Travis did. I am no longer consul. You can be consul if you
want to. I promote you. I am going up a step higher. I mean
to be king. Tell those two," he ran on, excitedly, "that
their only course and only hope is in me; that they must make
me ruler of the island until this thing is over; that I will
resign again as soon as it is settled, but that someone must
act at once, and if they are afraid to, I am not, only they
must give me authority to act for them. They must abdicate in
my favor."

"Are you in earnest?" gasped Stedman.

"Don't I talk as if I were?" demanded Gordon, wiping the
perspiration from his forehead.

"And can I be consul?" said Stedman, cheerfully.

"Of course. Tell them what I propose to do."

Stedman turned and spoke rapidly to the two kings. The people
gathered closer to hear.

The two rival monarchs looked at one another in silence for a
moment, and then both began to speak at once, their
counsellors interrupting them and mumbling their guttural
comments with anxious earnestness. It did not take them very
long to see that, they were all of one mind, and then they
both turned to Gordon and dropped on one knee, and placed his
hands on their foreheads, and Stedman raised his cap.