The Island Mystery Part 32

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 doc.u.ment 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 doc.u.ment 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 const.i.tutionally incapable of that particular kind of stupidity which is called dignity. In that hour of her country's destiny, her chief feeling was amus.e.m.e.nt 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 d.a.m.n!" 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 const.i.tutional 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 d.a.m.ned 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 sh.e.l.ls 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 const.i.tute 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 n.o.bler 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 b.u.t.ting 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 n.o.bler 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 sh.e.l.ls. 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 pa.s.sion of patriotism and defiance, left the room without a word. Konrad Karl spluttered a little, uttering a series of ill-a.s.sorted 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 embarra.s.sment 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 att.i.tude 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 d.a.m.ned business my own way."