Carter whistled. "I've been a blind ass, and I must say I did refuse to listen to the highfalutin' nonsense Cascaes wanted to pour into my sympathetic ear. How often have you seen him here in Grand Canary?" "He has called every day." "That's not answering my question." "George, dear, give me credit for loyalty. He told me one day when you were building that fort at Mokki that he liked me, and that if the Okky-men came he would die cheerfully before any harm should come to me; and I told him that he had no right to say such things to a girl who was engaged to you." "Why wasn't I told of this?" "Because he said to me he had nearly shot you once, and I was afraid that if there was any trouble, dear, you might be hurt." "You could have trusted me," said Carter dryly, "to keep my end up with a dago like that. Besides, if you'd given me the tip, I could have seen to it that I had the drop on him first." Laura shivered. "You are rather mediæval. I don't want to be fought for." "Still, I gather from what you say that you've been seeing the fellow here?" "Never when I could help it. Each day I've refused to see him when he came to the house. But he has waited for me when I went out into the country, and once he was here in the garden, sitting on this very seat, when I came out after lunch." "Does he always tell the same old tale?" "He says always he wants to marry me." "I thought you said you refused to listen to him?" "George, don't be unreasonable. I've told him over and over again it's no use; I've gone away every time we've met; but it seems to be the one occupation of his life." "Except for running after you, I can imagine he does have plenty of time on his hands out here." "Don't you think, George, he was sent to the island to have nothing to do except that?" "Sent here who by? By Miss O'Neill, do you mean? Great Christopher! Laura, what morbid idea will you have in your head next? I don't flatter myself that outside business Miss O'Neill cares whether I'm alive or dead, and as for you, well, the pair of you may be friendly enough when you were kids, but you seemed to have outgrown any past civilities last time I saw you together on the Coast. Don't you go and run away with any wild cat notions about Miss O'Neill. She's got one amusement in the world, and that's business, and if she's sent Cascaes here to Las Palmas, you can bet your best frock the only job he's got in view so far as she's concerned is dividend hunting. Apropos of which, I nearly forgot. Here's something to practise your autograph in." "Why, it's a check-book."