quently developed cramps, which only a hot
footbath relieved.]

Mr. McDonald waded out into the water. Our beach fire illuminated the
whole scene distinctly, and when he saw the P.T.S. huddled in the canoe
he stopped as though he had been shot.

"How interesting!" said Hutchins from the bank, in her cool voice.

I remember yet Tish, stamping round on her cramped limb and smiling
benevolently at all of us. The girl, however, looked startled and
unhappy, and a little dizzy. Hutchins helped her to a fallen tree.

"Where--where is he?" said the P.T.S.

Tish stared at her. "Bless the girl!" she said. "Did you think I meant
the other one?"

"I--What other one?"

Tish put her hand on Mr. McDonald's arm. "My dear girl," she said, "this
young man adores you. He's all that a girl ought to want in the man she
loves. I have done him a grave injustice and he has borne it nobly. Come
now--let me put your hand in his and say you will marry him."

"Marry him!" said the P.T.S. "Why, I never saw him in my life before!"

We had been so occupied with this astounding scene that none of us had
noticed the arrival of the detective. He limped rapidly up the
bank--having lost his heel, as I have explained--and, dripping with
water, confronted us. When a red-haired person is pale, he is very pale.
And his teeth showed.

He ignored all of us but the P.T.S., who turned and saw him, and went
straight into his arms in the most unmaidenly fashion.

"By Heaven," he said, "I thought that elderly lunatic had taken you off
and killed you!"

He kissed her quite frantically before all of us; and then, with one arm
round her, he confronted Tish.

"I'm through!" he said. "I'm done! There isn't a salary in the world
that will make me stay within gunshot of you another day." He eyed her
fiercely. "You are a dangerous woman, madam," he said. "I'm going to
bring a charge against you for abduction and assault with intent to
kill. And if there's any proof needed I'll show my canoe, full of water
to the gunwale."

Here he kissed the girl again.

"You--you know her?" gasped Mr. McDonald, and dropped on a tree-trunk,
as though he were too weak to stand.

"It looks like it, doesn't it?"

Here I happened to glance at Hutchins, and she was convulsed with mirth!
Tish saw her, too, and glared at her; but she seemed to get worse. Then,
without the slightest warning, she walked round the camp-fire and kissed
Mr. McDonald solemnly on the top of his head