le have
made me a real Metternich, a genuine Machiavelli. Compared to me now,
a Japanese business man is as honest and truth-loving as Mrs. Wiggs of
the Cabbage Patch."

With a grin, Roddy invited the girl to sympathize with his effort to
conceal the seriousness of their undertaking, but she regarded him
doubtfully, and frowned. In his heart Roddy felt sorry for her. It
hurt him to think that any one so charming could not accept his
theory, that the only way to treat a serious matter was with
flippancy. But the girl undeceived him.

"You don't understand me," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to be
careful to protect our interests. I meant you to be careful of
yourself. If anything were to happen to you through this--" She
hesitated and looked away from him toward the sea. "Do you imagine,"
she demanded, "that it is easy for me to ask what I am asking of you?
_I_ know I have no right to do it. I know the only possible excuse for
me is that I am not asking it for myself, but for my father--although,
of course, that _is_ asking it for myself."

"Beauty in distress," began Roddy briskly, "is the one thing----"

"That's what I mean," interrupted the girl gratefully, "the way you
take it, the way you make it easier for me. Every other man I know
down here would tell me he was doing it only for me, and he would hope
I would believe him. But when _you_ say you are helping beauty in
distress, you are secretly frightened lest I may not have a sense of
humor--and believe you. I know you are doing this because you feel
deeply for my father. If I didn't know that, if I didn't feel that
that were true, all this I have asked of you would be impossible. But
it is possible, because I know you first tried to save my father of
your own accord. Because I know now that it is your nature to wish to
help others. Because you are brave, and you are generous."

But Roddy refused to be ennobled.

"It's because I'm a White Mice," he said. "My oath compels me! How
would you like," he demanded, frowning, "if we turned you into an
Honorary White Mouse?"

For an instant, with perplexed eyes and levelled brows, the girl
regarded him fixedly. Then she smiled upon him. It was the same
flashing, blinding smile which the morning before had betrayed him
into her hands, bound and captive. It was a smile that passed swiftly,
like a flash of sunshine over a garden of gay flowers. It brought out
unsuspected, ambushed dimples. It did fascinating and who