he gambler with great surprise.

"Their flesh may be tender, but their spirits are strong," said Connor.
The opening he had made was small. At least he had the interest of
David, and through that entering wedge he determined to drive with all
his might.

"And dangerous," he added gravely.

"Dangerous?" said the master. He raised his head. "Dangerous?"

As if a jackal had dared to howl in the hearing of the lion.

"Ah, David, if you saw her you would understand why I warn you!"

"It would be curious. In what wise does her danger strike?"

"That I cannot say. They have a thousand ways."

The master turned irresolutely toward Jacob.

"You could not send her away with words?"

"David, for one of my words she has ten that flow with pleasant sound
like water from a spring, and with little meaning, except that she will
not go."

"You are a fool!"

"So I felt when I listened to her."

"There is an old saying, David, my brother," said Connor, "that there is
more danger in one pleasant woman than in ten angry men. Drive her from
the gate with stones!"

"I fear that you hate women, Benjamin."

"They were the source of evil."

"For which penance was done."

"The penance followed the sin."

"God, who made the mountains, the river and this garden and man, He made
woman also. She cannot be all evil. I shall go."

"Then, remember that I have warned you. God, who made man and woman,
made fire also."

"And is not fire a blessing?"

He smiled at his triumph and this contest of words.

"You shall go with me, Benjamin."

"I? Never!"

"In what is the danger?"

"If you find none, there is none. For my part I have nothing to do with
women."

But David was already whistling to Glani.

"One woman can be no more terrible than one man," he declared to
Benjamin. "And I have made Joseph, who is great of body, bend like a
blade of grass in the wind."

"Farewell," said Connor, his voice trembling with joy. "Farewell, and
God keep you!"

"Farewell, Benjamin, my brother, and have no fear."

Connor followed him with his eyes, half-triumphant, half-fearful. What
would happen at the gate? He would have given much to see even from a
distance the duel between the master and the woman.

At the gate of the patio David turned and waved his hand.

"I shall conquer!"

And then he was gone.

Connor stared down at the grass with a cynical smile until he felt
another gaze upon him, and he became aware of the little beas