gh for
you to have stepped in between."

"I haven't any parlour varnish left, Jane. His shoulder was almost
touching yours. It was an intentional insult, and that was enough for me.
The dog! Still looking at the business romantically?"

His tone was bitter. Her reproach, no doubt justified, cut deeply.

"No, I'm beginning to become a little afraid--afraid that the men may get
out of hand. I don't care what you and your father think, but I believe
Cunningham honestly wishes us to reach the Catwick without any conflict."

"Ah, Cunningham!"

"There you go again--angry and bitter! Why can't you take it sensibly,
like your father?"

"My father doesn't happen to be----"

He stopped with mystifying abruptness.

"Doesn't happen to be what?"

"The sort of fool I am!"

"You're not so good a comrade as you were."

"Can't you understand? I've been stood upon my head. The worry about you
on one side and the contact with my father on the other would be
sufficient. But Cunningham and this pirate crew as a tail to the kite!
But, thank God, I had the wit to come in search of you!"

"I thank God every minute, Denny! You are very strong," she added, shyly.

"Glad of that, too. But I repeat, I've lost the parlour varnish and the
art of parlour talk. For seven years I've been wandering in strange
places, most of them hard; so I say what I think and act on the spur. That
dog had liquor on his breath. Is Cunningham secretly letting them into the
dry-stores?"

"The man may have brought it aboard at Shanghai. What a horrible thing a
great war is! In a week it knocks aside all the bars of restraint it took
years to erect. Could a venture like this have happened in 1913? I doubt
it. There comes your father. But who is the man with him? He's been
hurt."

"Father's watchdog. They had to beat him up to get his gun away from him.
That was the racket we heard. Evidently Father expects you to read to him,
so I'll take a constitutional."

"Why, where's your uniform?" she cried.

"Laid it aside. From now on it will be stuffy. Those military boots were
killing me. I borrowed the rig from one of the pirates, but I'll have to
go barefoot."

"Will you come to your chair soon? I shall worry otherwise. You might run
into that man again."

"I shan't go below," he promised, starting off.

Twenty thousand at compound interest for seven years, he thought, as he
made the first turn. A tidy sum to start life with. Could he swallow his
prid