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Rh "Mr. Embry," said Beatrice coolly, her voice carrying clearly above the sound of Steele's big crunching boots, "I shall be glad of your escort, after all. I hadn't foreseen a necessity for it …"

The rest was eloquently borne in upon Steele's understanding by the flash of her eyes, disdainfully aware of him; only now that he had unexpectedly appeared were Embry's services to be required.

Steele made no answer until he stood quite close to them where they had come down from the two steps of Hurley's entrance. A moment he stood looking down at her gravely; then his eyes were for Embry alone.

"There happens to be a certain merry warfare on between Miss Corliss and me," he said bluntly. "It's a friendly spat and a square one. Consequently there's no room in it for a crook. Get me, Joe Embry?"

His eyes were like steel now. Beatrice, staring up at him, impressed by the man's physical bigness, felt that odd little thrill go singing through her which she had experienced for the first time when at the Goblet she had watched two men who hated stab at each other with their eyes.

"I am ready if you are, Mr. Embry," she said quickly. "Shall we—"

"Queen or no queen," growled Steele savagely, deep down in his throat, "you're just a little girl, Trixie, and you've got to stand aside when I come to talk with Embry. I'm glad you're here, though. I've just heard that Embry here has said that I am financing the string of rotten dives working through the camps in