ey were behind me. I always felt a cold chill down
my spinal column, and I could feel that snow-ball, whether it came or
not, right in the small of my back. And I can feel one of those men
pulling his bow, now, and the arrow sticking out of my right shoulder."

"Oh, no, you can't," said Stedman. "They are too much afraid of those
rifles. But I do feel sorry for any of those warriors whom old man
Massenwah doesn't like, now that he has that revolver. He isn't the sort
to practise on goats."

There was great rejoicing when Stedman and Gordon told their story to
the King, and the people learned that they were not to have their huts
burned and their cattle stolen. The armed Opekians formed a guard around
the ambassadors and escorted them to their homes with cheers and shouts,
and the women ran at their side and tried to kiss Gordon's hand.

"I'm sorry I can't speak the language, Stedman," said Gordon, "or I
would tell them what a brave man you are. You are too modest to do it
yourself, even if I dictated something for you to say. As for me," he
said, pulling off his uniform, "I am thoroughly disgusted and
disappointed. It never occurred to me until it was all over, that this
was my chance to be a war correspondent. It wouldn't have been much of a
war, but then I would have been the only one on the spot, and that
counts for a great deal. Still, my time may come."

"We have a great deal on hand for to-morrow," said Gordon that evening,
"and we had better turn in early."

And so the people were still singing and rejoicing down in the village,
when the two conspirators for the peace of the country went to sleep
for the night. It seemed to Gordon as though he had hardly turned his
pillow twice to get the coolest side, when some one touched him, and he
saw, by the light of the dozen glow-worms in the tumbler by his bedside,
a tall figure at its foot.

"It's me--Bradley," said the figure.

"Yes," said Gordon, with the haste of a man to show that sleep has no
hold on him; "exactly; what is it?"

"There is a ship of war in the harbor," Bradley answered in a whisper.
"I heard her anchor chains rattle when she came to, and that woke me. I
could hear that if I were dead. And then I made sure by her lights;
she's a great boat, sir, and I can know she's a ship of war by the
challenging, when they change the watch. I thought you'd like to know,
sir."

Gordon sat up and clutched his knees with his hands. "Yes, of course,"
he sai