d taken it for
granted she would wait in 'Frisco for us.

"It's hardly a lady's job, I should say," was my smiling answer.

"Nonsense! Of course I am going." Sharp decision rang in her voice.

"It may be dangerous."

"Fiddlesticks! Panama is a tourist point of travel these days. Half of
my schoolgirl chums have been there. It's as safe as--Atlantic City."

"Atlantic City isn't safe if one ventures too far out in the surf," I
reminded her.

"I'll stick close to the life line," she promised.

Both Blythe and I were embarrassed. It was of course her right to go if
she insisted. I appealed to her aunt, a plump, amiable lady nearer fifty
than forty.

"Don't you think, Miss Berry, that it would be better to wait here for
us? There would be discomforts to which you are not used."

"That is just what Boris told us," Evelyn put in mischievously.

Miss Berry gave a little shrug of her shoulders.

"Oh, I'd as soon stay here, but Evie will have her way." Her pleasant
smile took from the words any sting they might otherwise have held.

"Of course I shall. This is a matter of business," Miss Wallace
triumphantly insisted.

Excitement danced in her eyes. She might put it on commercial grounds if
she liked, but the truth is that the romance of the quest had taken hold
of her even as it had of us. One could not blame her for wanting to go.

I consulted Sam with my eyes.

"I suppose there is no absolute bar to letting the ladies go. There is
room enough on the _Argos_."

"There's plenty of room," he admitted.

After all it was fanciful to suppose that we should run across Bothwell
on the face of the broad Pacific. Why shouldn't they have the pleasure
of a month's yachting? Certainly their presence would make the voyage a
more pleasant one for us.

"All right. Go if you must, but don't blame me if it turns out to be no
picnic."

"Thank you, Mr. Sedgwick. That's just what it is going to be--a nice
long picnic," the girl beamed.

"Wish I had your beautiful confidence. Have you forgotten Captain
Bothwell? Shall we take him along, too?" I asked with a laugh.

"I'm afraid he would want all the cake. No, we'll not ask him to our
picnic. He may stay at home."

"Let's hope he will," Miss Berry contributed cheerfully.

I don't think she gave the least weight to our fears of Bothwell. In
fact he was rather a favorite of hers.

"If he comes he'll have to take what is left. He understands he's not
invited," Miss Wallace