press them. We
certainly never supposed they would permit our ultimatum to reach Mr.
Haven. In any case, the ship was allowed to depart. But whether the
commandant of the port was alarmed by our declaration of war, or the
unusual spectacle of the British attache, "Tommy" Cunningham, in khaki
while three hundred miles distant from any firing-line, we will never
know.[A] But the rumor man knew, and explained.

[Footnote A: Later we were sorry we had not been held longer in
captivity. The telegram reached our consul, and that gentleman at once
journeyed to Messina not only to rescue us, but to invite us to a
Thanksgiving Day dinner. A consul like that is wasted on the Island of
Sicily. The State Department is respectfully urged to promote him to the
mainland.]

"We had been delayed," he said, "because Italy had declared war on
Greece, and did not want the food on board our ship to enter that
country."

The cigarette king told him if the food on board was the same food we
had been eating, to bring it into any country was a proper cause for
war.

At noon we passed safely between Scylla and Charybdis, and the following
morning were in Athens.

CHAPTER V

WHY KING CONSTANTINE IS NEUTRAL

ATHENS, November, 1915.

We are not allowed to tell what the situation is here. But, in spite of
the censor, I am going to tell what the situation is. It is involved.
That is not because no one will explain it. In Greece at present,
explaining the situation is the national pastime. Since arriving
yesterday I have had the situation explained to me by members of the
Cabinet, guides to the Acropolis, generals in the army, Teofani, the
cigarette king, three ministers plenipotentiary, the man from St. Louis
who is over here to sell aeroplanes, the man from Cook's, and "extra
people," like soldiers in cafes, brigands in petticoats, and peasants in
peaked shoes with tassels. They asked me not to print their names, which
was just as well, as I cannot spell them. They each explained the
situation differently, but all agree it is involved.

To understand it, you must go back to Helen of Troy, take a running jump
from the Greek war for independence and Lord Byron to Mr. Gladstone and
the Bulgarian atrocities, note the influence of the German Emperor at
Corfu, appreciate the intricacies of Russian diplomacy in Belgrade, the
rise of Enver Pasha and the Young Turks, what Constantine said to
V