"Ellis, do not sell the shoe store. We may be home in a year, and I'll want to pitch into something."
"But you'd never fool with that after—after all this over here!"
Terry laughed happily: "You never can tell, Ellis. I am learning lessons every day!"
Later, Ellis sought to dry Susan's tears. "Dick, you're a fine lover! After all these years of search for things for Deane you failed to give her a wedding gift!"
Terry flushed miserably, for it was true. But Deane thrilled the more happily for the utter absorption in her that had expelled all other things from his mind: she knew that Susan had prompted him to both engagement and wedding rings.
From the pier they watched Ellis and Susan at the rail till the altering course of the brilliantly lighted steamer swept them from sight.
An hour later their own liner carried them northward through the dark Straits.
The deck was deserted, dark. They sat close, in long steamer chairs, watching the mysterious coastline of Mindanao, the shadowy masses of distant mountains that seemed less substance than opaque obstruction of the warm, starry sky. Neither spoke. It was the hour of fullest gratitude, of mutual dedication. The night about them was filled with that humming heard only on a big ship plowing through a calm sea after sundown, the drone of light winds through lofty rigging, the heavy slipping of displaced water, the muffled roar of great engines throbbing in the deep hold.
Eight bells rang the midnight hour. Deane rose, whispering that she had a few things to unpack, bidding him come in ten minutes. Leaning over him, she smoothed his hair lightly with her two hands, curling about her fingers the obstinate scalp lock that always would stand forth from his crown. Reaching up, he took her cool hands and held them tightly against his cheeks. Releasing her, he watched the progress of the buoyant form down the long deck, his soul lit with the flame that warms all mankind.
The moon, in its last quarter, peered over the dark rim of the mountains. When its lower tip cleared, he rose.