chaps, how just that
one girl plays the devil with a fellow, sometimes!"

But the government officials received this in a different spirit than
that which I had hoped to arouse. They looked at me with a gravity most
disquieting, and Hardwick, suspicion written in every line of his face,
asked:

"Is the young lady a member of your party?"

"Heavens, no," I answered quickly. "Oh, no," I vigorously repeated. "We
don't know her, at all--none of us!"

An ominous silence followed this emphatic denial, and I could actually
_feel_ him making up his mind about us. It was an awful moment. At last
Tommy flecked the ash from his cigar and, with great deliberation,
asked:

"Colonel, do you believe in ghosts?"

"If you're serious," Hardwick snapped, "I certainly do not!"

"I'm serious, all right," Tommy purred, and I knew, from the unusually
soft quality of his voice, that, indeed, he was--"for, if you don't
believe in ghosts, you believe we're a bunch of damn crooks--oh, yes you
do!--and I may say that if you don't, you're a damn fool. _Now_ you see
how serious I am, and how serious this affair is! This man was telling
the exact truth when he said that none of us have ever heard that voice.
If we actually did hear it just now, the coincidence that brought a
small boat past us at this time of night, and prompted some woman in it
to speak when and what she did, is more inexplicable to me than you
think it is to you--because you've made up your mind to understand it. I
can, however, understand how any sweet voice on a night like this might
make my friend skid off his usually sane and normal track, because----"
he hesitated, adding slowly: "Hardwick, I can't go into my friend's
private affairs, but I wish to tell you that he's had a hell of a jolt,
and on account of a memory--a memory, Hardwick--we're at Key West
tonight. I trust, sir, that you won't misjudge, but rather fit these
fragments and supply the needed others; for I know that your
appreciation of--er--things is too delicate to allow me to proceed."

Be it noted that Tommy did tell but the simple truth; and, what is
more, he told it with such sincerity that, in a large measure, our
embarrassment became shifted over to our guests. Personally, I felt like
a howling ass to be staked out and exhibited as somebody's jilted Romeo,
but this was a welcome compromise; thrice welcome, since Hardwick's next
words showed that he had forgotten, or dismissed, the prelude to my
burs