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 nantly defended the honor of his native land. Like a prudent general, he had saved this particular avenue of escape for the day of need, and until now had bestowed favors on the grisly old salt without ever asking for a return.

The only trouble was the ten days that must be passed before the Bonnie Dundee was scheduled. If Bordenten would only take him on board now he reflected, but recalled at once that the gay Lothario was in Massachusetts visiting his American family.

Valdeck got up, rammed his hands deep in his pockets, and went to the window. He looked out upon the brick ugliness of an extension to the house next door, and a tumbled vista of back yards, separated by high white fences, upon which prowled and cuddled numberless cats of all colors and sizes. A network of clothes-lines cobwebbed the grassless gardens, and from them depended every sort and condition of underwear, from the rainbow-hued, belaced, China silk creations of the lady opposite, to the red flannels and numberless pinafores of No. 347's second-floor back. The hunted man took in the com- 269