than rapping at locked
doors," he decided. And in five minutes was asleep.

CHAPTER XIII

CONCERNING WOMAN'S WILES AND WITCHERY

When Jim woke next morning his first act was to try doors and window.
All were as he had left them last night. But since he was not the man
for worry before breakfast he went into his tub singing. When he had
splashed refreshingly in the cool water and thereafter had dressed,
breakfast was ready for him. For, while he was in his own room he
heard the door to the room Barlow had slept in the first night open.
And when he went through the bath to see who was there he saw a tray
spread on a little table by a window, the coffee steaming. No one was
there. He tried the outer door which led to the hall. Locked, of
course. So he sat down and uncovered the hot dishes and made a hearty
meal.

"They've certainly got the big bulge on the situation," he conceded.
"They could starve a man, poison his rolls or bore a bullet into him
while he slept, and who outside to know about it?"

Now he had the run of four rooms and could look out into the gardens.
Not so bad, he consoled himself. He had his smoke and sat back in his
chair, assuring himself that there were advantages in being shut off by
himself where he could take time to shape his plans. But as an hour
passed in silence--not a sound from any part of the big house all of
whose inmates might have been asleep or dead--and another hour dragged
by after it, he grew first impatient and then angry. He had found that
all of his planning could be done in five minutes: It resolved itself
down to a decision to have a talk with Barlow and then, with or without
help from Ruiz Rios, to make a bolt for the open. If Bruce and Barlow
would come to their senses and join him, it would all be so simple.
Three able-bodied, determined Americans against a handful of Zoraida's
hirelings.

The time came when Jim thundered at the doors and called. When only
silence followed his echoing voice he hammered at the hardwood doors
with the butt of his revolver and shouted, demanding to be a let out.
He tried the iron gratings over the windows and found them firm in
their places and too heavy-barred to be bent. In the end he gave over
in high disgust and waited.

Toward noon, while he was in his own room, pacing restlessly up and
down, he heard a door slam. He ran to the bathroom and found that the
door leading to Barlow's former quarters was closed and