After some delay the Chinaman appeared again at the door.
“Mly mlaster say he no got no lidea where your life is. He stlanger in lis town. Just rent this house for one two month.”
“And your mistress—the lady who spoke to me from the window—doesn’t she know Mrs. Dexter?”
“Me glot no mistless. No lady in lis house.” Again the door was shut, and Danny Dexter was shut out for the second time from the house he had called home.
Danny it was, not dead but alive, very much alive and very hungry and nearly wild to see his Mary Louise. The Spokane had gone down with all on board, but Danny did not happen to be aboard when she went down. He had taken to one of the lifeboats with a party of passengers who preferred braving the fierce sea to the slow waiting for the ill-fated Spokane to sink with a chance of help coming before she was submerged. They had been picked up by a schooner bound for the South Seas and it, in turn, had been wrecked. They had with difficulty reached an island that as far as they could tell had never been reached before. There they had been put to their wits to keep alive, but had managed to do it until relief had come in the shape of the usual trading vessel stopping for water and also on the chance of doing some business with natives if there were any.
San Francisco was reached at last by the weary and homesick Danny and there he had taken advantage of the first opportunity he had had to communicate with Mary Louise since the wireless he had sent her from the Spokane. He longed so to hear her voice that he was guilty of the extravagance of calling her on the long distance telephone. The result was not very satisfactory except that he had heard her voice and a whispered “yes” that she was well. He had told her he would be home in a few days just as fast as the train could carry him and for her to tell his firm he was all right and sorry to have fallen down on his contract, but there had been nothing except a buzzing in the receiver and then he had been disconnected. He had tried again, but the operator had repeatedly assured him the line was busy and she would call as soon as she could get the party. His train left in half an hour, so he could not wait for the telephonic connection.
It seemed a very strange thing for Mary Louise to know he was coming, at least he thought she must know it, as she had surely been on the line, and still for her not even to awaken when he rang the bell. She had certainly been at the Hathaway house when he called up only a few days before. Now, here were perfect strangers in the home—not all strangers, however, as the voice of the lady who had spoken from the window was certainly familiar. Whose could it have been? Where was his Mary Louise?
CHAPTER XX
SLATER MAKES AN ARREST
Danny’s first thought was that he would go to Mr. Peter Conant’s next door and find out where his little wife was and what was the matter with things in general, but he felt it would be an imposition on the kind neighbors to rouse them at such a late hour. He himself was weary with a fatigue that was staggering. He had had a long and tiresome journey from the Pacific coast with but little sleep owing to the excitement of getting back to the United States and the possibility of once more seeing his darling Mary Louise. He might go dig out Bob Dulaney and spend the rest of the night with him. There was Billy McGraw—always glad to see him! There were many friends who would surely welcome him back with enthusiasm, but Danny felt he had better snatch a nap before trying to tackle anything more. He had the terrible let-down feeling natural after the strain he had been on for months.