't think you need
+have any anxiety. The shot will go right over the palace. I laid the
+gun myself before I left the ship. I don't know if I mentioned it to
+you, sir, but I was in the artillery when I held a commission in the
+Megalian Army."
+
+The admiral fired his shot at noon precisely. The shell soared high
+above the palace, passed over the cliff behind and dropped harmlessly
+somewhere in the sea.
+
+The Queen and Kalliope stood behind the flagstaff from which the blue
+banner of Salissa flew. At the sound of the shot, while the shell's
+shriek was still in her ears, the Queen gave her order. Kalliope,
+hauling hand over hand on the halyard, ran up the Stars and Stripes.
+It flew out on the breeze. The Queen, flushed with pride and
+patriotism, defied the might of the Megalian navy.
+
+"Fire on that if you dare," she said.
+
+The admiral weighed his anchor, fussily, with much shouting and
+swearing, and steamed slowly out of the harbour. As he went he dipped
+his ensign, saluting the Queen's flags.
+
+Konrad Karl, standing at the window of Madame Ypsilante's room, saved
+that lady from hysterics by announcing that the bombardment was over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Theologians are fond of speculative subjects; but I do not remember
+that any of them have discussed the feelings of Noah and his family
+when shut up in the ark. What did they talk about when they came
+together in the evening after feeding the various animals? No doubt
+they congratulated each other on their escape. No doubt they grumbled
+occasionally at the limited accommodation of the ark. But were they
+interested in what was going on outside? Did they guess at the depth
+of the flood, calculate whether this or that town were submerged,
+discuss the fate of neighbours and friends, wonder what steps the
+Government was taking to meet the crisis? They had very little chance
+of getting accurate information. The ark had only one window, and, if
+we can trust the artists who illustrate our Bibles, it was a kind of
+skylight.
+
+The refugees on Salissa--if refugees is the proper word--were in one
+respect worse off than Noah's family. They had no skylight. The
+wireless message sent to the Megalian admiral told them that the Great
+Powers were at war. After that they got no news at all for more than
+two months. The windows, not this time of heaven, but of hell, were
+opened. The fountains of the great deep of human ambition, greed and
+passion were broken up. Lands where men, unguessing, had bought and
+sold, married and been given in marriage, were submerged, swamped,
+desolated. Salissa was a good ark, roomier than Noah's, and with this
+advantage, that it stayed still instead of tossing about. But not even
+Noah was so utterly cut off from all news of the catastrophe outside.
+
+During August and September almost anything might have happened.
+Germans might have ridden through the streets of Paris and London.
+Russians might have placed their Czar on the throne of the Hapsburgs
+in Vienna. The English Fleet might have laid Hamburg in ruins and
+anchored in the Kiel Canal. Men might have died in millions.
+Civilization itself might have been swept away. But the face of the
+sun, rising on Salissa day by day, was in no way darkened by horror,
+or crimsoned with shame. The sea whispered round the island shores,
+but brought no news of the rushings to and fro of hostile fleets. The
+winds blew over battle-fields, but they reached Salissa fresh and
+salt-laden, untainted by the odour of carnage or the choking fumes of
+cannon firing.
+
+Donovan was probably the only one of the party in the palace who was
+entirely satisfied with this position. With the help of Smith he had
+demonstrated the efficacy of pacifist methods, and saved the island
+from bombardment. In less than a week he removed, to his own
+satisfaction, the scandal of Konrad Karl's relations with Madame
+Ypsilante. Then he handed the reins of government to the Queen again
+and settled down to the business of avoiding exertion and soothing the
+disorder of his heart.
+
+To Donovan it always seemed a perfectly natural and simple thing that
+Konrad Karl should marry Madame Ypsilante. But it turned out to be
+rather difficult to arrange the matter. Madame herself had no
+particular objection to being married. She was lukewarm and
+indifferent until she found out that the Queen was looking forward to
+the wedding as a beautiful finish to a great romance. Madame had a
+grateful soul and was willing to do much to please the Queen who
+nursed her and was kind to her while she lay in bed exhausted by her
+journey. Her contempt for the American miss vanished, as soon as she
+understood that neither her pearls nor Konrad Karl were to be taken
+from her. Besides, there is always pleasure to be got out of preparing
+for a wedding. It was impossible, indeed, to buy clothes on Salissa.
+But it was not impossible to accept presents from the Queen's ample
+wardrobe. A great deal of interesting fitting and altering was done,
+and in the end Madame had an ample trousseau. The Queen, with the help
+of Smith, made an immense and splendid wedding cake.
+
+It was Konrad Karl who created difficulties. He said--and Donovan
+believed him--that he was personally quite willing to marry Madame
+Ypsilante. He desired to marry her. She was the only woman in the
+world whom he would marry of his own free will. But he remained
+incurably terrified of the Emperor. Donovan talked to him about the
+rights of free citizens. He said that the humblest man had power to
+choose his wife. Nothing he said had the slightest influence on Konrad
+Karl.
+
+"But," the King used to reply, "you do not understand. I am a king."
+
+"Well," said Donovan, "according to my notions that's the same thing,
+only more so."
+
+"Ah, no," said the King. "Ah, damn it, no. A king is not bourgeois,
+what you call citizen. That is the point. It is because I am a king
+that the Emperor interferes. If I were a citizen, but----"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
+
+Gorman tried him along a different line.
+
+"Look here," he said, "the Emperor has got himself into a nasty mess.
+He's in for a big war. He can't possibly have any time to spare to
+worry over who you marry."
+
+"To-day, no," said the King, "but to-morrow the Emperor wins the war,
+and then----"
+
+"I wouldn't be too cocksure of his winning," said Gorman.
+
+"It is surer than any cock," said the King. "It was settled long ago.
+I do not understand _Real Politik_, but I know that much. The Emperor
+wins the war. Then he says to me: 'Konrad, you married her. Good. You
+are in a fortress for life.' And I am. You do not understand the
+Emperor, my friend."
+
+"I'm beginning to," said Gorman.
+
+It was Smith who talked over Konrad Karl in the end. I am sure that
+Donovan would not have approved of his argument. I doubt whether
+Gorman would have cared to use it. Smith said frankly that a marriage
+performed by Stephanos the Elder would be no marriage at all outside
+the Island of Salissa and could be repudiated at any time without the
+slightest inconvenience.
+
+"You think," said the King, "that I wish to desert Corinne. But
+never."
+
+"Beg pardon, your Majesty," said Smith. "That wasn't the idea in my
+mind. What I was thinking of, your Majesty, was the way the matter
+might be represented to the Emperor."
+
+The King saw the point. On the whole he seems to have been pleased
+when his last difficulty was removed and he was actually able to marry
+his beloved Corinne.
+
+I do not think they were very happy afterwards. They were, no doubt,
+well enough suited to each other. But neither of them was suited to a
+life on Salissa. Monotony preyed on them. They both suffered from a
+kind of homesickness, an aching hunger for streets, theatres, shops,
+the rattle of traffic, the glitter of city life at night. They would
+have been good friends if they had been able to live their proper
+lives. Even on Salissa King Konrad Karl remained a lover. But they
+bickered a great deal and sometimes openly quarrelled. Then Madame
+would retire to her room and sulk for hours or whole days, while the
+King wandered about the palace and bewailed the cruelty of Corinne.
+
+Gorman too, in his own way, suffered from homesickness and had fits of
+irritation. He had lived his life in the centre of events, not great
+events, but such things as intrigues at Westminster, changes of
+Governments, and amendments, in committees, of Acts of Parliament. He
+had always known what was going on in the world. He found himself
+hopelessly shut off from all news of the greatest happenings of his
+time. He wanted desperately to know what England was doing, whether
+the French had risen to the occasion. He wanted, above all, to know
+about Ireland. Was Ireland in the throes of a civil war, or were her
+children taking their places in the ranks of the Allied Armies? Gorman
+was unreasonably annoyed by King Konrad Karl's certainty that the
+Emperor would win the war and by Donovan's passive neutrality of
+sentiment. For Gorman neutrality in any quarrel was no doubt
+inconceivable. As a younger man he might have been a rebel and given
+his life in some wild struggle against the power of England; or he
+might have held the King's commission and led other Irishmen against a
+foreign foe. He could never, if a great fight were going on, have been
+content to stand aside as Donovan did; neither praising nor blaming,
+neither hoping for victory nor fearing defeat.
+
+Even more difficult to bear was Konrad Karl's conviction that the
+Emperor was invincible. It does not appear that the King had any
+particular wish for a German victory. He would perhaps have preferred
+to see the Emperor beaten and humiliated. But that seemed to him
+outside all possibility. The Emperor's triumph was as inevitable as
+the changing of the seasons. A man may not wish for winter or the east
+winds of spring; but he does not soothe himself with hopes that the
+long days of summer will continue. It seemed to Konrad Karl merely
+foolish that Gorman should speak as if the issue of the war were in
+any doubt.
+
+Gorman has often spoken to me about his feelings at this time.
+
+"I could have broken Konrad Karl's head with pleasure," he said once.
+"I had to hold myself tight if I did not mean to fall on him. He was
+so infernally certain that the Emperor would wipe the floor with us.
+Us! Isn't it a queer thing now? Here I am, a man who has been abusing
+the English all my life, and hating them--I give you my word that I've
+always hated the self-sufficiency and nauseating hypocrisy of the
+English. There's nothing I've wanted more than to see them damned well
+thrashed by somebody. And yet the minute anybody comes along to thrash
+them I'm up on my hind legs, furious, talking about 'Us' and 'We' and
+'Our' army just as if I were an Englishman myself."
+
+Gorman made every effort in his power to get news of some sort. He
+tried to bribe the island fishermen to sail over to the mainland in
+their largest boat. He offered to go with them. It was a voyage which
+they sometimes made. In fine weather there was no great difficulty
+about it. But Gorman's bribes were offered in vain. A curious fear
+possessed the islanders; the same fear which laid hold of the souls of
+simple people all over Europe at that time. They were afraid of some
+vast evil, undefined, unrealized, and their terror kept them close to
+the shadows of their homes. The most that Gorman could persuade them
+to do was to take him a few miles out to sea in one of their boats.
+There he used to stay for an hour or so, for so long as the men with
+him would consent to remain, going out as often as they would go with
+him. His hope was that he might see some ship, hail her, and get news
+from her crew. But no steamer, no fishing boat even, came in sight.
+
+Of all the people on the island, Gorman was the most to be pitied
+except perhaps the Queen.
+
+For awhile she was happy enough. The wedding interested and excited
+her. The presence of guests in the palace gave her much to think about
+and do. She was busy with her school. She still found pleasure in
+roaming over the island with Kalliope, but there came a time when she
+began to expect the arrival of the _Ida_. She knew how long the voyage
+to England took. She made calculations of the time required for
+loading the steamer with her new cargo. She fixed a day, the earliest
+possible, on which the _Ida_ might reach Salissa again. That day
+passed, and many after it. The _Ida_ was overdue, long overdue.
+
+The Queen used to ask questions of every one, seeking comfort and
+assurance. She got little. Konrad Karl's conviction that the Emperor
+must be victorious was not cheering. Gorman supposed that the _Ida_
+might have been taken over by the Admiralty, or might have been
+forbidden to sail, or that Captain Wilson might be unwilling to take
+risks if enemy cruisers were at large on the high seas. Smith coolly
+discussed the possibility of a blockade of the English coasts by
+German submarines. Kalliope was the Queen's only comforter. She had no
+theories about war or politics, but she had a profound conviction of
+the certainty of lovers meeting.
+
+"He will come once more," she said, "sure thing."
+
+That was the Queen's conviction too. But it was weary work waiting.
+
+There is a nook, a little hollow, high up on one of the western cliffs
+of the island where it is possible to sit, sheltered among tall ferns,
+and gaze out across the sea. There came a time towards the end of
+September, when the Queen used to climb up there every morning and sit
+for hours watching for the _Ida_. Kalliope went with her. They erected
+a little flagstaff. They carried up the blue banner of Salissa. It was
+the Queen's plan to signal a welcome to her lover when she saw his
+ship. Above the nook in which they sat the two girls laid a beacon
+fire, a great pile of dry wood, dragged up the cliff with immense
+toil. The Queen thought of leaping flames and a tall column of smoke
+which should catch her lover's eyes and tell him that she was waiting
+for him. But day after day the calm sea lay shining, vacant. Evening
+after evening the Queen came sadly home again, a cold fear in her
+heart, bitter disappointment choking her. Then Kalliope would do her
+best for her mistress, repeating over and over her comforting phrases.
+
+"He will come once more. Sure thing. Damned sure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+The strain on the nerves of the party in the palace became more and
+more severe. During the second week in October it almost reached the
+breaking point. For four days the sirocco blew across the island. The
+sky was grey and seemed to press down on sea and land, heavy,
+unbroken, intolerably near. The wind blew strongly, but with none of
+the fresh boisterous fierceness of a northern gale. There was a sullen
+malignity about its force. Out at sea grey-topped waves wrangled and
+strove together confusedly. They broke in a welter of soiled foam
+across the reef which lay opposite the mouth of the bay. Within the
+harbour little waves, like jagged steel blades, rose, hissed at each
+other spitefully, and perpetually stabbed at the rocky shore.
+
+The close, suffocating heat oppressed men and beasts. The islanders
+retreated into their cottages and lay, patiently enduring, till the
+vile wind should pass away. Cattle cowered for shelter under the lee
+of walls or among the bent, swaying trees. Donovan sat alone in his
+room in the palace. He sweated continuously though he wore little
+clothing. He was the victim of many kinds of physical uneasiness,
+pains which would not quite declare themselves, restless fidgetings
+of his limbs, vague depression of spirit. Konrad Karl and Madame
+quarrelled openly and bitterly. His revilings stung her. Her own
+ill-temper left her raw. She fled to her room and locked herself into
+it. The King, perversely persistent, went after her. He could be heard
+scolding her through the closed door at one moment, begging
+pathetically for admittance at another. Gorman wandered restlessly
+from room to room. He opened windows, panting for air, and closed them
+with a curse when the hot blast of the sirocco smote him in the face.
+Smith, alone of all the party, preserved his self-control. The sweat
+trickled down his face; but he was alert, attentive, busy, as if the
+sun shone and the breeze blew fresh across sparkling water.
+
+The Queen found the palace intolerable, worse than the wind outside.
+Very soon after breakfast she went out. Kalliope, faithful even amid
+the torment of the sirocco, followed her. They struggled together
+towards their watch place on the cliff. The wind buffeted them, set
+their hair floating wildly, struck their eyelids painfully. Their legs
+were caught and held by tangling petticoats. Sometimes as the path
+twisted they headed right against the storm. Then bent almost double,
+they bored their way through dense resisting air. Sometimes, moving
+slantwise, they were caught by a side blast, and then they walked
+leaning at a sharp angle against the wind. Or, for a little while,
+they scudded before it, driven against their wills to swift motion
+which was unbearably exhausting. More than once Kalliope flung
+herself down and lay flat, panting on the shelterless grass. If she
+had taken her own way she would have given the struggle up. But the
+Queen, though she too gasped for breath, would not turn back or rest
+for more than a few minutes. She was determined to reach the look-out
+post on the cliff. In the end she got there.
+
+Kalliope lay at full length, face downwards, in the little hollow. The
+Queen sat beside her and looked out to sea. Her hair was blown
+backwards. Her blouse, its fastenings torn, was blown open at her
+neck. Her face was flecked with tiny crystals of salt. She breathed in
+quick short pants. She kept her eyelids open with an effort against
+the blast.
+
+The welter of grey water, broken everywhere with splashes of lighter
+grey foam, merged into the misty grey of the low enveloping clouds.
+The half circle of the horizon seemed very near. She watched the waves
+rise, rush forward, curl their crests over and break in foam. In one
+place the foam was whiter, thicker than elsewhere. The waves broke
+more frequently there. It was as if a patch of very fiercely breaking
+water moved towards the island. Behind it, before it, and on either
+side of it the waves tossed and broke. On this one patch they broke
+more constantly and more wildly. In a little while the Queen got
+glimpses of a dark mass which rose from the middle of this breaking
+water. Then she saw, clear above the foam, a short thick mast. She
+guessed that in the middle of the breaking water, half submerged,
+washed constantly from stem to stern, there was a boat which made for
+the shore.
+
+The Queen watched, fascinated. The boat held her course for the
+island. She reached the corner of the reef outside the bay. She swung
+round it and was to be seen plainly at last in the sheltered water of
+the harbour. She was a long low boat, narrow, sharply pointed bow and
+stern. A turret rose amidships. The smooth rounded slope of her deck
+was broken only by a hand rail which stretched fore and aft from the
+turret. The Queen had seen no craft like her, but she knew what she
+was, a submarine.
+
+The Queen seized Kalliope by the arm and pointed to the boat. It was
+impossible to talk up there on the cliff in the storm. The two girls
+struggled to their feet. They started on their way back to the palace.
+Hand in hand, running, tripping, buffeted, breathless, they reached
+the bottom of the cliff.
+
+The Queen and Kalliope were the first to see the submarine; but when
+she rounded the corner of the reef and entered the harbour every one
+on the island was aware of her arrival. From the houses of the village
+men came out and stood on the beach staring at the strange craft which
+moved across their bay. In the palace King Konrad Karl saw her and
+knew at once what she was. The effect her arrival produced on him was
+curious. Better than any one else on the island except perhaps Smith,
+he understood the German war spirit and guessed what the coming of the
+submarine might mean. Yet he seemed actually pleased to see her. He
+hurried to find Gorman. All the nervous agitation which had set him
+quarrelling with his Corinne disappeared. The effects of the horrible
+dullness and intolerable boredom of the past three months dropped away
+in an instant. The sirocco no longer afflicted him. He greeted Gorman
+with smiles. He was once more the irrepressible, cheery, street arab
+among kings, who had swindled the British public with his Vino
+Regalis, who defied all conventional decencies in his relations with
+Madame Ypsilante, who had failed to pay his bills in London and tried
+to outwit the Emperor over the sale of Salissa.
+
+"Gorman," he said, "my friend Gorman. Once more we are alive. Many
+things happen. It is a hand of no trumps doubled and redoubled.
+Gorman, I palpitate, I thrill. We arrive at the moment of destiny.
+Behold destiny!"
+
+Gorman, who was looking out of the window, saw the submarine, but did
+not for the moment recognize destiny. He agreed with the King that her
+arrival made a desirable break in the monotony that oppressed them.
+But the situation did not strike him as equal in emotional value to a
+redoubled hand at bridge. The best he hoped for was some fresh
+company, a little news from the outside world and possibly a bundle of
+newspapers.
+
+"Submarine?" he said. "English or German, do you think? and what do
+you suppose she wants here?"
+
+"English, pooh! By this time no English ships are left on the sea. It
+is an under-water boat of the Emperor, and she comes to seek the
+petrol stored in the cave."
+
+"Liable to disappointment then," said Gorman. "That petrol's gone."
+
+"I know it," said the King, "therefore I say 'Behold destiny.' But I,
+Gorman, I laugh at destiny. I mock. I snap the finger and thumb of my
+hand. So." He snapped the fingers of both hands with airy defiance. "I
+am a king. I play a game until the end. I die game-playing. And
+Corinne will not grieve too much. On Salissa I think Corinne loves
+less than in Paris. Hurrah, Gorman. Hip, and hip, and hurrah, three
+times."
+
+Gorman was not impressed by this rhapsody. He was not yet sufficiently
+roused from the bad temper and depression induced by the sirocco to
+appreciate the King's exalted mood.
+
+"I suppose," he said, "that Donovan will ask the captain to dinner. I
+hope to goodness he can talk English. There's a lot of news I want to
+hear."
+
+Donovan, sitting alone in his room, did not see the arrival of the
+submarine. It was Smith who reported the matter to him.
+
+"Warship of a belligerent nation?" said Donovan.
+
+"Yes, sir; German, sir."
+
+"German or English," said Donovan, "it's the same thing. This is a
+neutral State and we haven't got any quarrel with either party."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Smith. "Quite so, sir. But, I beg your pardon. She's
+German."
+
+Donovan thought this over for a minute.
+
+"I appreciate your feelings, Smith," he said, "and I don't deny that
+your situation might be an awkward one if this wasn't a neutral State.
+But you're in the service of the Crown of Salissa now, and I reckon
+that any attempt to inflict punishment on you would be contrary to
+international law."
+
+"I'm sure you know best, sir."
+
+"That's as good as to say that your interpretation of international
+law is superior to mine. It may be. But the matter will have to come
+before the superior courts before anything's settled."
+
+"It's not that, sir," said Smith. "I'm not afraid of the law."
+
+"Oh," said Donovan, "you're inclined to think that the German captain
+may trample on the law?"
+
+"Seeing as how you've no guns, sir, he might."
+
+"Smith," said Donovan, "just look out of that window and tell me what
+banner the Queen has flying from the flagpost. Old Glory, isn't it?"
+
+"The American flag, sir. Yes, sir."
+
+"Well," said Donovan, "I guess that's good."
+
+Smith appears to have been remarkably cool. Both Donovan and Gorman
+agree that he showed no sign of fear or excitement. Yet he must have
+known that he was in serious danger. He had been a member of the
+German Secret Service. He had deserted it, revealed its secrets and
+acted against his employers. He had very good reason to expect to be
+hanged or shot within the next couple of hours. He cannot, I imagine,
+have placed much confidence in the protection afforded by the American
+flag. But he seems to have had a profound belief in Donovan.
+
+When the Queen and Kalliope, wind torn and dishevelled, reached the
+palace, it was Smith who met them and in answer to her eager questions
+told the Queen that the submarine was German. He added that the
+captain would probably come ashore. He asked where the Queen would
+like to receive him.
+
+"I'm afraid, your Majesty," he said, "that there may be some trouble.
+I mean to say that it won't be quite a friendly visit to your Majesty.
+He'll be expecting a supply of petrol, and----"
+
+The Queen gave a little gasp of surprise. Then she burst into a peal
+of laughter.
+
+"There's not a drop left," she said. "He'll be just mad. I wonder what
+he'll say. Do you think he'll be rude?"
+
+"Quite possibly, your Majesty," said Smith. "The Germans haven't got
+very good manners."
+
+"We'll have him in the big hall, Smith. And we'll all be there. If
+he's nice about the petrol and takes it as a joke we'll ask him to
+dinner. If he's rude he can just go back to his old submarine and sulk
+by himself."
+
+Smith was quick in making preparations for the reception in the great
+hall. But the captain of the submarine reached the landing steps
+before the party in the palace was ready for him. The Queen hurried
+into the hall and took her seat on a chair which Smith placed for her.
+Konrad Karl ran to warn his Corinne to stay in her room and keep the
+door locked. Smith went to summon Donovan. Gorman, eager now and full
+of curiosity, stood at the door of the hall to watch the landing of
+the German officer. As the Queen took her seat he turned to her.
+
+"Hullo," he said, "it's our old friend von Moll."
+
+"_That_ man!" said the Queen.
+
+"Funny to think of his turning up here again," said Gorman. "Hope
+he'll keep sober this time."
+
+Von Moll was sober enough at the moment. He stood very erect, very
+stern, most awe-inspiring while his men landed, six of them, all
+armed. Then he tramped up the steps. He halted for a minute on the
+terrace where the flagstaff was. He gave an order. One of his men drew
+a knife from a sheath and cut the flag halyard. The Stars and Stripes
+crumpled up and fluttered down the wind.
+
+Gorman turned to the Queen again.
+
+"Your flag's gone," he said. "Von Moll appears to be in a bit of a
+temper."
+
+Then he stepped out of the hall and went forward down the path. He
+held out his hand to von Moll.
+
+"How are you?" he said. "Perfectly beastly day, isn't it? Any news?"
+
+Von Moll marched on, taking no notice whatever of his friendly
+greeting. Gorman, smiling pleasantly, followed him towards the hall.
+
+"Been in any more naval battles since we last met?" said Gorman. "By
+the way, was there any fuss when you got home about that man's teeth?"
+
+Von Moll stalked into the hall. Gorman followed him.
+
+"It's no use your pretending not to understand English," he said. "You
+talked it splendidly last time you were here."
+
+Von Moll made no pretence at politeness. He did not even salute the
+Queen. He looked round him with an insolent glare. Konrad Karl hurried
+through the door at the far end of the hall and took his place at the
+Queen's side. He had a lighted cigarette in his hand. It could not be
+said of him that he was frightened; but he was certainly excited. He
+fidgeted nervously with his moustache and his eyes were unusually
+bright. Von Moll watched him for a minute and then spoke.
+
+"King Konrad Karl," he said, "you will consider yourself under arrest
+and be prepared to follow me on board."
+
+The King gave a little twist to his moustache.
+
+"By whose authority do you give these orders?" he said.
+
+"The Emperor's."
+
+Von Moll clicked his heels together and saluted as he spoke. King
+Konrad Karl shrugged his shoulders. Gorman, determined not to be
+ignored this time, took von Moll by the arm.
+
+"I say, von Moll," he said. "After the frightfully impressive way you
+said that, we ought to have some sort of demonstration. Let's drink
+the old boy's health and say 'Hoch!' or whatever the proper thing is.
+I'm sure you must want a drink, and those swashbucklers of yours"--he
+looked round at von Moll's six men--"could hold hands and sing
+'_Deutschland ueber Alles_.' It would cheer us all up."
+
+The Queen looked at von Moll in amazement. Then she glanced at Konrad
+Karl. While Gorman was speaking she made up her mind to assert
+herself.
+
+"You forget," she said, "that King Konrad Karl is my guest, and so are
+you while you are in my house."
+
+Donovan, still in his shirt sleeves, looking very tired and hot,
+slouched into the hall while the Queen spoke. Smith followed him. The
+Queen, nervous and half frightened in spite of her brave words, turned
+to him.
+
+"Oh, father," she said, "I am glad you've come."
+
+Donovan nodded to von Moll.
+
+"Sit right down," he said, "there's a chair behind you. You'll stay
+for luncheon, won't you?"
+
+He sat down himself as he spoke and took a cigar out of his case.
+
+"Smith," he said, "cocktails."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Smith.
+
+Von Moll turned to the men behind him and pointed to Smith.
+
+"Arrest that man," he said.
+
+Two of the sailors stepped forward and crossed the hall towards Smith.
+
+"Say," said Donovan, "is this a rehearsal for a cinema? and when do
+you reckon to have the camera operating?"
+
+"That man," said von Moll, pointing to Smith, "is a deserter from the
+service of the Emperor and a spy. He pays the penalty."
+
+Donovan deliberately cut the end off his cigar and struck a match.
+Then he looked up at von Moll.
+
+"Seems to me," he said, "that there's some kind of misunderstanding.
+I'm not blaming you, Captain, not at all. But this is a neutral State,
+and according to international law you can't butt in and arrest
+citizens without applying for an extradition order in the regular
+way."
+
+"You talk like a fool," said von Moll. "This is war."
+
+He gave a fresh order to his men.
+
+"Take him," he said. "Shoot him on the steps outside."
+
+Donovan struck a fresh match and lit his cigar. He puffed at it
+slowly.
+
+"It pains me some," he said, "to go contrary to my life-long
+principles. I'm a humanitarian by conviction and I'm opposed to
+capital punishment. It seems to me that the taking of human life is
+not justified, and that the advance of civilization, especially in
+the great republic of which I am a citizen----"
+
+"He is a spy," said von Moll, "and he dies."
+
+"You're hasty, Captain," said Donovan. "I don't blame you, but you're
+hasty and you haven't quite tumbled to my meaning. When I spoke of my
+humanitarian principles I wasn't thinking of what would happen to
+Smith. You may shoot him, Captain, and I shall deplore it. But that
+won't outrage my convictions any. For I shan't be responsible, that
+execution being your affair and not mine. What I was thinking of was
+how I'd feel when I saw you and every damned one of your pirates
+hanging at the end of ropes over the edges of the various fancy
+balconies and other trimmings which adorn this palace. It will be
+going clean against my principles to arrange that kind of obituary
+dangle for you, Captain. I may have some trouble soothing my
+conscience afterwards. But I expect that can be managed. You may call
+me inconsistent and you may be right. But I'm not a hide-bound
+doctrinnaire. There are circumstances under which the loftier
+emanations of humanitarian principle kind of flicker out. The shooting
+of Smith is a circumstance of that sort. Your treatment of the
+American flag is another."
+
+Gorman tells me that he suspected Donovan of attempting a gigantic
+bluff. He admired the way he did it, but he did not think he could
+possibly succeed. Donovan did not, so far as Gorman could see, hold in
+his hand a single card worth putting down on the table. Smith stood,
+cool and apparently uninterested, between the two sailors who had
+arrested him. Konrad Karl was lighting and throwing away cigarette
+after cigarette. The Queen had grown pale at the mention of the
+shooting of Smith; but she kept her eyes fixed on her father. She did
+not understand what he was doing, but she had great confidence in him.
+Von Moll stared at Donovan with an insolent sneer.
+
+"You threaten," he said, "you think that your American
+Republic----Pah! what is America? You have no army. Your navy is no
+good. What can you do?"
+
+"You're taking me up wrong again," said Donovan. "I'm not reckoning on
+America just now. The hanging will be done by the crew of the English
+ship that I'm expecting to see in this harbour. Not to-day, maybe, or
+to-morrow, but some time before the end of this darned war."
+
+King Konrad Karl threw away another cigarette.
+
+"Alas and damn!" he said, "by this time there are no longer any
+English ships."
+
+Gorman was watching von Moll closely. At the mention of an English
+ship the man's eyes flickered suddenly. For an instant his face
+changed. A shadow of uneasiness appeared on it. But this passed at
+once, and the look of insolence took its place. Donovan was also
+watching.
+
+"There may be one or two left," he said. "I don't say the one that
+turns up here will be a first-class battle cruiser; but I guess the
+men on her will be up to the little job of hanging you, Captain. And
+they'll come. Sure. And you'll be here, just waiting for them."
+
+"I shall be gone," said von Moll. "Not that I fear your English ship.
+But to-morrow I go, and before I go, to-day--I shoot the spy."
+
+"You misapprehend the situation," said Donovan. "As a warship of a
+belligerent Power entering a neutral harbour you are liable----"
+
+Von Moll laughed aloud.
+
+"You intern me," he said.
+
+"Well," drawled Donovan, "I do. Say, Captain, you didn't drop in here
+just for the pleasure of shooting Smith and carrying off the King.
+Those weren't your main purposes. I'm not an observant man, but I did
+happen to notice as I left my room that your ship was shifting her
+anchorage a bit. Now I wouldn't say that it's particularly healthy,
+with a wind like this blowing, for a ship to lie right under those
+cliffs, slap up against the mouth of a cave. I give you credit,
+Captain, for knowing your trade as a sailor, and I don't think that
+you'd put your ship there unless you wanted something out of that
+cave, and wanted it pretty bad. What's more, Captain, you want it in a
+hurry. Now I may be wrong, but it's my opinion that what you expect to
+find there is petrol. That so?"
+
+It was plain--so plain that even King Konrad Karl saw it--that von
+Moll was disturbed. His confidence was not what it had been earlier in
+the interview. Donovan went on, speaking with irritating
+deliberation.
+
+"Now when I said that you were interned in the harbour of this neutral
+State, Captain, I wasn't counting on your respect for international
+law. I wouldn't risk a dollar on that. What I meant was this. The
+petrol's not there. Your darned tanks are empty. I'm not defending the
+action on economic grounds. It was waste. But that petrol is gone. We
+ran it off."
+
+"You have not dared," said von Moll. "You could not dare----No one but
+a madman would touch the Emperor's war stores."
+
+"I hope," said Gorman, "that the poor old Emperor won't have a fit
+when he hears about it."
+
+"You may be able to run that ship a mile or two," said Donovan. "But I
+reckon you'll not go far. You were dependent on that petrol? Come now,
+Captain, own up."
+
+What von Moll intended to do next I do not know. Gorman is of opinion
+that he might very well have shot the whole party. He was white with
+passion.
+
+Donovan rose from his chair, stuck his cigar in a corner of his mouth,
+and crossed the hall towards the door.
+
+"While you're sizing up the situation," he said to von Moll, "I'll
+just see if I can't find that flag that you cut down. It would gratify
+me to have it flying again. You'd better come with me, Smith. I'm not
+inclined for climbing poles in this storm. I have to consider my
+heart."
+
+Smith stepped forward and followed him. It is interesting to notice
+that the sailors who guarded him made no attempt to stop him. It is
+unlikely that they understood English well enough to know what Donovan
+said to von Moll. But they were somehow aware that their captain's
+authority was failing.
+
+At the door of the hall Donovan stopped and turned to von Moll.
+
+"Things seem to be happening," he said, "right up to expectation, only
+more so. I own I didn't look for that British ship quite so soon."
+
+He stood in the doorway and pointed out to sea. Gorman hurried across
+the hall, passed Donovan and went out. The Queen left her chair and
+ran to her father's side. Konrad Karl followed her. Von Moll looked
+round him, astonished, slightly dazed. Then he, too, went out, pushing
+his way past Donovan.
+
+Outside the reef, plunging and rolling heavily, was a small steamer.
+She was stumpy, high bowed, low waisted, with a short black funnel.
+Her bridge and single deck-house were disproportionately high. She was
+shabby and rusty. She looked insignificant. She was swept frequently
+with showers of white spray. On her bow and on her funnel could be
+seen the white letters and numbers which proclaimed her proper
+business. She was a trawler. In peace times she cast nets for fish in
+the North Sea. Now she flew the white ensign and on her fore-deck,
+above the high blunt bows, she carried a gun.
+
+There were men handling the gun amid a smother of spray and the swirl
+of water round their legs. The deck on which they stood was the worst
+of all possible gun platforms. In the course of each few minutes it
+was set at a dozen angles as the little steamer plunged and rolled.
+But the men fired. Their shot went wide of the submarine which lay in
+the harbour, and spluttered against the side of the cliff. The trawler
+staggered on towards the end of the reef. Out of the welter of grey
+water to windward came another trawler, then a third appeared and a
+fourth.
+
+Gorman edged up close to von Moll and caught him by the elbow.
+
+"I say, von Moll," he said, "it's jolly lucky for you that you didn't
+have time to shoot Smith. That ship of yours is a goner, you know.
+It'll be a jolly sight pleasanter for you to be a prisoner of war than
+to be dangling about on the end of a rope in this beastly wind. And
+Donovan would have seen to it that you did swing if you'd shot Smith.
+There's nobody so vindictive as your humanitarian pacifist, once you
+get him roused."
+
+The first of the little fleet of trawlers swung round the end of the
+reef into the sheltered water of the bay. She fired again. Her deck
+was steady. The target was an easy one. One shell and then another
+hit the submarine, ripped her thin hull, burst in her vitals.
+
+Half an hour later Maurice Phillips landed on the palace steps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Von Moll, though courteously invited, refused to dine with the Queen
+that night. Gorman, I think, was sorry for this. He was curious to see
+how a German naval officer behaves as a prisoner of war. The rest of
+the party felt that, for once, von Moll had shown good taste. His
+presence would have interfered with the general cheerfulness.
+
+Donovan tried hard to induce Smith to sit at table, taking his proper
+position as Head of the Intelligence Department of the State. But the
+party was a large one. Besides Phillips, who sat next the Queen, the
+commanders of the three other trawlers dined in the palace. King
+Konrad Karl appeared decorated with all the stars, badges and ribbons
+which had fallen to him while he sat on the throne of Megalia. Madame
+Corinne wore the finest of the dresses she had acquired from the
+Queen, and was in high good humour, though a little vexed that her
+pearls were in the keeping of a banker in Paris. Smith felt that on
+such an occasion the dinner should be properly served, and he dared
+not leave it to the native servants. After dinner he consented to sit
+at the foot of the table with a glass of wine in front of him.
+
+Konrad Karl, bubbling with excitement, proposed the Queen's health in
+a speech full of mangled English idioms. Then he presented the Star of
+the Megalian Order of the Pink Vulture to Phillips. He took it from
+his own breast and pinned it on to Phillips' coat with a perfect
+shower of complimentary phrases. It was not quite clear whether the
+decoration was meant as a reward for sinking the submarine or for
+winning the affection of the Queen. Donovan made a speech, a long
+speech, in which he explained exactly why it was impossible to remain
+a consistent pacifist in a world which contained Germans. Phillips was
+dragged to his feet by Gorman. Goaded by the derisive shouts of his
+three fellow officers he gave a short account of himself.
+
+"There's nothing much to tell," he said. "The whole thing was rather a
+fluke. I was called up at the beginning of the war. R.N.R., you know.
+They gave me command of a trawler, a perfectly beastly kind of boat.
+Been hunting the submarines ever since. Infernal dull job. Heard this
+fellow was mouching around but couldn't find him. Guessed he'd want
+supplies sooner or later. Remembered that cave and made a bee line for
+Salissa. Never so pleased in my life as when I caught sight of
+him. But there was such a sea running that we couldn't shoot for nuts.
+Had to wait till we got inside. Sunk him then. That's all there is to
+tell."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That, of course, is not all. There is a lot more to tell. What flag
+flies over Salissa now? Who governs the island? The Emperor knows.
+Bland-Potterton knows and often tells his friends in confidence. I
+know. Donovan knows. So does Smith. But we cannot make our knowledge
+public. Gorman tried, by means of a carefully worded question, to
+induce the Prime Minister to make a statement in the House of Commons
+about Salissa. He was told that it was contrary to the public interest
+that any information should be given. In the face of that it is, of
+course, impossible for me to write anything. What happened to King
+Konrad Karl and Madame? Again, I must not give an answer. The censors
+have decided, quite rightly, that the movements of royal personages
+are not to be published. Does Smith still act as Donovan's valet, and
+if so where? It is plain that nothing should be said on this subject.
+Smith was and may still be the head of the Intelligence Department of
+Salissa. Information about his doings would be particularly valuable
+to the enemy.
+
+But I may say that a marriage took place between Lieutenant-Commander
+Maurice Phillips, R.N.R., and a lady described as "Daisy, daughter of
+William Peter Donovan, Esq." A bishop officiated. No mention was made
+in the announcement of the rank and title she held, and perhaps still
+holds.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Island Mystery, by George A. Birmingham
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