g to the senorita for a very long time
on the promenade deck, Boyle should feel inclined to sing.

The chief officer's musical attainments were not of the highest, and
his repertory was archaic. But there must be some explanation of his
unwonted and melancholy chanting. He always spoke of Elsie with the
utmost admiration, and it was no secret that he rendered Courtenay a
sort of hero-worship hidden under the guise of an exaggerated belief in
the good luck which followed the captain of the _Kansas_ in all his
doings. And then, with a chilling inspiration, Christobal knew why the
chief officer had caused him to miss the hour for relieving the watch.
Boyle had seen those two together, and had planned to leave them
undisturbed!

The Spaniard was a dignified man; he had inherited from his English
mother a saving sense of humor. It was intolerable that the pleasant
relations existing between the few survivors on board the Kansas should
be disturbed by reason of any failure on his part to acquiesce in
Elsie's right to bestow her affections where she listed. He wondered
if the girl had come on deck after supper; her habit was to retire
early, as she rose soon after the sun. He had seen her for a moment
only in passing out of the saloon, and there was a suspicious
brightness in her eyes for which solicitude on the dog's behalf would
hardly account. Why not put his fortunes to the test that night and
have done with it? Yes, that was the right course. He would cease
this petty watchfulness, this campaign of planning and contriving lest
others should monopolize more of her smiles and pleasant words than he.
A simple question would determine his fate. Either she was
heart-whole, or not; at any rate, he would receive a straight answer.

So it was on the cards that Elsie would be the amazed recipient of two
proposals in one evening, which is a better average than most women are
favored with in a lifetime. Christobal had entered the chart-house
with the fixed intent of warning Boyle that he was going below for a
moment to ask Miss Maxwell to come on deck, when a hurried step on the
bridge companion caused the imminent words to be withheld.

It was Courtenay, who had run up from the saloon to procure those
fateful letters which had so nearly parted Elsie and himself. He had
laughingly refused to tell her their history. That would spoil their
effect, he said. She must take them to her state-room and read them at
her lei