ry meek and damp about the head."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"I? Nonsense! I'm shamelessly able-bodied--and not afraid to pull a
trigger, besides. Moreover, there aren't any dangerous characters in
this neighbourhood."

"Then I presume it's useless for me to offer my services as watch-dog?"

"Entirely so. And when I choose a protector, I shall pick out one sound
of limb as well as wind."

"Snubbed," he said mournfully. "And me that lonesome.... Think of the
long, dull evening I've got to live through somehow."

"I have already thought of it. And being kind-hearted, it occurred to me
that you might be one of those mean-spirited creatures who can enjoy
double-dummy."

"It's the only game I really care for with a deathless passion."

"Then, if I promise to come over this evening and play you a rubber or
two--will you permit me to go home now?"

"On such terms I'll do anything you can possibly suggest," he declared,
enchanted. "You mean it--honest Injun?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die--"

"But ... how will you get here? Not alone, through the woods! I can't
permit that."

"Elise shall row me down the shore and then go back to keep cook
company. Sum Fat can see me home--if you find it still necessary to keep
up the invalid pose."

"I'm afraid," he laughed, "I shall call my own bluff.... Must you really
go so soon?"

"Good afternoon," she returned demurely; and ran down the steps and off
to her boat.

Smiling quietly to himself, Whitaker watched her cast the boat off, get
under way, and swing it out of sight behind the trees. Then his smile
wavered and faded and gave place to a look of acute discontent.

He rose and limped indoors to ransack Ember's wardrobe for evening
clothes--which he failed, perhaps fortunately, to find.

He regarded with an overwhelming sense of desolation the tremendous arid
waste of time which must intervene before he dared expect her: a good
four hours--no, four and a half, since she would in all likelihood dine
at a sensible hour, say about eight o'clock. By half-past eight, then,
he might begin to look for her; but, since she was indisputably no woman
to cheapen herself, she would probably keep him waiting till nearly
nine.

Colossal waste of time, impossible to contemplate without
exacerbation...!

To make matters worse, Sum Fat innocently enough served Whitaker's
dinner promptly at six, under the misapprehension that a decent
consideration for his foot would induce the you