s at their ends hung in festoons across his chest and down his
back. He carried a large sword in a highly gilt sheath. On his head
was a cocked hat with a tall pink feather in it, perhaps a plume from
the tail of the Megalian vulture.

Gorman received him with great respect and led him up to Donovan's
room.

The admiral saluted Donovan gravely, and held out a large paper
carefully folded and sealed. Donovan offered him a cigar and a drink,
in a perfectly friendly way. The admiral replied by pushing his paper
forward towards Donovan. He knew no English. That was the only
possible way of explaining the fact that he ignored the offer of a
drink. Donovan nodded towards Gorman, who took the document from the
admiral and opened it.

"Seems to me to be a kind of state paper," he said. "Rather like an
Act of Parliament to look at; but it's written in a language I don't
know. Suppose we send for the King and get him to translate."

"If it's an Act of Parliament," said Donovan, "we'd better have Daisy
up too. She's responsible for the government of this island."

The admiral guessed that his document was under discussion. He did not
know English, but he knew one word which was, at that time, common in
all languages.

"Ultimatum," he said solemnly.

"That so?" said Donovan. "Then we must have Daisy."

I am inclined to think that Miss Donovan will never be a first-rate
queen. She is constitutionally incapable of that particular kind of
stupidity which is called dignity. In that hour of her country's
destiny, her chief feeling was amusement at the appearance of the
admiral. She did not know, perhaps, that the guns of the Megalian navy
were trained on her palace. But she ought to have understood that
dignified conduct is desirable in dealing with admirals. She sat on
the corner of the table beside her father's chair and swung her legs.
She smiled at the admiral. Now and then she choked down little fits of
laughter.

King Konrad Karl took the matter much more seriously.

He unfolded the paper which Gorman handed to him. He frowned fiercely
and then became suddenly explosive.

"Deuce and Jove and damn!" he said. "This is the limitation of all.
Listen, my friends, to the cursed jaw--no, the infernal cheek, of
this: 'The Megalian Government requires----'"

He stopped, gasped, struck at the paper with his hand.

"Go on," said Gorman. "There's nothing very bad so far. There is a
Megalian Government, I suppose?"

"But I--