s, who, to do him justice, did not
adopt the attitude of a delinquent, but was, on the contrary, injured
virtue personified.

"What is too bad, dear?" asked the girl sympathetically.

"A fortnight ago," said Hamilton, "I told this silly ass----"

"Your jolly old brother is referrin' to me, dear lady," explained Bones.

"Who else could I be referring to?" demanded the other truculently. "I
told him to have all the company accounts ready by to-morrow. You know,
sir, that the paymaster is coming down from Administration to check 'em,
and will you believe me, sir"--he glared at Bones, who immediately
closed his eyes resignedly--"would you believe me that, when I went to
examine those infernal accounts, they were all at sixes and sevens?"

"Threes an' nines, dear old officer," murmured Bones, waking up, "the
matter in dispute being a trifle of thirty-nine dollars, which I've
generously offered to make up out of my own pocket."

He beamed round as one who expected applause.

"And on the top of this," fumed Hamilton, "he talks of taking Pat for an
early morning picnic to the village island!"

"Accompanied by the jolly old accounts," corrected Bones. "Do me
justice, sir and brother-officer. I offered to take the books with me,
an' render a lucid and convincin' account of my stewardship."

"Don't make me laugh," snarled Hamilton, stamping into the bungalow.

"Isn't he naughty?" said Bones admiringly.

"Now, Bones," warned the girl, "I shan't go unless you keep your word
with Alec."

Bones drew himself up and saluted.

"Dear old friend," he said proudly, "put your faith in Bones."

* * * * *

"H.M. Launch No. 36 (Territories)," as it was officially described on
the stores record, had another name, which she earned in her early days
through certain eccentricities of construction. Though she might not in
justice be called the _Wiggle_ any longer, yet the _Wiggle_ she was from
one end of the river to the other, and even native men called her
"Komfuru," which means "that which does not run straight."

It had come to be recognized that the _Wiggle_ was the especial charge
of Lieutenant Tibbetts. Bones himself was the first to recognize this
right. There were moments when he inferred that the _Wiggle's_ arrival
on the station at the time he was making his own first appearance was
something more than a coincidence.

She was not, in the strictest sense of the word, a launch, for she
poss