"Oh, Doctor Danton! What should we have done without you?"
"I don't know," said the Doctor. "You would have been in a very disagreeable predicament, I am afraid. It is hardly safe for young ladies to venture so far from the village unattended, while these drunken soldiers are quartered here."
"I often came alone before," said Eeny, "and no one molested me. Let me make you acquainted with my sister—Kate, Doctor Danton."
Kate held out her hand with that bewitching smile of hers.
"Thank you and Tiger very much. I was not aware I had a namesake in St. Croix."
"He is Grace's brother," said Eeny, "and he is only here on a visit—he is just from Germany."
Kate bowed, patting Tiger's big head with her snowflake of a hand.
"This is another friend we have to thank," she said. "How came you to be so opportunely at hand, Doctor Danton?"
"By the merest chance. Tiger and I take our morning constitutional along these desolate fields and flats. I'll have these fellows properly punished for their rudeness."
"No, no," said Kate, "let them go. It is not likely to happen again. Besides," laughing and blushing, "I punished one of them already, and Tiger came to my assistance with the other."