The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great War Syndicate, by Frank Stockton

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Title: The Great War Syndicate

Author: Frank Stockton

Release Date: January 24, 2008 [EBook #427]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT WAR SYNDICATE ***

THE GREAT WAR SYNDICATE

BY

FRANK R. STOCKTON

Author of "The Lady or the Tiger," "Rudder Grange,"
"The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs.
Aleshine," "What Might Have Been
Expected," etc., etc.

THE GREAT WAR SYNDICATE.

In the spring of a certain year, not far from the close of the
nineteenth century, when the political relations between the United
States and Great Britain became so strained that careful observers on
both sides of the Atlantic were forced to the belief that a serious
break in these relations might be looked for at any time, the fishing
schooner Eliza Drum sailed from a port in Maine for the banks of
Newfoundland.

It was in this year that a new system of protection for American
fishing vessels had been adopted in Washington. Every fleet of these
vessels was accompanied by one or more United States cruisers, which
remained on the fishing grounds, not only for the purpose of warning
American craft who might approach too near the three-mile limit, but
also to overlook the action of the British naval vessels on the coast,
and to interfere, at least by protest, with such seizures of American
fishing boats as might appear to be unjust. In the opinion of all
persons of sober judgment, there was nothing in the condition of
affairs at this time so dangerous to the peace of the two countries as
the presence of these American cruisers in the fishing waters.

The Eliza Drum was late in her arrival on the fishing grounds, and
having, under orders from Washington, reported to the commander of the
Lennehaha, the United States vessel in charge at that place, her
captain and crew went vigorously to work to make up for lost time.
They worked so vigorously, and with eyes so single to the catching of
fish, that on the morning of the day after their arrival, they were
hauling up cod at a point which, acc