ow jerked free, laughing his disbelief, his look at once unpleasant
and suspicious.

"Tell that to the marines," he jeered. He threw the door open and went
out. In the hall Kendric could hear his steps sounding quick and
eager. Kendric returned to his chair, perplexed. Then again he sprang
up, throwing out his hands, shaking his shoulders as though to rid them
of a troublesome weight.

"Too much thinking isn't good for a man," he told himself lightly.
"The game's made; let her roll!"

He took a cigar from the table, lighted it and passed through the bath
and adjoining room. A door opened to the outer corridor. He stepped
out upon the flagstones and strolled down the aisle flanked on one side
by the adobe wall of the house, on the other by the white columns and
arches. The night was fine, clear and starlit; the fragrance of a
thousand flowers lay heavy upon the-air; the babble of the outdoor
fountain made merry music. He left the stone floor for the graveled
driveway and put his head back to send a little puff of smoke upward
toward the flash of stars.

"It's a good old land, at that," he mused. "Big and clean and wide
open."

He strolled on, looking to right and left. Before him the gardens
appeared deserted. But there were patches of inpenetrable blackness
under the wider flung trees, and it seemed likely, from what Zoraida
had said, that some of her rabble were watching him. If so, he deemed
it as well to know for certain. So he kept straight on toward the
whitewashed wall glimpsed through the foliage. He came to it and
stopped; it was little higher than his head and would be no obstacle in
itself. He shot out his hands, gripped the top and went up.

And still no one to dispute his right to do as he pleased. He sat for
a moment atop the wall, looking about him curiously. He marked that at
each of the corners of the enclosure to be seen from where he sat, was
a little square tower rising a dozen feet higher than the wall. In
each tower a lamp burned. From the nearest one came the voices of two
men. Tied near this tower and outside the wall were two horses; he saw
them vaguely and heard the clink of bridle chains. Saddled horses.
There would be saddled horses at each of the four towers; night and
day, if Zoraida's talk were not mere boasting. The temptation to know
just how strict was the guard kept moved him to drop to the ground, on
the outside of the wall. He moved quickly, but his feet