at you have done for
me, and have no reason to treat you badly. If I did--"

"I would break you," flamed out his employer, angered by the mere
thought. "So long as you serve me well, Silver, I am your friend, and I
shall treat you as I have always done, with every consideration. But you
play any tricks on me, and--" he paused expressively.

"Oh, I won't betray you, if that's what you mean."

"I am quite sure you won't," said the millionaire with emphasis. "For if
you do, you return to your original poverty. And remember, Mark, that
there is nothing in my life which has any need of concealment."

Silver cast a look round the tent and at the rough clothes of the
speaker. "No need of any concealment?" he asked significantly.

"Certainly not," rejoined Pine violently. "I don't wish my gypsy origin
to be known in the Gentile world. But if the truth did come to light,
there is nothing to be ashamed of. I commit no crime in calling myself
by a Gorgio name and in accumulating a fortune. You have no hold over
me." The man's look was so threatening that Silver winced.

"I don't hint at any hold over you," he observed mildly. "I am bound to
you both by gratitude and self-interest."

"Aha. That last is better. It is just as well that we have come to this
understanding. If you--" Pine's speech was ended by a sharp fit of
coughing, and Silver looked at his contortions with a thin-lipped smile.

"You'll kill yourself if you live this damp colonial sort of tent-life,"
was his observation. "Here, take a drink of water."

Pine did so, and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his rough coat.
"You're a Gorgio," he said, weakly, for the fit had shaken him, "and
can't understand how a bred and born Romany longs for the smell of the
smoke, the space of the open country, and the sound of the kalo jib.
However, I did not ask you here to discuss these things, but to take my
instructions."

"About Lady Agnes?" asked the secretary, his eyes scintillating.

"You have had those long ago, although, trusting my wife as I do, there
was really no need for me to ask you to watch her."

"That is very true. Lady Agnes is exceedingly circumspect."

"Is she happy?"

Silver lifted his shoulders. "As happy as a woman can be who is married
to one man while she loves another."

He expected an outburst of anger from his employer, but none came. On
the contrary, Pine sighed, restlessly. "Poor soul. I did her a wrong in
making her my wife. She would