The startling news brought Commander Tazewell on deck.
“Have the gig manned,” he ordered quietly, “and let Mr. Perry take the whale-boat and investigate what is going forward there. I must break the ice between us and the Herzovinian commander. I cannot stand idly by and see such an outrage committed.”
Once more, with O’Neil in the coxswain’s box, Phil was heading for the “Talofa.” He had barely cleared the “Sitka’s” side when another boat came out of the darkness ahead, crossed the whale-boat’s bow and sheered alongside the schooner.
“From the Herzovinian war-ship,” O’Neil exclaimed.
Phil’s pulse quickened. The situation was growing acute.
“If it comes to a fight,” he said excitedly, “we are two to one,” pointing in the direction of the British cruiser, “but a fight here would plunge three great nations into war.”
“It’s only a bluff, sir,” O’Neil sized up the situation sagely. “Those fellows are the cleverest dodgers you ever laid eyes on. They can fight all right, there’s no denying that fact, but their cleverest dodge is to play politics. I’ve seen them do it against the ‘chinks’ in China, and against the dagos in South America. When a Herzovinian officer goes too far the king with his right hand gives him a hook in the solar plexus, and then, to soften the medicine, with his left hangs the order of the red tailed eagle around his neck.”
Phil laughed nervously. “What do we do to our officers who overstep the bounds of international etiquette?” he asked, thinking of the predicament in which Commander Tazewell found himself suddenly involved.
“That’s easy to answer, sir,” O’Neil replied readily enough. “He gets the solar plexus blow from the man at the ‘top,’ and unless he’s popular with a few big newspaper editors, usually dies an official death. Now Admiral Benham, when he belayed that revolution in Brazil some years ago, was on the point of getting the ‘hook,’ when a friend of his gave him a great ‘pipe off’ in the New York papers. He made the admiral a Farragut and an Abraham Lincoln spliced together. The ‘hook’ was quietly stowed away for future use.”
As the “Sitka’s” whale-boat was steered alongside, the foreign boat shoved off. Phil peered eagerly through the darkness. He saw an erect figure in white in the stern sheets.