him in the narrow corridor and
he tingled to the finger tips.

"I've just put a few flowers in Mr. Grimshaw's room," she said. "They
seem to make the bare little cubby holes a bit more homey, don't you
think? I thought they would be a sort of welcome."

Drew agreed with her, but the hope he had been hugging to his breast
that he had been singled out for special attention vanished.

"I was foolish enough to think that I had them all," he confessed with
a sheepish grin.

"What a greedy man!" she laughed. "No, indeed! Did you think I was
going to overlook my father or Mr. Parmalee? You men are so conceited!"

As though the mention of his name had summoned him, the door of a
neighboring stateroom opened just then and a young man stepped out. He
smiled pleasantly as his gaze fell on Ruth.

"Good morning, Miss Ruth. I'm incorrigibly lazy, I'm afraid," he
remarked, "or else this good air is responsible for my sleeping more
soundly than for a long time past."

Ruth assured him that it was still early.

"If you are lazy, the sun is too," she said, "for, like yourself, it
has just risen."

"That makes him lazier," returned Parmalee, "for he went to rest a good
deal earlier than I did last night."

Ruth laughed, and, after introducing the young men to each other, she
vanished in the direction of the captain's cabin.

The pair exchanged the usual commonplaces as they moved toward the
companionway. Parmalee walked with some difficulty, leaning on a cane,
and Drew had to moderate his pace to keep in step. When they emerged
into the full light of the upper deck, Drew had a chance to gain an
impression of the man who was to be his fellow-voyager.

Lester Parmalee was fully four inches shorter than the trifle over six
feet to which Drew owned, and his slender frame gave him an appearance
of fragility. This impression was heightened by the cane on which he
leaned and the lines in his face which bespoke delicate health. His
complexion was pale, and seemed more pallid because of its contrast
with a mass of coal black hair which overhung his rather high forehead.
His nose and mouth were good and his eyes dark and keenly intelligent.
Some would have called him handsome. Others would have qualified this
by the adjective romantic. All would have agreed that he was a
gentleman.

His physical weakness was atoned for to a great extent by other
qualities that grew on one by longer acquaintance. His manners were
polis