Betty came to Jim Kendric then. She looked up into his eyes and said gently:
"I do trust you. You are the only one I trust. I can look to no one else. If I want you I will call. And you will come to me, won't you?"
"Come to you? Why, bless your heart, I'd come running!"
So Betty and Rios went out and for a little while Jim and Bruce were left alone.
"Bruce, old man," said Kendric, "let's come down to earth. Put your sentimental heart in your pocket and use your brains a while. You know me well enough to know that I won't lie to you. Will you listen to me?"
"Yes. But tell me only what you know, not what you surmise. What do you know against Zoraida Castelmar?"
"I know she is an adventuress, playing for big stakes, stakes so big that in the end they are bound to crush her."
"Speculation, old chap." Bruce smiled faintly. "Keep away from doping out the future and stick to facts."
"So you want facts? All right: She is planning a revolution; she has the mad idea that she can rip Lower California away from the government and make of it a separate empire, herself its queen!"
"Why not? Wilder things have been done. And where would you find a more likely queen?"