right. "Anyhow, she doesn't need you at
present quite as much as you need scientific attention--and I hear the
professor moving around!"

Stepping to the companionway door he bawled some nonsense to our guest
about bringing up his medicine chest and a rope, then turned back to me.

"You see, Jack, I consider this to be serious. As long as I've known you
that lady in the porthole is the first female you've ever thought of
with any sign of, what I might call, _ardeur_. Where you met her is your
business, but how you're going to get her must naturally concern us all.
Hence Monsieur to consult with!"

We could hear Monsieur's grunts and wheezes before he appeared, and on
catching sight of me he actually skipped to us. It was a grotesque
exhibition that made me burst out laughing. His hair was tousled, his
eyes were half closed, and he looked about as much like a scrambled egg
as anything I could think of.

"We lost you last night," he cried. "You ran away from us?"

"He was poisoned," Tommy blandly answered, "and now his heart's kind of
upside-down and twisty."

"Upside-down and twisty?" he gasped.

"Tommy doesn't mean it's anything dangerous, just an affection; a kind
of--a kind of----"

"A kind of affectionate affection," Tommy put in. "You see, he was stung
there, and it itches, and he can't scratch it."

"Stung on the heart? _Sacre nomme!_" The old fellow clasped his head in
both hands and stared at us.

"You fascinating little ass," Tommy murmured, "did you ever hear of
love?"

"Love?" the professor's face beamed into twice its usual breadth. "You,
my boy Jack? Is she a Spanish mademoiselle?"

"Good Lord, whoever heard of a Spanish mademoiselle! No, Jack says that
she's a lady in need, who lives in the pocket of her father's white
serge coat that hangs behind his stateroom door; and she's in a helluva
lot of trouble, but Jack doesn't know where else she is, so we're going
to comb out the universe and find her! Get the idea?"

"I will drink some coffee," he stammered, and disappeared.

Tommy and I decided that we must be after the _Orchid_ without losing a
minute, as there was still a chance of drawing in sight of her before
she could leave Key West. Yet I first had a mission to fulfill at the
cafe, nor did I confide this at once to him lest he brand me a total
wreck. I knew that he was delighted at the prospect of this bizarre
chase, however chimeric it might seem to him, for he possessed the
faculty