"I guess it ain't very convenient for me to go to 'Frisco just now. I went to see the governor yesterday afternoon, but I couldn't get to him. I saw the secretary, and he told me I'd got to take that boat and that was all there was to it. I just had to see the governor, so I waited outside his house this morning, and when he come out I spoke to him. He didn't want to speak to me, I'll say, but I wouldn't let him shake me off, and at last he said he hadn't no objection to my staying here till the next boat to Sydney if the Rev. Davidson will stand for it." She stopped and looked at Dr Macphail anxiously. "I don't know exactly what I can do," he said. "Well, I thought maybe you wouldn't mind asking him. I swear to God I won't start anything here if he'll just only let me stay. I won't go out of the house if that'll suit him. It's no more'n a fortnight." "I'll ask him." "He won't stand for it," said Horn. "He'll have you out on Tuesday, so you may as well make up your mind to it." "Tell him I can get work in Sydney, straight stuff, I mean. 'Tain't asking very much." "I'll do what I can." "And come and tell me right away, will you? I can't set down to a thing till I get the dope one way or the other." It was not an errand that much pleased the doctor, and, characteristically perhaps, he went about it indirectly. He told his wife what Miss Thompson had said to him and asked her to speak to Mrs Davidson. The missionary's attitude seemed rather arbitrary and it could do no harm if the girl were allowed to stay in Pago-Pago another fortnight. But he was not prepared for the result of his diplomacy. The missionary came to him straightway. "Mrs Davidson tells me that Thompson has been speaking to you." Dr Macphail, thus directly tackled, had the shy man's resentment at being forced out into the open. He felt his temper rising, and he flushed. "I don't see that it can make any difference if she goes to Sydney rather than to San Francisco, and so long as she promises to behave while she's here it's dashed hard to persecute her." The missionary fixed him with his stern eyes. "Why is she unwilling to go back to San Francisco?" "I didn't enquire," answered the doctor with some asperity. "And I think one does better to mind one's own business." Perhaps it was not a very tactful answer. "The governor has ordered her to be deported by the first boat that leaves the island. He's only done his duty and I will not interfere. Her presence is a peril here." "I think you're very harsh and tyrannical." The two ladies looked up at the doctor with some alarm, but they need not have feared a quarrel, for the missionary smiled gently. "I'm terribly sorry you should think that of me, Dr Macphail. Believe me, my heart bleeds for that unfortunate woman, but I'm only trying to do my duty."