nk a girl will submit to that meekly--to be browbeaten, abused,
endangered as I have been! No, sir--sealed orders or none. I have only
owned I loved you. So many girls have been mistaken about things
when--when the moon, or a desert island or--or something has bewitched
them. But I haven't said I would marry you, have I, ever?"

"No. I don't care about that so much as the other; but I care a very,
very great deal about it, too. You, too, are cruel. You are a
heartless jade."

"And you have been a cruel and ruthless pirate."

"Tell me now!"

"No." And she evaded me, and gained the door. "I must go. Oh, it's all
a ruin now--Auntie'll be furious. And what shall I say?"

"Give her sealed orders, and my love! And when do I get mine?"

"In five minutes."

She was gone.... And after some moments, rapt as I was at her late
presence, which still seemed to fill the room like the fragrance, like
the fragrance of her hair which still lingered in my senses, I looked
about, sighing for that she was gone. Then I noted that our friend
Partial had gone with her. "Fie! Partial, after all, you loved her
more!" I said to myself.

But in a few moments I heard a faint sound at my door. I opened. There
stood Partial in the dusk, gravely wagging his tail, looking at me
without moving his head. And I saw that he held daintily in his mouth
a dainty note, addressed to me in the same handwriting as that on the
note I had sent out from the heartless jade to yon varlet. And it was
sealed, and marked with instructions for its opening.... "When You
Two Varlets Meet." No more.

"Peterson," said I, advancing to the forward deck, where I found him
smoking, "I've been getting up some correspondence, since we'll be
ashore by to-morrow noon----"

"--I don't know as to that, Mr. Harry."

"Well, I know about it. So, tell Williams that, even if he has to work
all night, we must be moving as soon as it's light enough to see. I've
got a very important message----"

"By wireless, Mr. Harry?" chuckled the old man.

"Yes, by wireless," (and I looked at Partial, who wagged his tail and
smiled). "So I must get into Manning Island the first possible moment
to-morrow. And Peterson, as we've had so good a run this trip, with no
accident or misfortune of any kind, I don't know but I may make it a
month or two extra pay--double--for you and Williams, and even John.
And as to Willy, please don't fire him, Peterson, for his deserting
the ship's cook the oth