is friends. Venner laughed
awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence
between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the
laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and
Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an
established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and
when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star
rays, having nothing in common except a common center.

She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids
drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the
stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the
slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other
way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither
man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and
he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery.
Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time.

With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a
hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her.

"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly
under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"--she
went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back,
kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes
blazed full into his.

"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and
putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his.

And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity.
He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew,
without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free.

"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my
friend, the world thou shalt take me to."

Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke
she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing
at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the
big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips
almost brushing his cheek.

And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers
played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck
and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and
gripp