“Dear me, dear me!” said Stedman, with awe; “you are a born fighter, aren’t you?”

“Well, you wait and see,” said Gordon; “may be I am.  I haven’t studied tactics of war and the history of battles, so that I might be a great war correspondent, without learning something.  And there is only one king on this island, and that is old Ollypybus himself.  And I’ll go over and have a talk with him about it to-morrow.”

Young Stedman walked up and down the length of the veranda, in and out of the moonlight, with his hands in his pockets, and his head on his chest.  “You have me all stirred up, Gordon,” he said; “you seem so confident and bold, and you’re not so much older than I am, either.”

“My training has been different; that’s all,” said the reporter.

“Yes,” Stedman said bitterly; “I have been sitting in an office ever since I left school, sending news over a wire or a cable, and you have been out in the world, gathering it.”

“And now,” said Gordon, smiling, and putting his arm around the other boy’s shoulders, “we are going to make news ourselves.”

“There is one thing I want to say to you before you turn in,” said Stedman.  “Before you suggest all these improvements on Ollypybus, you must remember that he has ruled absolutely here for twenty years, and that he does not think much of consuls.  He has only seen your predecessor and yourself.  He likes you because you appeared with such dignity, and because of the presents; but if I were you, I wouldn’t suggest these improvements as coming from yourself.”

“I don’t understand,” said Gordon; “who could they come from?”

“Well,” said Stedman, “if you will allow me to advise,—­and you see I know these people pretty well,—­I would have all these suggestions come from the President direct.”

“The President!” exclaimed Gordon; “but how? what does the President know or care about Opeki? and it would take so long—­oh, I see, the cable.  Is that what you have been doing?” he asked.

“Well, only once,” said Stedman, guiltily; “that was when he wanted to turn me out of the consul’s office, and I had a cable that very afternoon, from the President, ordering me to stay where I was.  Ollypybus doesn’t understand the cable, of course, but he knows that it sends messages; and sometimes I pretend to send messages for him to the President; but he began asking me to tell the President to come and pay him a visit, and I had to stop it.”

“I’m glad you told me,” said Gordon.  “The President shall begin to cable to-morrow.  He will need an extra appropriation from Congress to pay for his private cablegrams alone.”

“And there’s another thing,” said Stedman.  “In all your plans, you’ve arranged for the people’s improvement, but not for their amusement; and they are a peaceful, jolly, simple sort of people, and we must please them.”

“Have they no games or amusements of their own?” asked Gordon.