3
Douglas gave an involuntary start. "Protection! Now! "
"Gentlemen, where are your ships? "inquired the doctor.
"Anchored in Puget Sound. There are fifteen warships on the coast, carrying four hundred guns," answered Lieutenant Peel.
Dr. McLoughlin's face was a study.
"Where is your ship? How did you get here? "
"Overland by way of the Cowlitz. The ' Modeste is entering the Columbia with twenty guns. Do you think that will be sufficient? She will soon be here."
"Sufficient? I should think so!" ejaculated the doctor.
With the intuitive grasp of situation for which he was noted, Dr. McLoughlin provided for his distinguished guests, thinking mightily all the time.
"The devil 's to pay now," he whispered aside to Douglas. "What have they come for? If they had only arrived six weeks sooner I should n't have signed the compact. Now we have recognized the Provisional Government the ships are not needed. Indeed, they are likely to stir up a d 1 of a row by rousing the suspicions of the Americans."
"'Tis well to have them here till we try the temper of the next immigration," said Douglas, to soothe the spirits of his chief.
"Don't you think we can bring troops overland from Canada?" inquired one of the officers, as Dr. McLoughlin re-entered the room. "If it comes to blows we will hit these Americans a good deal harder than we would other people."
"Oh, Captain Parke! Oh, Captain Parke! "ejaculated the distressed doctor. "The country is not worth a war."
