he table. He was not looking at her, but she felt the groping,
nervous touch of his search, felt suddenly the grip of his fingers above
her wrist. He leaned forward a little; still he dared not look at her.
His hard stare remained fastened on Heyst's back. In an extremely low
hiss, his fixed idea of argument found expression scathingly:

"See! He's no good. He's not the man for you!"

He glanced at her at last. Her lips moved a little, and he was awed
by that movement without a sound. Next instant the hard grasp of his
fingers vanished from her arm. Heyst had shut the door. On his way back
to the table, he crossed the path of the girl they had called Alma--she
didn't know why--also Magdalen, whose mind had remained so long in doubt
as to the reason of her own existence. She no longer wondered at that
bitter riddle, since her heart found its solution in a blinding, hot
glow of passionate pride.

CHAPTER TEN

She passed by Heyst as if she had indeed been blinded by some secret,
lurid, and consuming glare into which she was about to enter. The
curtain of the bedroom door fell behind her into rigid folds. Ricardo's
vacant gaze seemed to be watching the dancing flight of a fly in mid
air.

"Extra dark outside, ain't it?" he muttered.

"Not so dark but that I could see that man of yours prowling about
there," said Heyst in measured tones.

"What--Pedro? He's scarcely a man you know; or else I wouldn't be so
fond of him as I am."

"Very well. Let's call him your worthy associate."

"Ay! Worthy enough for what we want of him. A great standby is Peter in
a scrimmage. A growl and a bite--oh, my! And you don't want him about?"

"I don't."

"You want him out of the way?" insisted Ricardo with an affectation
of incredulity which Heyst accepted calmly, though the air in the room
seemed to grow more oppressive with every word spoken.

"That's it. I do want him out of the way." He forced himself to speak
equably.

"Lor'! That's no great matter. Pedro's not much use here. The business
my governor's after can be settled by ten minutes' rational talk
with--with another gentleman. Quiet talk!"

He looked up suddenly with hard, phosphorescent eyes. Heyst didn't move
a muscle. Ricardo congratulated himself on having left his revolver
behind. He was so exasperated that he didn't know what he might have
done. He said at last:

"You want poor, harmless Peter out of the way before you let me take you
to see the govern