it not that
providentially he himself, in the character of a lost and starving
wayfarer, had chanced upon the scene? His gaze wandered round the room.
Its white-washed walls were bare and cracked, and devoid of ornament,
save for a small but massive silver crucifix hanging above the bed, and
an artistically carved statuette of the Blessed Virgin on a bracket.
These objects, at any rate, pointed to their owner's creed, a heritage
received with his Irish descent, and the plainness, or roughness rather,
of the domicile in general seemed to point to a hard and struggling
existence.

The night brought with it but little respite from the broiling heat of
the day. Not a breath stirred the air. Even with the house door and
all the windows wide open the oppressive stuffiness of the room seemed
wellnigh unbearable. Winged insects, attracted by the light, found
their way in by swarms, and a huge tarantula, leaving his lair in the
thatch, began to walk leisurely down the wall. With something like a
shudder of disgust, the stranger picked up a slipper and shied it at the
hairy monster, with the effect of making him scuttle back to the shelter
of the friendly thatch as fast as his legs could carry him.

The sick man tossed restlessly from side to side, now moaning, now
talking to himself. Listening intently, the watcher noted that the
patient's wildly spoken thoughts seemed to run strongly in two grooves--
diamond seeking, and a member of the other sex. As to the latter, his
voice would assume a thrilling tenderness as he passionately and oft
seemed to be abjuring somebody of the name of Violet. As to the former,
he was alternately despondent and fiercely sanguine, as he alluded again
and again to a certain "Valley of the Eye."

"The Valley of the Eye, by Jove!" muttered the watcher to himself.
"Why, that's the very thing he began about directly I came in. Said it
was going to make our fortunes. There must be something in it--and--
I'll bet a guinea that thing he wears round his neck holds the secret,
or the clue, to it," he added, starting up in excitement over the idea.

He went softly over to the patient. The latter's left hand was
clutching a flat pouch or bag of buckskin which lay upon his chest. It
was suspended from his neck by a stout lanyard of raw hide.

The watcher stood for a few minutes, his eyes glittering with a strange
excitement. A temptation, which was well-nigh irresistible, had come
upon him. W