Gorman is nothing of a sailor and is almost totally uninterested in ships. This steamer must have been very old-fashioned indeed to have struck him as being odd. She arrived in the harbour at midday and splashed about a good deal with her paddles as if she were rather pleased with herself and thought she had a right to the admiration of the islanders. There was only one modern thing about her. The splayed-out wires of a Marconi installation stretched between her masts.
Gorman was sitting with Donovan when the steamer arrived. They had spent a pleasant hour discussing, in a desultory manner, whether a nation gains or loses by having a titled aristocracy. Donovan preferred the British to the American system. Statesmen, he pointed out, must make some return to the rich for the money which they provide to keep politics going. It is on the whole better to give titles than to alter tariffs in return for subscriptions to party funds. The subject was not a very interesting one and both men were pleased when the arrival of the steamer gave them a new topic.
"Seems to me," said Donovan, "that Daisy might gather in some revenue by charging harbour dues. This is the second ship, not reckoning the _Ida_, which has put in here since I arrived."
"I don't know that flag," said Gorman. "Not that that means anything. I don't suppose there are half a dozen flags that I do know."
"There was some mention made of an Emperor," said Donovan. "Daisy seemed to think that one might come nosing round, thinking to buy the island. Perhaps that's him."
"Hardly in that steamer," said Gorman. "She looks as if she'd been built a hundred years ago. One of the first ever launched, I should think."
"Well," said Donovan, "I'm not an expert in the habits of European Emperors; but I've always been told that the state coach in which the King of England goes to open Parliament dates back quite a bit in the matter of shape. An Emperor might feel that he owed it to his historic past to sail the ocean in the nearest thing he could get to the ark of the patriarch Noah."
The argument was sound; but Gorman was not inclined to think that the Emperor was paying a visit to Salissa in person. He was just going to say so when Smith came on to the balcony. He carried a pair of field glasses in his hand, which he laid on the table beside Donovan's chair.