He said, "Cigarette?"

"No," she said firmly. "I'm working up to something."

"No use talking," he said sourly. "Let's join the others."

"Tommy!" she protested. "You're not nice! And here I am trying to spare you embarrassment!" She grinned at him. "You wouldn't want my father to ask what your intentions are!"

"I haven't any," he said grimly. "If I were only a rich woman's husband I'd despise myself. If I didn't, you'd despise me! It wouldn't work out. And I wouldn't want to be just your first husband!"

Her eyes grew softer, but she shook her head reproachfully.

"Then--how about being a brother to me? You ought to suggest that, if only to be polite."

Coghlan had known her a long, long time. Her air of comfortable teasing would have fooled people. But Coghlan felt like a heel.

He muttered under his breath. He stood up.

"You know damned well I love you!" he said angrily. "But that's all! I can't turn it off, but I can starve it to death! And there's no use arguing about it! You'll be leaving soon. If you weren't, I wouldn't come near you here! Nobody could be crazier about anybody else than I am about you, but you can't wear me down. Understand?"

"I wouldn't want to break your spirit, Tommy," said Laurie reasonably. "But I'm getting desperate!"

Then she smiled. He growled and strode irritably away. When his back was turned, her smile wavered and broke. And when he looked back at her a little later she was staring out over the water, her back to the others on the yacht. Her hands were tightly clenched.

The yacht steamed on up the Bosphorus. There were the hills on either side, speckled with dwellings which looked trim and picturesque from the water, but would be completely squalid at close view. The sky was deepest azure, and this was the scene of many romantic happenings in years gone by. But the owner of the yacht talked expansively to Mannard in the thickest of Turkish accents. The professor from the American College was deep in discussion with the lawyer on the responsibility of the municipal government for the smell of decaying garbage which made his home nearly uninhabitable. The owner of the site to be inspected spoke only Turkish. That left only Appolonius the Great.

Coghlan brought 

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