ow this game, if you will permit me, a little,
just a little better than you do, Mr. Moore. I know when fun stops and
downright danger begins. The moment you put your foot in China, you
are putting your foot in a trap from which you can never, never so long
as you are permitted to live, extricate yourself. And, believe me,
seriously, that will not be for long. A day? Perhaps. An hour? Very
likely not any longer than that.

"Call me a special emissary if you choose. Perhaps I am. Perhaps I am
only a friend, who desires above everything else to help you avoid a
most certain and a most unpleasant death. I have given you your
opportunity. From my heart I gave you, and I still do give you, the
chance to leave--with me. Yes; I mean that. Your promise, backed by
your word of honor, is a passport to safety for both of us. Your
refusal, I might as well confess, means to me--death! Won't you stop
and consider? Won't you say--yes?"

Peter's head had snapped back during this epilogue; his white-clad
shoulders were squared, and his blue eyes were lighted by a fire that
might have made a Crusader envious.

"You may report to him," said he, "that I have listened to his
proposal; that I have considered it calmly; and that, as long as the
gauntlet is down--it is--_down_! I want but one thing: a man's chance
at that beast. You can tell him just that from me, Miss Borria. I am
sorry."

She seemed on the point of uttering a final word, a word that might
have been of the greatest importance to Peter the Brazen; but the word
never got beyond her lips.

Into her eyes crept a look of despair, of mute horror. She half raised
her hand; withdrew it. Her shoulders sagged. She staggered to a deck
chair, and sank into it, with her head back, her eyes closed, her long,
dark lashes lying upon cheeks that had become marble.

Standing there with his eyes glued to the blue of the sea, Peter the
Brazen felt the confidence oozing from him as water oozes out of a
leaky pail. He felt himself in the presence of a relentless power
which was slowly settling down upon him, crushing him, and overpowering
him.

It occurred to him as his thoughts raced willy-nilly, to flash a call
of help to the gunboat which prowled south of Luzon, a call which would
have met with a response swift and energetic.

Yet that impulse smacked of the blunderer. It would put an end forever
to his high plan, now boiling more strongly than ever before, in