"Great Heavensl" gasped Gordon.

Stedman grew very white under his tan, and the perspiration
rolled on his cheeks.

"Your message was so general in its nature, that it allowed my
imagination full play, and I sent on what I thought would
please the papers, and, what was much more important to me,
would advertise the Y.C.C. stock. This I have been doing
while waiting for material from you. Not having a clear idea
of the dimensions or population of Opeki, it is possible that
I have done you and your newspaper friend some injustice. I
killed off about a hundred American residents, two hundred
English, because I do not like the English, and a hundred
French. I blew up old Ollypybus and his palace with dynamite,
and shelled the city, destroying some hundred thousand
dollars' worth of property, and then I waited anxiously for
your friend to substantiate what I had said. This he has most
unkindly failed to do. I am very sorry, but much more so for
him than for myself, for I, my dear friend, have cabled on to
a man in San Francisco, who is one of the directors of the
Y.C.C., to sell all my stock, which he has done at one hundred
and two, and he is keeping the money until I come. And I
leave Octavia this afternoon to reap my just reward. I am in
about twenty thousand dollars on your little war, and I feel
grateful. So much so that I will inform you that the ship of
war Kaiser has arrived at San Francisco, for which port she
sailed directly from Opeki. Her captain has explained the
real situation, and offered to make every amend for the
accidental indignity shown to our flag. He says he aimed at