"Why--happy thought!" said Mrs. Gilmore. "Why, the very thing, Mr. Hugh, the very thing! Come. First we'll take this young lady up-stairs----" As they started the Californian appeared, laying a caressing hand on Hugh. XLI QUITS "Wait here," slowly said Hugh in response to the gold-hunter's touch. "I'll--see you presently." The modest adventurer waved assent, yet looked so disappointed that Mrs. Gilmore, moving to take his arm, asked: "Can't Mr. So-and-so go with us?" Oh, kind, quick wit! Three is a crowd, four is only twice two! "Certainly," said Hugh, and to Ramsey added: "We'd better lead the way." As they led she softly inquired: "Does he want to know something about the twins?" What arrows were her questions, and how straight they struck home! Yet with that low voice for their bowstring they gave him comfort. Her forays into his confidence not only relieved the loneliness of his too secretive mind but often, as now, involved a sweet yielding of her confidence to him. Yet now a straight answer was quite impossible. "He wants to know something about you," was the reply. She let the palpable evasion pass. On the hurricane roof there was a new sight. The breeze was astern and moved so evenly with the boat as to enfold her in a calm. Looking up for the stars, one saw only the giant chimneys towering straight into the darkness and sending their smoke as straight and as far again beyond, spangled with two firefly swarms of sparks that fell at last in a perpetual, noiseless shower. "Why do we go this way?" she asked, meaning forward around the skylight roof instead of across it. "Because this way's longer." "Humph!" was the soft response. Presently she added, "We get more fresh air this way," and called back to their two followers: "This is to avoid the sparks." "Um-hmm!" thought kind Mrs. Gilmore, and, "Oh, ho!" mused the Californian, not quite so unselfishly. Around in front of the bell both youth and maiden observed how palely the derrick posts loomed against the spectral chimneys and their smoke, and silently recalled their first meeting, just here, in the long ago of two days earlier. The captain's chair was occupied. "Well, father," said Hugh. "Good evening," twittered Ramsey. "Good evening, Miss Ramsey. Be back this way, Hugh?" "In a moment, sir." They passed on. Ramsey looked behind at the Californian. "What does he want to know about me?" she asked. "He says," said Hugh, "he's nursed this sickness at sea and at Panama and hasn't the slightest fear of it." "Humph!... That's not about me." "Yes, it--was. He's taken a great fancy----" "To Basile." "To several of us, including Basile." "Yes, because he and Basile played cards together." "Not entirely for that," said Hugh, looking at her so squarely that she had to smooth back her curls. "But he'd like to help take care of him if you--and your mother, of course--are willing." "Oh, how good--and brave! And he wants to ask me?"