"Oh, nothing." It was not worth while to alarm her, but a startling thought had struck him. Suppose Smeltzer, finding out that she had escaped him, should get off at Sailor's Encampment, wait for the down boat, and be on it waiting for her when she took it at Detour.... Then he felt sure that the quick wit that had thought of a way of escape in the first place would have thought of that. The stewardess was acquainted with the time schedule if he was not. Still, the fear haunted him until they had left Sailor's Encampment behind them, and looking down he saw Smeltzer below at the gangway. It was funny the way Smeltzer hugged the gangway when they made a landing.
After that he gave himself up to a boyish enjoyment of the trip. They were there without a chaperon, it was true, but it was through no fault of either one,—and it was all right. The trouble almost always was with the gossip that such things gave rise to, not in the things themselves, and here there was nobody to gossip. Still he had it on his mind, and said to Bess just before getting into Sault Sainte Marie, "You haven't any acquaintances here that you could spend the night with?"
"Not a soul."
"Would you like for me to look you up a quiet boarding house?"
"Why, no, I think not—just for one night. We start down early in the morning, don't we?"
"Yes."
After a pause during which he did some thinking, he said again:
"Perhaps I'd better take you to the Iroquois and go down myself to the house just below. I forget the name."
"Why, no," she said, surprised. "I'd rather go where you go. I don't think grandma would want me to be at a hotel alone."
He gave it up then.