om him like thread; his fist went to his breast and
came away armed with glitter--Joao's revolver, which he had hidden
there. It spat saffron, twice and thrice, toward the door. He followed
on and met a rush of opposing figures. I saw the fat croupier fall. I
myself was bowled over, deafened by the bursting clamor, trampled,
kicked in the head. Half-stunned, I writhed round to watch the struggle,
adding my feeble pipe to the din.

"Go on, Robert Matcham!" I yelled. "Go on! Smash through! Oh, smash
'em."

They swarmed upon him, reaching for their deadly holds. Three had him
about the waist; another clung to his feet; still others barred his
path. So I saw him for the click of a shutter; and then, roaring with
battle, he broke away, stripped them off like rats, waded on--plucked up
the last one bodily and used him like a flail.

He was free! Free long enough to tear the door open and step back for a
dash--and there she met him....

A bright bar of light cut in from the outer court and shone full upon
her--a splendor of beauty to stop a man's heart in his breast. She was
dark, like some tinted pearls--dark as he was fair--and ripe as her own
lips. Her eyes, heavy-lidded, were slightly lifted to him with an
amorous languidness. She did not flinch, save for a tiny quiver of
nostril, thin and clear like a roseleaf, and the rise of her bosom, and
when her little hand crept up to her throat.

So she stayed, and so he stayed, while the uproar died and fell away
into the void--long and long; while time lost all count; while these two
exchanged such a message as five centuries could not change, but no man
can guess or words declare. And then--

"Robert," she said, "this is your treasure!"

"Anna!" said Robert Matcham. "Anna!"

I heard them--I, myself; I heard them....

It was the spade-bearded banker who brought me to.

"So," he nodded, with an amazing grin, "you are not a daid? Tha's nize!
Now there are not any daids at all, and everybody being much pleased."

I blinked up at him from the divan on which I lay, and then round the
room, gray and bare in the dawn, which had stolen in by opened door and
casement. The banker sat down at a little table near by and beamed at
me. I noticed that he carried one arm in a sling, but otherwise he was
still the model rogue, jimp and smiling. There was no one else in sight.

"They are all down 'elping to fish up that box of gol'pieces," he
explained. "You didn' know that, eh?"