The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-09-17
CHAPTER XIX.

by the time we had finished our repairs
the morning was still not far advanced
towards noon. l had lighted a pipe and
was smoking in the full joy of rest after
battle, when Rodney came up to me with
a puckered line between his eyebrows.
I'm afraid" he remarked, we're going
to get let down for the rest of the day."
why, man! | calculated, You
wouldn't be going through that sort of
racket each hour in the twenty-four,
would you?"
He smiled at my answer "Not exactly.
but just at present we're playing the part
of lot of cooped up rats too realistical-
ly to suit your humble servant I'll be
expecting them to set fire to the house
next. Besides that, l shouldn't be sur
prised if the club would start a search for
me at any moment. Anything may hap
pened in my Office the market may have
gone to pot, and my customers be ready
to tar and feather me-
'Well,"I agreed, that's all true, and
yet if you go it leaves Duponceau just so
much more unprotected"
Il know" he unused thoughtfully, rub
bling his cheek with his hand Il wish to
the deuce l knew who the man was He
looked at me sharply. Haven't you an
inkling, Felix?"
l shook my head. can l know is that
he came out of the sea in a storm with
his precious treasure-Eoy, ard that Fate
has apparently appointed us to protect
bin from his enemies until he sees fit to
return into the sea again. On one subject
he's absolutely unapproachable his ante
cedents"
'Then why" pursued Rodney, Ibid you
ever take such an internal liking to him"
l considered. "Why did you?"
Our eyes met, and we both smiled
chuckled, and then laughed.
There's an old French adage." said
| Rodney" 'cheschez la femme" He
took turn or two up and down the room.
Then See here, Felix he said, there's
no denying the fact that we're both of
us in the same boat, fgurativey speaking.
even If no longer physically. You had a
great drag from the start, because YOU
| were living such an unusual sort of life,
and were probably a woman-hater, GER
tainly had no use for society. Those
things take with a girl brought up in New
York"
l smoked stolidly. "You won the first
wound, and that takes with a woman any
where"
He looked at his bandaged arm and
smiled reminiscentlyf He was probably
| thinking of that half-hour VIXEN she had
dressed it.
But the main point u.s." he resumed,
''that we both knew that the particular
girl in question loved romance better than
| anything else in the world"
"And that Duponceau was romance
personified," l added, (which fully ex-
plains our actions
Rodney pulled at his cigarette in 81
lence.
"Yet I've grown very fond of the man."
he said presently. Hes brave, and he's
| a gentleman
I'm fond of him, too. l wouldn't give
him up now for the world. l intend to
stay right here until something happens"
| Rodney finished his cigarette and threw
it away. eff you don't mind" he said,
I'll steal over to your farmers and ride
horse to the club. I've a feeling that
something may be doing in the outer
world, and that 1 ought to get next to
ticket. I'll not be long, and l don't think
they'll come back before afternoon"
go, by all means. The man will give
you the horse and show you an inland
road, so you'll not fall in with these peo-
pie. We can get on all right until night
fall"
| Rodney started to leave, then turned
again.
II was sore," he said. shat first after
noon when l found you and Barbara hav-
ing tea here. I'll admit that I'd followed
her from New York, expecting to have a
clear field; but-well. one can't always
get what one wants, and there's luck in
this sort of fight, just as there is in
the Street; but it is a good fight, and