"You have personal interest in this?" I interrupted.
He nodded, flushing a little. "Awfully so," said he.
"I would have the right to guess you were hit pretty hard?"
"To the extent of asking her to become my wife!" said he firmly, although his fair face flushed again.
"You do not in the least know her," he went on. "In my case, I have done my turn at living, and have seen my share of women, but never her like in any part of the world! So when she proposed to make this absurd journey, I offered to go with her. It meant of course my desertion from the Navy, and so I told her. She would not listen to it. She gives me no footing which leaves it possible for me to accompany her or to follow her. Frankly, I do not know what to do."
"It seems to me, Lieutenant Peel," I ventured, "that the most sensible thing in the world for us to do is to get together an expedition to follow her."
He caught me by the hand. "You do not tell me you would do that?"
"It seems a duty."
"But could you yourself get through?"
"As to that, no one can tell. I did so coming west."