's absolutely free from
it, now. And the very look of Jimsy is enough to show you----"

But Carter had turned and was staring moodily at the decanter. "It comes
so suddenly, Honor ... with such frightful unexpectedness. Remember,
when we were youngsters, the World's Biggest Snake, 'Samson,'--exhibited
in a vacant store on Main Street, and how keen we all were about him?"

Honor kindled to the memory. "I adored him. He had a head like a nice
setter's and he wasn't cold or slimy a bit!"

"Remember what the man told us about his hunger? How he'd go three
months without anything, and then devour twenty live rabbits and
chickens and cats?"

She nodded, frowning. "I know. It was awful."

"But the point was the suddenness. They never knew when the hunger would
seize him. The fellow said that it came like a flash. He was gentle as a
lamb for weeks on end--and then it came. He'd pounce on the keeper's pet
rabbit--his dog--the man himself if he were within reach. He was an
utterly changed creature; he was just--an _appetite_." He stood staring
somberly at the decanter. "That's the way it comes, Honor."

It seemed to be getting dimmer and dimmer in the _sala_. Honor found
herself wishing with all her heart for her stepfather. Stephen Lorimer
would know how to answer; how to parry,--to combat this thing. She felt
her own weapons clumsy and blunt, but such as they were she would use
them.

"But it isn't coming ever again, Carter! I tell you it isn't coming! And
I want you to stop saying and thinking that it is! Now I'm going to
Jimsy!"

In the wide out-of-doors, under the unbelievably blue sky and the
stinging sun, with Jimsy and Yaqui Juan, life was sound and whole again.
The Indian, tall as a pine, looked at her with eyes of respectful
adoration and smiled his slow, melancholy smile, as she swung off with
the boy, down the path which led to the old well.

"Juan approves of me, doesn't he?" said Honor, contentedly.

"Of course; you're my woman!" She loved his happy impudence. "Aren't
you, Skipper?" They had passed the twist in the path--the path which was
like a moist green tunnel through the tropic jungle--which hid them from
the house and she halted and went swiftly into his arms.

"Yes, Jimsy! _Yes!_ And--I've been stingy and mean to you but I won't
be, any more. Carter must just--stand things."

"_Skipper!_" He wasn't facile with words, Jimsy King, but he was able to
make himself clear.

"Jimsy, isn't it wonderf