Captain Wilson, perplexed by the look and position of the German steamer, was irritable. He ordered Phillips off the bridge. But the whistle had done its work. The Queen and Kalliope ran to the balcony. They waved joyful greetings to the Ida, Kalliope an odd figure in a pale-grey evening dress. Phillips, standing on the deck below the bridge, waved back. It was a joyful moment. A few minutes later his joy was turned to sorrow of an almost unbearable kind. Captain Wilson forbade him to go ashore. A boat was lowered and Gorman was rowed off to the palace—to the gates of paradise. Phillips bitterly regretted that he had blown his blasts of greeting on the syren. But, in fact, it was not for that he was punished. Captain Wilson was simply in a very bad temper. The sight of Salissa always annoyed him. The position of the German steamer irritated him vehemently. She lay dangerously near the cliffs in a position in which no seaman would willingly put his ship. She was absurdly moored with four anchors. She was occupied in a perfectly incomprehensible manner. No man likes to be puzzled by things which it is his business to understand. Doctors have been known to deny the existence of symptoms which do not accord with those proper to the patient’s taste. Politicians are baffled and infuriated by men who, indifferent to the sacred etiquette of the profession, speak the truth in public. Engineers are angry when water persists in oozing out of the top of a hill—as it sometimes does to the confusion of all known laws—instead of trickling into the drains dug for it in the valley underneath. So Captain Wilson’s temper gave way because the German steamer lay as no steamer in the charge of sane men ought to lie; and Phillips was punished. Kings fly into a rage, said an ancient poet, and the common people suffer for it.
Perhaps Phillips would have been consoled, he would have certainly been less sulky during the evening, if he had seen what happened in the palace. The Queen stood on the balcony all eagerness, her lips parted, her eyes sparkling, a flush coming and going on her cheeks. She watched the boat lowered, saw the men take their places, saw Gorman climb cautiously down and seat himself in the stern. She waited. Phillips was on deck. She could see him. The boat pushed off. Phillips was not in her. He still stood on the steamer’s lower deck leaning over the bulwarks. The Queen turned and went into her room. She flung herself down on a chair. She had much ado to hold back most unqueenly tears of disappointment. Kalliope slipped off the grey and silver dress she wore. Very silently she folded and put away the clothes which lay scattered about the room. Then she sat down at the Queen’s feet and cried softly. She had a sympathetic soul. She understood the Queen’s feelings.
Gorman was received by Smith. After a few minutes he was led up to the balcony where Donovan lay stretched on a deck chair with a box of cigars at his elbow.
“I am very, very pleased to see you, Gorman,” he said.
“I’m afraid,” said Gorman, “that I’ve come to bother you. There’s been a lot of fuss in London about your purchase of this island. The Emperor——”
Donovan waved his hand feebly and lay back in his chair with every appearance of extreme exhaustion.
“Ill?” said Gorman.
“Two years ago,” said Donovan, “after I had realized my little pile, before I came over to Europe I sent for a doctor—leading man in his own line in America—heart specialist. ‘Doc,’ I said to him, ‘here’s 200 dollars. You take a good look at my heart.’ Well, he tapped me some and fooled around in the usual way. ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘your heart is as sound as a bell.’ ‘Doc,’ I said, ‘you’re mistaken, and the fee I offered was unworthy of your acceptance. I’ll write out a cheque for 500 dollars, and you take another look at my heart. I’ve a feeling,’ I said, ‘that what I want is rest and quiet now that my pile’s made.’ Well, he tapped me again and kind of listened to the throbbing of the darned machine. ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘you’re suffering from disordered action of your heart, and I recommend rest and quiet. No excitement and no worry.’ ‘Doc,’ I said, ‘I’m a business man—or I was before you passed that sentence on me. I’d be obliged if you’d put that on paper with your signature underneath.’ Well, he did that, and I paid him another 200 dollars. But I reckon the money was well spent. That paper is a protection to me.”
“I see,” said Gorman, “I’ll let the Emperor know——”
“The Emperor be damned,” said Donovan, “and, say, Gorman, there’s a kind of German naval officer wandering around this island. I gather that some trouble arose this morning between his men and my daughter’s maid. Seems to me that there may be explanations, especially as that German captain is to dine here to-night. Now my idea is to stay where I am—on account of the condition of my heart. Smith will bring me up a bit of chicken and a half-bottle of Heidsieck. That’s all I feel inclined for. But I don’t care to leave Daisy alone with that man. I’m not scared of anything happening to the girl. She’s pretty well able to look after herself. But there might be more trouble for the officer.”