"Your exploits in that quarter of the world do not seem to have been of a very satisfactory character," I objected.
"I certainly had my ups and downs there," Stromboli admitted. "Central America is a place where the unexpected happens on the smallest provocation. But that, I take it, is no disadvantage from the story-teller's point of view."
I frankly allowed that it was not.
"Then I will tell my new audiences," said Stromboli, "how I once acted, in Central America, in the capacity of a diplomatic representative of Her Britannic Majesty."
"Good," said I. "Will you rehearse the lecture now?"
"It is for that very purpose that I have come to see you," said Stromboli.
"Proceed," said I, and he proceeded with
THE ADVENTURE OF THE MAN WITH THE ULTIMATUM.
"It has to be admitted—it has been admitted—that my experiences as President of the Republic of Nicaragua were not entirely to my satisfaction. It was also easy for me to perceive that they were likely to entail a coolness between myself and the confiding capitalist whose money I had spent—a thing to be avoided if I hoped to have the spending of more of his money at some future time.
"'This must not be,' I said to myself. 'Something must turn up—if not in Nicaragua, then elsewhere. There are other Central American republics besides Nicaragua, and in all of them the career is open to the talents. But the adventure in which I next engage must not be one involving the outlay of large sums of ready money, seeing that five hundred dollars is my present worldly wealth.'