“‘Very well,’ said Sir Harry, ’you may go.’—­’That will give us time to finish our cigarettes,’ said he to me.  The orderly saluted and rode away.  We never saw him again.

“The officer of the day was a very accurate man, very accurate indeed.  In three minutes to the dot the explosion did occur.  We never knew what caused it.  No doubt the Admiralty Board determined that, but we were not present at the session.

“The explosion was most violent, and no doubt the submarine was quite destroyed by it.  Sir Harry and I were blown to an extraordinary distance from the spot.  I remember saying to him, as we reached the surface and started upward, that it seemed quite too bad that we’d not had time to get together our personal kit for the journey.

“It’s no use my mentioning how long we travelled thus, for I’m not in the least clear about it myself.  All I can say is that in course of time we descended, and that we found ourselves on solid ground, on the island of Gee-Whiz.  That, you will understand, was an uncharted and hitherto undiscovered land, lying near the 400th parallel west of London and somewhere below Sumatra—­several weeks’ march from Calcutta, I should say.  We’d never seen the place nor heard of it, but were jolly well pleased to alight upon it, under the circumstances.  Of the rest of the ship’s company we never heard.

“It was a baddish fix, I must say, for to be marooned on a desert island is serious; and it’s still more serious to lose one’s ship in the British Army.  Presently, however, we composed ourselves.  ‘I say,’ said Sir Harry, ’this is a great go, isn’t it?  Here I am with no luggage whatever except one bar of soap!’

“Presently I saw approaching a band of natives, headed by a large person, who was apparently their leader or king.”

“Then that was the real King of Gee-Whiz?” asked Doc Tomlinson.

“At that time, but not permanently, as I shall presently show you.”

“I explained the situation to the King, who turned out to be a very good sort.  ‘God bless my soul!’ said he.  ’My dear sir, there’s not the slightest occasion for uneasiness, there really isn’t, indeed.’

“You may fawncy the situation!  As it was, Sir Harry and I were obliged to make the best of it.  We concluded to remain and to take possession of the region in the name of her Britennic Majesty.”

“That’s the most natural part of your story!” affirmed Uncle Jim, with conviction.

“Thank you.  But I must tell you of the complications which now arose.  You will see that all these people were sun-worshippers, or something of the sort, and they’d a beastly unpleasant habit, you know, of offering up a sacrifice now and again to appease the spirits, or the like.  We learned they’d a valley of gold hidden away somewhere back in the island, and from this the King got all his gold, though even under these circumstances not so much as he wanted at all times.  He’d the trouble of most royal families.