ce, or
rather, the tonelessness of the voice--what her finding out meant for
Don. I read by all signs that she was making him suffer atrociously and
I owed that girl a grudge. She'd taken him from me. For the first time a
power stronger than mine was at work; and yet, things being as they were,
my hope of getting him back lay in her."

"What do you mean?" The question spoke itself. Annesley's lips felt cold
and stiff. Her hands, nervously clasped in her lap, were cold, too,
though the shut-up room had but lately seemed hot as a furnace.

"I mean, if the girl behaved as I thought she would behave--as I think
you have behaved--he might grow tired of her and the cast-iron coat of
virtue he'd put on to please her. He might grow tired of life on a ranch
if his wife made him eat ashes and wear sack-cloth. That was my hope.
Well, I sent a messenger to find out how the land lay a few weeks ago."

"The Countess de Santiago!" Annesley exclaimed.

"He told you?"

"No, I saw her. I--by accident--(it really was by accident!) I heard
things. He doesn't know--I believe he doesn't know--I was there."

"Perhaps that's just as well. Perhaps not. But if I were you I'd tell him
when the right time comes. The Countess wrote me she'd had her journey in
vain, and why. She said--spitefully it struck me--that Don was bewitched
by his wife, a cold, cruel creature with ice in her veins, who treated
him like a dog."

"She said that to you, too?"

"Yes, she said that. She seemed to gather the impression. But the dog
stuck to his kennel. Nothing _she_ could do would tempt him to budge. So
I decided to call here myself, on the way back from Mexico. I couldn't
delay the trip. A man was waiting for me. And waiting quietly is
difficult in Mexico just now. I got what I wanted, and crammed the lot
into this bag, which cost me at the outside, if I remember, five dollars.
A good idea of mine for putting thieves off the track. They expect sane
men to carry nightgowns and newspapers in such bags. I thought I'd
managed so well that I'd put the gang who follow me about, generally on
'spec,' off the track.

"I speak Spanish well. I've been passing for a Mexican lawyer from
Chihuahua. But to-day I caught a look from a pair of eyes in a train. I
fancied I'd seen those eyes before--and the rest of the features. Perhaps
I imagined it. But I don't think so. I trust my instinct. I advise you
to! It's a tip.

"At El Paso I bought a ticket for Albuquerque. T