Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/913

 The hour elapsed without a move being made. Then, at a signal, two Government tugs shot out, ran alongside, and in twenty minutes the steamer was had out and anchored in the bay.

Into his room at Cape Town one day burst a Volunteer colonel, swelling with importance. "Who are you, sir?" asked Sir Edward.

"I am Colonel Blank," was the reply, given with much pomposity.

"Oh, indeed, is that all?" said Sir Edward. "I thought at least you were an admiral."

He was busy writing in his office on the quay on another occasion, and took no notice of a ponderous person waiting impatiently.

"Will you please to attend to me?" the man asked at length.

Sir Edward looked up and inquired, "Have you bought these docks, sir?"

"Most certainly not. I do not know what you mean."

"Then go to the devil," Sir Edward remarked, going on with his writing. Then, summoning his clerk, he said: "Here! stick up on my door the notice in big letters, 'Office of the Chief Transport Officer, and not a general inquiry office.'" But he had also inscribed on his office door, "Walk right in; no Red Tape here."

On one occasion the captain of a big Union-Castle liner came in to make a report. Chichester had a great objection to the uniforms worn by the officers of these ships, because he thought they were modelled too closely on the lines of the naval uniforms. Seeing this gorgeously clad individual in his office he stood up, and gravely saluting him remarked:—

"I am sorry, Admiral, that the Government have