s.
Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and
he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to
discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place.
He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath
the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the
furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left
them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now
attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they
roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused
avarice.

Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured;
he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them,
muttering:

"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's
blessing go with it!"

He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her
cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber
the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests,
were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass
of treasure revealed.

Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a
pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a
roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the
pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage
fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious
place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy.

The giant glowered at the snarling men as at some repulsive beasts,
horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's
death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back
through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great
promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of
a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a
great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead
girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel.

Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with
the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with
questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and
caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging,
wounded bull, he rushed in to join batt