Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/349

Rh "What?" the Englishman asked as he listened. "What's that?"

"You're an idiot, Captain!" Preston's words came hotly and uncontrolled then as the group drew nearer. "Good Heavens, sir," he objurgated a little more calmly, "I say, do anything you well please with me, but don't drag a girl into this fool's business. I can stand the racket, I say, till this wild trip is over, and I'll show you what jacks you all are," he went on diplomatically, "but don't disgrace a girl by holding her, too, for the reporters to stare at." He hesitated impotently. "Captain," he tried again, "I say, I don't hope to convince you about myself; but, believe me, she isn't in this! She hasn't had anything to do with any of it!"

The captain and the officers hesitated as they came up to the Englishman and the girl standing together.

"Miss Varris," the captain began unwillingly, "I am sorry that now I must—"

"Captain," the girl swallowed nervously 321