As I studied the various groups, I paused suddenly, surprised.  There was the party which had sat at the table next to us at the Burridge the night before.  Kennedy had already seen them and had been watching them furtively.

Just then Craig jogged my elbow.  He had caught sight of Whitson edging his way in our direction.  I saw what it was that Craig meant.  He wanted purposely to avoid him.  I wondered why, but soon I saw what he was up to.  He wanted introductions to come about naturally, as they do on shipboard if one only waits.

On deck and in the lounging and smoking rooms it did not take long for him to contrive ways of meeting and getting acquainted with those he wished to know, without exciting suspicion.  Thus, by the time we sat down to dinner in the saloon we were all getting fairly chummy.

We had met Burke quite as naturally as if we were total strangers.  It was easy to make it appear that Whitson and Sydney were shipboard acquaintances.  Nor was it difficult to secure an introduction to the other party of four.  The girl whom we had heard addressed as Leontine seemed to be the leader of the group.  Leontine Cowell was a striking personality.  Her clear blue eyes directed a gaze at one which tested one’s mettle to meet.  I was never quite sure whether she remembered seeing us at the Burridge, whether she penetrated the parts we were playing.  She was none the less feminine because she had aspirations in a commercial way.  As Kennedy had first observed, she was well worth study.

Her companion, Barrett Burleigh, was a polished, deferential Englishman, one of those who seem to be citizens of the world rather than subjects of any particular country.  I wondered what were the real relations of the two.

Jorgen Erickson was, as I had surmised, a Dane.  He proved to be one of the largest planters in the island, already wealthy and destined to be wealthier if real estate advanced.  The other woman, Nanette, was his wife.  She was also a peculiarly interesting type, a Frenchwoman from Guadeloupe.  Younger and more vivacious than her husband, her snappy black eyes betokened an attractive personality.

Leontine Cowell, it seemed, had been in the islands not long before, had secured options on some score of plantations at a low figure, and made no secret of her business.  When the American flag at last flew over the islands she stood to win out of the increase of land values a considerable fortune.

Erickson also, in addition to his own holdings, had been an agent for some other planters and thus had met Leontine, who had been the means of interesting some American capital.

As for Burleigh, it seemed that he had made the acquaintance of Leontine in Wall Street.  He had been in the Caribbean and the impending changes in the Danish West Indies had attracted his notice.  Whether he had some money to invest in the speculation or hoped to profit by commissions derived from sales did not appear.  But at any rate some common bond had thrown the quartet together.