Page:Cabbages and Kings (1904).djvu/350

 “The chief took up the grip and handed it to the prisoner with a bow, and says to the director crowd: ‘Do any of you recognize this gentleman?’

“They all shook their pink faces.

“‘Allow me to present,’ he goes on, ‘Señor Miraflores, president of the republic of Anchuria. The señor has generously consented to overlook this outrageous blunder, on condition that we undertake to secure him against the annoyance of public comment. It is a concession on his part to overlook an insult for which he might claim international redress. I think we can gratefully promise him secrecy in the matter.’

“They gave him a pink nod all round.

“‘O’Day,’ he says to me. ‘As a private detective you’re wasted. In a war, where kidnapping governments is in the rules, you’d be invaluable. Come down to the office at eleven.’

“I knew what that meant.

“‘So that’s the president of the monkeys,’ says I. ‘Well, why couldn’t he have said so?’

“Wouldn’t it jar you?”