wine!" he snarled, facing the bitter wind once more and shuffling
along beside his silent brethren.

Puma went east, then north to the Hotel Rajah, where, in a private
room, he was to complete a financial transaction with Alonzo B.
Pawling.

Skidder, too, came in at the same time, squinting rapidly at his
partner; and together they moved toward the elevator.

The elevator waited a moment more to accommodate a willowy, red-haired
girl in furs, whose jade eyes barely rested on Puma's magnificent
black ones as he stepped aside to make way for her with an extravagant
bow.

"Some skirt," murmured Skidder in his ear, as the car shot upward.

Marya left the car at the mezzanine floor: Puma's eyes were like coals
for a moment.

"You know that dame?" inquired Skidder, his eyes fairly snapping.

"No." He did not add that he had seen her at the Combat Club and knew
her to belong to another man. But his black eyes were almost blazing
as he stepped from the elevator, for in Marya's insolent glance he had
caught a vague glimmer of fire--merely a green spark, very faint--if,
indeed, it had been there at all....

Pawling himself opened the door for them.

"Is it all right? Do we get the parcel?" were his first words.

"It's a knock-out!" cried Skidder, slapping him on the back. "We
got the land, we got the plans, we got the iron, we got the
contracts!--Oh, boy!--our dough is in--go look at it and smell it for
yourself! So get into the jack, old scout, and ante up, because we
break ground Wednesday and there'll be bills before then, you
betcha!"

When the cocktails were brought, Puma swallowed his in a hurry, saying
he'd be back in a moment, and bidding Skidder enlighten Mr. Pawling
during the interim.

He summoned the elevator, got out at the mezzanine, and walked lightly
into the deserted and cloister-like perspective, his shiny hat in his
hand.

And saw Marya standing by the marble ramp, looking down at the bustle
below.

He stopped not far away. He had made no sound on the velvet carpet.
But presently she turned her head and the green eyes met his black
ones.

Neither winced. The sheer bulk of the beast and the florid magnificence
of its colour seemed to fascinate her.

She had seen him before, and scarcely noted him. She remembered. But
the world was duller, then, and the outlook grey. And then, too, her
still, green eyes had not yet wandered beyond far horizons, nor had
her heart been cut adrift to follow he