move and counter-move, check and checkmate, it was characteristic of
both of them that Hanson's obvious infatuation and her equally obvious
return of it were never mentioned between them.

With Hughie it was different, and Pearl met his petulant remonstrance,
his boyish withdrawal of the usual confiding intimacy which existed
between them, with laughter and caresses. As for Mrs. Gallito, she alone
was unchanged, apparently quite oblivious to storm conditions in the
mental atmosphere. But this was not unusual; when matters of importance
were transacted in the Gallito household Mrs. Gallito did not count.

But these disturbing conditions could not daunt Pearl's high spirits;
she was like flame, and the light of her eye, the glow on her cheek, the
buoyancy of her step were not all due to the ardor of her loving and the
joy of being ardently loved. There was also the zest of intrigue.

And, oh! what a mad and splendid game she and Hanson played together!
He rose to her every soaring audacity; they took almost impossible
chances as lightly as a hunter takes a hurdle. The lift of her eyelash,
an imperceptibly significant gesture, a casual word spoken in
conversation, these Hanson met with an incredible quickness of
understanding. It was a game at which he was master, and which he had
played many times before, but never had his intuitions been so keen, his
always rapid comprehension been so stimulated.

Beneath the eye of another master of intrigue, Gallito, watchful as a
spider, they met and loved until, it seemed to Hanson, that the whole,
wide desert rang with their glorious laughter. And through it all
Francisco Gallito sat and smoked and sipped his cognac imperturbably;
apparently unruffled by defeat, a defeat--the Pearl with subtle