"Go on, go on!" said Gordon, desperately. "I'm getting used
to it now. Go on!"

"American consul, Opeki," read Stedman. "Home Secretary
desires you to furnish list of names English residents killed
during shelling of Opeki by ship of war Kaiser, and estimate
of amount property destroyed. Stoughton, British Embassy,
Washington."

"Stedman!" cried Gordon, jumping to his feet, there's a
mistake here somewhere. These people cannot all have made my
message read like that. Someone has altered it, and now I
have got to make these people here live up to that message,
whether they like being massacred and blown up or not. Don't
answer any of those messages except the one from Dodge; tell
him things have quieted down a bit, and that I'll send four
thousand words on the flight of the natives from the village,
and their encampment at the foot of the mountains, and of the
exploring party we have sent out to look for the German
vessel; and now I am going out to make something happen."

Gordon said that he would be gone for two hours at least, and
as Stedman did not feel capable of receiving any more
nerve-stirring messages, he cut off all connection with
Octavia by saying, "Good-by for two hours," and running away
from the office. He sat down on a rock on the beach, and
mopped his face with his handkerchief.

"After a man has taken nothing more exciting than weather
reports from Octavia for a year," he soliloquized, "it's a bit