lena Bay, his fortune in the ambergris,
and the fight with the beach-combers.

"You people are going down there for target-practice, aren't you?" he
said, turning to one of the "Monterey's" officers in the crowd about
him. "Yes? Well, you'll find the coolies there, on the beach, waiting
for you. All but one," he added, grimly.

"We marooned six of them, but the seventh didn't need to be marooned.
They tried to plunder us of our boat, but, by -----, we made it
interesting for 'em!"

"I say, steady, old man!" exclaimed Nat Ridgeway, glancing nervously
toward the girls in the surrounding group. "This isn't Magdalena Bay,
you know."

And for the first time Wilbur felt a genuine pang of disappointment and
regret as he realized that it was not.

Half an hour later, Ridgeway drew him aside. "I say, Ross, let's get
out of here. You can't stand here talking all night. Jerry and you and
I will go up to my rooms, and we can talk there in peace. I'll order up
three quarts of fizz, and--"

"Oh, rot your fizz!" declared Wilbur. "If you love me, give me Christian
tobacco."

As they were going out of the ballroom, Wilbur caught sight of Josie
Herrick, and, breaking away from the others, ran over to her.

"Oh!" she cried, breathless. "To think and to think of your coming
back after all! No, I don't realize it--I can't. It will take me until
morning to find out that you've really come back. I just know now that
I'm happier than I ever was in my life before. Oh!" she cried, "do I
need to tell you how glad I am? It's just too splendid for words. Do you
know, I was thought to be the last person you had ever spoken to while
alive, and the reporters and all--oh, but we must have such a talk when
all is quiet again! And our dance--we've never had our dance. I've got
your card yet. Remember the one you wrote for me at the tea--a facsimile
of it was published in all the papers. You are going to be a hero when
you get back to San Francisco. Oh, Ross! Ross!" she cried, the tears
starting to her eyes, "you've really come back, and you are just as glad
as I am, aren't you--glad that you've come back--come back to me?"

Later on, in Ridgeway's room, Wilbur told his story again more in detail
to Ridgeway and Jerry. All but one portion of it. He could not make
up his mind to speak to them--these society fellows, clubmen and city
bred--of Moran. How he was going to order his life henceforward--his
life, that he felt to be void of interest wit