it's too bad to give it to me to-day. Did I not agree to come on this
excursion at once, when you asked me?"

"Ay, but you wouldn't if I had _ordered_ you," returned the captain.

"I rather think he would," observed the lieutenant, with another
smile, and another glance at Minnie.

Both smiles and glances were observed and noted by Ruby, whose heart
felt another pang shoot through it; but this, like the former,
subsided when the lieutenant again addressed the captain, and devoted
himself to him so exclusively, that Ruby began to feel a touch of
indignation at his want of appreciation of _such_ a girl as Minnie.

"He's a stupid ass," thought Ruby to himself, and then, turning to
Minnie, directed her attention to a curious natural arch on the
cliffs, and sought to forget all the rest of the world.

In this effort he was successful, and had gradually worked himself
into the firm belief that the world was paradise, and that he and
Minnie were its sole occupants--a second edition, as it were, of Adam
and Eve--when the lieutenant rudely dispelled the sweet dream by
saying sharply to the man at the bow-oar--

"Is that the boat, Baker? You ought to know it pretty well."

"I think it is, sir," answered the man, resting on his oar a moment,
and glancing over his shoulder; "but I can't be sure at this
distance."