suppose
you ever ran across him."

"Yes, I think I have." Willa's tone was quite colorless. "At any
rate, I've heard of him.--Oh, there's your father!"

As it happened, the senior Mr. North had been just behind her when she
greeted his son and the latter's opening remarks had given him food for
lively conjecture. Dexterously, considering his bulk, he had
insinuated himself into and through a screening group of people and
rejoined his hostess near the door. Where and when could that boy of
his have encountered Willa Murdaugh?

The man with the scarred forehead took her in to dinner and Willa
listened politely to his rather heavy pleasantries, studying him the
while through narrowed eyes. Of a type foreign to the frequenters of
the Blue Chip, he had not crossed her path in Limasito, but his
previous activities there were an open book to her. She knew that his
methods in acquiring more than one lease had been unscrupulous and his
reputation none too good, yet the man interested her.

"Your cousin tells me that you've been in Mexico yourself." He turned
his small eyes, sleepily bright, upon her. "Says you've picked up an
uncommon lot of knowledge about the petroleum industries."

"I've heard them discussed, that is all," Willa deprecated.
"Naturally, they're the main subject down there, after government
upheavals, of course. It would be a good thing if the States took the
oil lands under protection, wouldn't it?"

He laughed shortly.

"Good for us. It will come in time, too. A few more outrages----"

"Yes." Willa interposed softly. "Even the less important disturbers,
like El Negrito for instance, have their uses."

"El Negrito?" He laid down his knife and fork. "That's what they call
Alvarez, isn't it? I didn't know his fame had spread all over Mexico.
You were at school there, I understand."

Willa shook her head.

"Not lately. I happened to be among those present when El Negrito made
his last sortie from the hills."

"The deuce you were!" The small eyes filmed craftily. "I beg your
pardon, Miss Murdaugh, but you astonish me! I had no idea----! Most
disastrous affair, that."

"Very." Willa dropped her eyes. "That is the worst of the country
down there, those bandit raids. Creatures like El Negrito know no law
but their own; they can't be hired or bribed or coerced and no one
knows when they will take it into their heads to appear, murdering and
looting and burning. It's a pictures