machinations the Morton girls and McKnight might have in mind. He found that Mrs. Sands and her husband had gone to Kauai for a week or so, and therefore he had to possess his soul in patience, having no one with whom to speculate upon the meaning of recent events.
The only thing that worried him was that last remark of Evalani's. She had asked him, evidently in great fear, if he was sure that the observers upon the other ridge had not a gun instead of a spy-glass. This must mean one of two things; either the girl really was partly mad, or else that she actually had some reason to fear either the girls or McKnight. Putting aside the first theory, and also her perhaps natural ignorance that a gun could not carry so far, what reason could there be for the second theory? It was not rational to suppose that McKnight would try to revenge himself upon her for her indirect part in the death of his brother; though of course such an idea might be consistent in a morbid mind, upon learning of his return. Nor had the Morton girls, supposedly, any reason to connect her with the disappearance of their cousin, any further than that she might possibly know something of the girl's heart during those last hours. Of course they might feel that had Evalani not married Malua, their cousin might perhaps have won him in time; but from Kat's vituperative remarks a few days ago, it would seem that they would not have been
