eagerly on every side; but it was not until they had left the woods and
marched out into the level stretch of grassy country, that they came
upon the enemy. The Hillmen were about forty in number, and were as
savage and ugly-looking giants as any in a picture book. They had
captured a dozen cows and goats, and were driving them on before them,
as they advanced further upon the village. When they saw the four men,
they gave a mixed chorus of cries and yells, and some of them stopped,
and others ran forward, shaking their spears, and shooting their broad
arrows into the ground before them. A tall, gray-bearded, muscular old
man, with a skirt of feathers about him, and necklaces of bones and
animals' claws around his bare chest, ran in front of them, and seemed
to be trying to make them approach more slowly.
"Is that Messenwah?" asked Gordon.
"Yes," said Stedman; "he is trying to keep them back. I don't believe he
ever saw a white man before."
"Stedman," said Albert, speaking quickly, "give your gun to Bradley, and
go forward with your arms in the air, and waving your handkerchief, and
tell them in their language that the King is coming. If they go at you,
Bradley and I will kill a goat or two, to show them what we can do with
the rifles; and if that don't stop them, we will shoot at their legs;
and if that don't stop them--I guess you'd better come back, and we'll
all run."
Stedman looked at Albert, and Albert looked at Stedman, and neither of
them winced or flinched.
"Is this another of my secretary's duties?" asked the younger boy.
"Yes," said the consul; "but a resignation is always in order. You
needn't go if you don't like it. You see, you know the language and I
don't, but I know how to shoot, and you don't."
"That's perfectly satisfactory," said Stedman, handing his gun to old
Bradley. "I only wanted to know why I was to be sacrificed, instead of
one of the Bradleys. It's because I know the language. Bradley, Sr., you
see the evil results of a higher education. Wish me luck, please," he
said, "and for goodness' sake," he added impressively, "don't waste much
time shooting goats."
The Hillmen had stopped about two hundred yards off, and were drawn up
in two lines, shouting, and dancing, and hurling taunting remarks at
their few adversaries. The stolen cattle were bunched together back of
the King. As Stedman walked steadily forward with his handkerchief
fluttering, and howling out something in their own tongue, they stopped
and listened. As he advanced, his three companions followed him at about
fifty yards in the rear. He was one hundred and fifty yards from the
Hillmen, before they made out what he said, and then one of the young
braves, resenting it as an insult to his chief, shot an arrow at him.
Stedman dodged the arrow, and stood his ground without even taking a
step backwards, only turning slightly to put his hands to his mouth, and
to shout something which sounded to his companions like, "About time to
begin on the goats." But the instant the young man had fired, King
Messenwah swung his club and knocked him down, and none of the others
moved. Then Messenwah advanced before his men to meet Stedman, and on
Stedman's opening and shutting his hands to show that he was unarmed,
the King threw down his club and spears, and came forward as
empty-handed as himself.
"Ah," gasped Bradley, Jr., with his finger trembling on his lever, "let
me take a shot at him now." Gordon struck the man's gun up, and walked
forward in all the glory of his gold and blue uniform; for both he and
Stedman saw now that Messenwah was more impressed by their appearance,
and in the fact that they were white men, than with any threats of
immediate war. So when he saluted Gordon haughtily, that young man gave
him a haughty nod in return, and bade Stedman tell the King that he
would permit him to sit down. The King did not quite appear to like
this, but he sat down, nevertheless, and nodded his head gravely.
"Now tell him," said Gordon, "that I come from the ruler of the greatest
nation on earth, and that I recognize Ollypybus as the only King of this
island, and that I come to this little three-penny King with either
peace and presents, or bullets and war."
"Have I got to tell him he's a little three-penny King?" said Stedman,
plaintively.
"No; you needn't give a literal translation; it can be as free as you
please."
"Thanks," said the secretary, humbly.
"And tell him," continued Gordon, "that we will give presents to him and
his warriors if he keeps away from Ollypybus, and agrees to keep away
always. If he won't do that, try to get him to agree to stay away for
three months at least, and by that time we can get word to San
Francisco, and have a dozen muskets over here in two months; and when
our time of probation is up, and he and his merry men come dancing down
the hillside, we will blow them up as high as his mountains. But you
needn't tell him that, either. And if he is proud and haughty, and would
rather fight, ask him to restrain himself until we show what we can do
with our weapons at two hundred yards."
Stedman seated himself in the long grass in front of the King, and with
many revolving gestures of his arms, and much pointing at Gordon, and
profound nods and bows, retold what Gordon had dictated. When he had
finished, the King looked at the bundle of presents, and at the guns, of
which Stedman had given a very wonderful account, but answered nothing.
"I guess," said Stedman, with a sigh, "that we will have to give him a
little practical demonstration to help matters. I am sorry, but I think
one of those goats has got to die. It's like vivisection. The lower
order of animals have to suffer for the good of the higher."
"Oh," said Bradley, Jr., cheerfully, "I'd just as soon shoot one of
those niggers as one of the goats."
So Stedman bade the King tell his men to drive a goat towards them, and
the King did so, and one of the men struck one of the goats with his
spear, and it ran clumsily across the plain.
"Take your time, Bradley," said Gordon. "Aim low, and if you hit it, you
can have it for supper."
"And if you miss it," said Stedman, gloomily, "Messenwah may have us
for supper."
The Hillmen had seated themselves a hundred yards off, while the leaders
were debating, and they now rose curiously and watched Bradley, as he
sank upon one knee, and covered the goat with his rifle. When it was
about one hundred and fifty yards off, he fired, and the goat fell over
dead.
And then all the Hillmen, with the King himself, broke away on a run,
towards the dead animal, with much shouting. The King came back alone,
leaving his people standing about and examining the goat. He was much
excited, and talked and gesticulated violently.
"He says--" said Stedman; "he says--"
"What? yes; go on."
"He says--goodness me!--what do you think he says?"
"Well, what does he say?" cried Gordon, in great excitement. "Don't keep
it all to yourself."
"He says," said Stedman, "that we are deceived. That he is no longer
King of the Island of Opeki, that he is in great fear of us, and that he
has got himself into no end of trouble. He says he sees that we are
indeed mighty men, that to us he is as helpless as the wild boar before
the javelin of the hunter."
"Well, he's right," said Gordon. "Go on."
"But that which we ask is no longer his to give. He has sold his
kingship and his right to this island to another king, who came to him
two days ago in a great canoe, and who made noises as we do,--with guns,
I suppose he means,--and to whom he sold the island for a watch that he
has in a bag around his neck. And that he signed a paper, and made marks
on a piece of bark, to show that he gave up the island freely and
forever."
"What does he mean?" said Gordon. "How can he give up the island?
Ollypybus is the king of half of it, anyway, and he knows it."
"That's just it," said Stedman. "That's what frightens him. He said he
didn't care about Ollypybus, and didn't count him in when he made the
treaty, because he is such a peaceful chap that he knew he could thrash
him into doing anything he wanted him to do. And now that you have
turned up and taken Ollypybus's part, he wishes he hadn't sold the
island, and wishes to know if you are angry."
"Angry? of course I'm angry," said Gordon, glaring as grimly at the
frightened monarch as he thought was safe. "Who wouldn't be angry? Who
do you think these people were who made a fool of him, Stedman? Ask him
to let us see this watch."
Stedman did so, and the King fumbled among his necklaces until he had
brought out a leather bag tied round his neck with a cord, and
containing a plain stem-winding silver watch marked on the inside
"Munich."
"That doesn't tell anything," said Gordon. "But it's plain enough. Some
foreign ship of war has settled on this place as a coaling-station, or
has annexed it for colonization, and they've sent a boat ashore, and
they've made a treaty with this old chap, and forced him to sell his
birthright for a mess of porridge. Now, that's just like those
monarchical pirates, imposing upon a poor old black."
Old Bradley looked at him impudently.
"Not at all," said Gordon; "it's quite different with us; we don't want
to rob him or Ollypybus, or to annex their land. All we want to do is to
improve it, and have the fun of running it for them and meddling in
their affairs of state. Well, Stedman," he said, "what shall we do?"
Stedman said that the best and only thing to do was to threaten to take
the watch away from Messenwah, but to give him a revolver instead, which
would make a friend of him for life, and to keep him supplied with
cartridges only as long as he behaved himself, and then to make him
understand that, as Ollypybus had not given his consent to the loss of
the island, Messenwah's agreement, or treaty, or whatever it was, did
not stand, and that he had better come down the next day, early in the
morning, and join in a general consultation. This was done, and
Messenwah agreed willingly to their proposition, and was given his
revolver and shown how to shoot it, while the other presents were
distributed among the other men, who were as happy over them as girls
with a full dance-card.
"And now, to-morrow," said Stedman, "understand, you are all to come
down unarmed, and sign a treaty with great Ollypybus, in which he will
agree to keep to one half of the island, if you keep to yours, and there
must be no more wars or goat stealing, or this gentleman on my right
and I will come up and put holes in you just as the gentleman on the
left did with the goat."
Messenwah and his warriors promised to come early, and saluted
reverently as Gordon and his three companions walked up together very
proudly and stiffly.
"Do you know how I feel?" said Gordon.
"How?" asked Stedman.
"I feel as I used to do in the city, when the boys in the street were
throwing snow-balls, and I had to go by with a high hat on my head and
pretend not to know they were behind me. I always felt a cold chill down
my spinal column, and I could feel that snow-ball, whether it came or
not, right in the small of my back. And I can feel one of those men
pulling his bow, now, and the arrow sticking out of my right shoulder."
"Oh, no, you can't," said Stedman. "They are too much afraid of those
rifles. But I do feel sorry for any of those warriors whom old man
Massenwah doesn't like, now that he has that revolver. He isn't the sort
to practise on goats."
There was great rejoicing when Stedman and Gordon told their story to
the King, and the people learned that they were not to have their huts
burned and their cattle stolen. The armed Opekians formed a guard around
the ambassadors and escorted them to their homes with cheers and shouts,
and the women ran at their side and tried to kiss Gordon's hand.
"I'm sorry I can't speak the language, Stedman," said Gordon, "or I
would tell them what a brave man you are. You are too modest to do it
yourself, even if I dictated something for you to say. As for me," he
said, pulling off his uniform, "I am thoroughly disgusted and
disappointed. It never occurred to me until it was all over, that this
was my chance to be a war correspondent. It wouldn't have been much of a
war, but then I would have been the only one on the spot, and that
counts for a great deal. Still, my time may come."
"We have a great deal on hand for to-morrow," said Gordon that evening,
"and we had better turn in early."
And so the people were still singing and rejoicing down in the village,
when the two conspirators for the peace of the country went to sleep
for the night. It seemed to Gordon as though he had hardly turned his
pillow twice to get the coolest side, when some one touched him, and he
saw, by the light of the dozen glow-worms in the tumbler by his bedside,
a tall figure at its foot.
"It's me--Bradley," said the figure.
"Yes," said Gordon, with the haste of a man to show that sleep has no
hold on him; "exactly; what is it?"
"There is a ship of war in the harbor," Bradley answered in a whisper.
"I heard her anchor chains rattle when she came to, and that woke me. I
could hear that if I were dead. And then I made sure by her lights;
she's a great boat, sir, and I can know she's a ship of war by the
challenging, when they change the watch. I thought you'd like to know,
sir."
Gordon sat up and clutched his knees with his hands. "Yes, of course,"
he said; "you are quite right. Still, I don't see what there is to do."
He did not wish to show too much youthful interest, but though fresh
from civilization, he had learned how far from it he was, and he was
curious to see this sign of it that had come so much more quickly than
he had anticipated.
"Wake Mr. Stedman, will you?" said he, "and we will go and take a look
at her."
"You can see nothing but the lights," said Bradley, as he left the room;
"it's a black night, sir."
Stedman was not new from the sight of men and ships of war, and came in
half dressed and eager.
"Do you suppose it's the big canoe Messenwah spoke of?" he said.
"I thought of that," said Gordon.
The three men fumbled their way down the road to the plaza, and saw, as
soon as they turned into it, the great outlines and the brilliant lights
of an immense vessel, still more immense in the darkness, and glowing
like a strange monster of the sea, with just a suggestion here and
there, where the lights spread, of her cabins and bridges. As they stood
on the shore, shivering in the cool night wind, they heard the bells
strike over the water.
"It's two o'clock," said Bradley, counting.
"Well, we can do nothing, and they cannot mean to do much to-night,"
Albert said. "We had better get some more sleep, and, Bradley, you keep
watch and tell us as soon as day breaks."
"Aye, aye, sir," said the sailor.
"If that's the man-of-war that made the treaty with Messenwah, and
Messenwah turns up to-morrow, it looks as if our day would be pretty
well filled up," said Albert, as they felt their way back to the
darkness.
"What do you intend to do?" asked his secretary, with a voice of some
concern.
"I don't know," Albert answered gravely, from the blackness of the
night. "It looks as if we were getting ahead just a little too fast;
doesn't it? Well," he added, as they reached the house, "let's try to
keep in step with the procession, even if we can't be drum-majors and
walk in front of it." And with this cheering tone of confidence in their
ears, the two diplomats went soundly asleep again.
The light of the rising sun filled the room, and the parrots were
chattering outside, when Bradley woke him again.
"They are sending a boat ashore, sir," he said excitedly, and filled
with the importance of the occasion. "She's a German man-of-war, and
one of the new model. A beautiful boat, sir; for her lines were laid in
Glasgow, and I can tell that, no matter what flag she flies. You had
best be moving to meet them: the village isn't awake yet."
Albert took a cold bath and dressed leisurely; then he made Bradley,
Jr., who had slept through it all, get up breakfast, and the two young
men ate it and drank their coffee comfortably and with an air of
confidence that deceived their servants, if it did not deceive
themselves. But when they came down the path, smoking and swinging their
sticks, and turned into the plaza, their composure left them like a
mask, and they stopped where they stood. The plaza was enclosed by the
natives gathered in whispering groups, and depressed by fear and wonder.
On one side were crowded all the Messenwah warriors, unarmed, and as
silent and disturbed as the Opekians. In the middle of the plaza some
twenty sailors were busy rearing and bracing a tall flag-staff that they
had shaped from a royal palm, and they did this as unconcernedly and as
contemptuously, and with as much indifference to the strange groups on
either side of them, as though they were working on a barren coast, with
nothing but the startled sea-gulls about them. As Albert and Stedman
came upon the scene, the flag-pole was in place, and the halliards hung
from it with a little bundle of bunting at the end of one of them.
"We must find the King at once," said Gordon. He was terribly excited
and angry. "It is easy enough to see what this means. They are going
through the form of annexing this island to the other lands of the
German government. They are robbing old Ollypybus of what is his. They
have not even given him a silver watch for it."
The King was in his bungalow, facing the plaza. Messenwah was with him,
and an equal number of each of their councils. The common danger had
made them lie down together in peace; but they gave a murmur of relief
as Gordon strode into the room with no ceremony, and greeted them with a
curt wave of the hand.
"Now then, Stedman, be quick," he said. "Explain to them what this
means; tell them that I will protect them; that I am anxious to see
that Ollypybus is not cheated; that we will do all we can for them."
Outside, on the shore, a second boat's crew had landed a group of
officers and a file of marines. They walked in all the dignity of full
dress across the plaza to the flag-pole, and formed in line on the three
sides of it, with the marines facing the sea. The officers, from the
captain with a prayer book in his hand, to the youngest middy, were as
indifferent to the frightened natives about them as the other men had
been. The natives, awed and afraid, crouched back among their huts, the
marines and the sailors kept their eyes front, and the German captain
opened his prayer-book. The debate in the bungalow was over.
"If you only had your uniform, sir," said Bradley, Sr., miserably.
"This is a little bit too serious for uniforms and bicycle medals," said
Gordon. "And these men are used to gold lace."
He pushed his way through the natives, and stepped confidently across
the plaza. The youngest middy saw him coming, and nudged the one next
him with his elbow, and he nudged the next, but none of the officers
moved, because the captain had begun to read.
"One minute, please," called Gordon.
He stepped out into the hollow square formed by the marines, and raised
his helmet to the captain.
"Do you speak English or French?" Gordon said in French; "I do not
understand German."
The captain lowered the book in his hands and gazed reflectively at
Gordon through his spectacles, and made no reply.
"If I understand this," said the younger man, trying to be very
impressive and polite, "you are laying claim to this land, in behalf of
the German government."
The captain continued to observe him thoughtfully, and then said, "That
iss so," and then asked, "Who are you?"
"I represent the King of this island, Ollypybus, whose people you see
around you. I also represent the United States government that does not
tolerate a foreign power near her coast, since the days of President
Monroe and before. The treaty you have made with Messenwah is an
absurdity. There is only one king with whom to treat, and he--"
The captain turned to one of his officers and said something, and then,
after giving another curious glance at Gordon, raised his book and
continued reading, in a deep, unruffled monotone. The officer whispered
an order, and two of the marines stepped out of line, and dropping the
muzzles of their muskets, pushed Gordon back out of the enclosure, and
left him there with his lips white, and trembling all over with
indignation. He would have liked to have rushed back into the lines and
broken the captain's spectacles over his sun-tanned nose and cheeks, but
he was quite sure this would only result in his getting shot, or in his
being made ridiculous before the natives, which was almost as bad; so he
stood still for a moment, with his blood choking him, and then turned
and walked back to where the King and Stedman were whispering together.
Just as he turned, one of the men pulled the halyards, the ball of
bunting ran up into the air, bobbed, twitched, and turned, and broke
into the folds of the German flag. At the same moment the marines raised
their muskets and fired a volley, and the officers saluted and the
sailors cheered.
"Do you see that?" cried Stedman, catching Gordon's humor, to Ollypybus;
"that means that you are no longer king, that strange people are coming
here to take your land, and to turn your people into servants, and to
drive you back into the mountains. Are you going to submit? are you
going to let that flag stay where it is?"
Messenwah and Ollypybus gazed at one another with fearful, helpless
eyes. "We are afraid," Ollypybus cried; "we do not know what we should
do."
"What do they say?"
"They say they do not know what to do."
"I know what I'd do," cried Gordon. "If I were not an American consul,
I'd pull down their old flag, and put a hole in their boat and sink
her."
"Well, I'd wait until they get under way, before you do either of those
things," said Stedman, soothingly. "That captain seems to be a man of
much determination of character."
"But I will pull it down," cried Gordon. "I will resign, as Travis did.
I am no longer consul. You can be consul if you want to. I promote you.
I am going up a step higher. I mean to be king. Tell those two," he ran
on excitedly, "that their only course and only hope is in me; that they
must make me ruler of the island until this thing is over; that I will
resign again as soon as it is settled, but that some one must act at
once, and if they are afraid to, I am not, only they must give me
authority to act for them. They must abdicate in my favor."
"Are you in earnest?" gasped Stedman.
"Don't I talk as if I were?" demanded Gordon, wiping the perspiration
from his forehead.
"And can I be consul?" said Stedman, cheerfully.
"Of course. Tell them what I propose to do."
Stedman turned and spoke rapidly to the two kings. The people gathered
closer to hear.
The two rival monarchs looked at one another in silence for a moment,
and then both began to speak at once, their counsellors interrupting
them and mumbling their guttural comments with anxious earnestness. It
did not take them very long to see that they were all of one mind, and
then they both turned to Gordon and dropped on one knee, and placed his
hands on their foreheads, and Stedman raised his cap.
"They agree," he explained, for it was but pantomime to Albert. "They
salute you as a ruler; they are calling you Tellaman, which means
peacemaker. The Peacemaker, that is your title. I hope you will deserve
it, but I think they might have chosen a more appropriate one."
"Then I'm really King?" demanded Albert, decidedly, "and I can do what I
please? They give me full power. Quick, do they?"
"Yes, but don't do it," begged Stedman, "and just remember I am American
consul now, and that is a much superior being to a crowned monarch; you
said so yourself."
Albert did not reply to this, but ran across the plaza followed by the
two Bradleys. The boats had gone.
"Hoist that flag beside the brass cannon," he cried, "and stand ready to
salute it when I drop this one."
Bradley, Jr., grasped the halliards of the flag, which he had forgotten
to raise and salute in the morning in all the excitement of the arrival
of the man-of-war. Bradley, Sr., stood by the brass cannon, blowing
gently on his lighted fuse. The Peacemaker took the halliards of the
German flag in his two hands, gave a quick, sharp tug, and down came the
red, white, and black piece of bunting, and the next moment young
Bradley sent the stars and stripes up in their place. As it rose,
Bradley's brass cannon barked merrily like a little bull-dog, and the
Peacemaker cheered.