they were leaving at noon.

She looked up at him sharply as he stood looking in. "Heard the
latest?" she asked.

"What is the latest?" questioned Burke.

"That dirty dog you thrashed last night--Kieff; he's dead," she
told him briefly. "Killed himself with an overdose of opium, died
at Hoffstein's early this morning." She glanced beyond him at
Sylvia who stood behind. "And a good job, too," she said
vindictively. "He's ruined more people in this town than I'd like
to be responsible for--the filthy parasite. He was the curse of
the place."

Burke turned with a movement that was very deliberate. He also
looked at Sylvia. For a long moment they stood so, in the man's
eyes a growing hardness, in the woman's a horror undisguised.
Then, with a very curious smile, Burke put his hand through his
wife's arm and turned her towards the room where breakfast awaited
them.

"Come and have something to eat, partner!" he said, his voice very
level and emotionless.

She went with him without a word; but her whole being throbbed and
quivered under his touch as if it were torture to her. Stark and
hideous, the evil thing reared itself in her path, and there was no
turning aside. She saw him, as she had seen him on the night of
her arrival, as she had seen him the night after, as she believed
that she would always see him for the rest of her life. And the
eyes that looked into hers--those eyes that had held her, dominated
her, charmed her--were the eyes of a murderer. Go where she would,
there could be no escape for her for ever. The evil thing had her
enchained.

CHAPTER V

THE LAND OF BLASTED HOPES

They were still at breakfast when Kelly came dashing in full of the
news of the death of Kieff. No one knew whether it had been
accidental or intentional, but he spoke--as the girl in the office
had spoken--as if a curse had been lifted from the town. And
Sylvia sat at the table and listened, feeling as if her heart had
been turned to ice. The man had died by his own hand, but she
could not shake from her the feeling that she and Burke had been
the cause of his death.

She saw Kelly for a few minutes alone when the meal was over, and
whispered her thanks to him for what he had done with regard to
Guy. He would scarcely listen to her, declaring it had been a
pleasure to serve her, that it had been the easiest thing in the
world, and that now it was done she must not worry any more.

"But was it really