Aunt Janes Nieces in the Red Cross | Page 3

at this warm reception,
"it's a long, long story and I may as well tell it methodically or you'll
never appreciate the adventurous spirit that led me again to New
York--the one place I heartily detest."
"Oh, Ajo!" protested Patsy. "Is this the way to retain the friendship of
New Yorkers?"
"Isn't honesty appreciated here?" he wanted to know.
"Go ahead with your story," said Uncle John. "We left you some
months ago at the harbor of Los Angeles, wondering what you were
going to do with that big ship of yours that lay anchored in the Pacific.
If I remember aright, you were considering whether you dared board it
to return to that mysterious island home of yours at--at--"
"Sangoa," said Patsy.
"Thank you for giving me a starting-point," returned the boy, with a
smile. "You may remember that when I landed in your country from
Sangoa I was a miserable invalid. The voyage had ruined my stomach
and wrecked my constitution. I crossed the continent to New York and
consulted the best specialists--and they nearly put an end to me. I
returned to the Pacific coast to die as near home as possible, and--and
there I met you."
"And Patsy saved your life," added Beth.
"She did. First, however, Maud Stanton saved me from drowning. Then
Patsy Doyle doctored me and made me well and strong. And now--"

"And now you look like a modern Hercules," asserted Patsy, gazing
with some pride at the bronzed cheeks and clear eyes of the former
invalid and ignoring his slight proportions. "Whatever have you been
doing with yourself since then?"
"Taking a sea voyage," he affirmed.
"Really?"
"An absolute fact. For months I dared not board the Arabella, my sea
yacht, for fear of a return of my old malady; but after you deserted me
and came to this--this artificial, dreary, bewildering--"
"Never mind insulting my birthplace, sir!"
"Oh! were you born here, Patsy? Then I'll give the town credit. So,
after you deserted me at Los Angeles--"
"You still had Mrs. Montrose and her nieces, Maud and Flo Stanton."
"I know, and I love them all. But they became so tremendously busy
that I scarcely saw them, and finally I began to feel lonely. Those
Stanton girls are chock full of business energy and they hadn't the time
to devote to me that you people did. So I stood on the shore and looked
at the Arabella until I mustered up courage to go aboard. Surviving that,
I made Captain Carg steam slowly along the coast for a few miles.
Nothing dreadful happened. So I made a day's voyage, and still ate my
three squares a day. That was encouraging."
"I knew all the time it wasn't the voyage that wrecked your stomach,"
said Patsy confidently.
"What was it, then?"
"Ptomaine poisoning, or something like that."
"Well, anyhow, I found I could stand ocean travel again, so I
determined on a voyage. The Panama Canal was just opened and I
passed through it, came up the Atlantic coast, and--the Arabella is at

this moment safely anchored in the North River!"
"And how do you feel?" inquired Uncle John.
"Glorious--magnificent! The trip has sealed my recovery for good."
"But why didn't you go home, to your Island of Sangoa?" asked Beth.
He looked at her reproachfully.
"You were not there, Beth; nor was Patsy, or Uncle John. On the other
hand, there is no one in Sangoa who cares a rap whether I come home
or not. I'm the last of the Joneses of Sangoa, and while it is still my
island and the entire population is in my employ, the life there flows on
just as smoothly without me as if I were present."
"But don't they need the ship--the _Arabella_?" questioned Beth.
"Not now. I sent a cargo of supplies by Captain Carg when he made his
last voyage to the island, and there will not be enough pearls found in
the fisheries for four or five months to come to warrant my shipping
them to market. Even then, they would keep. So I'm a free lance at
present and I had an idea that if I once managed to get the boat around
here you folks might find a use for it."
"In what way?" inquired Patsy, with interest.
"We might all make a trip to Barbadoes, Bermuda and Cuba. Brazil is
said to be an interesting country. I'd prefer Europe, were it not for the
war."
"Oh, Ajo, isn't this war terrible?"
"No other word expresses it. Yet it all seems like a fairy tale to me, for
I've never been in any other country than the United States since I made
my first voyage here from Sangoa--the island where my eyes first
opened to the world."
"It isn't