prejudice?

In any event, one could easily imagine the feelings of Alphonso toward
Lockwood, whom he saw carrying off the prize under his very eyes. As for
his mother, we had seen that the Peruvians of her caste were a proud old
race. Her son was the apple of her eye. Who were these to scorn her
race, her family?

It was a little more than an hour after our first meeting when the
party, including Lockwood, who had finished his letters, gathered again
up in the rooms of the Mendozas.

It was a delightful evening, even in spite of the tension on which we
were. We chatted about everything from archeology to Wall Street, until
I could well imagine how anyone possessed of an imagination susceptible
to the influence of mystery and tradition would succumb to the
glittering charm of the magic words, _peje chica_, and feel all the gold
hunter's enthusiasm when brought into the atmosphere of the _peje
grande_. Visions of hidden treasure seemed to throw a glamour over
everything.

Kennedy and the Senorita had moved over to a window, where they were
gazing out on the fairyland of Atlantic Beach spread out before them,
while Lockwood and Don Luis were eagerly quizzing me on the
possibilities of newspaper publicity.

"Oh, Professor Kennedy," I heard her say under her breath, "sometimes I
fear that it is the _mal de ojo_--the evil eye."

I did not catch Craig's answer, but I did catch time and again narrowly
observing Don Luis. Our host was smoking furiously now, and his eyes had
even more than before that peculiar, staring look. By the way his veins
stood out I could see that Mendoza's heart action must be rapid. He was
talking more and more wildly as he grew more excited. Even Lockwood
noticed it and, I thought, frowned.

Slowly the conviction was forced on me. The man was mad--raving mad!

"Really, I must get back to the city tonight," I overheard Craig say to
the Senorita as finally he turned from the window toward us.

Her face clouded, but she said nothing.

"If you could arrange to have us dine with you tomorrow night up here,
however," he added quickly in a whisper, "I think I might be prepared to
take some action."

"By all means," she replied eagerly, as though catching at anything that
promised aid.

On the late train back, I half dozed, wondering what had caused
Mendoza's evident madness. Was it a sort of auto-hypnotism? There was, I
knew, a form of illusion known as ophthalmophobia--fear of the eye. It
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