an. I hedged and had that other jog built
in over there for a piano. We can use it sometimes when we want to rag."

"It is a splendid instrument; much more expensive than I thought of, I am
afraid. But," and she looked back at the elaborate array of pipes with the
exhilaration showing in her face, "it's like giving the firs and the sea a
new voice."

She passed on, and Frederic's glance followed her, puzzled, but with a
blended respect and admiration. When she went out with Elizabeth and the
lieutenant, he called his men to convey him to the yacht. Marcia walked
beside him. Night had fallen, and the _Aquila_ blazed like a fire ship.
Her lamps sifted the shadows and threw long, wavering flames on the tide.
Aft, where the table was spread, for the convenience of the host, who
could not hazard the companionway, a string of electric lights illumined
the deck. Japanese screens, a dropped awning or two, tempered the breeze,
and the array of silver and flowers, and long-stemmed glasses, promised
more than the informal little dinner to which Mrs. Feversham had referred.

She stood looking the table critically over, while the sailors settled the
invalid's chair. While the rest of the party loitered in the bow, she
turned to brother. "Has it occurred to you," she asked, "that Beatriz may
be interested in some other man?"

"No," answered Frederic, startled. "No. Hadn't thought of that--unless--
it's Foster."

"I don't know; he seems the most possible, if there's any one. She says
she does not care to marry again. In any case, it is advisable to keep him
in Alaska. You might send him on from the Iditarod to look over the Aurora
mine." And she added slowly: "Beatriz Weatherbee, backed by the
Morganstein money, will be able to carry the social end of the family
anywhere; but Beatriz Weatherbee, holding a half interest in one of the
best-paying placers in Alaska in her own right--is a wife worth straining
a point for."

Frederic's round eyes widened; his face took an expression of childlike
goodness; it was the mask with which he habitually covered his avarice.
Then he said: "I understood Hollis Tisdale had exclusive, brass-bound,
double-rivited possession of the Aurora."

"Hush," cautioned Marcia, "they are coming." And she added, in a still
lower tone: "There is a loose rivet, but contrive to marry her before she
knows."

That dinner covered the homeward cruise, and from the wharf Tisdale went
directly to his rooms. There h