MY QUEST OF THE ARAB HORSE 



er, but there was no special steamer to charter. 

 Should we be obliged to rent winter quarters 

 and just wait as the agent of the steam- 

 ship company had said we should do? That 

 was not to be thought of. I decided that some- 

 thing had to be done at once. 



I sent a telegram to the King of Italy, ap- 

 pealing to him as a horseman. I told him 

 that though my horses had been billed through 

 to New York by an Italian line, they were be- 

 ing held up indefinitely. The Italia in the 

 meantime had arrived, and the captain repeat- 

 ed that he had orders to take on no horses, and 

 that he would not think of doing so, as he had 

 more emigrants than his ship could comfort- 

 ably hold. Then I played trumps and cabled 

 to the President. An answer arrived from 

 Washington that carried with it a punch. It 

 was plain and simple, but it demanded an im- 

 mediate reply. It read : 



"State Department at Washington wants to 

 know if it is true that this shipment of horses 

 is held on account of emigrants being shipped 

 to America." 



There was a good deal of action just then 

 round the office of the steamship company. 

 Ambassador White, at Rome, demanded an 



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