This effusion she pinned to her pillow, then rang for the steward and
ordered the canoe to be brought alongside, provisioned for a three days'
shooting trip.
So open, frank, and guileless were her orders that nobody who took them
suspected anything unusual; and in the full heat and glare of the
afternoon siesta, when parents, fiance, and assorted guests were all
asleep and in full process of digestion and the crew of the _Chihuahua_
was drowsing from stem to stern, a brace of sailors innocently connived
at her escape, aided her into the canoe, and, doubting nothing, watched
her paddle away through the inlet, and into the distant lagoon, which
lay sparkling in golden and turquoise tints, set with palms like a
stupid picture in a child's geography.
Later, the _Chihuahua_ fired a frantic gun. Later still, two boats left
the yacht, commanded respectively by one angry parent and one fiance,
profoundly bored.