m. But now it
seemed that Keogh, too, had fortified himself against further
invasions. His curt greeting and the ominous light in his full, grey
eye quickened the steps of "Beelzebub," whom desperation had almost
incited to attempt an additional "loan."

Three drinking shops the forlorn one next visited in succession. In
all of these his money, his credit and his welcome had long since
been spent; but Blythe felt that he would have fawned in the dust at
the feet of an enemy that morning for one draught of _aguardiente_.
In two of the _pulperias_ his courageous petition for drink was met
with a refusal so polite that it stung worse than abuse. The third
establishment had acquired something of American methods; and here he
was seized bodily and cast out upon his hands and knees.

This physical indignity caused a singular change in the man. As he
picked himself up and walked away, an expression of absolute relief
came upon his features. The specious and conciliatory smile that
had been graven there was succeeded by a look of calm and sinister
resolve. "Beelzebub" had been floundering in the sea of improbity,
holding by a slender life-line to the respectable world that had
cast him overboard. He must have felt that with this ultimate shock
the line had snapped, and have experienced the welcome ease of the
drowning swimmer who has ceased to struggle.

Blythe walked to the next corner and stood there while he brushed the
sand from his garments and re-polished his glasses.

"I've got to do it--oh, I've got to do it," he told himself, aloud.
"If I had a quart of rum I believe I could stave it off yet--for a
little while. But there's no more rum for--'Beelzebub,' as they call
me. By the flames of Tartarus! if I'm to sit at the right hand of
Satan somebody has got to pay the court expenses. You'll have to pony
up, Mr. Frank Goodwin. You're a good fellow; but a gentleman must
draw the line at being kicked into the gutter. Blackmail isn't a
pretty word, but it's the next station on the road I'm travelling."

With purpose in his steps Blythe now moved rapidly through the town
by way of its landward environs. He passed through the squalid
quarters of the improvident negroes and on beyond the picturesque
shacks of the poorer _mestizos_. From many points along his course he
could see, through the umbrageous glades, the house of Frank Goodwin
on its wooded hill. And as he crossed the little bridge over the
lagoon he saw the old In