very one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its
own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own
secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of
breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart
nearest it!' ... It kind of terrifies me," said Ruth, looking up,
first at the face of her husband, then at McClintock's. "No matter
how much I tell of myself, I shall always keep something back. No
matter how much you tell me, you will always keep something back."

Neither man spoke. McClintock stared into the bowl of his pipe and
Spurlock into his coffee cup. But McClintock's mind was perceptive,
whereas Spurlock's was only dully confused. The Scot understood
that, gently and indirectly, Ruth was asking her husband a
question, opening a door if he cared to enter.

So the young fool had not told her! McClintock had suspected as
much. Everything in this world changed--except human folly. This
girl was strong and vital: how would she take it when she learned
that she had cast her lot with a fugitive from justice? For
McClintock was certain that Spurlock was a hunted man. Well, well;
all he himself could do would be to watch this singular drama
unroll.

The night before they made McClintock's Ruth and Spurlock leaned
over the rail, their shoulders touching. It might have been the
moon, or the phosphorescence of the broken water, or it might have
been his abysmal loneliness; but suddenly he caught her face in his
hands and kissed her on the mouth.

"Oh!" she gasped. "I did not know ... that it was ... like that!"
She stepped back; but as his hands fell she caught and held them
tightly. "Please, Hoddy, always tell me when do I things wrong. I
never want you to be ashamed of me. I will do anything and
everything I can to become your equal."

"You will never become that, Ruth. But if God is kind to me,
someday I may climb up to where you are. I'd like to be alone now.
Would you mind?"

She wanted another kiss, but she did not know how to go about it;
so she satisfied the hunger by pressing his hands to her thundering
heart. She let them fall and sped to the companion, where she stood
for a moment, the moonlight giving her a celestial touch. Then she
went below.

Spurlock bent his head to the rail. The twists in his brain had
suddenly straightened out; he was normal, wholly himself; and he
knew now exactly what he had done.

CHAPTER XXI

McClintock's island