The Huttig news., 1909-02-20

fathers he would bp the merest tool in the hands of Ere neh diplomacy.
 Everything depended upon getting him to the Siamese capital before the old king should expire The "Ong Tai was an energetic man of middle years. He controlled the army, he had the tremendous weight of ancient custom to support his claim. and it was practically cer ain that once pro- claimed sovereign, he would be SIS taincd by the foreign governments, if only for the sake of peace. Possession would mean all the points of the law and the road was barred by an in- fernal machine
 In the French consulate and on tfe French cruiser there was exasperation and alarm. The cables to the east hummed with cipher messages The commander offered the services of his blue jackets to remove the sunken Ukraine. he offered to tear 1t to pieces with his own bare hands Money was no object but the directors of the canal, mostly Englishmen, had no par ticular sympathy with the French mans ineomprehensible and almost fearful excitement and declined to risk having a mile of the canal embank ments shatterede by the tampering of unskilled hands. A hurry order had been eabled to Naples for wreckers and they might be expected in two or three days. Till then it was neces- sary to wait.
 It turned out to be four days, and for several persons in the port they were the slowest four days on record. Ship after ship continued to arrive at both ends of the canal, mail steamers. freight boats, majestic steel ships and barques from the antipodes every sort of craft important enough to pay the canal tolls, flying every flag known 10 the four oceans. Every day the com pany's offices were crowded with an sry and rough speaking sea captains, and a dozen suits-atlaw were daily threatened. As for Davenport. he hood of these offices and spent much of his time on the end of tf. pier as before. sweeping the horizon with his glass. He was looking for the steam CT from Naples.
 On the fifth morning she appeared. Davenport at once had himself rowe1 to the French man-of-war. boarded her and introduced himself to the commander in purest Parisian French. Would the commander have the good ness to transmit to the French lega- tion in Bangkok a communication of importance to French interests in the east-of the highest importance, he might venture to say? The command CT would Davenport confided to his care an imposing and officiallooking document tied with tape and decor ated with several ounces of red wax. and bowed himself over the side. Two hours later he went aboard a vest bound steamer that was ready to sail and disappeared under the Mediter- ranean horizon.
 The divers went to work at once hauling up carefully several tin cases : filled with sand After an investi : gation lasting an hour or two, cou pie of charges of dynamite were ex !, ploded under the Ukraine with no un usual effects The canal xas clear and in a solid procession The shfns began to pass through. For week there was a double file, moving in op- posite directions, and the nights were bright as day from the electric search lights that the regulations compel every vessel to carry in nocturnal transit. q
 The French cruiser crossed the ln- dian ocean and the Bay of Bengal as if the devil were after Ser She vas a new boat and had recently been cleaned The French secretary Of To- gation was down at Pa'snam, at tho mouth of Bangkok's long harbor, on the lookout for her. and when she ap- peared he came on board. Before he l could open his mouth the commander thrust into his hand Davenport's bulky missive. Tn spite of its size and weight, it was found, when the multi. plicity of seals were broken and the tape cut, to contain only the follow ing words:
 On board the sunken steamer Ukraine.
 in the Suez Canal His Excellency. the French Ainbassadcr.
 Bangkok:
 Five years ago an American sailor en- listed in the French Foreign Legation at Hue. Cochin China. He rose to he T sous officer. At the outbreak o' tho Spanish war with the United States le applied for discharge this term of ei.ltst- ment having all but expired) in or s"r that he might join the fleet of Adrl: u pewey at Hong Kong. and when tfs was refused lie attempted to escal and make his way thither without leave IL" was captured and shot to pieces by tie native troops sent in pursuit. His Do " lies on the shore of the Gulf cf Tonquin. under heap of rocks-tho ccstliest sepulchre ever erected. for it has cost France a kingdom.
 That man was my only brotler.
 STEWART DAVENPORT
 The secretary of legation ad tho note and shrugged his shout iers ex. pressively Then, answering thc look of intense curiosity on the eominahd- er's countenance, he said:
 "The king died four days aao and his brother immediately assumed the crown amid thunders of popular eo- plause. He has been formally recos k, tho fprosop dip1on1ntir cOrp1