ce of Hough.

Allie ran to the door, peeped through the crack. Durade sat there like
a wild beast bound. Hough stood erect over a huge golden pile on the
table. The others seemed stiff in their tracks.

"There's a fortune here," went on Hough, indicating the gold. "All I
had--all our gentlemen opponents had--all YOU had... I have won it all!"

Durade's eyes seemed glued to that dully glistening heap. He could not
even look up at the coldly passionate Hough.

"All! All!" echoed Durade.

Then Hough, like a striking hawk, bent toward the Spaniard. "Durade,
have you anything more to bet?"

Durade was the only man who moved. Slowly he arose, shaking in every
limb, and not till he became erect did he unrivet his eyes from that
yellow heap on the table.

"Senor--do you--mock me?" he gasped, hoarsely.

"I offer you my winnings--ALL--FOR THE GIRL YOU HAVE HERE!"

"You are crazy!" ejaculated the Spaniard.

"Certainly... But hurry! Do you accept?"

"Senor, I would not sell that girl for all the gold of the Indies,"
replied Durade, instantly. No vacillation--no indecision in him here.
Hough's offer held no lure for this Spaniard who had committed many
crimes for gold.

"BUT YOU'LL GAMBLE HER!" asserted Hough, and now indeed his words were
mockery. In one splendid gesture he swept his winnings into the middle
of the table, and the gold gave out a ringing clash. As a gambler he
read the soul of his opponent.

Durade's jaw worked convulsively, as if he had difficulty in holding it
firm enough for utterance. What he would not sell for any price he would
risk on a gambler's strange faith in chance.

"All my winnings against this girl," went on Hough, relentlessly. Scorn
and a taunting dare and an insidious persuasion mingled with the passion
of his offer. He knew how to inflame. Durade, as a gambler, was a
weakling in the grasp of a giant. "Come!... Do you accept?"

Durade's body leaped, as if an irresistible current had been shot into
it.

"Si, Senor!" he cried, with power and joy in his voice. In that moment,
no doubt the greatest in his life of gambling, he unconsciously went
back to the use of his mother tongue.

Actuated by one impulse, Hough and Durade sat down at the table. The
others crowded around. Fresno lurched close, with a wicked gleam in his
eyes.

"I was onto Hough," he said to his nearest ally. "It's the girl he's
after!"

The gamblers cut the cards for who should deal. Hough won. For him
victor