Porter laughed embarrassedly. “I only ran the boat for you,” he began.
“You took me at my word,” said Orme, “and that’s a good deal in such a case. Good-by. I will look you up before I go back East.”
At the side of the girl, Orme now walked slowly through the deserted streets. It was some time before she spoke.
“After you left me at the home of my friends—” she began at last.
“Don’t try to tell about it,” he interrupted quickly. “You are tired. Wait for another time.”
They were passing under a street-lamp at the moment, and she glanced up at him with a grateful smile, pleased apparently by his thought of her.
“That is good of you,” she exclaimed, “but my story is easily told. Let me go on with it. I explained myself to my friends as best I could and went to my room. Then it suddenly occurred to me that Maku and his friend might have come to Evanston by boat.”
“Just as, later, it occurred to me.”
“I thought that the other man might be waiting for Maku. The motor-car that we heard—there was no good reason for thinking that our man was in it.”
She paused.