saw through those lies! While she listened to his purring mendacities
she must struggle to refrain from casting his untruths in his teeth.
Bridle herself she did; but she watched and reflected and resolved the
wrongful more. Now with the coming of the _Zulu Queen_, the one thing
certain was that she, the despised San Reve, would be cast off,
abandoned. Those love-lies of Storri were intended to blind her into
foolish security; he did not wish the elopement designed by him and Miss
Harley to encounter obstruction. Thus did the San Reve solve the
problem: while Storri would be for misleading her, Miss Harley was
hood-winking the Harleys. For a moment the San Reve thought of notifying
the Harleys. Then in her desperation she put the impulse aside. Of what
avail would be a call upon the Harleys? It might defer; it could not
prevent. No, she must adopt the single course by which both her love and
her vengeance would be made secure forever. She would take Storri from
Miss Harley; and, taking him, she the San Reve would keep him for
herself throughout eternity! The present life was the prey of
separations, of lies, of loves grown cold; she, with Storri in her arms,
would seek another!

At ten o'clock Steamboat Dan was to show a momentary light in the mouth
of the drain. This would be the signal for the _Zulu Queen_ to send her
launch ashore and begin taking the gold aboard. Storri programmed his
own appearance at the drain for sharp ten. As he left the water-front,
following the appearance of the _Zulu Queen_, he cast his eye hopefully
upward at the threatening clouds; a down-pouring storm would be the
thing most prayed for.

Until it was time to start for the drain to oversee the transfer of the
gold, Storri would remain with the San Reve. He was none too confident
of the San Reve; of late she had been too silent, too sad, too much
wrapped in thought. And this was the night of nights upon which Storri
must be sure. In favor of his own security, Storri must know to a verity
both the temper and the whereabouts of the San Reve.

Five minutes before Storri reached Grant Place, the rain fell in a
deluge. The San Reve, more fortunately swift, was home in advance of the
rain and came in bone-dry. When Storri arrived, his garments streaming
water, she wore the look of one who had not been out of the house for an
afternoon. Only, if Storri had observed the San Reve's eyes, and added
their expression, so strangely reckless yet so res