When I met him in 'Frisco he had been waiting for
that wire for three days, and he was nearly off his head. I got him on
the steamer almost by main force. We laid over ten days in Honolulu,
and he got the notion that a letter would be waiting for him in
Yokohama, and that he would take the next steamer home. All the way
across I heard about that girl from the time the Chino brought our
coffee in the morning until we went below again for the night. He all
but said his prayers to her; cut out everything to drink; even refused
to play a friendly game of poker. Why, I've tramped so many decks to
the tune of that girl's charms that I could write a book about her."
"What is her name?" asked Gerald greatly interested.
"Heavens, I don't know! She was a wood nymth, a dryad, a jewel, a
flower, I could keep it up indefinitely. He had a new one for her
every day. When we reached Japan, he couldn't wait for the steamer to
dock but went ashore in the pilot boat, and made a bee line for
Cook's. There was nothing there. It was like that at every port we
touched. Each time he would get his hopes up to fever heat, and each
time he'd be disappointed.
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