“Since you will have it so, you will go to Hong-Kong?”
“To Patagonia if you wish! You cannot scare me by threatening me with travel on a private yacht. I had the beads, it is true; but at this moment I haven’t the slightest idea where they are; and if I had I should not tell you. I refuse to buy my liberty; you will have to give it to me without conditions.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t anything on board in shape of women’s clothes, but I’ll send for your stuff if you wish.”
“That is the single consideration you have shown me. My belongings are at the American consulate, and I should be glad to have them.”
“You will find paper and ink in the escritoire. Write me an order and I promise to attend to the matter personally.” 100
“And search through everything at your leisure!”
Cleigh blushed, and he heard his son chuckle again. He had certainly caught a tartar—possibly two. With a twisted smile he recalled the old yarn of the hunter who caught the bear by the tail. Willing to let go, and daring not!
“Still I agree,” continued the girl. “I want my own familiar things—if I must take this forced voyage. But mark me, Mr. Cleigh, you will pay some day! I’m not the clinging kind, and I shall fight you tooth and nail from the first hour of my freedom. I’m not without friends.”
“Never in this world!” came resonantly from Cabin Two.
Cleigh longed to get away. There was a rumbling and a threatening inside of him that needed space—Gargantuan laughter. Not the clinging kind, this girl! And the boy, walking straight at Dodge’s villainous revolver! Why, he would need the whole crew behind him when he liberated these two! But he knew that the laughter striving for articulation was not the kind heard in Elysian fields!