I smiled brilliantly at the dear fellow. I sprang to him, holding out a welcoming hand.

"Why, Sir Alec, this is a delightful surprise!" I exclaimed. "Where did you come from? I thought I had lost you, at Leeuwarden."

So utterly was he dumfounded, not to say flabbergasted, by the manner of his reception, that I had time to spring these three quickly following remarks upon him before he was able to answer.

When he did, it was with a sledge-hammer. "Well, I'm d—d!" said he.

I stared in gentle amazement; then, glancing quickly at Alb, appeared suddenly to apprehend his meaning.

"Why, of course, you must be surprised to find me on a boat with Jonkheer Brederode."

"You lied to me at Leeuwarden," went on Sir Alec. He was never a man to mince words, as I noticed when visiting my aunt. Poor, pretty, flirtatious Aunt Fay!

I now gathered dignity. My simple delight at an unexpected meeting with a relative (in law) in a foreign waterway, froze into virtuous indignation.

"Really, Sir Alec, I am at a loss to understand you," I said. "I greet you in the most friendly——"

"Because you're a scoundrel and a hypocrite," said he.

This interruption I scorned to notice, save by proceeding as I had intended to proceed.

"And you insult me. What do you mean, Sir Alec MacNairne?"

"I mean"—he caught me up without hesitation—"that you, though you pretended to sympathize when I confided in you, were in league with Rudolph Brederode to outwit and deceive me in the most shameless way."

"You forget yourself," said Brederode, turning red, and contriving to keep his dignity in spite of Hendrik's sopping overalls. "I have never deceived or injured you. If this were my boat, I should have to ask——"

"Don't try that on," said Sir Alec, scornfully. "It is your boat."

"It happens to be the property of Miss Van Buren, a young American lady, for whom I'm acting as skipper," returned Alb.

"Rot," was the terse comment of my uncle-in-law.

Alb bit his lip, and his eyes were growing dangerous. I had seen that look on his face once or twice.

"And he's engaged to her," said I.

That is, something inside of me popped out those words, and there they were, spoken, not to be taken back. Alb and I looked at each other. He flushed again. But he did not speak.

"Produce this Miss Van Buren," sneered Sir Alec.

"I will," I promised. "But before I do, calm yourself. You are in no fit state to speak to ladies."

"I wish to talk to my wife," said he.

"Aunt Fay is not on board this boat, and never has been," I pronounced, each nerve on edge lest one lovely feminine head or another should pop up from below. I knew well that we owed the extraordinary obedience of the girls to the magnetic influence of that remarkable woman their chaperon, and how long she could continue to exert the charm which meshed them in the cabin, as Vivien meshed Merlin in the hollow oak, it was impossible to guess. At any instant we might hear a girlish voice calling the name of Lady MacNairne. Even if Tibe—but I dared not think of Tibe.

Horatius holding his bridge alone, was nothing compared to me. No one could help me now.

"Pooh! Do you expect me to believe that? After what happened at Leeuwarden—when I trusted you?"

"You trusted me," said I, coldly, "with good reason, and it would be well if you did so again. Kindly state what, from your point of view, did happen at Leeuwarden to bring this storm of unmerited abuse upon my head."

"I dare say it would be convenient to you to forget. I met you with Brederode at the Kermess. You seized me and prevented me from following him as I wished to do. Then, when he had got out of my way, you assured me that you'd find him. You said you were not with him on his boat, that you hadn't been together ten minutes——"

"Neither had we," said I. "That was perfectly true. And I'm not on his boat. As he told you, I'm on Miss Van Buren's. And if I didn't look you up to tell you where you could find Jonkheer Brederode, it was because I thought you would only lose your dignity by meeting him, and do Aunt Fay and yourself both more harm than good. I know for a certainty that Alb—that Brederode hasn't seen Aunt Fay since July anyhow. And why should I let you and your stupid suspicions make trouble between a very good fellow and—and—the girl he's in love with?"

This time I did not meet Alb's eyes. I was looking straight and with a noble defiance into Sir Alec's.

"You are very high and mighty," said he. "But I'm not to be fooled again by either of you. I've been chasing Brederode for weeks in that beastly motor-launch, and I'm about sick of the whole business. I've got him now, and you, too. And though you may both tell me till you're blue in the face that my wife hasn't been and isn't on this boat, I won't believe you till I've searched every hole and corner of it."

"Perhaps I had better go and ask Miss Van Buren whether she will kindly permit my uncle-in-law to make such an examination of her property," I said, with the ice of conscious rectitude in my voice.

"Very well," returned Sir Alec. "Go and fetch her."

With head aloft, I stalked to the top of the steps which I defy any human being to descend with dignity.

What would happen between Sir Alec and Alb while I was gone, or what I should say when I got below, I knew not. I could only trust to luck. Was it going to turn out in vain, I asked myself, that all my life I have been called "lucky Starr"?

The canvas curtain at the door of the outer cabin, which protects the ladies from the heat of the motor-room, was unfurled and hanging at length. Standing behind it, I spoke Miss Van Buren's name.

All was silent on the other side. But, after a delay of a few seconds, Nell half pushed aside the heavy folds of canvas and looked out at me. Her charming face was, for an instant, within twelve inches of mine. I drew back in resignation. With my own hand I had given her to another. Whether or no she would eventually become his, I could not tell, but I felt that, after what I had done, she would never belong to me.

There was, however, very little time to think of that now. My business was pressing.

"Come outside in the passage a minute," I said, in a low voice, still hearing no sound from the other side of the curtain. "I want to speak to you."

"Lady MacNairne——" she began.

I put my finger to my lips. "Sh!" said I.

"Oh, did you know she was ill?" asked Nell.

I shook my head.

"She is, poor dear. She had the most sudden attack, just after we came down, and Phyllis and I haven't been able to leave her. She wouldn't let one of us go up to tell you."

"Wonderful little woman!" I could scarcely refrain from exclaiming. "Her cleverness—I mean her consideration—is extraordinary."

"It was her heart," explained Nell. "She's been lying down ever since, holding Phyllis's hand and mine. But she's better now, and I'm not sure she hasn't gone to sleep, for when I heard you call me, and tried to slip my hand out of hers, she didn't seem to notice."

"She wouldn't," I said—to myself. "Where's Tibe?" I asked aloud.

"She's using him for a footstool."

All accounted for and under control! Yes; thrice wonderful little woman.

"We couldn't see anything of the race after all," went on Nell. "Did we beat?"

"That's what I've come to talk to you about," I said, not knowing in the least what I was going to say next. "It turned out," I went on slowly, "that a man I—er—know, was on board the boat we were racing. We beat it, but we didn't beat him; for he's walked on board since we've been jammed by a couple of brutes on barges. Oh, no harm done—don't be worried. The man is—in fact—Sir Alec MacNairne."

"Oh, the nice man we met at Amsterdam, and again at Leeuwarden, when we—we—" She blushed at the recollection. "He's a distant relation of——"

"Hush! Please don't speak her name or his loud enough for either to hear," I whispered. "I can't explain all to you; but—will you trust me?"

"Why, of course," said my lost Angel.

"Sir Alec MacNairne thinks his wife is on board, and he's very angry with Brederode and me, because, you see, he and his wife have had a quarrel," I vaguely explained. "He's got everything mixed up; and because he's heard that a Lady MacNairne's on this boat, he's been chasing us, full of fury. He's silly enough to believe that Brederode's in love with his wife, and—I can't make you understand precisely why, without giving away a secret of my aunt's—that nonsense of his is likely to work our Lady MacNairne a lot of harm."

"What a shame!" exclaimed sympathetic but puzzled Nell. "Can't anything be done about it?"

"Something has been done," said I. "That's what I want you to forgive me for, and—and help me to carry out, for Aunt Fay's sake. Poor Aunt Fay, who's suffering with her heart at this minute! What will she have to endure, if you don't stand by her!"

"I'll stand by her with all my might and main," said Nell. "What can I do?"

"I'm breaking it to you—by degrees. The first degree is, I told Sir Alec that Alb was—is—in love with you."

"Oh—how could you?"

"It was fatally easy. And then I said you were engaged to him. That's the second degree; and the third and last is, that I beg and implore you to come on deck with me, and tell him it's true."

The girl had actually turned pale. "I can't possibly. Anything else—but not that," she said.

"It's the one thing to save my poor aunt. Miss Van Buren—Nell—I tell you frankly, if you won't do this, she—I'm afraid she won't much longer be Lady MacNairne."

"Good gracious! How awful!" stammered the girl.

"Tragic!" I agreed. "And for me—but I say nothing of my feelings. You know how devoted I am to my aunt. She'll be alone in the world—with Tibe—if you refuse to sacrifice yourself in this way for her."

Nell's face was now white and set. I felt a brute; but what was I to do? For the sake of every one concerned, I couldn't have the L.C.P. exposed, or be exposed myself, and the trip broken up at the last, in contumely for all.

I hung on her lips.

"Where is Jonkheer Brederode?" she asked.

"He's on deck, too."

"And you expect me to say—before him—that——"

"He's said the same, already. Or, at least, he agreed while I said it."

"Oh! Well, I don't see how I'm to go through with it. But for Lady MacNairne's sake, I'll—do it. Come, let's get it over."

"Wait a minute," I urged, restraining her impatience. "I must explain a little more, first. After Sir Alec has talked with you, he'll want to come below to the cabins, and everywhere, searching for his wife; for he won't believe, till he's made sure with his own eyes, that she's not on board. If you're willing that he should, I am; but don't tell him that a person named Lady MacNairne's really with us, or I can't answer for the consequences."

"If he comes below, he'll see her."

"That doesn't matter, as they've never met; so long as he doesn't know her name."

"Very well, he shan't learn it from me."

"And he mustn't from Miss Rivers. Will you warn your stepsister, not under any provocation whatever, to speak the name of Lady MacNairne?"

"I will. But why couldn't you have said Phil was engaged to Jonkheer Brederode?"

"Robert van Buren wouldn't have stood it."

"I see. But what about him? It's no use my telling him anything; he would go and do the opposite. He's sitting in the outer cabin, alone, where Lady MacNairne asked him to stay and keep guard over her, while Phyllis and I stopped beside her in the inner room.

"Dear Aunt Fay," I murmured. "If you'll just warn Miss Rivers, and tell my aunt that she'd better be asleep when Sir Alec MacNairne peeps in, I'll tackle your cousin."

"Come, then," said Nell.

And I followed her into that tasteful little cabin which, in the dim past, I decorated for my own use.

Luckily, it is a far more difficult task to persuade Robert van Buren to say something than not to say anything at all; and though he was puzzled, and not too pleased at being plunged into a mystery, I extorted from him a promise to glare as much as he liked at the intruder but not on any account to speak.

"He won't know you understand English," I said, determining to strengthen in Sir Alec's mind, by every means in my power, the impression of Robert's Dutchness.

I had just arranged matters when Nell came back with the strained air of a martyr who hears the lions. We went up on deck together, and a glance showed Sir Alec that no introduction was needed.

"What! This is Miss Van Buren, the young lady who is engaged to marry Jonkheer Brederode!" he exclaimed.

Nell bowed, thankful no doubt that his way of putting it relieved her of the necessity for words.

"You said in Leeuwarden that you didn't know the two young ladies in Dutch costumes," my uncle-in-law flung at me.

"You may have gathered that impression. I certainly never said so," I answered promptly—and truthfully too. "Perhaps I thought, at the time, that the less attention bestowed on the ladies the better they would be pleased," I added.

"You were right," remarked Nell, bravely.

"Oh, very well," said Sir Alec. Then, abruptly, "How's the dog?"

"He's as nice as ever," replied the girl.

Silence for an instant. MacNairne was visibly reflecting. The sight of Miss Van Buren, and her tacit confirmation of my statement, was cooling him down. He is a gentleman, and a good fellow when not in one of his jealous rages; and evidently he did not wish to distress her, or shake her faith in a man she was going to marry.

"I expected to find my wife on board this boat," he said at last abruptly. "Is she here?"

"No," said Nell, "she is not, and never has been."

"It's your boat—not Brederode's?"

"It's my boat. He is—kindly acting as our skipper. If you would care to go below, and satisfy yourself that La—that your wife isn't on board, please do so."

Sir Alec looked at her, and she looked at him, straight in the eyes, as why should she not, poor girl, having no guilty secret of her own to conceal?

"Thank you," he said. "If I've your word for it, that's enough. I won't go below. Instead, I will bid you good afternoon, and get back to my own boat—if I can. But first—Starr, do you know where my wife is?"

"I don't," said I. "That I swear. I only wish I did, and I'd tell you like a shot. Why don't you advertise in the papers: 'Come home. Forget and forgive. I'll do the same.' Or something of the sort? I'm perfectly sure that would fetch her, for she's very fond of you, you know—or ought to know. She told me once that, in spite of all, you were one of the best fellows in the world."

"Did she really?" the poor chap asked, his face flushing up—not with rage this time.

"She did, indeed."

"Thank you," he said absent-mindedly. He thought for a moment, and then spoke quickly, "Well, Brederode, I'm not sure that I oughtn't to apologize."

"I am sure, Sir Alec," Alb answered. But he was smiling.

"Here goes, then." The big Scotsman held out his hand. The tall Dutchman in the blue overalls took it.

"I don't know about you, Starr," said Sir Alec. "I'm inclined to feel that you, at all events, have treated me rather badly. As my wife's——"

"I've meant well all through," I broke in hurriedly. "And just now I gave you a bit of good advice. You'll thank me when you've taken it."

"Perhaps I will take it," he muttered.

"Hurrah!" said Alb. "The grand pressure of the whole flock of us is forcing the barrier apart. We shall make our way through in a few minutes now."

"Good-by, then, all," exclaimed Sir Alec. "I must be getting back to my boat. The bargees don't mind me much now it's dawned on their intelligence that I'm neither mad nor an anarchist. Brederode, I congratulate you on your engagement to Miss Van Buren. I hope, Miss Van Buren, that you will be very happy. As for me, probably I shall leave Holland to-morrow."

With that he turned his back upon us resolutely and made off, scrambling on board the barge jammed nearest "Mascotte's" side. So he went on, from one to another, until he had disappeared from sight.

"Miss Van Buren," said Brederode, "can you forgive us?"

"It is hard," she said, picking up a fold of her white dress and playing with it nervously. "But we won't talk of it any more—ever. I must go now, and see how Lady MacNairne is."

"Not yet. One moment. There's something I must say in justice to myself," Brederode persisted.

She hesitated. And there was that in her face, that in his voice, which made me realize suddenly that my explanations were not needed. I could trust Alb not to give me away; and, as for him, he had forgotten all about me—so had Nell. And I crept off unnoticed.

The one place for me was on board "Waterspin," and before the barrier had done more than show signs of yielding I crawled over, slinking into my cabin.

"Well, well!" I said to myself. "Well, well!" I said again, with my head between my hands as I sat on my lonely bunk. There seemed nothing else to say.

I stayed for a long time, until the press had broken, and we were going on at full speed once more. Then I went to a window of the kitchen, which Phyllis so much admired, and looked out. I could see the deck of "Mascotte," and Brederode and Nell, who were still alone there together.

"Well, well!" I repeated idiotically; "it's I who did that. If it hadn't been for me—but I don't know. I suppose it was bound to happen, anyway. I wonder?"

Then I returned to my cabin and flitted about restlessly. Soon I became conscious that I was humming an air. It was not, in itself, a sad air; but there was a certain sadness as well as appropriateness in its meaning for me——

Giving agreeable girls away—
One for you, and one for you, but never (how does it go?),
never one for me!

We were stopping. We had come to Middelburg. I looked out again. Nell was on deck alone. Doubtless Alb had at last gone below to the motor-room, and was exchanging the blue overalls for something more decorous. Would he, even for the sake of conventionality, have left her at such a moment unless everything were settled?

"Mascotte" and "Waterspin" were at rest, and I could avail myself of Alb's absence to find out if I liked. I was not at all sure that I did like. Nevertheless, something urged me to go, and before I quite knew how or why I had come there, I stood beside the pretty white figure. Nell looked up at me, radiant with emotion.

"Oh, Mr. Starr, you were just the one I wanted to see," she exclaimed. "I was willing you to come."

"Well, I came," I said, smiling. "I'm glad you want me."

"I want to ask you what to do. I sent him away. You know, we must stop on board till Lady MacNairne's better, so—there's no hurry, and—he had to change. At first he wouldn't go without an answer. But I told him I must have ten minutes to make up my mind. He's explained everything. He was never to blame. It was all Freule Menela's fault—and mine. Please say what you think. You know him so well; you're old friends. There's no one else I can talk to, and—I feel somehow—I have for a long time—almost as if you were a kind of—adopted brother."

Brother again! Blow after blow; let them fall now, one upon another. I had feared this, yet would not expect it. But I suppose I must unwittingly have been born a brother.

"That's right," said I. "Go on—little sister." The words were getting quite familiar now.

"He says that he has never stopped loving me—dreadfully—desperately—from the very first. But I was so sure it was only a fancy, and—and that when I was so bad to him, and Phyllis so kind, he began to care for her instead. Just now, when you said I must pretend to be engaged to him, I was thinking how horrid it would be for him to feel, 'Oh, if it were only Phyllis!' Didn't you suppose he was in love with Phyllis?"

"Never," I heard myself assuring her; "never."

"I'm so glad. You're sure, then, that he knows his own mind, that he isn't asking me to go on being really engaged to him just to save my feelings after that scene with Sir Alec MacNairne?"

"I'm dead sure," I said.

"You perfect dear! I do like you. Oh, wasn't it too funny—I can say it, now we're brother and sister—he thought I might be in love with you."

"Owl!" I remarked.

"And all the time I was so horribly afraid he might suspect I cared that I would hardly speak a word to him. Besides, I didn't suppose he could be bothered listening to anything I might have to say. And I felt quite sorry for him when Phyllis was engaged to Robert. Dear Phil, I've been horrid to her, too. You see, she was trying to persuade herself to take Rudolph without loving him, and I just hated her for it."

"Oh, that was what you meant, then!" I exclaimed.

"What I meant?"

"It doesn't matter. Well, make your mind easy, sweet sister. Alb adores you—has adored you since the first moment he set eyes on you, and will till he closes them in death. That's my conviction as his lifetime friend. And my advice is, go on being engaged to him until you marry him."

"Mariner, what an old trump you are!" broke in Brederode. And there he was behind me, neat as a pin, in his own suit of clothes, and radiant in his new suit of happiness.

"I give her to you, Alb," said I. And then I strolled away again, humming to the air of the Dead March, in Saul, or something equivalent, those haunting words—

Giving agreeable girls away——
One for you, and one for you, but never, never one for me!