on this side--but I'm here."

The effect of this was to weaken a little the friendship that had grown
between Billy and Pete. Also Honey pulled a little way from Ralph and
slipped nearer to his old place in Billy's regard.

But now there were three warring elements in camp. Honey, Ralph, and
Billy hobnobbed constantly. Frank more than ever devoted himself to his
reading. Pete kept away from them all, writing furiously most of the
day.

"We're going to have a harder time with him than with Frank," Billy
remarked once.

"I guess we can leave that matter to take care of itself," Ralph said
with one of his irritating superior smiles. "How about it, Honey?"

"Surest thing you know," Honey answered reassuringly. "All you've got to
do is wait--believe muh!"

"It does seem as if we'd waited pretty long," Honey himself fumed two
weeks later, "I say we three get together and repudiate that agreement."

"That would be dishonorable," Billy said, "and foolish. You can see for
yourself that we cannot stir a step in this matter without co-operation.
As opponents, Pete and Frank could warn the girls off faster than we
could lure them on."

"That's right, too," agreed Honey. "But I'm damned tired of this," he
added drearily. "Not more tired than we are," said Billy.

An incident that varied the monotony of the deadlock occurred the next
day. Pete Murphy packed up food and writing materials and, without
a word, decamped into the interior. He did not return that day, that
night, or the next day, or the next night.

"Say, don't you think we ought to go after him," Billy said again and
again, "something may have happened."

And, "No!" Honey always answered. "Trust that Dogan to take care of
himself. You can't kill him."

Pete worked gradually across the island to the other side. There the
beach was slashed by many black, saw-toothed reefs. The sea leaped up
upon them on one side and the trees bore down upon them on the other.
The air was filled with tumult, the hollow roar of the waves, the
strident hum of the pines. For the first day, Pete entertained himself
with exploration, clambering from one reef to another, pausing only
to look listlessly off at the horizon, climbing a pine here and there,
swinging on a bough while he stared absently back over the island. But
although his look fixed on the restless peacock glitter of the sea, or
the moveless green cushions that the massed trees made, it was evident
that it took no acco