"
"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.
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