“We must think of another, then,” said the imperturbable Edward.  “Have some more beef?  “The captain passed his plate up.  “You should have seen her when I said that I was coming to supper with you this evening,” he said, impressively.  Mr. Tredgold laid down the carving knife and fork.  “What did she say?” he inquired, eagerly.  “Grunted,” said the captain.  “Nonsense,” said the other, sharply.

“I tell you she did,” retorted the captain.  “She didn’t say a word; just grunted.”

“I know what you mean,” said Mr. Tredgold; “only you are not using the right word.”

“All right,” said the captain, resignedly; “I don’t know a grunt when I hear it, then; that’s all.  She generally does grunt if I happen to mention your name.”

Mr. Tredgold resumed his meal and sat eating in silence.  The captain, who was waiting for more beef, became restless.

“I hope my plate isn’t in your way,” he said, at last.

“Not at all,” said the other, absently.

“Perhaps you’ll pass it back to me, then,” said the captain.

Mr. Tredgold, still deep in thought, complied.  “I wish I could persuade you to have a little more,” he said, in tones of polite regret.  “I’ve often noticed that big men are small eaters.  I wonder why it is?”

“Sometimes it is because they can’t get it, I expect,” said the indignant captain.

Mr. Tredgold said that no doubt that was the case sometimes, and was only recalled to the true position of affairs by the hungry captain marching up to the beef and carving for himself.

“I’m sorry,” he said, with a laugh.  “I was thinking of something else.  I wonder whether you would let me use the crow’s-nest for a day or two?  There’s a place we have got on our hands, a mile or two out, and I want to keep my eye on it.”

The captain, his good humour quite restored, preserved his gravity with an effort.  “I don’t see that she could object to that,” he said, slowly.  “It’s a matter of business, as you might say.”

“Of course, I could go straight round to the back without troubling you,” resumed Mr. Tredgold.  “It’s so awkward not to be able to see you when I want to.”

Captain Bowers ventured a sympathetic wink.  “It’s awkward not to be able to see anybody when you want to,” he said, softly.

Two days later Miss Drewitt, peeping cautiously from her bedroom window, saw Mr. Tredgold perched up in the crow’s-nest with the telescope.  It was a cold, frosty day in January, and she smiled agreeably as she hurried downstairs to the fire and tried to imagine the temperature up aloft.

Stern in his attention to duty, Mr. Tredgold climbed day after day to his post of observation and kept a bored but whimsical eye on a deserted cowhouse three miles off.  On the fourth day the captain was out, and Miss Drewitt, after a casual peep from the kitchen window, shrugged her shoulders and returned to the sitting-room.