usiness relations with him occasionally, and
there he is all that could be wished. But I have seen him clean out
more than one youngster ruthlessly,--force the play to too high
stakes, I mean. I think you could take his measure. Anyhow, I am
prepared to back you."

"I'm leaving here to-morrow."

"Ah, well, we may have another opportunity. If so, my offer holds."

"Guess you haven't heard that Spencer is the man who bored a tunnel
through the Rocky Mountains?" said Holt.

"No. You must tell me about it. Sorry, Mr. Hare, I am stopping the
game."

Spencer continued to have amazing good fortune, and he played with
skill, but without any more fireworks. At the close of the sitting the
vicar said cheerfully:

"You are not a ladies' man, Mr. Spencer. You know the old
proverb,--lucky at cards, unlucky in love? But let me hope that it
does not apply in your case."

"Talking about a ladies' man, who is the girl your friend Bower dined
with?" asked Holt. "She has been in the hotel several days; but she
didn't seem to be acquainted with anybody in particular until he blew
in this afternoon."

"She is a Miss Helen Wynton," said the vicar. "I like her very much
from what little I have seen of her. She attended both services on
Sunday, and I happen to be aware of the fact that she was at mass in
the Roman church earlier. I wanted her to play the harmonium next
Sunday; but she declined, and gave me her reasons too."

"May I ask what they were?" inquired Spencer.

"Well, speaking in confidence, they were grievously true. Some
miserable pandering to Mrs. Grundy has set the other women against
her; so she declined to thrust herself into prominence. I tried to
talk her out of it, but failed."

"Who is Mrs. Grundy, anyhow?" growled Holt.

The others laughed.

"She is the Medusa of modern life," explained the vicar. "She turns to
stone those who gaze on her. Most certainly she petrifies all good
feeling and Christian tolerance. Why, I actually heard a woman whose
conduct is not usually governed by what I hold to be good taste sneer
at Miss Wynton this evening. 'The murder is out now,' she said.
'Bower's presence explains everything.' Yet I am able to state that
Miss Wynton was quite unprepared for his arrival. By chance I was
standing on the steps when he drove up to the hotel, and it was
perfectly clear from the words they used that neither was aware that
the other was in Maloja."

Spencer leaned over toward the iron-mas