ting them, engulfed in a
great silence. He saw her eyes; they were like pools of lambent
phosphorescence in the black shadow of her hair. He glimpsed in them
an eloquence which mystified him; it was as though through her eyes her
heart or her mind or her soul were reaching out toward his but speaking
a tongue foreign to his understanding. Her gaze was steady and
penetrating and held him motionless. Nor, though he did not at the
time notice, did any man in the room stir until she, turning swiftly,
at last broke the charm. She went out through the rear door, Ruiz Rios
at her heels.

When the door closed after them Kendric chanced to note Twisty Barlow
at his elbow. A queer expression was stamped on the rigid features of
the sailorman. Plainly Barlow, intrigued into a profound abstraction,
was alike unconscious of his whereabouts or of the attention which he
was drawing. His eyes stared and strained after the vanished Mexican
and his companion; he, too, had been fascinated; he was like a man in a
trance. Now he started and brushed his hand across his eyes and,
moving jerkily, hurried to the door and went out. Kendric followed him
and laid a restraining hand upon his shoulder.

"Easy, old boy," he said quietly. Barlow started at the touch of his
hand and stood frowning and fingering his forelock. "I know what's
burning hot in your fancies. Remember they may be paste, after all.
And anyway they're not treasure trove."

"You mean those pearls might be fake?" Barlow laughed strangely. "And
you think I might be slittin' throats for them? Don't be an ass,
Headlong; I'm sober."

"Where away, then, in such a hurry?" demanded Kendric, still aware of
something amiss in Barlow's bearing.

"About my business," retorted the sailor. "And suppose you mind yours?"

Kendric shrugged and went back to his friends. But at the door he
turned and saw Barlow hastening along the dim street in the wake of the
disappearing forms of Ruiz Rios and the woman.

Inside there were some few who sought to console Kendric, thinking that
to any man the loss of ten thousand dollars must be a considerable
blow. His answer was a clap on the back and a laughing demand to know
what they were driving at and what they took him for, anyway? Those
who knew him best squandered no sympathy where they knew none was
needed. To the discerning, though they had never known another man who
won or lost with equal gusto in the game, who when he met