e no fear."

* * * * *

Thirty-six hours later Bones stood before the woman D'rona Gufuri.

"Lord," said the woman, "men speak evilly of me to Sandi, and now you
have come to take me to the Village of Irons."

"That is true, D'rona," said Bones, and looked into her eyes.

"Lord," said the woman, speaking slowly, "you shall go back to Sandi and
say, 'I have not seen the woman D'rona'--for, lord, is this not truth?"

"I'wa! I'wa!" muttered Bones thickly.

"You cannot see me Tibbetti, and I am not here," said the woman, and she
spoke before the assembled villagers, who stood, knuckles to teeth,
gazing awe-stricken upon the scene.

"I cannot see you," said Bones sleepily.

"And now you cannot hear me, lord?"

Bones did not reply.

The woman took him by the arm and led him through the patch of wood
which fringes the river and separates beach from village. None followed
them; even the two Houssas who formed the escort of Lieutenant Tibbetts
stayed rooted to the spot.

Bones passed into the shadow of the trees, the woman's hand on his arm.
Then suddenly from the undergrowth rose a lank figure, and D'rona of the
Magic Eye felt a bony hand at her throat. She laughed.

"O man, whoever you be, look upon me in this light, and your strength
shall melt."

She twisted round to meet her assailant's face, and shrieked aloud, for
he was blind. And Bones stood by without moving, without seeing or
hearing, whilst the strong hands of the blind witch-doctor, whose
daughter she had slain, crushed the life from her body.

* * * * *

"Of course, sir," explained Bones, "you may think she mesmerized me. On
the other hand, it is quite possible that she acted under my influence.
It's a moot point, sir an' Excellency--jolly moot!"

CHAPTER XII

THE HOODED KING

There was a certain Portuguese governor--this was in the days when
Colhemos was Colonial Minister--who had a small legitimate income and an
extravagant wife. This good lady had a villa at Cintra, a box at the
Real Theatre de Sao Carlos, and a motor-car, and gave five o'clocks at
the Hotel Nunes to the aristocracy and gentry who inhabited that spot,
of whom the ecstatic Spaniard said, "dejar a Cintra, y ver al mundo
entero, es, con verdad caminar en capuchera."

Since her husband's salary was exactly $66.50 weekly and the upkeep of
the villa alone was twice that amount, it is not difficult to underst