Freed of all anxieties and besetments, the royal passenger resumed his labor of planning the occupations of his subjects. His enthusiasm was delightful to behold. He seemed to grow younger with every day of the voyage southward. His was to be a kingdom of peace and good will, of a benevolent ruler and a contented, industrious people. He was the stanchest kind of a royalist, and Trinadaro was to be a constitutional monarchy, with an aristocracy which should be recruited after the pioneering work had been accomplished. The existing theories and examples of republican government he regarded with peculiar disfavor.
The relations between the king and his mariners twain became those of pleasant, informal intimacy. They learned to know him much better during the long weeks at sea, and felt toward him an affectionate, tolerant respect. He was wrapped up in his one idea. His belief that he was indeed a king was as natural as breathing.
The ship had crossed the equator, and was plowing through the long blue surges of the South Atlantic when Captain O'Shea, after working out the noon observations, informed the king:
"A couple of days more, and we'll begin to look for a sight of the peaks of Trinadaro. If the weather holds calm, we can begin to put the people and the cargo ashore right after that."
"The peaks of Trinadaro!" fondly echoed King Osmond. "Do you know, Captain O'Shea, I have wondered if you considered me a crack-brained old fool. Many men in England think so, I am sure. I know that my relatives do."
"'Tis my opinion that you wish to make folks happy, and that you will do no harm with your money," was the reply. "And there's few rich men that can say the same. No, 'tis not crackbrained to want to be a king. Power is what men desire, and they will trample on others to get it. I have heard ye talk on board ship, and I have admired what you had to say. You will live your own life in your own way, but you will not forget to make this island of yours a place for men and women to call home, and to be glad that they have found it."
"I thank you, Captain O'Shea," said the other. "I cannot help thinking now and then of what will be the fate of my principality when death comes to me. If I am spared for ten or fifteen years longer, I shall have time to set my affairs in order, to make Trinadaro self-sustaining, to win the recognition of foreign governments, to arrange for an administration to succeed my reign."
"May you live to be king until you are a hundred!" cried O'Shea. "And a man who is as happy and contented as you are is pretty sure of a ripe old age."
"I hope that you and Mr. Kent will consent to sail under the flag of my merchant marine and navy as long as I live," earnestly said the king. "I have learned to depend on you, and I need not tell you that the financial arrangement will be more favorable than you could make elsewhere."
"We are restless men, your majesty," replied O'Shea, with a smile; "but we have no notion of quitting your service. 'Tis up to us to see the kingdom fairly under way before we turn rovers again."
It was early in the morning of the second day after this that the officer on watch roused out Captain O'Shea with the news that land had been sighted on the starboard bow. The master of the Tarlington stared through his binoculars at a black, jagged foreland of rock which lifted itself from the sea. He sent word to the passengers that Trinadaro lay ahead of them.
King Osmond had left word that he should be called whenever the first glimpse of his island should be revealed. But he came not to the bridge in response to the message from Captain O'Shea. In his stead appeared his physician, with a demeanor terribly distressed. His voice was unsteady as he said to Captain O'Shea:
"It is my sad duty to inform you that his majesty passed away some time during the night. His heart simply ceased to beat. It had been somewhat feeble and irregular of late, but the symptoms were not alarming. His strength was overtaxed during those last weeks in London."
O'Shea bared his head, and stood silent. The announcement was very hard to believe. Pulling himself together, he murmured to the chief officer:
"The king is dead. Please set the flag of Trinadaro at half mast."
As soon as the word was passed down to the engine room Johnny Kent sought the bridge, and his eyes were filled with tears as he exclaimed:
"It don't seem right, Cap'n Mike. I ain't reconciled to it one mite. He deserved to have what he wanted. And he dies within sight of his kingdom!"
"Yes, he has slipped his cable, Johnny. There are cruel tricks in this game of life."
"What will you do now?"