log and wondering if he could be the man for whom Matak had sought
so many years.

He found Matak sitting crosslegged upon the floor fastening brass
buttons into some uniforms which had just returned from the
_lavendera_. Terry stopped before him:

"Matak, I want to thank you for reminding me of my gun. As it
happened, it didn't do any harm."

Stepping to the window he blew a blast upon his whistle, an unusual
summons that brought Mercado running across the plaza in most
unsoldierly fashion. Entering, he cracked his heels in salute, his eye
agleam with hope that the break had come. Terry dismissed Matak from
the room before addressing him.

"Sergeant, do you know anybody in this Gulf who has an albino left
eye--an eye that is all white but the pupil?"

"No, sir."

"Who might know?"

"The Chino Lan Yek, sir. He knows everybody--everybody owes him money,
sir!"

"Fetch him here."

In a few minutes Lan Yek stood before Terry, his Mongolian
imperturbability shaken by this night summons from an officer of the
law. With the natives' love of ragging a Chinamen, Mercado had been
very stern and mysterious concerning his mission--and Lan Yek knew a
thing or two about opium smuggling that bothered him as he faced the
American.

Terry repeated his inquiry regarding the identity of the white-eyed
native, and Lan Yek's response was startlingly illuminating.

"Yes, me know him. Me know white-eyed fellah. His name Malabanan!"

Malabanan! This had been the "visit" they had told Ledesma's wife they
would pay Terry.

"Lan Yek, when did you see him last?"

"To-night he come, buy cigalet, no pay--talk 'Melican talk--tell me
'Go to Hell.'"

Terry gestured his dismissal and the nervous Celestial scurried away,
relieved that the interrogation had not been intimate.

Terry briefly recounted to Mercado what had occurred on the dock,
ordered him to send out a patrol at once to circle the town at a
distance of five miles to discover if possible upon what trail the
pair had ridden out, emphasizing that the patrol was to return and
report to him, regardless of the hour of arrival.

"And hold the men in instant readiness. I may need them at any moment
during the night."

There was at least one supremely happy man in the Gulf that night, for
the Sergeant's joy was a living thing as he departed to put the orders
into effect.

A moment later Terry heard the kitchen door open slowly, and looking
up he beheld the mottled face an