easonable folks!" He shook his head.
"Nature again. Guess we're all reasonable till we're found out. No. Even
the greatest men and women on earth are fools at heart, you know."

The girl sat up as the vessel lurched more heavily and flung their
chairs forward, straining dangerously.

"How?" she questioned, glancing down anxiously at the moorings of her
chair.

"They're safe--so far," Bull reassured her. Then he leant back again,
and produced and lit a cigar. "Guess I'll smoke," he said. "Maybe
that'll help me tell you--'how.'"

The girl watched him light his cigar and her eyes were full of laughter.

"It's a real pity women can't sit themselves behind a cigar," she said
at last, with a pretence of regret. "It's the wisest looking thing a man
does. A cigarette kind of makes him seem pleasantly undependable. A pipe
makes you feel he's full of just everyday notions. But a cigar! My! It
sort of dazzles me when I see a man with a big cigar. I feel like a
lowgrade earthworm, don't you know. Say," she cried, with an
indescribable gesture of her gloved hands, "he handles that cigar, he
sort of fondles it. He cocks it. He depresses it. He rolls it across his
lips to the opposite corner of his mouth, and finally blows a thin,
thoughtful stream of smoke gently between his pursed lips. And that
stream is immeasurable in its suggestion of wise thought and keen
calculation. I'd say a man's cigar is his best disguise."

Bull nodded.

"That's fine," he cried. "But you've forgotten the other feller. The man
who 'chews.'"

Nancy laughed happily.

"Easy," she cried promptly. "When he of the bulged cheek gets around
just watch your defences. He's mostly tough. He's on the jump, and
hasn't much fancy for the decencies of life. The harder he chews the
more he's figgering up his adversary. And when he spits, get your
weapons ready. When the chewing man succeeds in life I guess he's
dangerous. And it's because his force and character have generally
lifted him from the bottom of things."

Bull shook his head in mock despair.

Nancy settled herself back in her chair.

"That's fixed it. Guess you'll need to tell _me_ 'how.'"

"No, sir," she cried. "You can't go back. 'The greatest men and women in
the world are fools at heart.' That's what you said."

"Yes. I seem to remember."

The man stirred and sat up. He folded the rug more closely about his
feet. Then he turned with a whimsical smile in his eyes.

"Well?" he cried. "And