"There won't. He knows his business. There's a lot more danger on the coast than offshore, anyway. If he follows us there I'll own myself outclassed. What d'ye say?" "Bermuda!" answered Cécile, leaning forward on the table, her eyes very bright. Bell looked at Hermione. "Bermuda!" said she, with a peculiar little smile. "Paula ... oh, Paula doesn't count. She's too much in love. Bermuda, Buenos Ayres, Hoboken ... they all look alike to her. Wood?" "Bermuda. I know of lots of things more to worry about than Harold." "Bermuda it is, then!" Bell raised his glass of champagne. "Here she goes south! The _Shark_ and the _Daffodil_. Bottoms..." "Down!" cried the laughing chorus. CHAPTER XII Back aboard the _Shark_, Paula and Huntington did what Hermione called their "wonderful disappearing act." Bell had lingered in the club to play poker, at which he was very good, and to drink whiskey-and-soda, of which he stood in no need. Cécile retired, and Hermione went into the saloon, where she sat at a gravity writing-table, and after destroying some dozen or more sheets of expensive note-paper, with the _Shark's_ insignia, she gave up her task in disgust and went to her room. Not being in the least sleepy, she curled up in a heap of cushions and tried to interest herself in a French play, but meeting with no success, she flung aside the pamphlet, one of the _Illustration_ supplements, and gave herself up to the topic which so occupied her mind. Needless to say, this was Mr. Applebo. Unlike Cécile's meditations, which were apt to be self-indulgent, pleasant, and profitless, those of Hermione were swift, ruthless, and followed by prompt and decisive action. Half an hour of concentrated thought and she had extracted from her reflections three opinions and a resolve. Of these opinions, the first was that Applebo was in love with nobody but himself and his Muse, that he found the situation piquant and amusing, and was having just as much fun out of it as were the "Sharks," which was saying a good deal. The second opinion was that she, Hermione, had been very violently and dangerously attracted by the peculiar personality of Mr. Applebo, but that she had thoroughly overcome it (_sic_). The third opinion was that Cécile was also violently and dangerously attracted by the peculiar personality of Mr. Applebo, and was very far from being over it. And the resolve was that she would write to Mr. Applebo to say that they had had enough of him, and would he kindly clear out! Action always followed hot on the heels of Hermione's resolutions. She was a mature-minded girl, and found no difficulty in crystallising her thought into words. This was, no doubt, because her thought was a saturated solution and not the dilute, strained-out, indecisive brain-mush of so many of us. Hermione whipped up her writing-pad and indited swiftly the following:--