"It went off all right," said Bobo. "She doesn't suspect a thing!"
"Fine!" said Jack.
"What are you going to do?"
"Take a little trip. British Guiana. Boat leaves Saturday."
"Lucky Dog!"
"What, already!"
"Oh, it was my fate, I suppose."
37
Jack was counting on the fact that the circumstances of his quarrel
with Bobo would be faithfully reported to "Mr. B." and that the latter
would satisfy himself that he, Jack, actually boarded the steamship for
British Guiana.
He moved to a more modest hotel, as befitted his altered circumstances,
but on Saturday morning he returned to the Madagascar and loitered in
the lobby, ostentatiously bidding good-by to the acquaintances he had
made there, whose demeanor, by the way, had noticeably cooled since he
lost his job. He did not see Bobo again, but he had a distant glimpse
of Kate passing through the lobby, a charming figure in her maid's
dress with lace apron and cap, her eyes demurely cast down.
Jack had the satisfaction, at length, of observing that he was the
object of a covert interest on the part of a well-dressed, sharp-eyed
youth of much the same type as those he had formerly known in "Mr.
B.'s" service. When he was sure of this he took a taxi for the boat.
Baldwin, who seemed to have a genuinely friendly feeling for him,
offered to see him off, and Jack was not averse, of course, to having
another witness to his actual departure.
As he and Baldwin stood on the promenade deck of S.S. _Covenas_ Jack
saw the sharp-eyed one watching from the crowd on the dock. Evidently
his instructions were to make sure that Jack did not escape down the
gang-plank at the last moment. Stanley Larkin was safely aboard the
ship, but according to pre-arrangement he and Jack gave no sign of
recognition.
Finally the last gong sounded, Jack and Baldwin parted, the whistle
blew, and the _Covenas_ started to back slowly out into midstream. On
her printed passenger list appeared the names of Mr. Stanley Larkin,
bound for St. Thomas, her first port of call, and Mr. John Robinson,
booked through to Georgetown, British Guiana. Both young gentlemen
were aboard, as we have seen, but as a matter of fact they had changed
tickets--and identities for the voyage.
Of that pleasant voyage it is unnecessary to speak, since nothing
occurred upon it that bears upon this story. Jack, that is to say the
real Jack, went ashore at the island of St. Thomas, where, under the
name of Larkin, he booked passage back to New York on the _Lobos_,
first returning steamer of the same line.
In St. Thomas he received a cablegram, which read, when decoded:
Still holding my job. Nothing new. Love.