Ralph D. Paine

“ At the threshold of a sort of anteroom they were met by the brisk, self-possessed young man, who gazed sharply at the sturdy, sunburned strangers, hesitated a trifle, and invited them to enter. Offering them cigars, he bade them be seated, and again scrutinized them, as if striving to recall where he might have seen them before. ”

“ Captain O'Shea, at his ease in any company or circumstances, and particularly now when he held the whip hand, asked at once:
"Are we to have the pleasure of paying our respects to his majesty?"
"You Americans are so jolly informal," smiled the minister of finance. ”

“ We will write our names on a card."
"Baron Strothers receives such callers as are personally unknown to his majesty," the clerk explained.
"We don't wish to see the young man," said O'Shea.
"My orders are to send all cards and messages to him."
The two visitors drew apart from the desk, and put their heads together.
"The minister of finance will not let us get within a cable's length of his boss if he thinks we are seafaring men," whispered O'Shea.
"The swindler may have took notice of us in the Jolly Mermaid," growled Johnny Kent. ”