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172 He wondered if Padilla had been fired by Castro, wondered … What was the Fumiss girl saying?

"Didn't you like her? Don't you think she's pretty?"

"Very," Stone answered both queries with a fervour that made the girl look at him curiously. Then Larkin came up.

"No monopolizing the hangels in this Paradise," he said. The girl laughed. Larkin said the words without possible offence, his admiration was very open, and Stone saw suddenly that Larkin, for all his stocky ugliness, was not without a certain masculine attraction for the opposite sex. It was not against the cards that a girl of this type might get along with him very well. There were a good many things about the Cockney that showed a clean strain. And it was patent that this coming of theirs was regarded by the girl as a romantic adventure. She said, in fact, that it would make a great picture, which was, for her, a symbol of high interest.

"I'm a long way from an angel," she said. "But I'm going to play one now. Sister-of-Mercy rôle. I'm going to nurse your friend. The doctor said I could."

"Oh, 'im," said Larkin, disgustedly. He saw the girl looking at him curiously. "I've a good mind to go fall off the cliff and break both legs," he went on, quickly. "I would if I thought you'd"

But the girl had made a little face at him and run away.