"So far, , you and Mr. Zaranko seem to have had most of the fun," pronounced my cousin Betty, as we sat at in the Kings' private sittingroom in the Pera Palace.  
Watkins for the moment acted as butler, and we were safe from ears and could talk with freedom.
 
"What interests me," said Hugh thoughtfully, "is how many of those Johnnies you scragged last night."
 
"Only the one, I think," replied Nikka.
 
"You hit another chap," I reminded him.
 
"Yes, but two off their strength doesn't mean any great reduction in their fighting force."
 
"Still, counting in those two and the men they sent off with their women, as Nikka's reported, they'll be a good bit weaker than they were," argued Hugh.
 
"Just the same," insisted Betty, "we ought not to run any unnecessary risks."
 
"Who's we?" I inquired.
 
"See here, Jack," she flashed, "because you're my cousin is no reason why you can me. You might as well understand that I am in this, and I am going to have my part in whatever we do."
 
"Hear, hear," Hugh applauded servilely.
 
Nikka laughed.
 
"How about it, Vernon?" I demanded of my uncle.
 
He spread his hands in a gesture of .
 
"My dear Jack," he said, "you evidently have small acquaintance with the younger feminine generation. Betty is of legal age—I trust, my dear, you have no objection to the revelation of an intimate detail your sex are supposed to cherish in secret?—"
 
"Not a particle, dad," Betty responded cheerfully.
 
"—and within reasonable limits, her is to be depended upon. Moreover, a not unimportant consideration is that she knows how to run a motor, and in our excursions in the Curlew her aid has been of some value.",
 
"Don't be , Jack," urged Hugh. "Give the girl a chance. There are lots of things she can do, short of mixing it with your friend Toutou. I gather that Nikka's lady friend in the hostile camp was not averse—"
 
"That's a different matter," I interrupted, perceiving the on Nikka's face.
 
We had over Kara's personal interest in his fortunes, but even so, the incident, to quote Betty's analysis, was "romantic to the nth degree."
 
"I don't see that it is," asserted Betty stubbornly, "and I intend to play my part. You are short-handed—"
 
"You forget that Nikka has seven men hidden away in Stamboul," I reminded her.
 
"On the contrary, I take them into account," she retorted. "But you have all been saying that it is advisable not to use them, except in a final emergency."
 
"That is true," agreed Nikka. "The more we bring into this row, the noisier it will become. Also, as we before, we ought to have an or two in the hole. Take my advice, and hang on to Wasso Mikali and his young men to the last."
 
"I'm not disputing you," said Betty, still . "What you say is only what I've been saying. But would you mind telling me why you are so set against using your Gypsies?"
 
"If we use them there will be on a big scale," said Nikka . "That sort of thing is bound to become known."
 
"I met Riley-Gratton, the O.C. of the M.P.s this morning, and he gave me a wad of town gossip," cut in Hugh, "but he didn't say anything about our lads' at Tokalji's house."
 
"Oh, we can get away with it once or maybe twice," returned Nikka, "but if we keep it up we'll run into trouble."
 
"No question of it," I said.
 
"Then what are we arguing about?"' demanded Betty.
 
I laughed.
 
"Darn it all," I confessed. "You won't let up, will you? Well, have it your own way. What do you want to do?"
 
"Run you down the Bosphorus after dark for a look at Tokalji's house from the water side," she answered .
 
Hugh intervened.
 
"There's no question in the minds of you two chaps but that any attack ought to come from the water front, is there?" he asked.
 
"It couldn't very well come from the street," replied Nikka. "There's a high, windowless wall and a strong door, and even in that lawless quarter would attend an armed invasion of private property."
 
"Of course," said Betty, her head in the air, "it couldn't be any other way. Now tell us some more about the hiding-place of the treasure."
 
Nikka his shoulders and looked at me.
 
"What more can we say?" I answered. "There's the courtyard and the red stone."
 
"It's not hollow, you said?" up King.
 
"No."
 
"That would indicate a task of some difficulty in loose the covering of the treasure chamber," he remarked. "We have—or rather, I should say, Betty has—taken precautions to install on board the Curlew an equipment of crowbars, pick-axes, , and other tools—"
 
"—and a knotted rope with a grapnel on the end to help in going up the sea-wall," reminded Betty.
 
"True, my dear. Your forethought has been admirable. What I was about to say, however, was that a certain amount of time—I fear, perhaps, an amount of time—will be required to loose the covering of the . How are we to secure ourselves such an opportunity?"
 
"By choosing a time when the occupants of the house are off-watch and their numbers diminished," declared Hugh.
 
"True," agreed Nikka, "yet I confess I don't see how—"
 
And to make a long story short we hashed it over all afternoon until tea-time, without arriving at any clearer view of the outlook before us. By that time we were sick of the discussion, and voted to suspend. Vernon King and Betty went to a reception at the British High Commissioner's, and the rest of us planned to take a walk on the chance of running into Wasso Mikali, who had promised to come over to Pera in the afternoon if his spies picked up any additional information.
 
The first person we saw in the hotel lobby was Montey Hilyer. He hailed us in front of the booking-office.
 
"I say, Chesby," he drawled in tones that reached all the bystanders, "I don't know what sort of a you fellows were up to last night, but really, you know, you can't take liberties with natives in the East—and especially, with their women. Really, old chap, you ought to be careful. In your place, I think I'd clear out of Constantinople. No knowing what kind of trouble you may get into."
 
Hugh was furious. He looked Hilyer up and down with cold scorn.
 
"Are you taking a flyer in , by any chance?" he asked .
 
"Not yet," answered Hilyer cheerfully. "No knowing, though. Matter of fact, at present, I'm protecting some poor natives who fear they are going to be victimized by a gang of foreigners."
 
"Well, whatever you are doing, I should prefer that you keep away from me in the future," said Hugh. "I can't afford to have the Jockey Club hear that I've been talking to you."
 
As it happened, the one episode in Hilyer's piebald past that irked his pride and aroused sore memories was his suspension from the privileges of the turf. He was indifferent to every other charge brought against him. But the man was a sincere horseman, his ventures had been the breath of life to him, his disgrace and compulsion to enter his thoroughbreds under other men's colors had been a bitter blow. And he showed this feeling now. His face went dead-white; his pinched in.
 
"All right, Chesby," he said , "I won't forget that."
 
And he disappeared into the bar.
 
"Curse the rotter," muttered Hugh. "I'm glad something will him on the raw."
 
"You were hard on him," said Nikka seriously. "After all, why should you mind anything that he can say?"
 
"He was hoping that Miss King was within hearing distance," retorted Hugh. "He said what he did deliberately to smut on all of us. A dog like that doesn't deserve consideration."
 
"Some people believe a dog does deserve consideration, Lord Chesby," said a feminine voice behind us.
 
We turned to face Hélène de Cespedes. The Countess Sandra Vassilievna was with her. Maude Hilyer, her face as ghastly as her husband's, was hurrying away from them.
 
"You may be enemies, but why should you make a woman cry?" added the Russian girl. "She will be unhappy for the rest of the day."
 
"I'm very sorry," answered Hugh stiffly, "but do you sincerely believe that her husband is entitled to insult me in public?"
 
"It was a rotten thing he said," admitted Hélène . "And of course, he is a rotter. But as I told you boys once, they are a queer pair, and Maudey—well, she really thinks that if they ever get to a state of , they can both turn around and live straight. It's damned silly, but—do you believe in fairies? Those who don't, generally envy those who do."
 
"We don't believe in fairies," I answered good-temperedly, "and we also don't believe in letting a man who is a thief get away with a insult."
 
"Oh, you're right," said Sandra Vassilievna , "from your own point of view. But I'm going up to tell Maudey that she'll only ruin her if she weeps for what an offensively honest man says to her."
 ............