om the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands
were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that
agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending
out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred
into them.

The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden
onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's
swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the
dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that
entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to
maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends.
Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point
first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and
skins.

In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward
carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon
his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose,
stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a
horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still
unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded
Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity.

"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and
glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this
scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish."

Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal
for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization
from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about
his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came
through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And
evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed
up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like
a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the
bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the
trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and
responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer.

"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he
grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no
treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Gu