I laughed with
apparent unconcern, and turned to the purser.
"Oh, that's it, is it?" I cried. "I might have known it was Kinney;
he's always playing practical jokes on me." I turned to Aldrich. "My
friend has been playing a joke on you, too," I said. "He didn't know who
you were, but he saw you were an Anglomaniac, and he's been having fun
with you!"
"Has he?" roared Aldrich. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out
a piece of paper. "This," he cried, shaking it at me, "is a copy of a
wireless that I've just sent to the chief of police at New Bedford."
With great satisfaction he read it in a loud and threatening voice: "Two
impostors on this boat representing themselves to be Lord Ivy, my future
brother-in-law, and his secretary. Lord Ivy himself on board. Send
police to meet boat. We will make charges.--Henry Philip Aldrich."
It occurred to me that after receiving two such sensational telegrams,
and getting out of bed to meet the boat at six in the morning, the chief
of police would be in a state of mind to arrest almost anybody, and that
his choice would certainly fall on Kinney and myself. It was ridiculous,
but it also was likely to prove extremely humiliating.
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