there's anything else in the whole universe
but just you!"

"And now you've got to begin to remember," said Bobby, sympathetically.

He searched her face for a clue as to what was passing in her mind, but
he found none.

"You are a most awfully baffling girl," he said. "Sometimes I can't
determine whether you are subtle or merely ingenuous."

"I'd give it up," advised Bobby.

"But I sha'n't give it up. I sha'n't be content until I know every
little corner of your mind and heart."

She stirred uneasily. From, the way he was looking at her it was
evidently a good thing that his near arm was in a sling.

"You need a cigar," she said soothingly. "Get one out; I'll light it for
you."

He obediently produced his cigar-case, and together they selected a
cigar. She made a great point of cutting off the end, and then, when he
had got it into his mouth, she struck a match and, sheltering the blaze
with her scarf, held it close. The sudden intimacy of that beautiful
face in the little circle of light, with the darkness all around, was
quite too much for Percival. He looked straight into her eyes for one
resolution-breaking second, then he blew out the match and catching her
to him, passionately kissed those smiling, upturned lips.

"Mr. Hascombe!" she protested, shrinking away; but Percival had made his
leap and nothing could stop him.

"You are mine!" he cried rapturously, pressing her hand again and again
to his lips. "It's all quite right, my darling. Don't be frightened. We
shall be married any time, anywhere you say, to-morrow, if you like, in
Hong-Kong."

"But, Mr. Hascombe--"

"Not Mr. Hascombe. Percival, Percy, if you will. Fancy! Love at first
sight. One glance on those desolate plains, and you were mine!"

"But I'm not. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

He looked at her fatuously. "But you will be! My little lady of the
manor! My beautiful little mistress of Hascombe Hall!"

She struggled away from him, and stood at bay.

"How _can_ you talk to me like this?" she cried, her voice
trembling with indignation, "after what I told you that day in the
wind-shelter?"

"In the wind-shelter?" He looked at her in bewilderment.

"Yea, about Hal Ford and the captain and all that. Why, you promised to
help me, and now--"

"Hal Ford?" repeated Percival, dazed. "What has he to do with it?"

"More than anybody else in the world. He's waiting for me in Wyoming,
and I'm counting the days and the hours and the