Part 27 (1/2)

”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 gla.s.ses.

”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 gla.s.ses 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 gla.s.ses 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 sh.o.r.es.”

”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 gla.s.ses when Gorman laid them down. He watched the steamer.

”The King is wasting no time,” he said. ”He's coming ash.o.r.e 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 d.a.m.n, 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 s.h.i.+p? I never saw a steamer like her before.”