"He's proof against my charms. Andrew's earmarked for somebody else."
"Elsie Woodhouse? Well, that struck me, but I don't know. He says it's very probable that she'll marry Dick."
"Andrew is in love with her himself," Madge said firmly; "though I don't think he knows it yet. Dick's delightful, but the girl would never be satisfied with him."
"Andrew has his talents, but the delineation of character's not his strong point."
"A precise description isn't always needed," Madge rejoined. "When you have an image clearly stamped upon your mind, it's sometimes possible to make others see it without saying very much. Your partner can do that."
"Perhaps you're right. He has now an idea that his country's somehow threatened from the old main road to the south. On the face of it, the idea's absurd, and yet he makes one feel that he's not quite mistaken."
Madge indicated Rankine, who was still talking to Andrew.
"I wonder why they sent that man to a post where ability doesn't seem to be required?" she questioned.
"It's possible that Rankine's job is more important than he's allowed to admit."
He broke off, for Rankine was coming toward them, and he saw his sister's face flush prettily.
A light breeze was blowing when the _Rowan_ ran into a confused tide eddy in the mouth of Wigtown Bay. There had been more wind and the swell it left was broken by the current into short, splashing seas amid which the yacht lurched uneasily. It was four o'clock in the afternoon and about two hours before high-water, and when the breeze fell very light a stream that ran north from the disturbed patch swept the _Rowan_ up the bay.
"She's right off her course, but it's too deep to anchor, and the bottom's foul near the beach," he said. "We must let her drift until the ebb sets in and carries her down along the opposite shore. We ought to make Ramsey on the next flood."
"At four or five o'clock in the morning!" Dick grumbled. "Well, I'm glad I'm no use at the helm in the dark, and we may get a few hours' smooth water before we round the Burrow Head. At present I'm wondering why I came."
"There's some water in the bilge, and it's your turn to pump," Whitney remarked.
"If she was half full, I wouldn't pump until this rolling stops," Dick said firmly.