h to thank her for; and her
white, even, beautiful teeth gleamed as she laughingly answered that the
cherries had more than cancelled the score.

He asked for news of her brother, and was told that he had been too much
occupied to come in again. They were going out to the Presidio that
afternoon.

And then he ventured to hope Mr. Ray had sustained no great loss in the
robbery of his quarters, and saw at once that he was breaking news, for
the smile vanished instantly, the lovely face clouded with concern, and
he had only time to stammer: "Then, probably, there was no truth in the
story. I merely happened to hear two nights ago that Mr. Ray's quarters
had been robbed,--about the time the prisoners escaped." And then he
heard his general calling, and saw that the party was already clambering
back to the Vanguard.

"I--I--I hope I may see you when we get back from Manila, Miss Ray," he
said, as he bowed over her hand.

"I think you may see me--before that," was the smiling answer. And then
Captain Hawley grabbed him by the arm and rushed him to the side.

Two minutes more and he was on the deck of the transport. The lines were
cast off, the white side-wheeler, alive with sympathetic faces, some
smiling, some tearful, and a forest of fluttering kerchiefs, dropped
slowly astern, and all that long evening as they bored through the fogs
of the Farallones and bowed and dipped to the long swell of the sea, and
all the long week that followed as they steamed over a sunlit summer
ocean, Stuyvesant found himself repeating again and again her parting
words, and wondering what could have been the explanation of her knowing
nothing of the robbery of her brother's quarters, or what could have
been her meaning when she said "I think you may see me--before that."

Only once on the run to Honolulu was the flotilla of transports neared
by other voyagers. Three days out from San Francisco the "O. and O."
liner Doric slowly overhauled and gradually passed them by. Exchanging
signals, "All well on board," she was soon lost in the shadows of the
night long miles ahead.

CHAPTER VII.

There was trouble at the Presidio.

All but ten of the escaped prisoners had been recaptured or
self-surrendered, but the ten still at large were among the worst of the
array, and among the ten was the burly, hulking recruit enlisted under
the name of Murray, but declared by Captain Kress, on the strength of
the report of a detective from town,