“We’re about opposite——â€� I put it as a question.
“Very nearly opposite Babylon,� said he slowly, and I felt more in his tones than the mere words.[Pg 48]
At any rate, I was silent some seconds before he broke into my reverie with:
“You’re up against a problem, aren’t you?�
He was right; something was distinctly bothering me that morning. I didn’t hurry to say so, however.
“Shall I word it for you?� he queried, with a short laugh. “Well, you’re wondering, for one thing, just what would be the easiest way to get to that mainland, eh?�
He had hit the nail on the head first crack, for there was a decided difference between being practically a prisoner on a schooner out of sight of land at sea, and being foot-free on that schooner when she was tied, bow and stern, in smooth water, a half mile from Uncle Sam’s well-patrolled beach. There would be a life-saving station within a five-mile trudge, I knew.
But Stroth didn’t guess the real crux of the trouble. Duty to the force he could understand; but of my feelings for his daughter he had no inkling.
Right there, though, lay my greatest difficulty, and I hate indecision worse than anything I know of. But he solved the thing for me in short order, and in his characteristic fashion.
“I’ve got a choice for you again,� he said abruptly. “Naturally, the thing I most object to is having my whereabouts known. You can understand that.�