down, here you will find--"

The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having
heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of
unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in
living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master.
Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her
hands clasped as if in supplication.

"Milo--tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red
Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had
eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell.

Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with
nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult
in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible--for the dead lips to
speak--and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a
paroxysm of royal fury:

"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those
secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried,
pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering
eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached
the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her
before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her--a
compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed
pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang
from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the
bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse.

"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in
his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with
bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly.

"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage
force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then
the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and
he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment
he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking
shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the
uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant--volcanic, yet
quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she sprang to
the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she
flung off his hand, and snatched forth her