“Have it that way,” she agreed patiently.

“But here’s Mr. Fitzgerald still,” said the admiral pointedly.

“Not long ago you said to me that if ever I saw the son of David Fitzgerald to bring him home.  Till yesterday I never saw him; only then because Mrs. Coldfield pointed him out and wondered what he was doing with a tray of statuettes around his neck.  As I could not invite him to come home with me, I did the next best thing; I invited him to call on me.  I was told that he was fond of adventures, so I gave the invitation as much color as I could.  Do I stand pardoned?”

“Indeed you do!” cried Fitzgerald.  So this was the Killigrew his father had known?

“David Fitzgerald, your father?  That makes all the difference in the world.”  The admiral thrust out a hand.  “Your father wasn’t a good business man, nor was he in the navy, but he could draw charts of the Atlantic coast with his eyes shut.  Laura, you get the whisky and sugar and hot water.  You haven’t brought me a secretary, but you have brought under my roof the son of an old friend.”

She laughed.  It was rich and free-toned laughter, good for any man to hear.  As she went to prepare the toddy, the music echoed again through the hall.

“Sometimes I wake up in the morning with a new gray hair,” sighed the admiral.  “What would you do with a girl like that?”

“I’d hang on to her as long as I could,” earnestly.

“I shall,” grimly.  “Your father and I were old friends.  There wasn’t a yacht on these waters that could show him her heels, not even my own.  You don’t mean to tell me you’re no yachtsman!  Why, it ought to be in the blood.”

“Oh, I can handle small craft, but I don’t know much about the engine-room.  What time does the next train return to New York?”

“For you there’ll be no train under a week.  You’re going to stay here, since you’ve been the victim of a hoax.”

“Disabuse your mind there, sir.  I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed anything so thoroughly.”

“But you’ll stay?  Oh, yes!” as Fitzgerald shook his head.  “The secretary can do the work here while you and I can take care of the rats in the hold.  Laura’s just imagining things, but we’ll humor her.  If there’s any trouble with the chimney, why, we’ll get a bricklayer and pull it down.”

“Miss Killigrew may have some real cause for alarm.  I saw a man, or rather, I heard him, running, as I came up the road from the gates.  I called to him, but he did not answer.”

“Is that so?  Wasn’t the porter at the gates when you came in?”

“No.  The footpath was free.”

“This begins to look serious.  If the porter isn’t there the gate bell rings, I can open it myself by wire.  I never bother about it at night, unless I am expecting some one.  But in the daytime I can see from here whether or not I wish to open the gate.  A man running in the park, eh?  Little good it will do him.  The house is a network of burglar alarms.”