ood could do. He was the man she had
thought, and she knew it was for her sake that he had labored.

"It's a splendid fight!" she said.

"We haven't won yet," he replied, and was quiet for a few moments. Then
his look got very resolute and he went on: "All the same, if the thing
is anyhow possible, I'm going to win. You see, I've got to win! When
Cartwright engaged me I was engineer on board a cattle boat; a man of no
importance, without friends or money, and with no particular chance of
making good. Now I've got my chance. If we put across the job a big
salvage company turned down, I'll make my mark. Somebody will give me a
good post; I'll have got my foot on the ladder that leads to the top."

"I wish you luck," said Barbara. "I expect you will get near the top."

"If you are willing, you can help."

"Ah," said Barbara, with forced quietness, "I think not--"

He stopped her. "I didn't expect to find you willing. My business is to
persuade you, and I mean to try. Well, I wasn't boasting, and my
drawbacks are plain, but if I make good in Africa, some will be cut out
and you can help me remove the others. I've long wanted you, and now my
luck's turning. I was going to Catalina to tell you so. If Brown and I
float _Arcturus_, will you marry me?"

Barbara's color came and went, but she said quietly: "When you came to
the hotel in the evening you met Shillito!"

"I did," said Lister, with incautious passion. "If I had killed the
brute I'd have been justified! However, I threw him on to the aloe tub
and ran off. The thing was grotesquely humorous. A boy's fool trick!"

"You ran off for my sake," said Barbara. "I liked you for it. I like you
for many things, but I will not marry you."

He saw she was resolute. Her mouth was firm and her hand was tightly
closed. He thought he knew the grounds for her refusal, and his heart
sank. Barbara was stubborn and very proud. Moreover, the situation was
awkward, but the awkwardness must be fronted.

"Let's be frank; perhaps you owe me this," he urged. "Since you allow
you do like me, what's to stop our marrying?"

"For one thing, my adventure in Canada," she replied and turned her
head.

Lister put his hand on her arm and forced her to look up. "Now you're
clean ridiculous! Shillito cheated you; he's a plausible wastrel, but
you found him out. It doesn't count at all! Besides, nobody but your
relations know."

"You know," said Barbara, and, getting up started along the mo