He waved his hand and snapped his fingers and they herded into the servants' wing, from which in a twinkling they emerged ready to take up their old duties.

They were not a liveried lot, but they were swift and capable.
Calmly taking Lord Deppingham and his following into his confidence, he said, in reply to their indignant remonstrances, later on in the day: "I know that an American man-o'-war hasn't any right to fire upon British possessions, but you just keep quiet and let well enough alone.
These fellows believe that the Americans can shoot straighter and with less pity than any other set of people on earth.

If they ever find out the truth, we won't be able to control 'em a minute.

It won't hurt you to let 'em believe that we can blow the Island off the map in half a day, and they won't believe you if you tell 'em anything to the contrary.

They just simply _know_ that I can send wireless messages and that a cruiser would be out there to-morrow if necessary, pegging away at these green hills with cannon balls so big that there wouldn't be anything left but the horizon in an hour or two.