ng ones, but he liked them in their places,
not in the larger affairs of life. When they insisted upon mixing
themselves up with such affairs, they ceased, in his estimation, to be
pretty girls and became merely tiresome members of the other sex.

Had Polly Street given in to his proposals of escape he would have felt in
a better temper with her, but he would not have been at all tempted to
fall in love with her. He had been in the mood for that once--the night
they had come over from Conejo together--but Fate, or the girl herself, or
Marc Scott, he had hardly taken the time to decide which, had interfered
and that was over.

Pachuca bore Polly no ill will for her part in that affair. That was her
province--a love affair. A lady had the privilege of granting or denying
her favors; it was not always because she wanted to that she denied them.
He knew a good deal about that sort of thing and he was willing to give
and take very agreeably in the game of love, without repining if things
didn't seem to be going his way.

This, however, was a question of business and Juan Pachuca considered that
any woman who could get ahead of him in a matter of business would have to
get up exceedingly early in the morning. He would get out of that room or
he would know the reason why. It was highly important that he should. In
fact, his plans for the next few days depended absolutely upon his so
doing.

Pachuca's business head, for all his conceit about it, was exceedingly
primitive. His had been rather a primitive career from its beginning.
Hard's story of the actress, while not entirely correct, had its
foundation in fact. Pachuca had been disgraced; to be disgraced in any
manner is bad enough, but to be disgraced for doing something that you
know quite well is being done in perfect security by most of the people
with whom you are connected is particularly galling.

Aching to thwart the government he hated, Pachuca hastened to ally himself
with its particular enemy and to work against it with all the impetuosity
of his nature. But Francisco Villa was not an easy man for anyone as heady
as Juan Pachuca to get on with. There were quarrels and more quarrels, and
finally Pachuca, again disgusted with the world and its people, retired to
private life.

He was not, however, built for private life. Some of us are like that. We
need the excitement and the stimulus of action to bring out our better
points. Also, Pachuca's friends were not o