e she's got up her sleeve?
But, let me tell you, she'll not fool me! I'll slap that arrogant Ames
woman yet; and then, when I've done that, I'll give the Beaubien
something to think about besides the way she did up poor old Jim!"

* * * * *

There was now but one cloud that cast its dark shadow across the full
splendor of Carmen's happiness, the silence that shrouded Simiti. But
Harris was preparing to return to Colombia, and his trip promised a
solution of the mystery of her unanswered letters. For weeks Carmen
had struggled to teach him Spanish, with but small measure of success.
The gift of tongues was not his. "You'll have to go back with me and
act as interpreter," he said one day, when they were alone in the
Hawley-Crowles parlor. Then a curious light came into his eyes, and he
blurted, "Will you?"

But the girl turned the question aside with a laugh, though she knew
not from what depths it had sprung. Harris shrugged his broad
shoulders and sighed. He had not a hundred dollars to his name.

Yet he had prospects, not the least of which was the interest he
shared with Reed in La Libertad. For, despite the disturbed state of
affairs in Colombia, Simiti stock had sold rapidly, under the sedulous
care of Ketchim and his loyal aids, and a sufficient fund had been
accumulated to warrant the inauguration of development work on the
mine. A few years hence Harris should be rich from that source alone.

Reed was still in California, although the alluring literature which
Ketchim was scattering broadcast bore his name as consulting engineer
to the Simiti Development Company. His wife had continued her
temporary abode in the Hawley-Crowles mansion, while awaiting with
what fortitude she could command the passing of her still vigorous
father, and the results of her defiant sister's assaults upon the Ames
set.

Carmen's days were crowded full. The wonderful organ in the Beaubien
mansion had cast a spell of enchantment over her soul, and daily she
sat before it, uncovering new marvels and losing herself deeper and
deeper in its infinite mysteries. Her progress was commensurate with
her consecration, and brought exclamations of astonishment to the lips
of her now devoted Beaubien. Hour after hour the latter would sit in
the twilight of the great hall, with her eyes fastened upon the
absorbed girl, and her leaden soul slowly, painfully struggling to
lift itself above the murk and dr