Part 9 (2/2)

I was delighted. Blythe was not only a good navigator; he was a tried companion, true as steel, an interesting fellow who had pa.s.sed through strange experiences but never used them to impress upon others a sense of his importance.

He had served through the Boer and the Spanish-American wars with distinction. As I looked at him--a spare tall man with a bronzed face of power, well-shouldered, clear-eyed, and light-footed--I felt he was the one out of ten thousand for my purpose.

”Too bad I didn't know a week ago. I've let my crew go. But we can pick up another. My sailing master Mott is a thoroughly reliable man. He'll look after the details. My opinion is that we ought to get under way as soon as possible. That fellow Bothwell is going to crowd on all sail in his preparations. I take it as a sure thing that he means to have a try for the treasure.”

”My notion too. He struck me as a man of resource and determination.”

”So much the better. He'll give us a run for our money. My dear fellow, you've saved my life. I was beginning to get bored to extinction. This will be a bully picnic.”

”How long will it take you to get the yacht ready?”

”Give me a week to pick a crew and get supplies aboard. I'll offer a bonus to get things pushed.”

To see the enthusiasm he put into the adventure did me good after the three days of disappointment I had endured. I was eager to have him and Miss Wallace meet, and I got her at once on the telephone and made arrangements to bring him up after dinner to the private hotel where she and her aunt were stopping.

They took to each other at once. Inside of ten minutes we were all talking about our equipment for the trip.

”If we have a good run and the proper luck we'll be back to you with the treasure inside of a month, Miss Wallace,” Blythe promised as he rose to leave.

”Back to me!” She looked first at him and then at me. ”You don't think that I'm not going, too, do you?”

It is odd that the point had not come up before, but I had taken it for granted she would wait in 'Frisco for us.

”It's hardly a lady's job, I should say,” was my smiling answer.

”Nonsense! Of course I am going.” Sharp decision rang in her voice.

”It may be dangerous.”

”Fiddlesticks! Panama is a tourist point of travel these days. Half of my schoolgirl chums have been there. It's as safe as--Atlantic City.”

”Atlantic City isn't safe if one ventures too far out in the surf,” I reminded her.

”I'll stick close to the life line,” she promised.

Both Blythe and I were embarra.s.sed. It was of course her right to go if she insisted. I appealed to her aunt, a plump, amiable lady nearer fifty than forty.

”Don't you think, Miss Berry, that it would be better to wait here for us? There would be discomforts to which you are not used.”

”That is just what Boris told us,” Evelyn put in mischievously.

Miss Berry gave a little shrug of her shoulders.

”Oh, I'd as soon stay here, but Evie will have her way.” Her pleasant smile took from the words any sting they might otherwise have held.

”Of course I shall. This is a matter of business,” Miss Wallace triumphantly insisted.

Excitement danced in her eyes. She might put it on commercial grounds if she liked, but the truth is that the romance of the quest had taken hold of her even as it had of us. One could not blame her for wanting to go.

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