Chapter XIV: The Marine King

Of all the strange sights their heightened imaginations prepared them to behold, none, perhaps, could have so filled the minds of Doris and Johnny with astonishment as that which they saw when, having passed a grove of cocoanuts and a clump of low growing palms, they came to a broad clearing.

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

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

Most astonishing of all was the fact that the man was neither black nor brown, but white. And he was dressed in the olive drab uniform of an American Marine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"This," Doris told herself, rubbing a hand across her eyes, as if to dispel a vision, "is not reality. It is a chapter from Alice in Wonderland."

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 later dispelled 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 over here. Well, it's a strange sort of a yarn." He settled back in his rustic seat. "You see, this island is part of Haiti, and our country, the grand old United States of America, is engaged at present in an endeavor to bring order out of chaos."

"Yes," said Doris eagerly. "My uncle is a horticultural expert. He's trying 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 have money to support 'em. And rocks, big round silver washers I mean, comes from 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 be good. 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 old sole leather baked in the sun. They put me here with twelve rough and readys and said, 'Make 'em be good'. That was my job. I'd of liked somethin' 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' more than 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'd a said, 'Here, gimme the thing. I'll wear it.' That's what I done and it worked; worked mighty well.

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

"If this crown was set with diamonds," he said, thumbing the spots where diamonds might once have been, "I'd take them out and sell them for money to buy a school house. For a school house is more important than diamonds or 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't sell their diamonds to help me build my school."

"But this one does not belong to anyone: at least a--a monkey has it and a 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 brown study.

"Of course," he exclaimed at last, "it sounds wild, but there are a great many stories--most of them wild tales I guess--about the treasure hidden by 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. What became 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 monkey again. And yet, it's strange what things happen. Take your landin' on this island. You might have landed anywhere else and been lost from your family for days and days. But now, if you are brave enough, you'll be at home in less than three hours."

"Three! Three hours!" they cried excitedly.

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

"Do we dare?" Doris leaped to her feet to do a wild fling across the sand. "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 I will go."

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

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

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

Still, like some great bird their plane soared aloft.