window and had
recognized her, and at once asked Wilbur news of Captain Kitchell.
Wilbur told him as much of his story as was necessary, but from the
captain's talk he gathered that the news of his return had long since
been wired from Coronado, and that it would be impossible to avoid a
nine days' notoriety. The captain of the station (his name was Hodgson)
made Wilbur royally welcome, insisted upon his dining with him, and
himself called up Langley & Michaels as soon as the meal was over.

It was he who offered the only plausible solution of the mystery of the
lifting and shaking of the schooner and the wrecking of the junk. Though
Wilbur was not satisfied with Hodgson's explanation, it was the only one
he ever heard.

When he had spoken of the matter, Hodgson had nodded his head.
"Sulphur-bottoms," he said.

"Sulphur-bottoms?"

"Yes; they're a kind of right-whale; they get barnacles and a kind of
marine lice on their backs, and come up and scratch them selves against
a ship's keel, just like a hog under a fence."

When Wilbur's business was done, and he was making ready to return to
the schooner, Hodgson remarked suddenly: "Hear you've got a strapping
fine girl aboard with you. Where did you fall in with her?" and he
winked and grinned.

Wilbur started as though struck, and took himself hurriedly away;
but the man's words had touched off in his brain a veritable mine of
conjecture. Moran in Magdalena Bay was consistent, congruous, and fitted
into her environment. But how--how was Wilbur to explain her to San
Francisco, and how could his behavior seem else than ridiculous to the
men of his club and to the women whose dinner invitations he was wont to
receive? They could not understand the change that had been wrought
in him; they did not know Moran, the savage, half-tamed Valkyrie so
suddenly become a woman. Hurry as he would, the schooner could not be
put to sea again within a fortnight. Even though he elected to live
aboard in the meanwhile, the very business of her preparation would call
him to the city again and again. Moran could not be kept a secret. As it
was, all the world knew of her by now. On the other hand he could easily
understand her position; to her it seemed simplicity itself that they
two who loved each other should sail away and pass their lives together
upon the sea, as she and her father had done before.

Like most men, Wilbur had to walk when he was thinking hard. He sent the
dory back