rd, evidently thinking
all was right between us, smiled benignantly in her face, gave her a
kiss and me a wink and disappeared in the crowd that was now rapidly
going ashore.

I felt that I must follow, but I gave her one look and one squeeze of
the hand, and then as I saw her glances wander to his face, I groaned
in spirit, stammered some words of choking sorrow and was gone, before
her embarrassment would let her speak words, which I knew would only
add to my grief and make this hasty parting unendurable.

The look of amazement and chagrin with which her father met my
reappearance on the dock can easily be imagined.

"Why, Dick," he exclaimed, "aren't you going after all? I thought I
could rely on you. Where's your pluck, lad? Scared off by a frown? I
wouldn't have believed it, Dick. What if she does frown to-day; she
will smile to-morrow."

I shook my head; I could not tell him just then that it was not
through any lack of pluck on my part that I had failed him.

When I left the dock I went straight to a restaurant, for I was faint
as well as miserable. But my cup of coffee choked me and the rolls and
eggs were more than I could face. Rising impatiently, I went out. Was
any one more wretched than I that morning and could any one nourish a
more bitter grievance? As I strode towards my lodgings I chewed the
cud of my disappointment till my wrongs loomed up like mountains and
I was seized by a spirit of revenge. Should I let such an interference
as I had received go unpunished? No, if the wretch who had detained me
was not used to punishment he should receive a specimen of it now and
from a man who was no longer a prisoner, and who once aroused did not
easily forego his purposes. Turning aside from my former destination,
I went immediately to a police-station and when I had entered my
complaint was astonished to see that all the officials had grouped
about me and were listening to my words with the most startled
interest.

"Was the man who came for you a German?" one asked.

I said "Yes."

"And the man who stood guardian over you and entertained you with wine
and cigars, was not he a German too?"

I nodded acquiescence and they at once began to whisper together; then
one of them advanced to me and said:

"You have not been home, I understand; you had better come."

Astonished by his manner I endeavored to inquire what he meant, but he
drew me away, and not till we were within a stone's throw of my office