"Beg pardon, sir," he said. "I brought up the glasses thinking you might want to look at the strange steamer."
"Do you know the flag, Smith?" asked Gorman.
"No, sir, can't say I do. But she looks like a foreigner. Not English. Shall you want anything more, sir?"
Gorman did not at the moment want anything which Smith would supply. He wanted information, but it was useless to ask for that. Smith, who seemed uninterested in the steamer, left the balcony.
Donovan gazed at the steamer through the glasses.
"Well," he said, "if it's not an Emperor, it's the next thing. That's our little friend Konrad Karl standing on the deck."
King Konrad Karl stood beside the gun on the after-deck of the steamer. He looked neat and cool. He was dressed with care in well-fitting light grey clothes, a soft grey hat and white shoes. The glasses were powerful. Gorman could even see that he wore a pale mauve tie.
"I'm pleased to see that monarch," said Donovan. "He seemed to me less starched than most members of your aristocracies when I met him in London. Where's Daisy? She'll be sorry if she misses the opportunity of welcoming a fellow monarch to her shores."
"I'm afraid," said Gorman, "that she's off at the far side of the island. She told me this morning that she was going over there to plan out an electric power station. There's a waterfall somewhere. I haven't seen it myself. The Queen's idea is to make use of it to light the island."
Donovan took up the glasses when Gorman laid them down. He watched the steamer.
"The King is wasting no time," he said. "He's coming ashore right now. They're lowering a boat. I wonder what brings him here."
"He's probably come to persuade you to give the island back to him, re-sell it."
"That deal," said Donovan, "is closed. I'll be obliged to you, Gorman, if you'll make that plain to him."
"I'd expect some pretty lively bidding," said Donovan, "with the Emperor and a king in the ring, if the island was up for auction. But it's not. I'm not going back on my bargain. I'm very well satisfied with Salissa as a place of residence. I feel I might live a long time on Salissa. Come to think of it, there's no reason why any one should ever die here. It's worry and annoyance preying on the human heart, which kill men."