The etiquette of courts troubled O'Shea not in the least as he cheerily yet respectfully suggested to the perplexed elderly gentleman:
"Now, King Osmond, if you will please sit down and let us talk things over with ye as man to man, we'll tell you how it happened."
The personage obediently did as he was told; nor could he feel offended by the shipmaster's boyish candor. O'Shea chewed on his cigar, and his eyes twinkled as he glanced at the stubborn visage of Johnny Kent, which was still flushed and stormy. His majesty began to get his wits together, and to wonder why he had permitted this brace of total strangers to take him by storm. O'Shea broke into his cogitations by explaining:
"You are surprised that you chucked the trusted minister of finance out of the room and consented to listen to us at all. In the first place, we are not asking anything of you. What I mean is, we felt bound to put you next to the dirty deal that was framed up to rob ye."
"We saw you in the Jolly Mermaid tavern, and we liked your looks," ingenuously added Johnny Kent. "We decided to do you a good turn whether we ever saw the color of your money or not."
"And we didn't like the cut of the jib of your minister of finance," resumed O'Shea. "And we were dead sure that Captain Handy was rotten."
King Osmond earnestly interrupted:
"But I have had all the confidence in the world in Baron Strothers; and as a British sailor of the tarry breed, Captain Handy"
"The two of them are tarred with the same brush," exclaimed O'Shea. "They fixed it up between them to pay twenty-four thousand pounds for the Tyneshire Glen, and sell her to you for thirty thousand. 'Tis a simple matter to produce the evidence. Send a messenger to Tavistock & Huntley, in Leadenhall Street. The magging partner will be glad to come here at once. He named the price to Captain Handy and your precious minister of finance. 'Tis a clear case."
"You can buy her yourself from George Huntley, and he'll be darn glad to get his price," chimed in Johnny Kent. "That ought to prove it. But if you'll listen to me you'll have nothin' to do with the Tyneshire Glen."
The faith of King Osmond in human nature had been severely jarred, but somehow he could not doubt the statements of these headstrong, rugged men, who drove their words home as with a sledge hammer. Toward the graceless minister of finance he felt more sorrow than anger as he wove together in his mind this and that circumstance of previous transactions which should have made him more vigilant. But the culprit was the son of a dear friend, and his credentials had been impeccable. The king had become fond of him.
"I shall obtain from Tavistock & Huntley confirmation of your story, as you suggest," he slowly replied to O'Shea. "In the meantime, I wish you would tell me about yourselves."
"We are looking for big risks and big wages," said O'Shea, with a smile. "Johnny Kent and I are better known in the ports of the Spanish Main than in London River. We have made voyages to Haiti and Honduras and Cuba without the consent of the lawful governments, and we know our trade."
King Osmond reflectively stroked his white imperial, and his face assumed an expression of vivid interest. These men were different from Captain Handy. They would neither cringe nor lie to him, and they looked him squarely between the eyes. He desired to draw them out, to let them talk at their leisure.
"Will you be good enough to come into my own rooms?" said he. "We shall find more privacy and comfort. I should like to hear of your adventures along the Spanish Main."
With a courteous gesture, he showed them into a much larger and more luxurious room, which was furnished and used as a library or private office, inasmuch as a large, flat-topped desk was strewn with books, pamphlets, and documents, and many more of them were piled on tables and on shelves against the walls. As a temporary headquarters for royalty at work, the room suggested industry and the administration of large affairs.
So friendly and unconventional was the reception granted them that Captain O'Shea and Johnny Kent were made to feel that their intrusion demanded no more explanations or apologies. Their curiosity fairly tormented them. It was on the tips of their tongues to ask the host what kind of a kingdom was his, and where it was situated; but this would be rudeness. O'Shea took note of several admiralty charts on the desk, two of them unrolled, with the corners pinned down, and a rule and dividers for measuring distances.