curious
interest, as though he were tending some other person's hurts and not
their own. And that reminds me. He told me you ought to have that cut
on your forehead washed. Let me look at it."

She stood up, and placed the dog on a chair. Lifting Courtenay's cap
she brushed back his hair with her fingers, and found that he had
covered an ugly scar with a long strip of skin plaster. The tense
anxiety in Isobel's face forthwith yielded to sheer bewilderment.
These two were behaving with the self-possession of young people who
regard the "engagement" stage as a venerable institution.

Of course Courtenay liked to be fondled in this manner. Elsie was at
her best as a ministering angel. But he protested against the need of
the doctor's precaution.

"No, no," he cried, "you already have one faithful patient in Joey. I
wonder he did not wake me earlier so that he might rush off to you. I
never have known him play the old soldier before. To see him curled up
there, gazing at you with those pathetic eyes, who would think that his
teeth met in Alaculof sinews last night? Twice, to my knowledge, he
saved my life. And the way he dodged blows aimed at him was something
marvelous. He used all four paws then, I assure you."

"Ah, yes," agreed Elsie, blushing again as she recalled the scene in
the saloon. "He could have told me the Indians were aboard long before
I knew it myself. Dr. Christobal deceived me so admirably that I am
not sure yet if I have forgiven him."

"He is a first-rate chap in an emergency," said Courtenay, "though I
have a bone to pick with him, too. He promised to call me at eight
o'clock, but I expect he and Boyle, or Tollemache, conspired to let me
sleep on. I was astounded when I saw the time. What do you think of a
skipper who lies abed all the morning, Miss Baring?"

"Gray has told him nothing," she decided at once. "That is very nice
of Gray. I must thank him." But she replied instantly, in her piquant
way:

"Elsie certainly kept us in the dark about her _fiancailles_, Captain
Courtenay; but has not been silent as to your other achievements. If
you were not telling us that you have actually slept, I should have
cherished the belief that you had not closed an eyelid since the ship
struck."

Isobel meant to be on her best behavior. Her pact with the Frenchman
was discreditable but smooth words might restrain tongues from wagging
until she could leave the ship. Moreover, the vi