oughts in continued composure lest his quick mind grasp the
significance of her interest.

"The place is spoken of as the Pool of the Lost Souls," Thode went on.
"Surely you have heard of it? The people to whom you were so kind, old
Tia Juana and her grandson, knew more than anyone else about it. Did
they not mention it to you?"

"Tia Juana?" Willa glanced up quickly, but she could not meet his
eyes. "She is very secretive, you know, and jealous of the old legends
which to her form the sacred history of her beloved country. Suppose
you tell me the legend yourself."

Briefly he recounted it to her and, she listened until the end in a
dismayed chaos of mind which culminated in a staggering blow.

"I have found it." There was no jubilation in his tone, but
paradoxically a note of defeat.

"You!" she stammered breathlessly.

"Yes. You seem surprised?" he added with a quick glance at her. "I
know these old legends are mostly regarded as bunk, but now and then
one proves to be a straight tip. Generations have searched vainly for
the Pool, as I thought you must have heard, but they did not know where
to look."

"Then how did you, a newcomer, discover it?" Willa scarcely recognized
her own voice.

"By the simple expedient of following someone else who had stolen a
march on me in a despicable fashion." His jaw set in the old
characteristic way she remembered. "I don't mind admitting that I
would have taken almost any means to locate it; that was my main
objective in Mexico and I was acting under instructions from my chief.
But I would scarcely have stooped to the method employed by the man of
whom I speak."

"Starr Wiley?" The question was wrung from Willa's lips.

He stared at her.

"You know, then?"

"I--I guessed," she countered hurriedly. "I knew that you two were
enemies, of course, and it came to me that if anyone had played a false
trick upon you it must have been he. You say you found the Pool by
following him. How did he know where to search?"

Thode hesitated.

"I found a map of its location, but I had scarcely got my hands upon it
when I was struck down from behind and the paper stolen."

Willa uttered a startled exclamation, but he continued, unheeding.

"Someone found me, hours later, lying unconscious and carried me into
Limasito, where your good friend, Jim Baggott, took care of me. It was
weeks before I was able to be about again, but I had time to think it
all out, Of cours