I've known--for the last week--you were just
fooling me along, all the time fondling Bill? Sindy at least was
faithful--and her form wouldn't take anything from yours."

Pete, watching Joe, was somewhat amazed at the curious start the man
made. His searching gaze had leaped over the girl's form; his dark,
smoldering eyes suddenly blazed red. There was no other word than red.
They were like two coals of fire.

There ensued a moment of strange and menacing silence. Pete chuckled,
already receptive to Joe's thought. Harold turned to stare at him.

Joe put his pipe to his lips, then fumbled at his pocket. He seemed to
search in vain. "Will you give me a match, please, lady?" he asked.

The tone was strange, thick and strained, yet Virginia's heart thrilled
with hope. The request was a welcome interlude in a quarrel that was
already rapidly approaching the fighting stage. Perhaps if these men
started to smoke, their blood would cool; she had known of old that
tobacco was a wonderful bromide to overstretched nerves. He turned
quickly to the shelf above Bill's head and procured half a dozen matches
from the box.

As her back was turned she heard Pete laugh again,--one evil syllable
that filled her with instinctive horror. Her wide eyes turned to him;
he was watching her intently. Then she stepped back to give Joe the
matches.

Instinctively her eyes turned to the wall for a reassuring sight of her
pistol. It was gone from its place.

For an instant she stared in horrified amazement. The matches dropped
idly from her hand. A sob caught in her throat, a sob of hopeless and
utter terror, but she fought a brave little fight to suppress it. She
knew she must appear to be brave; at least she must do this much. She
looked at Joe; his evil, leering face told her only too plainly that his
eager hand had seized and secreted her pistol. Pete's face was drawn
too; Harold only looked bewildered.

He was her last hope, but in one instant's scrutiny she saw that this
had vanished, too. Some terrible thought had sobered and engrossed him.
Now he was eyeing her like a witless thing, his features drawn, his eyes
burning. The moment was charged with ineffable suspense.

"What is it, Virginia?" Bill asked.

"One of these men--" she answered brokenly--"has taken my pistol. I
want him to give it back----"

The circle laughed then,--a harsh and sinister sound that filled her
with inexpressible horror. For a moment