It will keep us out of temptation.''

``Yes, exactly,'' said Clay, with a guilty smile, ``it will keep
us out of temptation.''

So they cleared away the underbrush, and put a double force of
men to work on what was to be the most beautiful and comfortable
bungalow on the edge of the harbor. It had blue and green and
white tiles on the floors, and walls of bamboo, and a red roof of
curved tiles to let in the air, and dragons' heads for water-
spouts, and verandas as broad as the house itself. There was an
open court in the middle hung with balconies looking down
upon a splashing fountain, and to decorate this patio, they
levied upon people for miles around for tropical plants and
colored mats and awnings. They cut down the trees that hid the
view of the long harbor leading from the sea into Valencia, and
planted a rampart of other trees to hide the iron-ore pier, and
they sodded the raw spots where the men had been building, until
the place was as completely transformed as though a fairy had
waved her wand above it.

It was to be a great surprise, and they were all--Clay,
MacWilliams, and Langham--as keenly interested in it as though
each were preparing it for his honeymoon. They would be walking
together in Valencia when one would say, ``We ought to have that
for the house,'' and without question they would march into the
shop together and order whatever they fancied to be sent out to
the house of the president of the mines on the hill. They
stocked it with wine and linens, and hired a volante and six
horses, and fitted out the driver with a new pair of boots that