"I am here by the order of his Majesty the German Emperor," said Diedrich, and chose his own place to anchor.

He made it quite plain in other ways that he was taking no orders from America.

Dewey, so report has it, at last told him that "if he wanted a fight he could have it at the drop of the hat." Then it was that the German called on the English Admiral, Chichester, who was likewise at hand, anchored in Manila Bay.

"What would you do," inquired Diedrich, "in the event of trouble between Admiral Dewey and myself ?" "That is a secret known only to Admiral Dewey and me," said the Englishman.

Plainer talk could hardly be.