“The treasure never mattered very much to me, did it? You have done your best to help me find my father, and for that I am willing to help you with this other thing. But I am beginning to think that neither of the quests is real.”
She added impulsively:
“Twice I have left the most real thing in my life––once at home and once in Bogova. I shall not do it again.”
“You refer to Wilson?”
“Yes. Here in the mountains––here with Flores and his wife, I am beginning to see.”
“What, my girl?”
“That things of to-day are better worth than things of to-morrow.”
Sorez shifted a bit uneasily. He had come to care a great deal for the girl––to find her occupying the place in his heart left empty by the death of the niece who lived in Boston. He was able less and less to consider her impersonally even in the furtherance of this project. He would have given one half the fortune he 295 expected, really to be able to help the girl to her father. He had lied––lied, taking advantage of this passionate devotion to entice her to the shores of this lake with her extraordinary gift of crystal-seeing. He was beginning to wonder if it were worth while. At any rate, he would be foolish not to reap the reward of his deceit at this point.
“Well,” he concluded brusquely, “we must not get gloomy on the eve of victory. To-morrow the moon is full––do you think you will be strong enough to come with me to-morrow night to the shrine of the Golden Man?”
“Yes,” she answered indifferently.