ot want the police in the affair. In that
event there would be a lot of publicity, followed by the kind of talk that
stuck. He was confident that he could handle the affair alone. So he
invented a white lie, and nobody questioned it because of his uniform.
Miss Norman had found friends, and shortly she would send for her effects;
but until that time she desired the consulate to take charge. Under the
eyes of the relieved hotel manager and an indifferent clerk from the
consulate the following morning Dennison packed Jane's belongings and
conveyed them to the consulate, which was hard by. Next he proceeded to
the water front and engaged a motor boat. At eleven o'clock he drew up
alongside the _Wanderer II_.

"Hey, there!" shouted a seaman. "Sheer off! Orders to receive no
visitors!"

Dennison began to mount, ignoring the order. It was a confusing situation
for the sailor. If he threw this officer into the yellow water--as
certainly he would have thrown a civilian--Uncle Sam might jump on his
back and ride him to clink. Against this was the old man, the very devil
for obedience to his orders. If he pushed this lad over, the clink; if he
let him by, the old man's foot. And while the worried seaman was reaching
for water with one hand and wind with the other, as the saying goes,
Dennison thrust him roughly aside, crossed the deck to the main
companionway, and thundered down into the salon.

CHAPTER VIII

Cleigh sat before a card table; he was playing Chinese Canfield. He looked
up, but he neither rose nor dropped the half-spent deck of cards he held
in his hand. The bronzed face, the hard agate blue of the eyes that met
his own, the utter absence of visible agitation, took the wind out of
Dennison's sails and left him all a-shiver, like a sloop coming about on a
fresh tack. He had made his entrance stormily enough, but now the hot
words stuffed his throat to choking.

Cleigh was thirty years older than his son; he was a finished master of
sentimental emotions; he could keep all his thoughts out of his
countenance when he so willed. But powerful as his will was, in this
instance it failed to reach down into his heart; and that thumped against
his ribs rather painfully. The boy!

Dennison, aware that he stood close to the ridiculous, broke the spell and
advanced.

"I have come for Miss Norman," he said.

Cleigh scrutinized the cards and shifted one.

"I found your note to her. I've a launch. I don't know wha