upon the Glow-worm. Her mortal fear attracted it.

The look he turned upon her was demoniacal, harrowing as a dream of
hell. All else stopped--words, thoughts, even hearts. Miss Mallory
craned down to see. The Sorenson woman panted as one dying of thirst.
The Senora shrank back. Her face seemed dim, fallen, but she could not
lose his eyes. Rey was speaking, leaning forward in his chair, and
heaping words upon her like clods upon a corpse:

"... But to-night, things were spoken which could only have come to
them--through you! Celestino Rey has been outgeneraled by a clever
American girl, but he has also been betrayed by a South American
cat--the tortoise-shell of a bagnio-litter----"

Both white men commanded him to stop. The Spaniard turned a glance from
Framtree to Bedient.... The woman at the wheel, straining downward, saw
the Glow-worm rise with an appalling shudder, as the eyes of her lord
left her; saw her body huddle forward toward him, her hands fumbling in
her hair.

"My dear Bedient," the Spaniard was saying, "I regret this domestic
scene. You must excuse a man who has so recently discovered his
Glow-worm to be a scorpion----"

The crouching figure of the woman--in the rage she had prayed for, and
as she had prayed for it, _with his eyes turned away_--hurled forward
as one diving into the sea. The flying body seemed huge in the little
cabin. The concentration of her weight struck him in the throat. His
head whipped back like a flaunted arm. The chair had been screwed to
the floor, but the weight of impact ripped the fastenings out of the
heavy planking. Backward Rey was borne, beneath a stabbing creature
whose cries were as some bestial mystery of the dark.

It was Framtree who tore her loose, and tightened upon her wrist until
the fingers opened and the little knife--concealed how long in her
hair?--dropped like a feather to the carpet. Swiftly it had let out the
life of the Spaniard.... Bedient opened the galley-door at a gesture
from the woman. The Chinese came forth.

"It was I--your mistress, Boy--who killed the Senor. You may look. Then
fix him quickly, so he will sink. I want him to sink!" she panted.

Bedient waited for Framtree to look up. The eyes of the two men met.

"The first and last chance of war in Equatoria is eliminated," Bedient
said.

Presently he moved out of the cabin, and sat down beside Miss Mallory.
Each had held out a hand to the other, but they had not words.

The place w