Your sincere friend and superior officer,
LEONARD T. TRAVIS.
P.S. I did not care to disturb you by moving my trunk, so I left
it, and you can make what use you please of whatever it contains,
as I shall not want tropical garments where I am going. What you
will need most, I think, is a waterproof and umbrella.
P.S. Look out for that young man Stedman. He is too inventive. I
hope you will like your high office; but as for myself, I am
satisfied with little old New York. Opeki is just a bit too far
from civilization to suit me.
Albert held the letter before him and read it over again before he
moved. Then he jumped to the window. The boat was gone, and there was
not a sign of it on the horizon.
"The miserable old hypocrite!" he cried, half angry and half laughing.
"If he thinks I am going to stay here alone he is very greatly
mistaken. And yet, why not?" he asked. He stopped soliloquizing and
looked around him, thinking rapidly. As he stood there, Stedman came
in from the other room, fresh and smiling from his morning's bath.
"Good-morning," he said, "where's the consul?"
"The consul," said Albert, gravely, "is before you. In me you see the
American consul to Opeki."
"Captain Travis," Albert explained, "has returned to the United
States. I suppose he feels that he can best serve his country by
remaining on the spot. In case of another war, now, for instance, he
would be there to save it again.
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