ned within her, and fired her ambitions anew. She
felt almost as if she were a creator.

"If Madre only knew," she thought. "She has never quite understood me."

While Claude was working on the new alterations and developments devised
by Crayford--and he worked like a slave driven on by the expectations of
those about him, scourged to his work by their desires--Lake studied the
baritone part in the opera with enthusiasm, and Crayford and Charmian
"put their heads together" over the scenery and the "effects."

"We must have it all cut and dried before I sail," said Crayford. "And I
can't stay much longer; ought really have been back home along by now."

"Let me help you! I'll do anything!" she cried.

"And, by Gee! I believe you could if you set your mind to it," he
answered. "Now, see here--"

They plunged deep into the libretto.

Crayford was resolved to astonish New York with his production of the
opera.

"We'll have everything real," he said. "We'll begin with real Arabs.
I'll have no fake-niggers; nothing of that kind."

That Arabs are not niggers did not trouble him at all. He and Charmian
went down together repeatedly into the city, interviewed all sorts of
odd people.

"I'm out for dancers to-day," he said one morning.

And they set off to "put Algiers through the sieve" for dancing girls.
They found painters, and Crayford took them to the Casbah, and to other
nooks and corners of the town, to make drawings for him to carry away to
New York as a guide to his scenic artist. They got hold of a Fakir, who
had drifted from India to North Africa, and Crayford engaged him on the
spot to appear in one of the scenes and perform some of his marvels.

"Claude"--the composer was Claude to him now--"can write in something
weird to go with it," he said.

And Charmian of course agreed.

It had been decided that the opera should be produced at the New Era
Opera House some time in the New Year, if Claude carried out faithfully
all the changes which Crayford demanded.

"He will. He has promised to do everything you wish," said Charmian.

"You stand by and see to it, little lady," said Crayford. "Happen when
I'm gone, when the slave-driver's gone, eh, he'll get slack, begin to
think he knows more about it than I do! He's not too pleased making the
changes. I can see that."

"It will be all right, I promise you. Claude isn't so mad as to lose the
chance you are offering him."

"It's the chance of a lifetime. I