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“Sort of copy editor,” suggested Albert.

“Yes, something of that sort, I fancy,” said Stedman.

They walked down to the little shed on the shore, where the Y.C.C. office was placed, at three that day, and Albert watched Stedman send off his message with much interest. The “chap at Octavia,” on being informed that the American consul had arrived at Opeki, inquired, somewhat disrespectfully, “Is it a life sentence?”

“What does he mean by that?” asked Albert.

“I suppose,” said his secretary, doubtfully, “that he thinks it a sort of a punishment to be sent to Opeki. I hope you won’t grow to think so.”

“Opeki is all very well,” said Gordon, “or it will be when we get things going our way.”

As they walked back to the office, Albert noticed a brass cannon, perched on a rock at the entrance to the harbor. This had been put there by the last consul, but it had not been fired for many years. Albert immediately ordered the two Bradleys to get it in order, and to rig up a flag-pole beside it, for one of his American flags, which they were to salute every night when they lowered it at sundown.

“And when we are not using it,” he said, “the King can borrow it to celebrate with, if he doesn’t impose on us too often. The royal salute ought to be twenty-one guns, I think; but that would use up too much powder, so he will have to content himself with two.”

“Did you notice,” asked Stedman that night, as they sat on the veranda of the consul’s house, in the moonlight, “how the people bowed to us as we passed?”

“Yes,” Albert said he had noticed it. “Why?”

“Well, they never saluted me,” replied Stedman. “That sign of respect is due to the show we made at the reception.”

“It is due to us, in any event,” said the consul, severely. “I tell you, my secretary, that we, as the representatives of the United States government, must be properly honored on this island. We must become a power. And we must do so without getting into trouble with the King. We must make them honor him, too, and then as we push him up, we will push ourselves up at the same time.”

“They don’t think much of consuls in Opeki,” said Stedman, doubtfully. “You see the last one was a pretty poor sort. He brought the office into disrepute, and it wasn’t really until I came and told them what a fine country the United States was, that they had any opinion of it at all. Now we must change all that.”

“That is just what we will do,” said Albert. “We will transform Opeki into a powerful and beautiful city. We will make these people work. They must put up a palace for the King, and lay out streets, and build wharves, and drain the town properly, and light it. I haven’t seen this patent lighting apparatus of yours, but you had better get to work at it at once, and I’ll persuade the King to appoint you commissioner of highways and gas, with authority to make his people toil. And I,” he cried, in free enthusiasm, “will organize a navy and a standing army. Only,” he added, with a relapse of interest, “there isn’t anybody to fight.”

“There isn’t?” said Stedman, grimly, with a scornful smile. “You just go hunt up old Messenwah and the Hillmen with your standing army once, and you’ll get all the fighting you want.”

“The Hillmen?” said Albert.

“The Hillmen are the natives that live up there in the hills,” Stedman said, nodding his head towards the three high mountains at the other end of the island, that stood out blackly against the purple, moonlit sky. “There are nearly as many of them as there are Opekians, and they hunt and fight for a living and for the pleasure of it. They have an old rascal named Messenwah for a king, and they come down here about once every three months, and tear things up.”