exact situation up to date. Albert Gordon."

"Now," he asked after a pause, "what does he say to that?"

"He doesn't say anything," said Stedman.

"I guess he has fainted. Here it comes," he added in the same breath. He
bent toward his instrument, and Gordon raised himself from his chair and
stood beside him as he read it off. The two young men hardly breathed in
the intensity of their interest.

"Dear Stedman," he slowly read aloud. "You and your young friend are a
couple of fools. If you had allowed me to send you the messages awaiting
transmission here to you, you would not have sent me such a confession
of guilt as you have just done. You had better leave Opeki at once or
hide in the hills. I am afraid I have placed you in a somewhat
compromising position with the company, which is unfortunate, especially
as, if I am not mistaken, they owe you some back pay. You should have
been wiser in your day, and bought Y.C.C. stock when it was down to five
cents, as 'yours truly' did. You are not, Stedman, as bright a boy as
some. And as for your friend, the war correspondent, he has queered
himself for life. You see, my dear Stedman, after I had sent off your
first message, and demands for further details came pouring in, and I
could not get you at the wire to supply them, I took the liberty of
sending some on myself."

"Great Heavens!" gasped Gordon.

Stedman grew very white under his tan, and the perspiration rolled on
his cheeks.

"Your message was so general in its nature, that it allowed my
imagination full play, and I sent on what I thought would please the
papers, and, what was much more important to me, would advertise the
Y.C.C. stock. This I have been doing while waiting for material from
you. Not having a clear idea of the dimensions or population of Opeki,
it is possible that I have done you and your newspaper friend some
injustice. I killed off about a hundred American residents, two hundred
English, because I do not like the English, and a hundred French. I blew
up old Ollypybus and his palace with dynamite, and shelled the city,
destroying some hundred thousand dollars' worth of property, and then I
waited anxiously for your friend to substantiate what I had said. This
he has most unkindly failed to do. I am very sorry, but much more so for
him than for myself, for I, my dear friend, have cabled on to a man in
San Francisco, who is one of the directors of the Y.C.C, to sell all my
stock, which he has d