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Page 21
"I'd hang on to her as long as I could," earnestly.
"I shall," grimly. "Your father and I were old friends. There wasn't
a yacht on these waters that could show him her heels, not even my own.
You don't mean to tell me you're no yachtsman! Why, it ought to be in
the blood."
"Oh, I can handle small craft, but I don't know much about the
engine-room. What time does the next train return to New York?"
"For you there'll be no train under a week. You're going to stay here,
since you've been the victim of a hoax."
"Disabuse your mind there, sir. I don't know when I've enjoyed
anything so thoroughly."
"But you'll stay? Oh, yes!" as Fitzgerald shook his head. "The
secretary can do the work here while you and I can take care of the
rats in the hold. Laura's just imagining things, but we'll humor her.
If there's any trouble with the chimney, why, we'll get a bricklayer
and pull it down."
"Miss Killigrew may have some real cause for alarm. I saw a man, or
rather, I heard him, running, as I came up the road from the gates. I
called to him, but he did not answer."
"Is that so? Wasn't the porter at the gates when you came in?"
"No. The footpath was free."
"This begins to look serious. If the porter isn't there the gate bell
rings, I can open it myself by wire. I never bother about it at night,
unless I am expecting some one. But in the daytime I can see from here
whether or not I wish to open the gate. A man running in the park, eh?
Little good it will do him. The house is a network of burglar alarms."
"Wires can be cut and quickly repaired."
"But this is no house to rob. All my valuables, excepting these books,
are in New York. The average burglar isn't of a literary turn of mind.
Still, if Laura has really heard something, all the more reason why you
should make us a visit. Wait a moment. I've an idea." The admiral
set the burglar alarm and tried it. The expression on his face was
blank. "Am I getting deafer?"
"No bell rang," said Fitzgerald quickly.
"By cracky, if Laura is right! But not a word to her, mind. When she
goes up-stairs we'll take a trip into the cellar and have a look at the
main wire. You've got to stay; that's all there is about it. This is
serious. I hadn't tested the wires in a week."
"Perhaps it's only a fuse."
"We can soon find out about that. Sh! Not a word to her!"
She entered with a tray and two steaming toddies, as graceful a being
as Hebe before she spilled the precious drop. The two men could not
keep their eyes off her, the one with loving possession, the other with
admiration not wholly free from unrest. The daring manner in which she
had lured him here would never be forgetable. And she had known him at
the start? And that merry Mrs. Coldfield in the plot!
"I hope this will cheer you, father."
"It always does," replied the admiral, as he took the second glass. "I
have asked Mr. Fitzgerald to spend a week with us."
"Thank you, father. It was thoughtful of you. If you had not asked
him, the pleasure of doing so would have been mine. Mrs. Coldfield
pointed you out to me as a most ungrateful fellow, because you never
called on your father's or mother's friends any more, but preferred to
gallivant round the world. You will stay? We are very unconventional
here."
"It is all very good of you. I am rather a lonesome chap. The
newspapers and magazines have spoiled me. There's never a moment so
happy to me as when I am ordered to some strange country, thousands of
miles away. It is in the blood. Thanks, very much; I shall be very
happy to stay. My hand-bag, however, is at Swan's Hotel, and there's
very little in it."
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