# McClure's Magazine/Volume 10/Number 6/"King for a Day"

April 1898, pp. 505-512.
"KING FOR A DAY"
By W. A. Fraser.
AS you walk up the many score of steps leading to the Golden Pagoda in Rangoon, and come out upon the cemented flat in front of the tapering spire itself, you will see a Burmese temple a little to the right. Among other gods rested there once a small alabaster figure of Buddha, stained yellow, and with a hideous dragon-head; but it is not there now. And because of that alabaster god, these things happened.
Sir Lemuel Jones, C.I.E., was Chief Commissioner of Burma. Lawrence Jones, captain of the "tramp" steamer "Newcastle Maid," was his brother. More than that, they were twins, as like as two drops of water. It was kismet that Sir Lemuel should rise to be Chief Commissioner, while it was Larry's own fault that he was only captain of a freighter. But they both enjoyed themselves, each after his kind.
One morning in November the "Newcastle Maid" glided up the Irawadi and swung to moorings just off the main wharf at Rangoon. Larry had not seen his brother for years; and, for the matter of that, did not care if many more years passed before he saw him. Their paths ran at right angles. He was there for a cargo of rice, not to renew family ties.
It was because the chief engineer of the "Newcastle Maid" was a man after his own heart that he said, before going ashore: "I don't want to get into a gale here, for I've had a letter from the owners over that last break I made in Calcutta; if I come off seas over, just lock me in the cabin, and don't let me out. No matter what I say, keep me there until I'm braced up."
Then the captain went ashore. "I want to see the Golden Pagoda," said he, as he chartered a gharry.
"Come quickly, I'm waiting," whispered the yellow image of Buddha, the alabaster god, in his ear. It was there, in the funny little temple all decked out with Chinese lanterns, and tinsel, and grotesque gods. Straight the influence led him to it—to the dragon-headed god.
Stealing was not one of Larry's vices, but what matters man's ways when the gods are running his life for him? It scorched his fingers when he touched it; and when it was in his pocket it scorched his mind. The demon of impulse took possession of the captain. "I must do something," and he thought of the usual routine—whisky. It held out no pleasing prospect. "Something else, something else; something worthy of Captain Jones," whispered the little god.
He took a drive out through the cantonments. As he bowled along in the old gharry a new experience came to him. Gentlemen lifted their hats; and ladies driving in their carriages smiled and bowed in the most gracious manner.
"I wonder if there's anything sticking to my face," thought Larry, and he passed his hand carefully over its rounded surface; it seemed all right.
But still they kept it up—everybody he met; and one officer, galloping by on his pony, took a pull at the animal's head and shouted, "Are you coming to the club to-night, sir?"
"No!" roared the captain; for he hadn't the faintest idea of going to a club without an invitation.
"They'll be awfully disappointed," came the echo of the officer's voice as the gharry opened up a gap between them.
"Very kind," muttered Larry; "but I fancy they'll get over it. Must have taken me for somebody else."
And the dragon grin on the face of the alabaster god in his pocket spread out until it was hideous to look upon. Larry didn't see this; he was busy staring open-mouthed at the image of himself sitting in a carriage just in front. The carriage was turning out of a compound, and blocked the road, so that his own driver was forced to stop. He recognized the other man. It was Sir Lemuel, his twin brother.
The recognition was mutual. The commissioner bowed quite coldly as the captain called out, "How are you, Lemuel?"
Then the big Waler horses whipped the carriage down the road at a slashing gait, and Larry was left alone with The Thing in his pocket.
"So that's why they've been taking off their hats to me," he mused. "They take me for Sir Lemuel. Great time he must have ruling these yellow niggers out here. I'd like to be in his shoes just for a day, to see how it feels to be King of Burma."
All the way back to the hotel he was thinking about it. Arrived there he wrote a note addressed to the Chief Commissioner, and sent it off by a native. "That will bring him," he muttered; "he always was a bit afraid of me."
It was six o'clock when Sir Lemuel arrived in his carriage. There was a great scurrying about of servants, and no end of salaaming the "Lat" Sahib; for it was not often the Chief Commissioner honored the hotel with his presence. He was shown to Captain Jones's room.
"Take a seat, Lem," said Captain Larry cheerfully. "I wanted to see you, and thought you'd rather come here than receive me at Government House."
"Please be brief, then," said Sir Lemuel, in his most dignified manner; "I have to attend a dinner at the club to-night in honor of the return of our Judicial Commissioner."
"Oh, Sir Lemuel will be there in time for that," chuckled the captain. "But first, Lem, for the sake of old times, I want you to drink a glass of wine with me. You know we took a drink together pretty often the first year of our existence." Then he broke into a loud sailor laugh that irritated the Commissioner.
"While I don't approve of drinking to the extent you have carried it," said Sir Lemuel, with judicial severity, "still I can't refuse a glass proffered by my brother."
"Your twin brother," broke in Larry; "of whom you've always been so fond, you know."
"I really must be going, so please tell me why you've sent for me." But when he had drunk the glass of wine, he gave up all idea of going anywhere but to sleep—for it was drugged.
Then Captain Larry stripped his brother, peeled the august body of the Commissioner as one would strip a willow, and draped him in his own sailor outfit. "You're a groggy-looking captain," he said, as he tried to brace the figure up in a big chair; "you're a disgrace to the service. You'll have your papers taken away, first thing you know."
He had put the alabaster god on the table while he was making the transfer.
"This is all your doing," he said, addressing the figure.
When he had arrayed himself in the purple and fine linen of the Commissioner, he emptied the contents of the bottle of wine through the window. Then he went below and spoke to the proprietor. "The captain up-stairs, who had an important communication to make to me, has become suddenly most completely intoxicated. Never saw a man get drunk so quick in my life. Can you have him sent off to his ship, so that he won't get in disgrace? It's my express wish that this should be done, as he has been of service to me."
"All right, sir," exclaimed the hotel-keeper, touching his forehead with his forefinger in salute, "I will get Captain Davin, who is a great friend of his, to take him off right away."
"Most considerate man, the Chief Commissioner," remarked the boniface, as the carriage rolled away.
The carriage swung in under a shedlike portico at the front of a big straggling bungalow. The driver pulled up his horses; the two yaktail-bearing footmen, who had jumped down from their places behind as the carriage turned in off the road, ran hastily up, opening the door and lowering the steps for The Presence, the Lat Sahib, the Father of all Burmans. Only, Father and all as he was, none of his children served in the house, the captain noticed. All the servants were from India.
"Hallo! there's the ship's log," exclaimed the captain, looking at the big visitors' book in the entrance. "Wonder where I've got to sign that. The ship musters a big crew," as he ran his eye down the long list of names.
"When does The Presence want the carriage?" asked a ponderous, much-liveried native servant, making a deep salaam.
The captain pulled out his watch—Sir Lemuel's watch. "It's a beauty," he mused, as his eyes fell on its rich yellow sides. "Right away, mate—I mean bos'n—that is, tell him not to go away. Wonder what that fellow's proper title is on the muster?"
"Ah, you're to dine at the club to-night, Sir Lemuel," a cheery English voice said, as a young man came out of a room on the right.
"I know that," angrily answered Larry. "I don't have to be told my business."
"Certainly, Sir Lemuel; but you asked me to jog your memory, as you are so apt to forget these things, you know."
"Quite right, quite right," answered the captain. "If you catch me forgetting anything else, just hold out a signal—that is, tip me the wink, will you?"
"We've had a telegram from Lady Jones, Sir Lemuel——"
The cold perspiration stood out on the captain's forehead. This was something he had forgotten all about. A bachelor himself, it had never occurred to him that Sir Lemuel was probably married and that he would have to face the wife.
"Where is she? When is she coming back?" he gasped.
"Oh, Sir Lemuel, it was only to say that she had arrived safely in Prome."
"Thank God for that!" exclaimed the captain, with a rare burst of reverence.
The private secretary looked rather astonished. Sir Lemuel had always been a very devoted husband, but not the sort of man to give way to an expression of strong feeling simply because his wife had arrived at the end of her journey.
"Do you happen to remember what she said about coming back?" he asked of the wondering secretary.
"No, Sir Lemuel; but she'll probably remain till her sister is out of danger—a couple of weeks, perhaps."
"Of course, of course," said the captain. "Thank the Lord!—I mean I'm so glad that she's had a safe voyage," he corrected himself, heaving a great sigh of relief. "That's one rock out of the channel," he muttered.
A bearer was waiting patiently for him to go and change his dress. The captain whistled softly to himself when he saw the dress suit all laid out and everything in perfect order for a "quick change," as he called it. As he finished dressing, the "bos'n" he of the gorgeous livery, appeared, announcing, "Johnson Sahib, sir."
"Who?" queried Captain Larry.
"Sec'tary Sahib, sir."
"Oh, that's my private secretary," he thought.
"I've brought the speech, Sir Lemuel," said the young man, as he entered. "You'll hardly have time to go through it before we start."
The captain slipped the speech and the little alabaster god in his pocket, and they were soon bowling along to the official dinner. "Look here, Johnson," he said, "I think fever or something's working on me. I can't remember men's faces, and get their names all mixed up. I wouldn't go to this dinner to-night if I hadn't promised to. I ought to stay aboard the ship—I mean I ought to stay at home. Now I want you to help me through, and if it goes off all right, I'll double your salary next month. Safe to promise that," he muttered to himself. "Let Lem attend to it."
At the club, as the captain entered, the band struck up "God save the Queen."
"By jingo, we're late!" he said; "the show's over."
"He has got fever or sun, sure," thought his companion. "Oh, no, Sir Lemuel; they're waiting for you, to sit down to dinner. There's Mr. Barnes, the Judicial Commissioner, talking to Colonel Short, sir," added the secretary, pointing to a tall, clerical looking gentleman. "He's looking very much cut up over the loss of his wife."
"Wife dead, must remember that," thought Larry.
Just then the Judicial Commissioner caught sight of the captain, and hastened forward to greet him. "How do you do, dear Sir Lemuel? I called this afternoon. So sorry to find that Lady Jones was away. You must find it very lonely. Sir Lemuel; I understand this is the first time you have been separated during the many years of your married life."
"Yes, I shall miss the little woman. That great barracks is not the same without her sweet little face about."
"That's a pretty tall order," ejaculated a young officer to a friend. And it was, considering that Lady Jones was an Amazonian type of woman, five feet ten, much given to running the whole state, and known as the "Ironclad." But Larry didn't know that, and had to say something.
"Dear Lady Jones," sighed the Judicial Commissioner pathetically. "I suppose she returns almost immediately."
"The Lord forbid—at least, not for a few days. I want her to enjoy herself while she's away. You will feel the loss of your wife, Mr. Barnes, even more than I; for, of course, she will never come back to you."
To say that general consternation followed this venture of the captain's is drawing it very mild indeed, for the J.C.'s wife was not dead at all, but had wandered far away with a lieutenant in a Madras regiment.
"It's the Ironclad put him up to that. She was always down on the J.C. for marrying a girl half his age," said an assistant Deputy Commissioner to a man standing beside him.
The secretary was tugging energetically at the captain's coat tails. "What is it, Johnson" he asked, suddenly realizing the tug.
"Dinner is on, sir."
"Rare streak of humor the chief is developing," said Captain Lushton, with a laugh. "Fancy he's rubbing it into Barnes on account of that appeal case."
Owing to the indisposition of the Chief Commissioner, by special arrangement the secretary sat at his left, which was rather fortunate; for, by the time dinner was over, the captain had looked upon the wine and seen that it was good—had looked several times. What with the worry of keeping his glass empty, and answering, with more or less relevance, respectful questions addressed to him from different parts of the table, he pretty well forgot all about the speech lying in his lap. Once or twice he looked at it, but the approaches to the facts were so ambiguous, and veiled so carefully under such expressions as, "It is deemed expedient under existing circumstances," etc., that he got very little good from it. One or two facts he gleaned, however: that owing to the extraordinary exertion of the Judicial Commissioner all the dacoits had either been hung, transported to the Andamans, or turned from their evil course and made into peaceable tillers of the soil; their two-handed dah had been dubbed up, more or less, into a ploughshare.
"Glad of that," thought the captain. "Hate those beastly dacoits. They're like mutineers on shipboard. The padre-like lawyer must be a good one."
Another point that loomed up on his sailor vision like the gleam of a lighthouse was a reference to a petition calling attention to the prevalence of crime connected with sailors during the shipping season, and asking for the establishment of a separate police court, with a special magistrate, to try these cases.
"Shall we have the honor of your presence at the races to-morrow?" pleasantly asked a small, withy man, four seats down the table.
The captain was caught unawares, and blurted out, "Where are they?"
"On the race-course, sir."
The answer was a simple, straightforward one, but, nevertheless, it made everybody laugh.
"I thought they were on the moon," said the captain, in a nettled tone.
A man doesn't laugh at a Chief Commissioner's joke, as a rule, because it's funny, but the mirth that followed this was genuine enough.
"Sir Lemuel is coming out," said Captain Lushton. "Pity the Ironclad wouldn't go away every week."
In the natural order of things. Sir Lemuel had to respond to the toast of "The Queen." Now the secretary had very carefully and elaborately prepared the Chief Commissioner's speech for this occasion. Sir Lemuel had conscientiously "mugged" it up, and if he had not at that moment been a prisoner on board the "Newcastle Maid" would have delivered it with a pompous sincerity which would have added to his laurels as a deep thinker and brilliant speaker. But the captain of a tramp steamer, with a mixed cargo of sherry, hock, and dry monopole in his stomach, and a mischief-working alabaster god in his pocket, is not exactly the proper person to deliver a statistical, semiofficial after-dinner speech.
When the captain rose to his feet, the secretary whispered in his ear, "For heaven's sake, don't say anything about the Judicial's wife. Talk about dacoits;" but the speech, so beautifully written, so lucid in its meaning, and so complicated in its detail, became a waving sea of foam. From out the billowy waste of this indefinite mass there loomed only the tall figure of the cadaverous J.C.; and attached to it, as a tangible something, the fact that he had lost his wife and settled the dacoits.
It was glorious, this getting up before two strings of more or less bald-headed officials to tell them how the state ought to be run—the ship steered, as it were. "Gentlemen," he began, starting off bravely enough, "we are pleased to have among us once more our fellow skipper, the Judicial Commissioner."
"The old buck's got a rare streak of humor on to-night," whispered Lushton.
"His jovial face adds to the harmony of the occasion. I will not allude to his late loss, as we all know how deeply he feels it."
"Gad! but he's rubbing it in," said Lushton.
"I repeat, we are glad to have him among us once again. My secretary assures me that there's not a single dacoit left alive in the province. There's nothing like putting these rebellious chaps down. I had a mutiny myself once, on board 'The Kangaroo.' I shot the ringleaders and made every mother's son of the rest of them walk the plank. So I'm proud of the good work the Judicial has done in this respect."
Now, it had been a source of irritating regret to every Deputy Commissioner in the service that when he had caught a dacoit red-handed, convicted, and sentenced him to be hanged, and sent the ruling up to the Judicial for confirmation, he had been promptly sat on officially, and the prisoner either pardoned or let off with a light sentence. Consequently these little pleasantries of the captain were looked upon as satire.
"There is one other little matter I wish to speak about," continued the captain, in the most natural manner possible, "and that is, the prevalence of what we might call 'sailor crimes' in Rangoon." He told in the most graphic manner of the importance of the shipping interests, for he was right at home on that subject, and wound up by saying: "I've been presented with a largely signed petition praying for the establishment of another assistant magistrate's court to try these cases, presided over by a man more or less familiar with the shipping interests. Now, that's the only sensible thing I ever heard talked of in this heathen land. Set a thief to catch a thief, I say. Put the ship in charge of a sailor himself—of a captain. None of your landlubbers."
His theme was carrying him away; he was on deck again. But the others thought it was only his humor; the strange, unaccountable humor that had taken possession of him since the Ironclad had let go her hold.
"Now, I know of a most worthy captain," he continued, "who would fill this billet with honor to himself and profit to the Judicial. His name is Captain Jones—a namesake of my own, I may say—of the 'Newcastle Maid,' 2,000 tons register. I've known him ever since he was a babe, and the sailors won't fool him, I can tell you. I'd a talk with him this evening down at the hotel, and he's just the man for the job. I'd sign the papers appointing him to-morrow if they were put before me. He ought to have a good salary, though," he said, as he sat down, rather abruptly, some of them thought.
The secretary sighed as he shoved in his pocket the written speech, which the captain had allowed to slip to the floor. "It'll do for another time, I suppose," he said wearily; "when he gets over this infernal touch of sun or Burma head."
People in India get used to that sort of thing happening—of their older officials saying startling things sometimes. That's what the fifty-five years' service is for—to prevent it. The other speeches did not appeal to Captain Larry much; nor, for the matter of that, to the others either. He had certainly made the hit of the evening.
"It's great, this," he said bucolically to the secretary, as they drove home.
"What, sir?"
"Why, making speeches, and driving home in your own carriage. I hate going aboard ship in a jiggledy sampan at night. I'll have a string of wharves put all along the front there, so that ships won't have to load at their moorings. Just put me in mind of that to-morrow."
Next day there was considerable diversion on the "Newcastle Maid." "The old man's got the D.T.'s, "the chief engineer told the first officer. "I locked him in his cabin last night when they brought him off, and he's banging things around there in great shape. Swears he's the ruler of Burma and Sir Gimnel Somebody. I won't let him out till he gets all right again, for he'd go up to the agents with this cock-and-bull story. They'd cable home to the owners, and he'd be taken out of the ship sure."
That's why Sir Lemuel tarried for a day on the "Newcastle Maid." Nobody would go near him but the chief engineer, who handed him meat and drink through a port-hole and laughed soothingly at his fancy tales.
After chota hazri next morning, the secretary brought to Captain Larry a large basket of official papers for his perusal and signature. That was Sir Lemuel's time for work. His motto was, business first, and afterwards more business. Each paper was carefully contained in a cardboard holder secured by red tape.
"The log, eh, mate?" said Larry, when the secretary brought them into his room. "It looks ship-shape, too."
"This file, sir, is the case of Deputy Commissioner Grant, 1st Grade, of Bungaloo. He has memorialized the government that Coatsworth, 2nd Grade, has been appointed over his head to the commissionership of Bhang. He's senior to Coatsworth, you know, sir, in the service."
"Well, why has Coatsworth been made first mate then?"
"Grant's afraid it's because he offended you, sir, when you went to Bungaloo. He received you in a jahran coat, you remember, and you were awfully angry about it."
"Oh, I was, was I? Just shows what an ass Sir Lemuel can be sometimes. Make Grant a commissioner at once, and I'll sign the papers."
"But there's no commissionership open, sir, unless you set back Coatsworth."
"Well, I'll set him back. I'll discharge him from the service. What else have you got there? What's that bundle on the deck?"
"They're native petitions, sir."
Larry took up one. It began with an oriental profusion of gracious titles bestowed upon the commissioner, and went into business by stating that the writer, Baboo Sen's, wife had got two children "by the grace of God and the kind favor of Sir Lemuel, the Father of all Burmans." And the long petition was all to the end that Baboo Sen might have a month's leave of absence.
Larry chuckled, for he did not understand the complex nature of a Baboo's English. The next petition gave him much food for thought; it made his head ache. The English was like logarithms. "Here," he said to the secretary, "you fix these petitions up later; I'm not used to them."
He straightened out the rest of the official business in short order. Judgments that would have taken the wind out of Solomon's sails, he delivered with a rapidity that made the secretary's head swim. They were not all according to the code, and would probably not stand if sent up to the privy council. At any rate, they would give Sir Lemuel much patient undoing when he came into his own again. The secretary unlocked the official seal, and worked it, while the captain limited his signature to "L. Jones."
"That's not forgery," he mused; "it means 'Larry Jones.'"
"The Chief's hand is pretty shaky this morning," thought the secretary; for the signature was not much like the careful clerkly hand that he was accustomed to see.
Sir Lemuel's wine had been a standing reproach to Government House. A dinner there either turned a man into a teetotaler or a dyspeptic; and at tiffin, when the captain broached a bottle of it, he set his glass down with a roar. "He's brought me the vinegar," he exclaimed, "or the coal oil. Is there no better wine in the house than this?" he asked the butler; and when told there wasn't, he insisted upon the secretary writing out an order at once for fifty dozen Pommery. "Have it back in time for dinner, sure! I'll leave some for Lem too; this stuff isn't good for his blood," he said to himself grimly.
"I'm glad this race meet is on while I'm king," he thought, as he drove down after tiffin, taking his secretary with him. "They say the Prince of Wales always gets the straight tip, and I'll be sure to be put on to something good."
And he was. Captain Lushton told him that his mare "Nettie" was sure to win the "Rangoon Plate," forgetting to mention that he himself had backed "Tomboy" for the same race.
"Must have wrenched a leg," Lushton assured Larry when "Nettie" came in absolutely last.
It was really wonderful how many "good things" he got on to that did run last, or thereabouts. It may have been the little alabaster Buddha in his pocket that brought him the bad luck; but as the secretary wrote "I.O.U.'s" for all the bets he made, and as Sir Lemuel would be into his own again before settling day, and would have to pay up, it did not really matter to the captain.
The regiment was so pleased with Sir Lemuel's contributions, that the best they had in their marquee was none too good for him. The ladies found him an equally ready mark. Mrs. Leyburn was pretty, and had fish to fry. "I must do a little missionary work while the Ironclad's away," she thought. Her mission was to install her husband in the position of port officer. That came out later—came out at the ball that night. The captain assured her that he would attend.
There is always a sort of Donnybrook Derby at the end of a race day in Rangoon. Ponies are gently sequestered from their more or less willing owners, and handed over, minus their saddles, to sailors, who pilot them erratically around the course for a contributed prize. When the captain saw the hat going around for the prize money, he ordered the secretary to write out a "chit" for 200 rupees. "Give them something worth while, poor chaps," he said.
"And to think that the Ironclad has kept this bottled up so long," muttered Lushton.
"I always said you had a good heart," Mrs. Leyburn whispered to the captain. "If people would only let you show it," she added maliciously; meaning, of course, Lady Jones.
The Chief Commissioner was easily the most popular man in Burma that night. It was with difficulty the blue-jackets could be kept from carrying him home on their shoulders. "I hope Lem is looking after the cargo all right," murmured the captain, as he drove home to dinner. "I seem to be getting along nicely. Lucky the old cat's away."
The captain danced the opening quadrille at the ball with the wife of the Financial Commissioner, and bar a little enthusiastic rolling engendered of his sea life, and a couple of torn trails as they swept a little too close, he managed it pretty well. The secretary had piloted him that far. Then Mrs. Leyburn swooped down upon him.
There is an adornment indigenous to every ballroom in the East, known as the kala jagah; it may be a conservatory or a bay window. A quiet seat among the crotons, with the drowsy drone of the waltz flitting in and out among the leaves, is just the place to work a man.
I'm telling you this now; but Mrs. Leyburn knew it long ago: moons before Captain Larry opened the ball with the Financial Commissioner's wife. Not that Mrs, Leyburn was the only woman with a mission. Official life in India is full of them; only she had the start—that was all.
"It's scandalous," another missionary said to Captain Lushton. "They've been in there an hour—they've sat out three dances. I'm sorry for poor dear Lady Jones."
Among the crotons the missionary-in-the-field was saying: "I'm sure Jack ordered the launch to meet you at the steamer that time, Sir Lemuel. He knows you were frightfully angry about it, and has felt it terribly. He's simply afraid to ask you for the billet of port officer; and that horrible man who is acting officer now will get it, and poor Jack won't be able to send me up to Darjeeling next hot weather. And you'll be going for a month again next season, Sir Lemuel, won't you?"
Now, as it happened, the captain had had a row with the acting port officer coming up the river; so it was just in his mitt, as he expressed it. "I'll arrange it for Jack to-morrow," he said; "never fear, little woman." ("He spoke of you as Jack," she told Leyburn later on, "and it's all right, love. Lucky the Ironclad was away.")
A lady approaching from the ballroom heard a little rustle among the plants, pushed eagerly forward, and stood before them. Another missionary had entered the field. "I beg pardon, Sir Lemuel," and she disappeared,
"Perfectly scandalous!" she said, as she met Lushton. "Some one ought to advise dear Lady Jones of that designing creature's behavior."
"For Cupid's sake, don't," ejaculated Lushton fervently. "Let the old boy have his fling. He doesn't get out often."
"I've no intention of doing so myself," said his companion, with asperity.
But all the same a telegram went that night to Lady Jones at Prome, which bore good fruit next day, and much of it.
When they emerged from the crotons, Mrs. Leyburn was triumphant. The captain was also more or less pleased with things as they were. "Jack will probably crack Lem's head when he doesn't get his appointment," he thought.
The band was playing a waltz, and he and Mrs. Leyburn mingled with the swinging figures. As they rounded a couple that had suddenly steered across the captain's course, his coat-tails flew out a little too horizontally, and the yellow-faced alabaster god rolled on the floor. It spun around like a top for a few times, and then sat bolt upright, grinning with hideous familiarity at the astonished dancers. Not that many were dancing now, for a wondering crowd commenced to collect about the captain and the grotesque little Buddha. The lady-who-had-seen took in the situation in an instant; for jealousy acts like new wine on the intellect. She darted forward, picked up the obese little god, and, with a sweet smile on her gentle face, proffered it to the captain's companion, with the remark, "I think you've dropped one of your children's toys."
Captain Larry was speechless; he was like a hamstrung elephant, and as helpless.
A private secretary is a most useful adjunct to a Chief Commissioner, but a private secretary with brains is a jewel. So when Johnson stepped quickly forward and said, "Excuse me, madam, but that figure belongs to me; I dropped it," the captain felt as though a life-line had been thrown to him.
The secretary put the Buddha in his pocket; and it really appeared as though from that moment the captain's luck departed. He slipped away early from the ball; it seemed, somehow, as though the fun had gone out of the thing. He began to have misgivings as to the likelihood of the chief engineer keeping his brother shut up much longer. "I'll get out of this in the morning," he said, as he turned into bed. "I've had enough of it. I'll scuttle the ship and clear out."
This virtuous intention would have been easy of accomplishment, comparatively, if he had not slept until ten o'clock. When he arose, the secretary came to him with a troubled face. "There's a telegram from Lady Jones, Sir Lemuel, asking for the carriage to meet her at the station, and I've sent it. She's chartered a special train, and we expect her any moment."
"Great Scott! I'm lost!" moaned the captain. "I must get out of this. Help me dress quickly, that's a good fellow."
An official accosted him as he came out of his room. "I want to see you, Sir Lemuel."
"Is that your tom-tom at the door?" answered the captain, quite irrelevantly.
"Yes, Sir Lemuel."
"Well, just wait here for a few minutes. I've got to meet Lady Jones, and I'm late."
Jumping into the cart he drove off at a furious clip. Fate, in the shape of the Ironclad, swooped down upon him at the very gate. He met Lady Jones face to face.
"Stop! " she cried excitedly. "Where are you going, Sir Lemuel?"
"I'm not Sir Lemuel," roared back the disappointed captain.
"Nice exhibition you're making of yourself—Chief Commissioner of Burma."
"I'm not the Commissioner of Burma. I'm not your Sir Lemuel," he answered, anxious to get away at any cost.
"The man is mad. The next thing you'll deny that I'm your wife."
"Neither are you!" roared the enraged captain, and away he sped.
Lady Jones followed. It was a procession; the red spokes of the tom-tom twinkling in and out the bright patches of sunlight as it whirled along between the big banyan trees; and behind, the carriage, Lady Jones sitting bolt upright with set lips. The captain reached the wharf first. He was down the steps and into a sampan like a shot.
It was the only sampan there. The carriage dashed up at that instant. There was no other boat; there was nothing for it but to wait.
"Come, Lem, get into these duds and clear out," cried the captain, as he burst into his cabin.
"You villain! I'll have you sent to the Andamans for this," exclaimed the prisoner.
"Quick! Your wife's waiting on the dock," said Larry.
That had the desired effect; Sir Lemuel became as a child that had played truant.
"What have you done, Larry?" he cried pathetically. "You've ruined me."
"No, I've done you good. And I've left you some decent wine at the house. Get ashore before she comes off."
"There's no help for it," said Sir Lemuel. "There are your orders to proceed to Calcutta to load; your beastly chief engineer insisted on shoving them in to me."
{[dhr]} "Don't 'my love' me!" said the Ironclad, when Sir Lemuel climbed penitently into the carriage. "An hour ago you denied that I was your wife."
And so they drove off, the syce taking the tom-tom back to its owner. It took Sir Lemuel days and days to straighten out the empire after the rule of the man who had been "King for a Day."
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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