complication. As concerns myself, I am rather under a cloud, as I told
you. The court-martial acquitted me, but it did so with reluctance and
a warning. I shall have to walk very straight for the next year or
two, and be careful not to stub my toe, for the eyes of the Admiralty
are upon me. However, I think I can straighten this matter out. I have
six months' leave coming on shortly, which I intend to spend in St.
Petersburg. I shall make it my business to see privately some of the
officials in the Admiralty there, and when they realize by personal
inspection what a well-intentioned idiot I am, all distrust will
vanish."

"I should do nothing of the kind," rejoined the girl earnestly, quite
forgetting the shortness of their acquaintance, as she had forgotten
the flight of time, while on his part he did not notice any
incongruity in the situation. "I'd leave well enough alone," she
added.

"Why do you think that?" he asked.

"Your own country has investigated the matter, and has deliberately
run the risk of unpleasantness by refusing to give you up. How, then,
can you go there voluntarily? You would be acting in your private
capacity directly in opposition to the decision arrived at by your
government."

"Technically, that is so; still, England would not hold the position
she does in the world to-day if her men had not often taken a course
in their private capacity which the government would never have
sanctioned. As things stand now, Russia has not insisted on her
demand, but has sullenly accepted England's decision, still quite