Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/173

 "Hello, you!" Mrs. Mahna's voice demanded. "You pullin' out?"

"Yes, Mrs. Mahna," Murdong replied; "I'm no good, and when I make a mistake, I take my departure p. d. q. Good-night!"

"Good-night!"

"And forgive me my sins, fair Delia," he called out, contritely.

"You're a beast!" she retorted. "I can forgive your prompt departure, however!"

Deha stood on the motorboat cabin for a few minutes, and then entered the cabin, which she had made sweet and clean, and which now had the perfume and sanctity of a lady's bower. She turned on the cabin lights supplied by storage batteries, and sat down with a book in her lap, as though to read.

"He's a good boy!" she said to herself. "I wonder what he would think if he knew why I drove him down the river with that cabinboat?"

She smiled, and her face became serious, then smiling again, as she saw the humorous and the deadly phases of the affair.

"Oh, I wish he would take my warning seriously!" she whispered over and over to herself. "If only men would understand. He's such a dear boy. I could almost love him—doing just what I begged him to do, and not asking one question. I'm glad I thought to