ngth of the big
dining-room, winding in and out among the small tables, only to emerge
finally into the corridor and find himself face to face with his _bete
noire_, Captain Boynton.

"Hello! Can't lose you," was the captain's gruff greeting. "How does it
happen that you aren't off with the crowd doing the sights?"

"Sights bore me," said Percival, unfolding his napkin with an air of
lassitude.

"Crowds, too, eh? Twoing more in your line?"

The remark was treated with contemptuous silence while Percival devoted
himself to the menu.

"Seen that girl of mine since she came ashore?" continued the captain.

"Miss Boynton?" asked Percival, as if not quite sure of the identity of
the person inquired for. "Oh, yes, I believe I did see her early this
morning. She went out with Mr. Black."

"Good! He'll show her a thing or two."

"Rather extraordinary," Percival could not help commenting, "the way
young American girls go about alone like that."

"Alone? What's the matter with Andy?"

"But I mean unchaperoned. Dare say young Black is very good in his way,
but he can't be called discreet."

"How do you mean?"

"Taking your daughter into that nasty mess of Chinamen in the steerage,
for instance, to watch them play fan-tan."

"What of that? She only lost a couple of quarters and had a dollar's
worth of fun. Can't see it was any worse than keeping her out at the
prow until midnight, or taking her up to the crow's-nest." The captain
pushed back his chair, and smiled with maddening significance. "See
here, my young friend, you needn't worry about Bobby. She's been taking
care of herself for twenty years. You better look after yourself."

The Honorable Percival did not answer. He got his eye-glass right and
looked straight ahead of him.

But the captain was not through. He leaned across the table and shook a
warning finger:

"Beware of J. Lucy," he said, then he took a smiling departure.

Through the rest of the meal and well into the afternoon Percival
puzzled his brain over that cryptic warning. When its meaning dawned
upon him he flung "Guillim's Display of Heraldry" clear across the room,
and used language not becoming an English gentleman. He assured himself
for the hundredth time that Americans were the most odious people in the
world, and the captain the most convincing proof of it.

The afternoon dragged miserably, and the prospect of waiting about the
hotel until the steamer sailed at noon the next day ap