itched his cigarette overboard and turned to her with less of
churlishness in his bearing.

She met his eyes quite frankly.

"I should just love him to get away," she declared, with kindling eyes.
"Oh, I know he's a regular sharper, and he's swindled heaps of
people--I'm one of them, so I know a little about it. He swindled me out
of five hundred dollars, and I can tell you I was mad at first. But now
that he is flying from justice, I'm game enough to want him to get away.
I suppose my sympathies generally lie with the hare, Mr. West. I'm sorry
if it annoys you, but I was created that way."

West was frowning, but he smiled with some cynicism over her last
remarks.

"Besides," she continued, "I couldn't help admiring him. He has a
regular genius for swindling--that man. You'll agree with me there?"

A sudden heavy roll of the vessel pitched her forward before he could
reply. He caught her round the waist, saving her from a headlong fall,
and she clung to him, laughing like a child at the mishap.

"I think I'll have to go below," she decided regretfully. "But you've
been good to me, and I'm glad I spoke. I've always been somewhat
prejudiced against detectives till to-day. My cousin Archie--you saw him
in the cardroom last night--vowed you were nothing half so interesting.
Why is it, I wonder, that detectives always look like journalists?" She
looked at him with eyes of friendly criticism. "You didn't deceive me,
you see. But then"--ingenuously--"I'm clever in some ways, much more
clever than you'd think. Now you won't cut me next time we meet, will
you? Because--perhaps--I'm going to ask you to do something for me."

"What do you want me to do?"

The man's voice was hard, his eyes cold as steel, but his question had
in it a shade--just a shade--of something warmer than mere curiosity.

She took him into her confidence without an instant's hesitation.

"My cousin Archie--you may have noticed--you were looking on last
night--he's a very careless player, and headstrong too. But he can't
afford to lose any, and I don't want him to come to grief. You see, I'm
rather fond of him."

"Well?"

The man's brows were drawn down over his eyes. His expression was not
encouraging.

"Well," she proceeded, undismayed, "I saw you looking on, and you looked
as if you knew a few things. So I thought you'd be a safe person to ask.
I can't look after him; and his mother--well, she's worse than useless.
But a man--a real strong