Page:Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field.djvu/233

 "At nine o'clock in the morning the directors were handed this ultimatum and they had to act by eleven or prepare to meet their maker, roulettes and all.

"Naturally the directors thought it a drunken joke, but at eleven sharp, Bennett began bombarding the Casino—with blank cartridges. Hence at eleven-ten, five directors instead of three raced to the Harbor in carriages, and tumbled head over heels into a white-flagged steam-pinnace.

"Well," said Field, "Bennett kept them maneuvering around his yacht for a good fifteen minutes, while clearing decks and with much ostentation making ready for bombardment. When he finally did admit the directors, he exacted even harder terms than he had first proposed, namely: A perpetual card of admission for James Gordon Bennett and friends and, for the present, a solemn invitation to Bennett to come to the Casino and do as he liked there.

"After this,*' concluded Eugene, "I suppose these directors lent him their best grand piano for the uses he put Phil May's mother's piano to."

The above was a good story, but unprintable at the time, and it was all Eugene ever got out of Bennett. So most other London enterprises. Gene tried to float, proved barren. 229