Word: madeira
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...quiet has been the revolution that has gripped the island of Madeira for the past month that elderly British ladies continued to totter round the gardens of resort hotels, to slide along the cobblestoned streets of Funchal in steel-runnered sledges drawn by bullocks. Honeymoon couples continued to play tennis. Last week the British cruisers London and Curlew slipped into Funchal harbor. Royal marines went ashore to throw a cordon round the three largest tourist hotels. British tourists having been thus protected, the Portuguese Government was left free to suppress the Madeira revolution as best it could...
Nobody knew for certain. The Dictator had traveled from Warsaw to Bordeaux, where he embarked for Madeira, in a sumptuous private car of the Polish State Railways. Knowing that Marshal Pilsudski might decide to go tearing home at any moment, his Chief of Staff ordered the car held at Bordeaux, had its doors and windows hermetically closed by ornate Polish seals...
Presently from Madeira the station master at Bordeaux received an urgent request. He must find Marshal Pilsudski's state sword. It was thought to be in the car. The station master was formally authorized in the name of Marshal Pilsudski to break the seals, rummage the car, pack up the sword if found, and despatch it by the next boat to Madeira...
...such thing. In his canny French mind's eye he saw that if he opened the car, and even if he found the sword, afterwards a whole troop of excitable Poles might hold him responsible for whatever else might happen to be missing. With elaborate politeness he cabled to Madeira his refusal...
Ensued a month of hectic cabling. Finally last week the sealed car was towed to Warsaw, opened. The sword was found, exactly where Marshal Pilsudski's valet had said it would be. The sword was shipped to Madeira. It arrived safely. Correspondents were permitted to learn why it was so urgently needed...