y, of course, where she got the
money to purchase the hacienda, but it may have been hoarded in her
family for generations. It is possible, too, that she only then
succeeded in deciphering the map, and tracing the location of the Pool
from it."

"So you and Starr Wiley both failed." Willa spoke as if to herself.

"Not I!" Thode's eyes flashed with determination. "I told you I had
only just begun. I am going to find Tia Juana if she is above ground
and buy out her claim. To her it only means the ancestral estate.
That is much, to be sure, if she has gone through her long life in
poverty and want in order to hoard her riches for its purchase, but it
is only a sentimental consideration. When she learns that she has a
fortune in petroleum, worthless without the money to develop it, I
think she will agree to share her interest. The casa and the land
about it can still be hers, we only want to drain and develop the Pool,
and my chief will be strictly fair with her. The old lady will be rich
beyond her wildest dreams and we will have the greatest producer known
since the Dos Bocas gusher went up in flames!"

Willa rose.

"If you find Tia Juana, Mr. Thode, don't build your hopes too high.
Should she prove to be indeed the owner of the Pool of the Lost Souls,
I am confident that you can never gain possession of it."

"I can try." He took the hand she held out to him. "You seem very
sure, Miss Murdaugh."

"I cannot imagine Tia Juana relinquishing anything which she could
claim, especially if, as you surmise, the property may once have
belonged to her ancestors. Cousin Irene is signaling me. I must go!"
she added. "You will come to-morrow?"

Thode promised, but he watched her slender figure disappear with a
frown of troubled thought. How much did she know? Could it be that
she, too, was interested in the Pool of the Lost Souls? Instead of a
mere contest between himself and Wiley had it become a three-corner
affair, with Willa the apex of the triangle?

Had he but known it, he was destined not to keep his promise of the
morrow, and once more it was Starr Wiley who intervened.

It happened that Thode stopped in at the club after taking leave of the
Erskines, and arrived at a most opportune moment. He was emerging from
the coat-room when a familiar voice came to his ears through the
half-open door of one of the smaller card-rooms, and the words arrested
him like a command.

"The little Murdaugh? Very n