Dick nodded. It was obvious that the lad had been quick and cool at a critical time, but his twinkling smile showed that he was now in a different mood. "You seem to have recovered. But why couldn't you leave the girl alone?" "I'm not sure she'd have liked that," Jake replied. "It's a pity you have no artistic taste, or you might have seen what a picture she made." "As a matter of fact, I did see it, but she has, no doubt, a half-breed lover who'd seriously misunderstand your admiration, which might lead to your getting stabbed some night. Anyhow, why did you buy the flowers?" "For one thing, she was taking them to the Magellan, and I couldn't stand for seeing that blaze of color wasted on the guzzling crowd you generally find in a hotel dining-room." "That doesn't apply to the fruit. You can't eat those things. They preserve them." "Eat them!" Jake exclaimed with a pitying look. "Well, I suppose it's the only use you have for fruit." He took a stalk fringed with rich red bloom and laid it across the dark green fruit, which was packed among glossy leaves. "Now, perhaps, you'll see why I bought it. I rather think it makes a dainty offering." "Ah!" said Dick. "To whom do you propose to offer it?" "Miss Kenwardine," Jake replied with a twinkle; "though of course her proper color's Madonna blue." Dick said nothing, but walked on, and when Jake asked where he was going, answered shortly: "To the telephone." "Well," said Jake, "knowing you as I do, I suspected something of the kind. With the romance of the South all round you, you can't rise above concrete and coal." He followed Dick to the public telephone office and sat down in the box with the flowers in his hands. A line had recently been run along the coast, and although the service was bad, Dick, after some trouble, got connected with a port official at Arenas. "Did a tug and three coal barges put into your harbor last night?" he asked. "No, senor," was the answer, and Dick asked for the coal wharf at Adexe. "Why didn't you call them first?" Jake inquired. "I had a reason. The tug was standing to leeward when she left us, but if her skipper meant to come back to Santa Brigida, he'd have to put into Arenas, where he'd find shelter." "Then you're not sure he meant to come back?" "I've some doubts," Dick answered dryly, and was told that he was connected with the Adexe wharf. "What about the coal for the Fuller irrigation works?" he asked. "The tug and four lighters left last night," somebody answered in Castilian, and Dick imagined from the harshness of the voice that one of the wharf-hands was speaking. "That is so," he said. "Has she returned yet?" "No, senor," said the man. "The tug----" He broke off, and there was silence for some moments, after which a different voice took up the conversation in English. "Sorry it may be a day or two before we can send more of your coal. The tug's engines----" "Has she got back?" Dick demanded sharply.