Copyright, 1918, by
W. J. WATT & COMPANY

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. [GENTLEMAN GEOFF'S BILLIE]
II. [A SUPERFLUOUS KNIGHT-ERRANT]
III. [THE COMING OF EL NEGRITO]
IV. [GENTLEMAN GEOFF PASSES THE DEAL]
V. [A GRINGO CINDERELLA]
VI. [TIA JUANA'S CAULDRON COOLS]
VII. [ALIEN KIN]
VIII. [WILLA SITS IN]
IX. [BIRDS OF A FEATHER]
X. [AN ACE IN THE HOLE]
XI. [A CHANGE OF FRONT]
XII. [COALS OF FIRE]
XIII. [THE CHALLENGE]
XIV. [THE KNIGHT-ERRANT ONCE MORE]
XV. [GONE]
XVI. [THE POOL OF THE LOST SOULS]
XVII. [ANGIE SCORES]
XVIII. [MIDNIGHT FOR CINDERELLA]
XIX. [THE VENDER OF TOMALES]
XX. [WINNIE MASON STANDS BY]
XXI. [THE RETURN OF TIA JUANA]
XXII. [WHERE TRAILS MEET]
XXIII. [THE SLIPPER OF CINDERELLA]
XXIV. [THE LOST SOULS' TREASURE]
XXV. [INTO HER OWN]

THE FIFTH ACE

CHAPTER I

GENTLEMAN GEOFF'S BILLIE

Kearn Thode mounted his pinto and rode out of the courtyard of the Baggott Hotel and down the Calle Rivera under a seething tropic sun. Limasito's principal street was well-nigh deserted in the lethargy of the noon-day siesta, but the flower-market was a riotous blaze of color in the glistening white plaza, from which radiated broad vistas of fantastically painted adobe and soberer concrete, ending in a soft green blur.

The young petroleum engineer had pictured a ten-year-old boom town in the Mexican oil belt as a wilderness of rough shacks and board sidewalks, with possibly a dancehall or two and an open-air movie as the only attractions, and the thriving little city had proved a welcome surprise.

"Limasito," he mused. "That means 'Little Lemon.' Wonder who tacked that name to this burg? Peach of a town, I call it."