The Rope of Gold

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER XIV THE MARINE KING

  Of all the strange sights their heightened imaginations prepared them tobehold, none, perhaps, could have so filled the minds of Doris and Johnnywith astonishment as that which they saw when, having passed a grove ofcocoanuts and a clump of low growing palms, they came to a broadclearing.

  Before them was a circle of hard trodden sand. Standing there were morethan a hundred natives.

  In the center, and to all appearances king of them all, was a man seatedupon a throne of hand-hewn mahogany. On the head of this man was abattered crown and in his hand an ebony stick, which one might assume wasused as a scepter.

  Most astonishing of all was the fact that the man was neither black norbrown, but white. And he was dressed in the olive drab uniform of anAmerican Marine.

  For one full moment they stood there, the boy and the two girls,unobserved, staring at this astounding revelation. Their reactions to thescene were strange. Johnny was scarcely able to resist a desire to laugh.Doris stood stock still, lips parted, pupils dilated, staring. Nieta feltan all but overpowering desire to turn and flee.

  Then something happened. The strange king, on his stranger throne, turnedhis crowned head and looked squarely at them.

  This apparently was his turn to stare and stare he did in quite anunroyal manner.

  Another moment had elapsed by the time he regained his composuresufficiently to find his tongue.

  "Why--why hello there!" he said. "Who are you and where did you comefrom?"

  "Who--who are you?" It was Doris who asked this without answering hisquestion.

  "Can't you see?" His face expanded into a broad grin. "I am the MarineKing of Manowa. And these," he added with a low bow, "are mysubjects--some of 'em. Three thousand, in all, and pretty loyal, too."

  "This," Doris told herself, rubbing a hand across her eyes, as if todispel a vision, "is not reality. It is a chapter from Alice inWonderland."

  But it was not. The Marine King of Manowa proved to be very real indeed.The repast he spread before his three young guests a half hour laterdispelled the last doubt. One doesn't get real oatmeal with rich cream,poached eggs and hot cakes with honey from the pages of a fairy book.

  "Yes, he is real," Doris whispered to Johnny. "But how strange."

  "I suppose you think it's awfully queer," said the Corporal King,polishing his battered crown thoughtfully, "that I should be king overhere. Well, it's a strange sort of a yarn." He settled back in his rusticseat. "You see, this island is part of Haiti, and our country, the grandold United States of America, is engaged at present in an endeavor tobring order out of chaos."

  "Yes," said Doris eagerly. "My uncle is a horticultural expert. He'strying to help them to raise fruits and nuts in a better way."

  "That," said the king, "is part of the work, a mighty important part,too. If you are to have schools, hospitals and all that, you must havemoney to support 'em. And rocks, big round silver washers I mean, comesfrom what you sell. But first of all," he grinned a good-natured grin,"you've gotta sort of knock their thick heads together an' git 'em to begood. And that's no job fer a Y. M. C. A. secretary."

  "I'm a Marine, and Marines, so they say, are hard-boiled--tough as oldsole leather baked in the sun. They put me here with twelve rough andreadys and said, 'Make 'em be good'. That was my job. I'd of likedsomethin' else but Marines have to take what they get--and be happy.

  "Right off I discovered that there was two of these Christophes wantin'to wear this brass ring on his old bean and neither one succeedin' morethan a day at a time.

  "What did I do? What would you have done?" He turned to Johnny.

  "Why I,--er,--"

  "You'd a done what I done," replied the king with a hoarse laugh. "You'da said, 'Here, gimme the thing. I'll wear it.' That's what I done and itworked; worked mighty well.

  "I've no great amount of education. Don't take a college professor to seethat. But I believe in it--education I mean. If I can get enough highhatters to teach 'em and enough money I'll have the best educated littlekingdom this side of the Golden Gates. We've no school at all yet. We'llhave one though. You'll see.

  "If this crown was set with diamonds," he said, thumbing the spots wherediamonds might once have been, "I'd take them out and sell them for moneyto buy a school house. For a school house is more important than diamondsor Persian rugs or anything like that."

  "I know where there is one diamond," said Doris impulsively.

  "So do I, several of them," smiled the king. "Trouble is, folks won'tsell their diamonds to help me build my school."

  "But this one does not belong to anyone: at least a--a monkey has it anda monkey isn't anyone, is he?" Doris blushed in her excitement.

  "No," said the king with a laugh. "Not that I know of."

  Then of course the story of the jeweled monkey had to be told.

  When the story was finished the king sat for a long time in a brownstudy.

  "Of course," he exclaimed at last, "it sounds wild, but there are a greatmany stories--most of them wild tales I guess--about the treasure hiddenby old Emperor Christophe before his reign was brought to a close.

  "We know there was a heap of gold then and a barrel of jewels. Whatbecame of them? Who knows? What if this monkey has discovered the hidin'place of that wealth? You might follow him--"

  "And find all the hidden treasure," Doris broke in excitedly.

  "Exactly," smiled the king. "But you'll probably never see that monkeyagain. And yet, it's strange what things happen. Take your landin' onthis island. You might have landed anywhere else and been lost from yourfamily for days and days. But now, if you are brave enough, you'll be athome in less than three hours."

  "Three! Three hours!" they cried excitedly.

  "Less time perhaps. By airplane. My supply plane will be here within anhour. Then, if you've got the nerve, you can go flyin' straight back toCape Haitian. Do you dare?"

  "Do we dare?" Doris leaped to her feet to do a wild fling across thesand. "Dare? Dare?" she cried again. "Who wouldn't dare?"

  As for the native girl, Nieta, she whispered to her snake-tooth charm,then said to Doris with a very sober face, "I am very much afraid, but Iwill go."

  Never, as long as she lives, will Doris forget that ride back to CapeHaitian. There was a friendly handclasp and a "May you come back" fromthe king and they were away.

  Up, up, up they climbed. The sea swam beneath them. The little island ofManowa drifted away behind them. The great island of Haiti with itsplains, its forests, its cloud-capped mountains reached out friendlyhands to greet them.

  "How wonderful are all the inventions of our age!" Doris thought. "What amarvelous privilege to live in such an age."

  Still, like some great bird their plane soared aloft.