he stars was eloquent of mastery.
"There will come a time when you will see life as I see it. . . . And
now, for the last time, will you give me your promise, Virginia? It is
forced upon you; you will be blameless in giving it. Will you do so?"

She only shook her head, her lips trembling, not trusting her
voice. . . . And then, in a sort of daze, she knew that they had
turned off to the left, that no longer was San Juan ahead of them, that
they were riding toward the gloomy bulwark of the mountains.

CHAPTER XX

FLUFF AND BLACK BILL

Fluff and Black Bill were quarrelling.

Elmer, while Norton and Virginia were on their way from San Juan to Las
Estrellas, had dropped in at the hotel to see his sister. He found
upon her office table the card which she always left for him; this
merely informed him that she was "out on a case at Las Estrellas."
Elmer had come for her purposing to suggest a call upon the Engles.
For not yet had he summoned the hardihood to present himself alone at
Florrie's home. Now, disgruntled, seeing plainly that Virginia would
never get back in time, he went out on the veranda and took solace from
the pipe to which he had grown fairly accustomed. To him came the girl
of whom he was thinking. "Hello, Fluff," he said from the shadows.

"Hello, Black Bill," she greeted him. "Where's Virgie?"

"Gone," he informed her, waving his pipe. "On a case to Las Estrellas.
I'm waiting for her. Did you want to see her?"

Florrie, coming down the veranda to him, giggled.

"No," she told him flippantly. "I'm looking for the Emperor of China.
I never was so lonesome. . . ."

"So'm I," said Elmer. He pushed a chair forward with his foot. "Sit
down and we'll wait for her. And I'll go in and bring out a couple of
bottles of ginger ale or something."

"Will she be back real soon?" asked Florrie pretending to hesitate.

"Sure," he assured her positively.

"All right then." Florrie with a great rustling of skirts sat down.
"But you must be nice to me, Black Bill."

"It's always you who starts it," he muttered at her. "I'd be friends
if you would. What's the good of spatting like two kids, anyway?"

"We're really not kids any longer, are we?" she agreed demurely. "I
feel terribly grown up sometimes, don't you?"

From which point they got along swimmingly for perhaps five minutes
longer than it had ever been possible for them to talk together without
"starting something." Elmer, very