She was depressed, much as Ruth had been a few hours earlier and his
efforts to win her to a happier frame of mind were unavailing.

"I love you; I love you!" he said softly.

"You must never say that to me again," she said slowly and determinedly.
"After my stupid, cruel thoughtlessness you must hate me--"

"But, Isabel--"

She seized the lantern and hurried away, her head bowed, the cloak
billowing about her. He watched the lantern till its gleam was swallowed
up in the darkness.

It was ten o'clock. Leary had got the outgoing mail--a week's
accumulation, and they crossed to Huddleston where one of Perky's men
was waiting with a machine to carry it to Calderville.

"The Governor didn't want the launch goin' up there ag'in," Leary
explained. "He dug up that car somewhere."

"The Governor's a great man," said Archie.

"The greatest in the world!" Leary solemnly affirmed.

II

Shortly before midnight Archie and Leary left the _Arthur B. Grover_ and
paddled cautiously toward the point fixed by the Governor for their
rendezvous. They were fortified with a repeating rifle, a shotgun (this
was Leary's preference) and several packets of rockets for use in
signaling the tug. It was the strangest of all expeditions, the more
exciting from the fact that it was staged in the very heart of the
country. For all that shore or water suggested of an encompassing
civilization, the canoe driven by the taciturn Leary might have been the
argosy of the first explorer of the inland seas.

Archie, keenly alive to the importance of the impending stroke, was
aware that the Governor had planned it with the care he brought to the
most trifling matters, though veiled by his indifference, which in turn
was enveloped in his superstitious reliance on occult powers. Whether
through some gift of prevision the Governor anticipated needs and
dangers in his singular life, or whether he was merely a favorite of the
gods of good luck, Archie had never determined, but either way the man
who called himself Saulsbury seemed able to contrive and direct
incidents with the dexterity of an expert stage hand. The purchase of
the _Arthur B. Grover_ had seemed the most fantastic extravagance, but
the tug had already proved to be of crucial importance in the
prosecution of their business. The seizure of Eliphalet Congdon had been
justified; Perky and Leary were valuable lieutenants and the crew of
jailbirds was now to be utilized as an offensive army.