Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/178

 , when Stewart came up and suggested that we go out aboard her. At first I declined, as the people were not known to us, nor we to them.

What's the odds!' said he. 'Perfectly good form in a hole like this. They've come purposely to see the place and people. They're our guests, by Gad!'

"There was something in this, so I agreed and we put off. I am rather diffident, Doctor, but I knew that Stewart would carry the thing off with his usual blunt, reckless, high-bred ease; there was so much style to the fellow, and he looked so fresh and well-groomed and aristocratic, and altogether the gentleman, which in so very many ways he was not. There was a strong ranginess about him which suggested the university athlete; the curly, crisp, yellow hair, the close-cropped mustache and the fresh but weather-beaten skin, all marked him for a thoroughbred. If he had got drunk every night of the week and slept in all his clothes he could have got up in the [ 162 ]