y ordered the two Bradleys to get it in order, and to
rig up a flag-pole beside it, for one of his American flags, which they
were to salute every night when they lowered it at sundown.

"And when we are not using it," he said, "the King can borrow it to
celebrate with, if he doesn't impose on us too often. The royal salute
ought to be twenty-one guns, I think; but that would use up too much
powder, so he will have to content himself with two."

"Did you notice," asked Stedman that night, as they sat on the veranda
of the consul's house, in the moonlight, "how the people bowed to us as
we passed?"

"Yes," Albert said he had noticed it. "Why?"

"Well, they never saluted me," replied Stedman. "That sign of respect is
due to the show we made at the reception."

"It is due to us, in any event," said the consul, severely. "I tell you,
my secretary, that we, as the representatives of the United States
government, must be properly honored on this island. We must become a
power. And we must do so without getting into trouble with the King. We
must make them honor him, too, and then as we push him up, we will push
ourselves up at the same time."

"They don't think much of consuls in Opeki," said Stedman, doubtfully.
"You see the last one was a pretty poor sort. He brought the office into
disrepute, and it wasn't really until I came and told them what a fine
country the United States was, that they had any opinion of it at all.
Now we must change all that."

"That is just what we will do," said Albert. "We will transform Opeki
into a powerful and beautiful city. We will make these people work. They
must put up a palace for the King, and lay out streets, and build
wharves, and drain the town properly, and light it. I haven't seen this
patent lighting apparatus of yours, but you had better get to work at it
at once, and I'll persuade the King to appoint you commissioner of
highways and gas, with authority to make his people toil. And I," he
cried, in free enthusiasm, "will organize a navy and a standing army.
Only," he added, with a relapse of interest, "there isn't anybody to
fight."

"There isn't?" said Stedman, grimly, with a scornful smile. "You just
go hunt up old Messenwah and the Hillmen with your standing army once,
and you'll get all the fighting you want."

"The Hillmen?" said Albert.

"The Hillmen are the natives that live up there in the hills," Stedman
said, nodding his head towards the three high mountains