When he does he drops it at his feet, steps on it



^Google



In the Anchor Watch

to put out the light, and says: 'A good argument
for yourself, Richard, but what of Doris?'

" ' Doris has probably done a lot of thinking in
the matter, sir. Why not leave it to Doris, sir?'

"'Of course,* he said, dry as powder, 'Doris
would be disinterested in this case!'

" 'Then leave it to her mother, sir.'

" 'I see neither logic nor .prudence in your
argument, Richard,' he answers at last, 'but I
will leave it to her mother.' And when he said
that, I knew I had won; for, without her ever tell-
ing me, I knew her mother was with us. If I had
told him that, I would only have been telling what
he already guessed, as he told me that same night,
later.
"Anyway, after a minute with Doris and her
mother, I jumped over to the hotel, and from the
side of a most billowy waltz partner I detached
Shorty Erroll to get the ring and the smaller
stores for a proper wedding, and then I went out
to bespeak my own ship's chaplain. I found him
lying in his bunk in his pajamas with a History of
the Tunisian Wars balanced on his chest and a
wall-light just back of his head, and he says:
'Why surely, Dick,' when I told him, but added:
Though that old sieve of a Bayport, I doubt.will
you ever get her as far as Manila,' after which,
carefully inserting a book-mark into the Tunisians,



^Google



In the Anchor Watch

he glides into his uniform and conies ashore with
me.
