you like. I'll join you
some time this evening."

He gave her a queer look, hesitating.

"We are surely safe enough for the present," remarked the Colonel. "The
first act of war will be to send all the soldiers to the north border.
The fighting will be done in the Trentino for some time to come."

"You don't know these people," said Jones, shifting uneasily from one
foot to another. "They're all brigands by nature and many of them by
profession. As soon as the soldiers are sent north, all law and order
will cease and brigandage will be the order of the day!"

"This is absurd!" exclaimed the Colonel, testily. "You're not talking
sense."

"That's a matter of opinion, sir; but I know my own business, and I'm
going to get out of here."

"Wait a week longer," suggested Mary Louise. "We are to sail ourselves
on the boat that leaves Naples a week from Tuesday, and it will be nice
for Alora and me to travel home together."

"No; I won't wait. Get your things, Alora, and come with me at once."

"Have you made reservations on the boat?" inquired Colonel Hathaway,
refusing to be annoyed by the man's brusque words and rough demeanor.

"I'll do that at once, by telephone. That's one reason I came over.
I'll telephone the steamship office while the girl is getting ready."

"I will go with you," said the Colonel, as the artist turned away.

While Jones used the telephone booth of the hotel Colonel Hathaway
conversed with the proprietor, and afterward with the hall porter, who
was better posted and spoke better English.

"This is outrageous!" roared the artist, furiously bursting from the
booth. "To-morrow's boat is abandoned! The government requires it as a
transport. Why? Why? Why?" and he wrung his hands despairingly.

"I do not know, sir," returned the Colonel, smiling at his futile
passion.

The smile seemed to strike Jones like a blow. He stopped abruptly and
stared at the other man for a full minute--intently, suspiciously. Then
he relaxed.

"You're right," said he coldly. "It's folly to quarrel with fate. I've
booked for a week from Tuesday, Hathaway, and we must stick it out till
then. Do you take the same boat?"

"That is my intention."

"Well, there's no objection. Now I'll go get Alora."

But Alora, hearing of the postponed sailing, positively refused to
return home with him, and Mary Louise, supporting her new friend, urged
her to extend her stay with her at the hotel. Strangely enough, the
more he