Page:C Q, or, In the Wireless House (Train, 1912).djvu/277

 It was Mrs. Trevelyan's package which she had overlooked in her embarrassment. Perhaps she had not overlooked it. Had he not intimated that he would accede to her request; had he not in fact practically promised to do so? He weighed the package in his hand.

“There's only one thing that can be in that,” he remarked judicially, “and that's pearls!”

Micky had been correct in his supposition that Mrs. Trevelyan's absent-mindedness had been intentional. She had gone to the wireless house with a well-matured plan which contemplated concealmg the package somewhere in Micky's chest of drawers provided he did not return during her visit, and of communicating her request to him next day under circumstances which would make it seem discourteous on his part to decline. Should he refuse it was her determination to return to the vessel a day or two later, secure the pearls from him and take them ashore herself when the Customs inspectors were no longer on duty. She was wrathful at the Captain for his ill-timed interruption and the hippopotamus-like manner in