At the next village, Paulei, which was deserted, as was the former town, of all except old women and children, O’Neil pointed out the very spot where the American Captain O’Malley had tricked the Herzovinian war-ship in its attempt to bombard the Kataafa warriors nearly a decade ago. “He knew to the king’s taste how to handle a foreigner, and they all liked him for it too,” he exclaimed admiringly. “The Irish have a way with ’em,” Sydney said, smiling broadly. “Not at all, sir,” the sailor replied. The joke apparently passed him by without notice, except for a comical deprecating glance at its author. “He couldn’t be bluffed and was always on the job. If it hadn’t been for him the Herzovinian flag would be flying over these islands to-day.” “Maybe it would be a good thing,” Phil said, and Sydney agreed quickly, to lead O’Neil on. “It ain’t the islands, sir; that ain’t what’s making me want to see the foreigners get left,” O’Neil explained. “It’s the way they go about trying to get ’em.” “I suppose, O’Neil,” Sydney interjected, “that you think it would have been more gentlemanly and in keeping with the dignity of a great country to just take them and let the British and Americans like it or lump it as they pleased.” “Exactly so, sir,” O’Neil declared. “That’s the way I figure it ought to be done.” “That’s because you’re Irish, O’Neil,” Phil told him jokingly. “The Irish always seize the government. When they can’t control it, they’re against it. The nation that gets these islands,” he added, “desires to be right before the world. To do so she must have a very good excuse to seize them. All three nations would be glad to take an option on the group, but when one appears to be gaining ground, the other two combine against her.” “That’s it exactly, Mr. Perry,” O’Neil exclaimed. “But Herzovinia is gaining among the natives. Even though they are taking their land, they are making money for the natives. The Americans and English are standing in the way of Kapuan prosperity.” “If one nation owned these islands by itself, it could make them a paradise,” Sydney exclaimed enthusiastically. “I have never seen such magnificent country in my life. It seems a natural garden, and back there on the mountains,” he added, glancing toward Mount Lautu with its crater-shaped summit, “they say are the finest and most valuable hard wood trees in the world.” “You may be sure,” O’Neil confided, “Herzovinia is going to get this island. A statesman, way back in the eighties, wrote that in his note-book and every one of them ‘savvys’[26] the plan and is pulling for it. If we just set our eyes on the other island, Kulila, with the harbor shaped like a shoe, called Tua-Tua, and give up our share in this one, England would have to pull stakes and get out.” Both midshipmen laughed. “We might have known O’Neil would be against the English,” Sydney said. “What has England ever done for the Irish?” O’Neil replied defensively.