That's me, Julius the First, and only. If
anybody else from now on claims he's a monarch in these regions, he
shall be skinned and melted.' And they all cried: 'Hoi! Hoi!' or
words to that effect. They were unanimous. Kamelillo said they 'liked
it good.'"
Craney was silent a while, and I didn't say much. I didn't know how
to get along with monarchs, anyway. The men forward were working by
lantern, hauling up stuff from the hold, and piling it on deck to
start unloading in the morning.
"I'm going out of trade," he went on. "I'm going into royalty.
That's my retinue on the beach. What's more, it's most of the male
population, including nobility and masses. I'll show 'em. The old
king was a bad lot. I'll be a benevolent monarch. I'll give 'em free
schools and a constitution.
"Tommy," he says after a long silence, "you'll be going back to San
Francisco, and maybe you'll see some folks that are looking for me,
and maybe they'll be hostile. Very good. You come back with 'em and
you watch me. You're an old friend of me, Tommy. You're a man capable
of expanding. You can get on to large ideas. You can take in
vastness. You come back, and I'll make you heir to the throne.
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