"Really it's an awful pity, but I distinctly remember him saying that he was going away on liberty to-day. He mentioned some girl's name, but it didn't sound anything at all like yours."
Polly looked at him trustfully.
"Are you sure, Mr.——"
"Savanrola," the lying wretch supplied without turning a hair.
"Are you sure, Mr. Savanrola, that he has left the station?"
"Saw him check out with my own eyes," he said calmly.
I moved nearer, my hands twitching.
"Now with an honest old seafaring man like myself," he continued, in a confidential voice, "it's different. Why, if I should wear all the hash marks I rate I'd look like a zebra. So I just don't wear any. You know how it is. But when I like a girl I stick to her. Now from the very first moment I laid eyes on you—"
Human endurance could stand no more. I threw myself between them.
"Why, here's Oswald hisself," exclaimed the reporter with masterfully feigned surprise. "However did you get back so soon?"