d away for a moment.
There was a peculiar taste about them, however, which I did not like. In
fact, I think that the Latin-American cigarettes do not seem to appeal
to an American very much, anyhow.

As we talked, I noticed that Kennedy evidently shared my own tastes, for
he allowed his cigarette to go out, and after a puff or two I did the
same. For the sake of my own comfort I drew out one of my own
cigarettes as soon as I could do so politely.

"We are not the only ones who have sought the _peje grande_," resumed
Mendoza eagerly, "but we are the only ones who are seeking it in the
right place, and," he added, leaning over with a whisper, "I am the only
one who has the concession, the monopoly, from the government to seek in
what we know to be the right place. Others have found the little fish.
We shall find the big fish."

He had raised his voice from the whisper and I caught the Senorita
looking anxiously at Kennedy, as much as to say, "You see? His mind is
full of only one subject."

Senor Mendoza's eyes had wandered from us and he seemed all of a sudden
to grow wild.

"We shall find it," he cried, "no matter what obstacles man or devil put
in our way. It is ours--for a simple piece of engineering--ours! The
curse of Mansiche--pouf!"

He snapped his fingers almost defiantly as he said it in a high-pitched
voice. There was an air of bravado about it and I could not help feeling
that perhaps in his heart he was not so sure of himself as he would have
others think. It was as though some diabolical force had taken
possession of his brain and he fought it off.

Kennedy quickly followed the staring glance of Mendoza. Out on the broad
veranda, by an open window a few yards from us, sat the woman of the
wheel chair. The young man who accompanied her had his back toward us
for the moment, but she was looking fixedly in our direction, paying no
attention apparently to the music. She was a large woman, with dark
hair, and contrasting full red lips. Her face, in marked contradiction
to her Parisian costume and refined manners, had a slight copper
swarthiness about it.

But it was her eyes that arrested and held one's attention. Whether it
was in the eyes themselves or in the way that she used them, there could
be no mistake about the hypnotic power that their owner wielded. She saw
us looking at her, but it made no difference. Not for an instant did she
allow our gaze to distract her in the projection of their weird