rom a distant corner.

The scene was not an unfamiliar one to the young engineer, but he
glanced about him with quickened interest. The walls of the huge room,
like the exterior, were painted a garish blue, the floor bare but
scrubbed clean, and the chairs and tables had been obviously selected
with a view to utility and strength rather than ornamentation. No
attempt had been made to render the place attractive and in this
Gentleman Geoff's psychology was sound; Limasito wanted its play, like
its liquor, without frills.

Leisurely, Thode approached the roulette-table and stood looking over
the shoulder of a burly drill-shirted tool-dresser as the little ball
spun in the whirling wheel and dropped into seventeen. The
tool-dresser grunted with satisfaction and raked in the heap of silver
pushed toward him by the croupier, but one or two of the watchers
turned away. The play was evidently not yet high enough to hold their
interest, and Thode was on the point of following when a hand clapped
his arm.

Turning, he found a tall, lean figure beside him clad in immaculate
white duck from top to toe, with a drooping gray mustache beneath a
high, thin nose, keen, twinkling eyes and a mass of grizzled, waving
hair. He might have been anywhere between forty-five and sixty, and in
a flash his identity was disclosed to the young engineer.

"Howdy!" The hand which had rested on his arm clasped his in a hearty
grip. "Glad to see you here, Sir. My daughter told me to expect you."

"You're Gentleman Geoff?" the younger man asked quickly, smiling in
return. "My name is Thode. I met your daughter yesterday----"

"So she told me." The twinkle brightened in the genial eyes. "I'm
glad of a chance to thank you for helping her with that poor little
cuss, Jose. He's a special favorite of hers. Were you thinking of
sitting in right now, Mr. Thode?"

"Not just yet. I was having a look around----"

"Then come out where it's cool, and have a man-sized drink."

His surprising host led the way to the patio where they found a little
table close by the plashing fountain and a hovering mozo attended to
their needs. When the servant had departed, Gentleman Geoff folded his
arms on the table and leaned forward.

"You're a newcomer, Mr. Thode, and down here we don't ask a man where
he came from or the nature of his business, as long as he attends to it
strictly and doesn't interfere with others. There is no objection to
his play