Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/139

 steamer-chair against which she had been leaning. McKinnon could see that her breath was coming fast and short.

"This can't be true!" she whispered, letting her hands fall weakly between her knees. "They may have said this, but it was only to deceive you, to point out some false trail!"

"One moment, until I explain. I am only the wireless operator on this boat. I am a new-comer, as well, for this is my first run. One hour before the Laminian sailed her old operator failed to report, and could not be found. The De Forest Company at once hurried a new man over to the ship. I am that man."

"Still I don't understand. Why are you here?"

"That's what the captain of this ship is so uncertain about. That's why he's so down on us! That's why he's sneaking about and spying on this cabin like a cat on a mouse-hole! I don't mean that he's a paid agent of the Junta—I don't even believe he knows what this ship is carrying. He's only soured with alcohol, and jealous—bullheadedly jealous—of his little world of authority."

"But still you haven't told me who you are, or why you came here."

"I am a wireless operator," he said after a moment's glance into the girl's clear eyes, as