Amazing Things 161

XII. Trask Makes a Discovery 179

XIII. What Happened to Doc and the Dinghy 191

XIV. What Jarrow Wanted and What He Got 203

XV. An End and a Beginning 220

ISLE O' DREAMS

ISLE O' DREAMS

CHAPTER I

ROBERT TRASK ARRIVES IN MANILA FROM AMOY

As the tubby little China Coast steamer marched up Manila Bay,
Trask stood under the bridge on the skimpy "promenade deck" and
waited impatiently for the doctor's boat to come alongside. He was
the only white passenger among a motley lot of Chinese merchants
and half-castes of varied hues, and he was glad the passage was at
an end.

He had made the trip with a Finnish skipper, disconcertingly
cross-eyed, a Lascar mate who looked like a pirate and had a voice
like a school-girl, a purser addicted to the piccolo late at night,
and fellow-passengers who jabbered interminably about nothing at
all in half a dozen languages. So Trask regarded the spires and
red roofs of Manila with the hungry eyes of a man who has been
separated from civilization and his own kind too many days to
remember.

Before the steamer anchored, Trask saw the _Taming_ passing out for
Hong Kong, white moustaches of foam at her forefoot and her decks
alive with men and women. She was as smart as a big liner.

But he looked away from her to the Luneta and the villa-like Bay
View Hotel, white and stately, at the lip of the bay. That was his
goal, for he had promised Marjorie Locke he would be in Manila the
day before, and he was now a day late.

The customs boarding officer took him ashore with his bags and
graciously allowed him to depart in a _quilez_, after holding his
baggage for examination. Trask went whirling up Calle San Fernando,
through Plaza Oriente, Calle Rosario, Plaza Moraga, over the Bridge
of Spain and into shady Bazumbayan Drive, skirting the moat of the
Walled City. It was a roundabout way but the quickest, for the
_cochero_ made his ponies travel at a good clip for a double fare.

The rig shot across the baking Luneta, and ere it had come to a
full stop before the Bay View Trask was out and into the darkened
hall of the tourist headquarters of the Philippine capital.

The place appeared deserted except for a sleepy _muchacho_, who
staggered out from some palms, looking for the new g