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His heart seemed near bursting with joy. But she had left him, and was laughing with Peggy Blackton, who was showing her husband where he had missed a stubbly patch of beard on his cheek. He caught her eyes, turned swiftly to him, and they were laughing at him, and there came a sudden pretty upturn to her chin as he continued to stare, and he saw again the colour deepening in her face.
"You are glorious!" During the next hour, and while they were at supper, he could see that she was purposely avoiding his eyes, and that she spoke oftener to Paul Blackton than she did to him, apparently taking the keenest interest in his friend's enthusiastic descriptions of the mighty work along the line of steel.
Aldous saw the two little dimples at the corners of her mouth fighting to keep themselves out of sight and then he looked at Peggy. Blackton could stand it no longer, and grinned broadly. "For goodness sake go to it, Peggy!" he laughed. "If you don't you'll explode!" The next moment Peggy and Joanne were in each other's arms, and the two men were shaking hands.
Crushing the note in his hand, Aldous looked at the other, his mouth tightening. "You must help me make excuses, old man," he said quietly. "It will seem strange to them if I do not stay for supper. But it is impossible. I must see old Donald as quickly as I can get to him." His manner more than his words kept Blackton from urging him to remain.
"Why don't you come right out and tell me to stay at home, instead of of 'beating 'round the bush' as Peggy Blackton says? Only you don't know what a terrible little person you've got, John. You really don't. So you needn't say any more. We'll start in the morning and I am going with you!" In a flash John Aldous saw his whole scheme shaking on its foundation.
Old Donald and I are going to take her to the grave. Miss Gray is an old friend of mine," he lied boldly. "We want to start at dawn. Will that be too much trouble for you and your wife?" "No trouble at all," declared Blackton. "We've got a Chinese cook who's more like an owl than a human. How will a four o'clock breakfast suit you?" "Splendidly!"
A few steps more and they came to the end of the platform, where a buckboard was waiting in the dim light of one of the station lamps. Blackton introduced Joanne, and assisted her into the seat beside his wife. "We'll leave you ladies to become acquainted while we rustle the baggage," he said. "Got the checks, Aldous?"
"I've got some business with MacDonald and as soon as that's over I'll domicile myself here. It's bully of you, Blackton! You know " "Why, dammit, of course I know!" chuckled Blackton, lighting his pipe. "Can't I see, Aldous? D'ye think I'm blind? I was just as gone over Peggy before I married her. Fact is, I haven't got over it yet and never will.
He returned to the bungalow with Blackton, and until midnight the lights there burned brightly while the two men answered a thousand questions about the night's adventure, and Aldous told of his and Joanne's plans for the honeymoon trip into the North that was to begin the next day. It was half-past twelve when be locked the door of his and sat down to think.
Leaving Joanne and Peggy inside, now as busily excited as two phoebe birds, and after Joanne had insisted upon Aldous sleeping at the Blacktons' that night, the two men accompanied MacDonald a few steps on his way back to camp. As soon as they were out of earshot Blackton began cursing softly under his breath. "So you didn't send that damned note?" he asked.
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