Ralph D. Paine

“ In all London the King of Trinadaro could not have found two men of readier mind to fall in with his project and his pretensions than these. To play at being a king on a desert island, to have the means to make it all come true—why, thought Johnny Kent, and he knew O'Shea would instantly agree with him, every living man with the spirit of youth in him would jump at the chance. ”

“ O'Shea was as delighted as a boy to learn that King Osmond was about to found an island kingdom. It was a more attractive revelation than if he had been discovered to be the inconsequential ruler of some effete little domain of Europe. And if one planned to set himself up in business as a sovereign it was proper to use all the pomp and trappings and ceremony that belonged with the game. O'Shea was heart and soul in sympathy with the dreams and plans of the gentle elderly eccentric who had the imagination to play the part with scrupulous attention to detail. ”

“ While O'Shea was telling the story, Johnny Kent let his eyes wander to a small table at his elbow. It was covered with magazines, government reports, and newspaper clippings. One of the latter was so placed that he could read it from where he sat, and with absorbed interest he perused the following paragraphs:
Colonel Osmond George Sydenham-Leach, of the ancient Norfolk family, has lived on the Continent for the last dozen years, and is better known to the boulevards of Paris than to London. ”