, with her quick smile. "And who but M'sieu
Nilan should admit it?"

"Very clever," repeated Neeland, still amazed and profoundly uneasy.
"But this Yellow Devil you say I brought into Europe must have been
resting in America, then. And, if so, why is there no war there?"

"There would have been--with Mexico. You brought the Yellow Demon
here, but just in time!"

"All right. Grant that, then. But--perhaps he was a long time resting
in America. What about that, pretty gipsy?"

The girl shrugged again:

"Is your memory so poor, M'sieu Nilan? What has your country done but
fight since Erlik rested among your people? You fought in Samoa; in
Hawaii; your warships went to Chile, to Brazil, to San Domingo; the
blood of your soldiers and sailors was shed in Hayti, in Cuba, in the
Philippines, in China----"

"Good Lord!" exclaimed Neeland. "That girl is dead right!"

Sengoun threw back his handsome head and laughed without restraint;
and the gipsies laughed, too, their beautiful eyes and teeth flashing
under their black cascades of unbound hair.

"Show me your palms," said Nini, and drew Sengoun's and Neeland's
hands across the table, holding them in both of hers.

"See," she added, nudging Fifi with her shoulder, "both of them born
under the Dark Star! It is war they shall live to see--war!"

"Under the Dark Star, Erlik," repeated the other girl, looking closely
into the two palms, "and there is war there!"

"And death?" inquired Sengoun gaily. "I don't care, if I can lead a
_sotnia_ up Achi-Baba and twist the gullet of the Padisha before I say
Fifi--Nini!"

The gipsies searched his palm with intent and brilliant gaze.

"_Zut!_" said Fifi. "_Je ne vois rien que d'l'amour et la guerre aux
dames!_"

"_T'en fais pas!_" laughed Sengoun. "I ask no further favour of
Fortune; I'll manage my regiment myself. And, listen to me, Fifi," he
added with a frightful frown, "if the war you predict doesn't arrive,
I'll come back and beat you as though you were married to a Turk!"

While they still explored his palm, whispering together at intervals,
Sengoun caught the chorus of the air which the orchestra was playing,
and sang it lustily and with intense pleasure to himself.

Neeland, unquiet to discover how much these casual strangers knew
about his own and intimate affairs, had become silent and almost
glum.

But the slight gloom which invaded him came from resentment toward
those people who had followed him from Brookhol