tell you how many other accomplishments
she has."

"Well, stump me!" returned Mallow. "Is that all straight?"

"Every word of it," with a chilliness that did not escape a man even so
impervious as Mallow.

"Is she a free-thinker?"

"What the devil is that? What do you mean?"

"Only this, if she's all you say she is, why does she pick out an
absconder for a friend, a chap who dare not show his fiz in the States?
I heard the tale from a man once employed in his office back in New
York. A beach-comber, a dock-walloper, if there ever was one."

"Mallow, you'll have to explain that instantly."

"Hold your horses, my friend. What I'm telling you is on the level.
She's been hobnobbing with the fellow all the way down from the
Irrawaddy, so I'm told. Never spoke to any one else. Made him sit at
her side at table and jabbered Italian at him, as if she didn't want
others to know what she was talking about. I know the man. Fired him
from my plantation, when I found out what he was. Can't recall his
name just now, but he is known out here as Warrington; Parrot & Co."

The consul-general was genuinely shocked.

"You can't blame me for thinking things," went on Mallow. "What man
wouldn't? Ask her about Warrington. You'll find that I'm telling the
truth, all right."

"If you are, then she has made one of those mistakes women make when
they travel alone. I shall see her at tea and talk to her. But I do
not thank you, Mallow, for telling me this. A finer, loyaler-hearted
girl doesn't live. She might have been kind out of sympathy."

Mallow bit off the tip of his cigar. "He's a handsome beggar, if you
want to know."

"I resent that tone. Better drop the subject before I lose my temper.
I'll have your papers ready for you in the morning." The
consul-general caught up his pen savagely to indicate that the
interview was at an end.

"All right," said Mallow good-naturedly. "I meant no harm. Just
naturally curious. Can't blame me."

"I'm not blaming you. But it has disturbed me, and I wish to be alone
to think it over."

Mallow lounged out, rather pleased with himself. His greatest pleasure
in life was in making others uncomfortable.

The consul-general bit the wooden end of his pen and chewed the
splinters of cedar. He couldn't deny that it was like Elsa to pick up
some derelict for her benefactions. But to select a man who was
probably wanted by the American police was a frightful misfortune.