t of tyranny so oppressive, and of
injustice so gross, as that which this gentleman has named."

"You hear what Sir Ferdinando Brown has said," replied Captain
Battleax.

"I do not know the gentleman,--except as having been introduced to
him at your hospitable table. Sir Ferdinando Brown is to me--simply
Sir Ferdinando Brown."

"Sir Ferdinando has lately been our British Governor in Ashantee,
where he has, as I may truly say, 'bought golden opinions from all
sorts of people.' He has now been sent here on this delicate mission,
and to no one could it be intrusted by whom it would be performed
with more scrupulous honour." This was simply the opinion of Captain
Battleax, and expressed in the presence of the gentleman himself whom
he so lauded.

"But what is the delicate mission?" I asked.

Then Sir Ferdinando told his whole story, which I think should have
been declared before I had been asked to sit down to dinner with him
in company with the captain on board the ship. I was to be taken away
and carried to England or elsewhere,--or drowned upon the voyage,
it mattered not which. That was the first step to be taken towards
carrying out the tyrannical, illegal, and altogether injurious
intention of the British Government. Then the republic of Britannula
was to be declared as non-existent, and the British flag was to be
exalted, and a British Governor installed in the executive chambers!
That Governor was to be Sir Ferdinando Brown.

I was lost in a maze of wonderment as I attempted to look at the
proceeding all round. Now, at the close of the twentieth century,
could oppression be carried to such a height as this? "Gentlemen," I
said, "you are powerful. That little instrument which you have hidden
in your cabin makes you the master of us all. It has been prepared
by the ingenuity of men, able to dominate matter though altogether
powerless over mind. On myself, I need hardly say that it would be
inoperative. Though you should reduce me to atoms, from them would
spring those opinions which would serve altogether to silence your
artillery. But the dread of it is to the generality much more
powerful than the fact of its possession."

"You may be quite sure it's there," said Captain Battleax, "and that
I can so use it as to half obliterate your town within two minutes of
my return on board."

"You propose to kidnap me," I said. "What would become of your gun
were I to kidnap you?"

"Lieutenant Crosstrees has sealed