your pockets, Headlong, would it?" he
asked. "Bulgin' full? And you wouldn't mind a scrap or two and a blow
or two in the job, would you?"

"Watch your step, Twisty, old timer," said Kendric. "Rios has been
talking revolution to you, has he? Sometimes an uprising down here is
a nasty mess that it's easier to get into than out of again. And, if
we get our hooks on the loot that brought us down here, why should we
want to mix it with the federal government?"

Barlow began tugging at his forelock.

"I'm up a tree, Jim," he muttered at last. "Clean up a tree."

"Then look out you light on your feet instead of on your head when you
decide to come down. It would be easy to make a mistake right now."

"Yes, easy; dead easy.--Old Headlong counseling caution!" Barlow
laughed but with little genuine mirth.

"I want a straight talk with you, Twisty," said Kendric soberly. "I
for one don't like the lay-out here and I'm going to break for the
open. You and I have fallen among a pack of damned thieves, to draw it
mild. It strikes me we'd better understand each other."

"Right!" cried Barlow eagerly. "Let's talk straight from the shoulder."

But events, or rather Zoraida Castelmar who sought to usurp destiny's
prerogatives here, ruled otherwise. There came a quiet rap at the
door, then the voice of one of the housemaids, saying:

"La Senorita Zoraida desires immediately to speak with Senor Barlow."

Barlow, just easing himself into a chair, jumped up.

"Coming," he called.

Kendric, too, sprang up, his hand locking hard upon Barlow's arm.

"Twisty," he said, "hold on a minute. The house isn't on fire."

"Well?" Barlow's impatience glared out of his eyes. "What is it?"

"I've got a very large, life-sized suspicion that it would be just as
well if you sent back word you couldn't come. At least, not until
we've had our talk."

"She said immediately," said Barlow. And then, "You don't want me to
see her? Why?"

"Because, it you want to know, she isn't good for you. She'll seek to
draw you in on this fool scheme of hers, and if you don't look out
you'll do just what she says do. There never was a mere woman like
her. She's uncanny, man! She will give you the same line of mad talk
she gave me, she will make you the same sorts of offers----"

"You've seen her then? Tonight? While I was out with Rios you were
with her?"

"Yes. And not because I found any pleasure in her company, either."

Barl