"It must have been mere fancy," she murmured, though without conviction.
"Our nerves play strange tricks sometimes," Drew rejoined lightly. "We are all of us in such an excited state just now that anything may happen."
"I've always felt that nerves had been left out of my composition," said Ruth, smiling faintly. "But when it comes to the pinch, I suppose I'm just as liable to them as any one else."
"No, you're not," denied Allen Drew warmly. "You're the most perfect thoroughbred of any woman I ever knew."
"Perhaps your experience has been limited," she suggested, with a flash of her old mischief.
"I'm perfectly willing it should be limited from this time on to just one woman," he was on the point of saying, but bit his lip just in time.
"It is strange that this apparition, for want of a better name, should have taken the form of Parmalee," he continued, his jealousy in spite of himself taking possession of him. "Perhaps you were thinking of him, just then," he hazarded.
"Not at all," returned Ruth frankly. "Just at that moment I'm afraid my mind was fixed on nothing else but the hunt for the pirate's treasure."
Drew felt somewhat reassured by this, and they had turned to retrace their steps when he suddenly stood stock still.
"What is it?" asked Ruth in some alarm.