"What's your hurry?" he asked. "Tell you what let's do! I'll fit you out with a set of clubs and we'll play a few holes on the second course. Then we'll go to the hotel, talk over the news with the women folks, and this afternoon we'll drag Carter away from his bride, and you and he can play Tom Morris and me a foursome! How does that strike you?"
"I cannot play this forenoon," I promptly said. "I must attend to my luggage, shave, write some letters, send telegrams and—and do a lot of things."
"How about this afternoon?" he asked. "We start at three o'clock."
"I'll be on hand," I promised, desperately.
"All right, and don't fail," he cautioned me. "You would not believe it,
Smith, but I have got so that I can line 'em out from one hundred and—"
I turned and left him with those unknown yards poised on his lips. When at a safe distance I looked back and saw him gazing at me with an attitude and expression of dumb wonder.
I retained the services of a red-headed and freckled-faced boy who was confident he could direct me to the ruins of the old castle. It was not a long walk, and when he pointed them out in the distance I gladdened his heart and brought a grin to his tanned face by giving him a half-crown as I dismissed him.
I was within sight of my fate! My steps faltered as I neared the grim arches, and once I stopped and tried to plan how I should act and what I should say. But I could think of nothing, and mustering all my courage and invoking the god of luck, I went on.
In a few minutes I stood within the shadow of the gray and crumbling walls, undecided which way to turn. Picking my way over fallen masonry, I turned the corner of a huge pile which seemed as if it might crash to earth at any moment.
And then I saw her!