to disturb any run of luck that seems inclined to drift my
way. Would you give your luck the double cross?"

"I suppose not," said Hamil vaguely--"if I ever had any."

"That's the way I feel. And it's all kinds of luck that's chasing me.
_All_ kinds, Hamil. One kind, for example, wears hair that matches my
cuff-links. Odd, isn't it?" he added, examining the golden links with a
smile.

Hamil nodded inattentively.

"I am about seven thousand dollars ahead on the other sort of luck,"
observed Malcourt. "If it holds to-night I'll inaugurate a killing that
will astonish the brothers B. yonder. By the way, now that you have
your club ticket why don't you use it?--one way or another."

"Perhaps," replied Hamil listlessly.

A few minutes later Malcourt, becoming bored, genially took his leave;
and Hamil turned on an electric jet and began to undo his collar and
tie.

He was in no hurry; at times he suspended operations to pace aimlessly
to and fro; and after a while, half undressed, he dropped into an
arm-chair, clinched hands supporting his temples.

Presently he said aloud to himself: "It's absolutely impossible. It
can't happen this way. How can it?"

His heavy pulse answered the question; a tense strain, irksome as an
ache, dragged steadily at something within him which resisted; dulling
reason and thought.

For a long time he sat there inert, listening for the sound of her voice
which echoed at moments through the stunned silence within him. And at
last he stumbled to his feet like a stricken man on the firing line,
stupefied that the thing had happened to _him_; and stood unsteadily,
looking around. Then he went heavily about his dressing.

Later, when he was ready to leave his room, he heard Malcourt walking
through the corridor outside--a leisurely and lightly stepping Malcourt,
whistling a lively air. And, when Malcourt had passed came Cecile
rustling from the western corridor, gay, quick-stepping, her enchanting
laughter passing through the corridor like a fresh breeze as she joined
Mrs. Carrick on the stairs. Then silence; and he opened his door. And
Shiela Cardross, passing noiselessly, turned at the sound.

His face must have been easy to read for her own promptly lost its
colour, and with an involuntary recoil she stepped back against the
wall, staring at him in pallid silence.

"What is the matter?" he asked, scarcely recognising his own voice. And
striving to shake off the unreality of it all wi