Page:Ralph Paine--The praying skipper.djvu/298

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
272
SURFMAN BRAINARD'S

where you were. And—hem—she wasn't looking at me at all, and she wasn't even talking to me when she said as if she were thinking out loud:

"I'm so lonely. Oh, if I could see him just once!"

Brainard leaned over the railing and stared into the troubled sea as he almost whispered:

"Is she going to get a—get a——"

"Yes, after waiting two years. Then she'll be free to——"

"And you're going to the Mediterranean in the spring?" muttered Brainard. "God, if I could only see her! Two years, you say? If I could only see her!"

Brown laid an arm across his chum's big shoulder and said coaxingly:

"You don't want to meet any of these girls to-night, do you? We'll have a good old talk in my rooms later, and I'll have you booked for my cruise before we part company. There's a gilded temple of chance back here on the lagoon where the little ball rolls round and round, and I have a strong hunch that the luck is running to the black, and also dallying with