“Then we will look at two or three of them to-day, after we have paid our respects to His Majesty. We will not let him be cheated out of his eye-teeth. We have decided to protect him. Isn’t that so, Johnny?” “He needs us, Cap’n Mike.” Huntley became serious and took them into the rear office before he confided: “I don’t know, I’m sure, whether you chaps are joking or not. However, here is a bit of news for you on the quiet. I met a friend of mine, a barrister, yesterday. We had luncheon at the Cheshire Cheese and something or other set him to talking about this Sydenham-Leach affair. It seems that the lawyers are quite keen about it. The family relations are planning to kick up a devil of a row, to bring proceedings under the lunacy act, and prevent this King Osmond from sailing off to his silly island of Trinadaro. They hate to see a fortune thrown away in this mad enterprise, as they call it.” O’Shea was righteously wrathful as he flung out: “Would they interfere with a gentleman and his diversions? Hasn’t he a right to spend his money as he pleases? Have ye ever seen him, George? He is a grand man to meet, and ’tis proud we are to be his friends.” “Oh, I imagine they will have a job to prove he is insane,” said Huntley. “But they may make a pot of trouble for him.” “I suppose they can pester him with all kinds of legal foolishness and haul him before the courts, and so on,” agreed O’Shea. “It would break his heart and spoil all his fun. ’Tis an outrageous shame, George. What is the system in this country when they want to investigate a man’s top story?” “I asked the barrister chap,” replied Huntley. “The friends of the person suspected of being dotty, usually his near relatives, lay the case before one of the judges in lunacy, and he orders an inquiry, which is held before a master in lunacy. Then if the alleged lunatic demands a trial by jury he gets it. If he can’t convince them that he is sound in the thinker, his estate is put in charge of a committee duly appointed by law.” O’Shea listened glumly and glowered his intense displeasure. If the law could interfere with a man who wished to be king of an island which nobody else wanted, then the law was all wrong. “And these indecent relatives who want his money will wait and spring a surprise on him,” said the aggrieved shipmaster. “They will take his ship away from him and knock all his beautiful schemes into a cocked hat.” “I imagine he would not be allowed to leave England if the proceedings were started,” said Huntley. Johnny Kent, who had been darkly meditating, aroused himself to observe explosively: