has since he commenced consolidating interurban traction companies. And
I’m not married, Virginia, and never have been; but I shall be if this
miserable old mud scow ever reaches Singapore.”
“Oh, Bulan,” cried the girl, “how in the world did you ever happen to
come to that terrible island of ours?”
“I came for you, dear,” he replied. “It is a long story. After dinner I
will tell you all of it that I can recall. For the present it must
suffice you to know that I followed you from the railway station at
Ithaca half around the world for a love that had been born from a
single glance at your sweet face as you passed me to enter your
Pullman.
“On my father’s yacht I reached your island after trailing you to
Singapore. It was a long and tedious hunt and we followed many blind
leads, but at last we came off an island upon which natives had told us
such a party as yours was living. Five of us put off in a boat to
explore—that is the last that I can recall. Sing says he found me alone
in a row boat, a ‘dummy.’”
Virginia sighed, and crept closer to him.
“You may be the son of the great Townsend J. Harper, you have been the
soulless Number Thirteen; but to me you will always be Bulan, for it
was Bulan whom I learned to love.”