"I thought you said she was the captain's daughter."

"So she is; but he's had her out on a Western ranch since she was a bit
of a lass. Quite a romance!"

"Really?"

"Yes. Her mother was a play-actress. Ran off with an English nobleman.
Left the captain and the lassie in the lurch, and died before she
reached England. I had the story from the purser."

"Where's the girl going now?"

"The captain is fetching her the round trip to Hong-Kong, to break off
some love-affair at home, I believe. But if she's as canny as she's
bonny, I'll wager she'll outwit him before they have done."

Percival, who at first had remained in the back row of the spectators,
during this recital moved to the front, and now as he looked down he
suddenly encountered the laughing glance of the person under discussion.
She was lazily watching him from where she floated in the water, with
her loosened hair circling in a dark cloud about her head. The
expression on her face gave him instant cause for alarm.

Since that first day when she had spoken to him, he had studiously
avoided meeting her eye, and had even come to congratulate himself on
having removed from her mind the suspicion of a former encounter. But
there was that in the glance that now met and held his that dispelled
any such hope. It indicated all too clearly that she had not been