'Dell bet Larry that he couldn't get you aboard and Larry took
him."

"Major O'Dell, that wasn't fair," cried Isabelle.

They all stared at him, and she added with a chuckle:

"It happened just as we planned it, didn't it?"

"Did you put something up on me, O'Dell?" cried Larry. "Ye cheat--ye old
pirate!"

He fell upon him, and a rough-and-tumble inaugurated the party. When
O'Dell found a chance he joined Isabelle.

"You little witch!" he said. "Ye certainly made a booby of ole Larry.
But don't you be coming between me and my best friend."

"I won't if he keeps out of my way," she blazed, "but I'm mad!"

"'Twas only a joke. We wanted ye to come. For my sake, be nice and
funny, an' like yourself."

"All right," she answered amiably. "But you owe me something, if I am."

"Name it, and it's yours."

"It's mine already. I want my Chinese coat back."

He stared at her for a full second.

"It is yours, then?"

"Yes."

"I told him it was----"

"Told _him_?"

"It wasn't my room ye left it in."

"No? How did you know, then?"--in alarm.

"The man who found it asked every woman aboard and never thought of
you, because--well--you're such a baby," he added, staring.

"What's that got to do with it? I went out in the corridor to get some
air, and I went in the wrong door, by mistake. I took off my coat, and
started to climb up to my berth, when the boat joggled, and I put my
hand on _a moustache_! I was so scared that I ran off without my coat."

The Major began to laugh.

"What's the joke?" inquired Larry, joining them.

"It's a secret between Major O'Dell and me. On your sacred honour,
Major, you won't tell," said Isabelle.

"On my sacred honour."

"Go away, O'Dell, and let me make my peace with the Cricket."

"Major O'Dell, you will stay, if you please."

True to her promise to O'Dell, she played up and kept them all amused,
but she never so much as looked at Larry. Thoroughly annoyed, he devoted
himself conspicuously to Mrs. Darlington and Miss Devoe. But he might
have been in China for all the impression his flirtation made on
Isabelle. They landed late in the afternoon, with the Bryce-O'Leary feud
still on.

Isabelle told the story of her capture to Miss Watts, but with that
lady's perverted English sense of humour, she thought O'Leary's prank
was funny. She knew that she ought to disapprove of it, but she only
laughed.

Isabelle went off to read a letter which she found awaiting her, from