There's nobody so vindictive as your humanitarian pacifist, once you
get him roused."

The first of the little fleet of trawlers swung round the end of the
reef into the sheltered water of the bay. She fired again. Her deck
was steady. The target was an easy one. One shell and then another
hit the submarine, ripped her thin hull, burst in her vitals.

Half an hour later Maurice Phillips landed on the palace steps.

CHAPTER XXVI

Von Moll, though courteously invited, refused to dine with the Queen
that night. Gorman, I think, was sorry for this. He was curious to see
how a German naval officer behaves as a prisoner of war. The rest of
the party felt that, for once, von Moll had shown good taste. His
presence would have interfered with the general cheerfulness.

Donovan tried hard to induce Smith to sit at table, taking his proper
position as Head of the Intelligence Department of the State. But the
party was a large one. Besides Phillips, who sat next the Queen, the
commanders of the three other trawlers dined in the palace. King
Konrad Karl appeared decorated with all the stars, badges and ribbons
which had fallen to him while he sat on the throne of Megalia. Madame
Corinne wore the finest of the dresses she had acquired from the
Queen, and was in high good humour, though a little vexed that her
pearls were in the keeping of a banker in Paris. Smith felt that on
such an occasion the dinner should be properly served, and he dared
not leave it to the native servants. After dinner he consented to sit
at the foot of the table with a glass of wine in front of him.

Konrad Karl, bubbling with excitement, proposed the Queen's health in
a speech full of mangled English idioms. Then he presented the Star of
the Megalian Order of the Pink Vulture to Phillips. He took it from
his own breast and pinned it on to Phillips' coat with a perfect
shower of complimentary phrases. It was not quite clear whether the
decoration was meant as a reward for sinking the submarine or for
winning the affection of the Queen. Donovan made a speech, a long
speech, in which he explained exactly why it was impossible to remain
a consistent pacifist in a world which contained Germans. Phillips was
dragged to his feet by Gorman. Goaded by the derisive shouts of his
three fellow officers he gave a short account of himself.

"There's nothing much to tell," he said. "The whole thing was rather a
fluke. I was called up at the beginning of the