onted for the first time in her life with
the two most glowing things in a girl's fancy--love or a throne? She's
dazzled, not decided."

"She's worse," I growled. "She's hurt--that's one reason she won't come
up! And allow me to say that what you know about women wouldn't fill a
gnat's eye!" I seemed to be hypped on this, and couldn't get away from
it.

"Well, if you've spilled the beans you'll have to pick 'em up pretty
quick, for we'll be home in three days. Just be sure you don't intimate
that Azuria can be less than a perfect hell to her, for that would ruin
your chances forever!" And with this parting injunction, that drove
terror to my heart, he walked aft to join Gates.

Going to the companionway door, I peered into the cabin. The wretched
Dragot, bedecked in smoking jacket and spectacles, looking uncommonly
like a monkey, I thought, was lounging behind a book. He knew that the
nearer uncertainty approaches a certainty the more fatal will be the
result of its upsetting; that, whereas a scheme jumbled in its infancy
may recover, the slightest maladjustment on the threshold of success
often spells irrevocable ruin. He was taking no chances.

CHAPTER XXVI

A TREASURE BOX

Late that afternoon we got under way, setting our course for Key West.
But it was a glum company aboard. The Princess remained in her
stateroom; Tommy's grouch for Monsieur had grown out of all proportion,
so the professor's gay mood lost much of its bloom; Echochee, whenever
she left her mistress, scowled at us as though we were pirates; Gates,
knowing that my plans had become miserably pied, grumbled over trifles;
Bilkins sniffled, and the mate walked about with curses fairly bristling
from him like pin-feathers. Heaven knows how wretched I was! If a group
of people were ever out of tune, we had struck the original discord. Of
us all, the cook maintained both equanimity and cuisine in perfect
taste, else I hesitate to think what might have been the fate of the
good yacht, _Whim_.

Sometime during the night we reached Key West, and early next morning
Gates called me to go ashore. I had requested this. There were the
telegram and letter to be sent; and candy, flowers, fruits, magazines,
souvenirs, and anything suitable I might find, to lay at Doloria's
shrine. Had it not been for the stubbornness of a fellow who insisted
that he was under contract, I would have had a moving picture show
aboard for her.

By eight o'clock we were a