d, sir. I beg to report that England declared war on Germany
this morning. The news came by wireless to the admiral."

Gorman dropped his pipe and sat upright suddenly.

"Good Lord!" he said. "England. Germany. I say, Donovan, if this is
true----"

Donovan motioned him to silence with a wave of his hand.

"Salissa," he said, "is a neutral State."

"But," said Gorman, "if there's a European war----"

Donovan ignored him.

"Smith," he said, "that admiral informs me that he has orders to
deport us from this island and dump us down somewhere in Sicily. That
so?"

"Yes, sir," said Smith. "Those are the Emperor's orders. Very urgent
orders. In the case of your refusal to obey, the admiral is to fire on
the palace."

"So I understand," said Donovan. "Now what I want you to do is to go
off to the steamer and negotiate with the admiral."

"Yes, sir."

"Shall we say L500? or ought I to go higher?"

"I don't think," said Smith, "that it will be necessary to give so
much. If you will allow me to suggest, I'd say an offer of L10."

For the first time since the interview began Donovan was startled.

"Ten pounds!" he said. "Do you mean ten?"

"Giving me permission to rise to twenty pounds if necessary," said
Smith.

"But an admiral!" said Donovan. "Remember he's an admiral."

"Yes, sir. But admirals aren't quite the same thing here as in
England. Don't belong to the same class. Don't draw the same salary."

"Make it twenty-five pounds," said Donovan. "I'd be ashamed to offer
less to a Tammany boss."

"Very good, sir, just as you please, sir."

"Right," said Donovan. "And now we've got that settled, and we've
three-quarters of an hour to spare, before the bombardment is timed to
begin. There are one or two points I'd like to have cleared up. But I
wish you'd sit down, Smith, and take a cigar. As head of the
Intelligence Department of this kingdom----"

"If you're quite sure, sir, that there isn't anything you want me to
fetch. A drink, sir?"

"Not for me," said Donovan. "I want to talk."

Smith sat down, stretched himself comfortably in a deep chair and lit
a cigar.

"What's the Emperor's game?" said Donovan. "What's he after? What the
hell does he mean by monkeying round this island ever since I bought
it?"

"Well," said Smith, "I haven't got what you could call official
knowledge of the Emperor's plans. My orders came to me through
Steinwitz, and Steinwitz doesn't talk unnecessarily."

The servant