Carmen, in a low voice, to the old squirrel
poisoner.

They stood together in the grove of bamboos, where they had talked about
Nick, and about "old Grizzly Gaylor," on the May night when Nick was
leaving for New York. Counting by time, that was not long ago. But
Carmen's whole outlook on life was changed. She felt and looked years
older.

"That's all right then, my lady," Simeon Harp answered. "The whole thing's
all right. Don't you worry."

"Oh, I do worry. Every minute I'm in hell," she groaned. "Oh, Simeon, what
will become of me?"

"You'll be happy, and marry the man you love, my lady," the old man
soothed her, the red-rimmed eyes, which had once been handsome, sending
out a faint gleam of the one emotion that still burned in the ashes of his
wrecked soul: devotion to the woman who had saved his life, who had given
him a roof and food, and--above all--drink.

"I can never be happy again, whatever happens," Carmen said, with anguish.
"He loves some one else. He doesn't care for me."

"He'll learn to care. This slip of a thing that's come between you and
'im, my lady, will fly away out of his mind like a bit of thistledown.
When I'm done with her--she's got rid of for good."

"Oh, but the horror of it--the getting rid of her! It don't weaken one
bit, Simeon. I've brought her here for that, _just that_, and it shall be
done. In some moods, for a minute or two, I rejoice in the thought of it.
I want it. I'd even like to be there and see. Madame Vestris says that in
my last incarnation I was a Roman Empress--that I used to go to the
gladiator shows, and turn my thumb down, as a sign that the wounded ones
who failed in the fight were to be killed by their conquerors in the
arena. And that, once when I hated a Christian girl, I went to see her
killed by lions. She--Madame Vestris--watched the whole scene in her
crystal. Very likely it's true, what she says. I believe in her. She's
wonderful. But I'm softer in this incarnation than in the last, I guess.
It frightens me and turns me sick when I think how I shall dream and wake
up nights afterward--even if I'm married to Nick. Oh, it's awful! But it's
the only way. He was meant for me! He's mine. She'll have to go. And I
don't care how much I suffer, if only I have him for my husband in the
end."

"You'll have him," said Simeon Harp. "It's going to be. And there ain't no
need for you to dream bad dreams. _You_ ain't doing the thing. It's me. It
was me thought of it