Mr. Devlin gallantly said that he was at her disposal, and with a kind of pride added that there was plenty in the valley which would interest her; for he was a frank, bluff man, who would as quickly have spoken disparagingly of what belonged to himself, if it was not worthy, as have praised it.
“Where shall we go first?” he said. “To the mill?”
“To the mill, by all means,” Mrs. Falchion replied; “I have never been in a great saw-mill, and I believe this is very fine. Then,” she added, with a little wave of the hand towards the cable running down from Phil Boldrick’s eyrie in the mountains, “then I want to see all that cable can do--all, remember.”
Mr. Devlin laughed. “Well, it hasn’t many tricks, but what it does it does cleverly, thanks to The Padre.”
“Oh yes,” responded Mrs. Falchion, still looking at the cable; “The Padre, I know, is very clever.”
“He is more than clever,” bluffly replied Mr. Devlin, who was not keen enough to see the faint irony in her tones.
“Yes,” responded Mrs. Falchion in the same tone of voice, “he is more than clever. I have been told that he was once very brave. I have been told that once in the South Seas he did his country a great service.”
She paused. I could see Ruth’s eyes glisten and her face suffuse, for though she read the faint irony in the tone, still she saw that the tale which Mrs. Falchion was evidently about to tell, must be to Galt Roscoe’s credit. Mrs. Falchion turned idly upon Ruth and saw the look in her face. An almost imperceptible smile came upon her lips. She looked again at the cable and Phil Boldrick’s eyrie, which seemed to have a wonderful attraction for her. Not turning away from it, save now and then to glance indolently at Mr. Devlin or Ruth, and once enigmatically at myself, she said:
“Once upon a time--that is the way, I believe, to begin a pretty story--there were four men-of-war idling about a certain harbour of Samoa. One of the vessels was the flag-ship, with its admiral on board. On one of the other vessels was an officer who had years before explored this harbour. It was the hurricane season. He advised the admiral not to enter the harbour, for the indications foretold a gale, and himself was not sure that his chart was in all respects correct, for the harbour had been hurriedly explored and sounded. But the admiral gave orders, and they sailed in.