only of that other reward which you continually deny me, but which one day I shall win.'
'Love and business do not mix well,' replied the girl. 'Wait until you have succeeded in this work, Esteban, and then we may talk of love.'
'You do not love me,' he whispered, hoarsely. 'I know—I have seen—that each of the others loves you. That is why I could hate them. And if I thought that you loved one of them, I could cut his heart out. Sometimes I have thought that you did—first one of them and then another. You are too familiar with them, Flora. I have seen John Peebles squeeze your hand when he thought no one was looking, and when you dance with Dick Throck he holds you too close and you dance cheek to cheek. I tell you I do not like it, Flora, and one of these days I shall forget all about the gold and think only of you, and then something will happen and there will not be so many to divide the ingots that I shall bring back from Africa . And Bluber and Kraski are almost as bad; perhaps Kraski is the worst of all, for he is a good-looking devil and I do not like the way in which you cast sheep's eyes at him.'
The fire of growing anger was leaping to the girl's eyes. With an angry gesture she silenced him.
'What business is it of yours, Senor Miranda, who I choose for my friends, or how I treat them or how they treat me? I will have you understand that I have known these men for years, while I have known you for but a few weeks, and if any has a right to dictate my behavior, which, thank God, none has, it would be one of them rather than you.'
His eyes blazed angrily.
'It is as I thought!' he cried. 'You love one of them.' He half rose from the table and leaned across it toward her, menacingly. 'Just let me find out which one it is and I will cut him into pieces!'
He ran his fingers through his long, black hair until it stood up on end like the mane of an angry lion. His eyes were blazing with a light that sent a chill of dread through the girl's heart. He appeared a man temporarily bereft of reason—if he were not a maniac he most certainly looked one, and the girl was afraid and realized that she must placate him.
'Come, come, Esteban,' she whispered softly, there is no need for working yourself into a towering rage over nothing. I have not said that I loved one of these, nor have I said that I do not love you, but I am not used to being wooed in such fashion. Perhaps your Spanish senoritas like it, but I am an English girl and if you love me treat me as an English lover would treat me.
'You have not said that you loved one of these others—no, but on the other hand you have not said that you do not love one of them—tell me, Flora, which one of them is it that you love?'
His eyes were still blazing, and his great frame trembling with suppressed passion.
'I do not love any of them, Esteban,' she replied, 'nor, as yet, do I love you. But I could, Esteban, that much I will tell you. I could love you, Esteban, as I could never love another, but I shall not permit myself to do so until after you have returned and we are free to live where and how we like. Then, maybe—but, even so, I do not promise.'
'You had better promise,' he said, sullenly, though evidently somewhat mollified. 'You had better promise, Flora, for I care nothing for the gold if I may not have you also.'
'Hush,' she cautioned, 'here they come now, and it is about time; they are fully a half-hour late.'
The man turned his eyes in the direction of her gaze, and the two sat watching the approach of four men who had just entered the chop-house. Two of them were evidently Englishmen—big, meaty fellows of the middle class, who looked what they really were, former pugilists; the third, Adolph Bluber, was a short, fat German, with a round, red face and a bull neck; the other, the youngest of the four, was by far the best looking. His smooth face, clear complexion, and large dark eyes might of themselves have proven sufficient grounds for Miranda's jealousy, but supplementing these were a mop of wavy, brown hair, the figure of a Greek god and the grace of a Russian dancer, which, in truth, was what Carl Kraski was when he chose to be other than a rogue.
The girl greeted the four pleasantly, while the Spaniard vouchsafed them but a single, surly nod, as they found chairs and seated themselves at the table.
'Hale!' [cried] Peebles, pounding the table to attract the attention of a waiter, 'let us 'ave hale.'
The suggestion met with unanimous approval, and as they waited for their drink they spoke casually of unimportant things; the heat, the circumstance that had delayed them, the trivial occurrences since they had last met; throughout which Esteban sat in sullen silence, but after the waiter had returned and they drank to Flora, with which ceremony it had long been their custom to signalize each gathering, they got down to business.
'Now,' cried Peebles, pounding the table with his meaty fist, ''ere we are, and that's that! We 'ave everything, Flora—the plans, the money, Senor Miranda—and are jolly well ready, old dear, for your part of it.
'How much money have you?' asked Flora. 'It is going to take a lot of money, and there is no use starting unless you have plenty to carry on with.'
Peebles turned to Bluber. 'There,' he said, pointing a pudgy finger at him, 'is the bloomin' treasurer. 'E can tell you 'ow much we 'ave, the fat rascal of a Dutchman.'
Bluber smiled an oily smile and rubbed his fat palms together. 'Vell,' he said, 'how much you t'ink, Miss Flora, ve should have?'
'Not less than two thousand pounds to be on the safe side,' she replied quickly.
'Oi! Oi!' exclaimed Bluber. 'But dot is a lot of money— two t'ousand pounds. Oi! Oi!'
The girl made a gesture of disgust. 'I told you in the first place that I wouldn't have anything to do with a bunch of cheap screws, and that until you had enough money to carry the thing out properly I would not give you the maps and directions, without which you cannot hope to reach the vaults, where there is stored enough gold to buy this whole, tight, little island if half that what I have heard them say about it is true. You can go along and spend your own money, but you've got to show me that you have at least two thousand pounds to spend before I give up the information that will make you the richest men in the world.'
'The blighter's got the money,' growled Throck. 'Blime if I know what he's beefin' about.'
'He can't help it,' [growled] the Russian, 'it's a racial characteristic; Bluber would try to jew down the marriage license clerk if he were going to get married.'
'Oh, vell,' sighed Bluber, 'for vy should we spend more money than is necessary? If ve can do it for vone t'ousand pounds so much the better.'
'Certainly,' snapped the girl, 'and if it don't take but one thousand, that is all that you will have to spend, but you've got to have the two thousand in case of emergencies, and from what I have seen of that country you are likely to run up against more emergencies than anything else.'
'Oi! Oi!' cried Bluber.
''E's got the money all right,' said Peebles, 'now let's get busy.'
'He may have it, but I want to see it first,' replied the girl.
'Vat you t'ink; I carry all dot money around in my pocket?' cried Bluber.
'Can't you take our word for it?' grumbled Throck.
'You're a nice bunch of crooks to ask me that,' she replied, laughing in the face of the burly ruffians. 'I'll take Carl's word for it, though; if he tells me that you have it, and that it is in such shape that it can, and will, be used to pay all the necessary expenses of our expedition, I will believe him.'
Peebles and Throck scowled angrily, and Miranda's eyes closed to two narrow, nasty slits, as he directed his gaze upon the Russian. Bluber, on the contrary, was affected not at all; the more he was insulted, the better, apparently, he liked it. Toward one who treated him with consideration. or respect he would have become arrogant, while he fawned upon the hand that struck him. Kraski, alone, smiled a self-satisfied smile that set the blood of the Spaniard boiling.
'Bluber has the money, Flora,' he said; 'each of us has contributed his share. We'll make Bluber treasurer, because we know that he will squeeze the last farthing until it shrieks before he will let it escape him. It is our plan now to set out from London in pairs.'
He drew a map from his pocket, and unfolding it, spread it out upon the table before them. With his finger he indicated a point marked X. 'Here we will meet and here we will equip our expedition. Bluber and Miranda will go first; then Peebles and Throck. By the time that you and I arrive everything will be in shape for moving immediately into the interior, where we shall establish a permanent camp, off the beaten track and as near our objective as possible. Miranda will disport himself behind his whiskers until he is ready to set out upon the final stage of his long journey. I understand that he is well schooled in the part that he is to play and that he can depict the character to perfection. As he will have only ignorant natives and wild beasts to deceive it should not tax his histrionic ability too greatly.' There was a veiled note of sarcasm in the soft, drawling tone that caused the black eyes of the Spaniard
