"As you please. Only, I should like to save you an unpleasant walk in the dark."
"I don't mind. A dark street in a country village this side of the
Atlantic holds little or no danger."
"I offered to build a first-class lighting plant if the town would agree to pay the running expenses; but the council threw it over. They want me to build a library. Not much! Hold on," as Fitzgerald was rising. "You are not going right away. I shan't permit that. Just a little visit first."
Fitzgerald resumed his chair.
"Have a cigar. Laura is used to it."
"But does Miss Killigrew like it?" laughing.
"Cigars, and pipes, and cigarettes," she returned. "I am really fond of the aroma. I have tried to acquire the cigarette habit, but I have yet to learn what satisfaction you men get out of it."
Conversation veered in various directions, and finally rested upon the subject of piracy; and here the admiral proved himself a rare scholar. By some peculiar inadvertency, as he was in the middle of one of his own adventures, his finger touched the burglar alarm. Clang! Brrrr! From top to bottom of the house came the shock of differently voiced bells. The two men gazed at each other dumfounded. But the girl laughed merrily.
"You touched the alarm, father."
"I rather believe I did. And a few minutes before you came in with the toddies I tried it and it didn't work."