Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/322

Rh The girl fell back.

"I told you that I was ready to go with you, Captain!" Preston repeated.

"But, Captain," Mr. Dunneston now checked the officer. He had moved from out of the group of the bystanders and stood as ally beside the girl. The circle about began to smile, anticipating amusement. "I say, Captain," he continued calmly, "don't you really agree that the established fact that Mr. Preston is—ah—Manling, is quite the best reason for not locking him up just yet a bit?"

"The best reason, sir?" the captain demanded.

"Precisely, sir," the other Englishman returned, unruffled, while his backers from the smoking-room applauded softly. "Precisely, Captain. If we did not know that he were Manling, really it would make little or no difference if you wished to lock him up. But being so, I assure you it will have a quite fatal effect—oh, an entirely fatal effect, sir, in the very satisfactory interest which has been 294