"There's no fear of him losing them. He may have to fight for them,
but he'll never lose them I know him too well for that."

Helen's eyes opened wide.

"He may have to fight for them," she echoed. "Do you mean that?"

"No--no, of course not," said the president hastily. "No one will even
know he has them in his possession. We have kept the matter very
quiet."

Mr. Steell shrugged his shoulders. Drily he said:

"Oh, I guess Ken is big enough to take care of himself. It does look
as if it were tempting Providence to carry loose on one's person
valuables for so large an amount, but it's hardly likely that any of
the denizens of the underworld know of his departure. Still less that
he is carrying a million loose in his clothes. I don't see that
there's any reason to worry."

"That's precisely my opinion," said a musical voice immediately behind
them.

All started and looked up. Everyone had been so intent on the
conversation that they had not noticed a man who had entered the room.

He was a tall, dark-complexioned man of five and thirty with strong,
stern features, which, in repose, were actually forbidding. The mouth,
partly concealed by a long, bristling moustache, was firm, suggesting
relentless will power, and his eyes, restless, keen and searching, had
taken in every person there long before anyone was aware of his
presence. He was fashionably, even elegantly dressed, and on his left
hand he wore a solitaire of uncommon size and luster. His hair,
carefully curled, scented and parted, was extraordinarily dark,
contrasting sharply with the unusual pallor of his face. He spoke low
and musically, with a slight foreign accent.

Helen started involuntarily on hearing the sound of his voice, and a
cloud passed momentarily over her face. It lasted only a moment. She
was too tactful, too much the woman of the world not to greet with at
least apparent cordiality any visitor under her roof, no matter how
unwelcome he might really be. Turning quickly, she advanced and held
out her hand.

"How do you do, Signor Keralio? How you startled us! I did not hear
you come in."

The newcomer's black eyes flashed, and his thin lips parted in a smile
as he bent low and ceremoniously kissed his hostess' hand in
continental fashion. Fond, as are most men of the Latin race, of
making extravagant compliments, he murmured softly:

"Your tiny ears, Madam, were not intended to distinguish such gross
sounds as o