Although they still demurred at the project, they failed to dampen his ardor or persuade him to give it up.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
LIKE A BAD PENNY.
When Virginia returned to the embassy, an unpleasant surprise awaited her in the form of a good-looking, dapper young man who greeted her with a sardonic grin.
“Hardly expected to see me back again, I suppose?” he remarked quizzically.
“I certainly did not,” the girl replied coldly. “I supposed that you were in New York by this time, Mr. Gale.”
“I changed my mind just after the boat sailed out of San Juan harbor, and went ashore in the pilot boat,” the reporter informed her. “There were certain reasons why I deemed it advisable to return to Baracoa, so I cabled the office that they’d have to struggle along without me for a little while longer, and caught the next boat back to Puerto Cabero.” He chuckled. “I rather thought you’d be astonished to see me, Virginia. Almost as astonished, I’ll wager, as you were to see our friend Hawley come back again.”
The girl gave an involuntary start of surprise, and her face paled. “Then you——” she began, but caught herself quickly. “Mr. Hawley back again!” she exclaimed, with an air of incredulity which was well simulated. “Surely that can’t be possible!”
Gale smiled triumphantly. The sentence which she had left uncompleted and her momentary agitation had not escaped his notice. “Yes, he’s back,” he said, with sarcasm. “Didn’t you know that? I had an idea that you might have seen him.”
“Surely you wouldn’t expect him to show his face in San Cristobal, considering the circumstances under which he left,” the girl returned, her blue eyes boldly meeting his searching gaze.
“Perhaps not,” Gale rejoined, after a slight pause, during which he did some rapid thinking. “Perhaps I was wrong in assuming that he has returned to Baracoa at all. He disappeared from the ship at San Juan, and I had an idea that he might have come back here.”