ays. And Vega is
amenable to reason. _He_ will help us." As though in a sudden burst
of confidence he added ingratiatingly, "And you could help your
father, too, if you liked. If you'll tell me what the Rojas party mean
to do I'll set you right with your father. What do you say?"

"What do I say, you poor, little--thing!" Roddy roared. Then he
laughed shortly and shrugged his shoulders. "I'll say this much," he
added. "If I were sure you couldn't swim I'd throw you into the
harbor."

"So you could pull me out," laughed Caldwell. "Why don't you? You know
you were always a grand-stand actor, Roddy. Think how heroic it would
be," he taunted, "to rescue the hated enemy, to save my life!"

Roddy, unmoved, regarded him thoughtfully.

"It would be an awful thing to have on one's conscience," he said, and
left the wheel-house.

When, at five o'clock that same afternoon, Roddy found himself sitting
opposite Inez Rojas in a properly appointed drawing-room, guarded by a
properly appointed chaperon and with a cup of tea on his knee, the
situation struck him not only as delightful, but comic. With inward
amusement he thought of their other meetings: those before sunrise,
and the one by moonlight when Inez had told him he was seeing her for
the last time, and when policemen threatened his advance and sharks
cut off his retreat. From a smile in the eyes of the girl herself
Roddy guessed that she also found the meeting not without its humorous
side. Roddy soon discovered he could not adjust his feelings to the
exigencies of an afternoon call. After doing his duty as an adopted
uncle to the Broughton children and to his hostess and her tea and to
Peter, in permitting him ten minutes' talk with Inez, he brought that
interview to an abrupt end.

"Miss Rojas," he exclaimed, "you haven't seen Mrs. Broughton's garden
in two years, have you? Such a lot of things grow up in two years. Let
me introduce them to you."

Giving her no chance to demur, Roddy strode out of the French windows
into the garden, and, as Inez with an apologetic bow to the others
followed, Peter moved to a chair beside Mrs. Broughton and held out
his empty cup.

"There's a certain subtlety about Roddy's methods," he remarked, "that
would easily deceive the deaf, dumb and blind."

The garden was full of rare trees, plants and flowers brought from
every island of the Caribbean Sea, but Roddy did not pause to observe
them. He led the way to a bench under a cluster