Part 53

"Many times."

"Then you know what I saw," he replied. "I had no wonderful adventures. This isn't the day of the rapier and the mask."

She half closed her eyes and looked at him through the long lashes.

"What were you doing down on Greenberry Point?" she demanded.

"How did you know?" he asked, surprised.

"Oh! very naturally. I was in Annapolis--I saw your name on the register--I inquired--and I had the tale of the camp. No one, however, seemed to think it queer!" laughing.

"Why should they? Camping out is entirely natural," Croyden answered.

"With the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs?"

"We were in his party!"

"A party which until five days ago he had not joined--at least, so the Superintendent told me, when I dined at his house. He happened to mention your name, found I knew you--and we gossiped. Perhaps we shouldn't, but we did."

"What else did he tell you?"

"Nothing! he didn't seem even to wonder at your being there----"

"But you did?"

"It's the small town in me, I suppose--to be curious about other people and their business; and it was most suspicious."

"What was most suspicious?" he asked.

"Your actions. First, you hire a boat and cross the Bay direct from Hampton to Annapolis. Second, you procure, through Senator Rickrose, a permit from the Secretary of the Navy to camp on Greenberry Point. Third, you actually do camp, there, for nearly, or quite three weeks. Query:--Why? Why go clear to the Western Shore, and choose a comparatively inaccessible and exposed location on United States property, if the idea were only a camp? Why not camp over on Kent Island, or on this coast? Anywhere, within a few miles of Hampton, there are scores of places better adapted than Greenberry Point."

"You should be a story teller!" he laughed. "Your imagination is marvelous. With a series of premises, you can reach whatever conclusion you wish--you're not bound by the probabilities."

"You're simply obscuring the point," she insisted. "In this instance, my premises are facts which are not controverted. You admit them to be correct. So, why? Why?----" She held up her hand. "Don't answer! I'm not asking for information. I don't want to be told. I'm simply 'chaffing of you,' don't you know!"

"With just a lingering curiosity, however," he added.

"A casual curiosity, rather," she amended.

"Which, some time, I shall gratify. You've trailed me down--we were on Greenberry Point for a purpose, but nothing has come of it, yet--and it's likely a failure."

"My dear Mr. Croyden, I don't wish to know. It was a mistake to refer to it. I should simply have forgot what I heard in Annapolis--I'll forget now, if you will permit."

"By no means, Miss Carrington. You can't forget, if you would--and I would not have you, if you could. Moreover, I inherited it along with Clarendon, and, as you were my guide to the place, it's no more than right that you should know. I think I shall confide in you--no use to protest, it's got to come!" he added.

"You are determined?--Very well, then, come over to the couch in the corner, where we can sit close and you can whisper."

He arose, with alacrity. She put out her hand and led him--and he suffered himself to be led.

"Now!" when they were seated, "you may begin. Once upon a time----" and laughed, softly. "I'll take this, if you've no immediate use for it," she said, and released her hand from his.

"For the moment," he said. "I shall want it back, presently, however."

"Do you, by any chance, get all you want?" she inquired.