"Whatever you care to risk."
"Then you'll have to name it. Because I don't particularly care to offer you anything.... And please hasten—I'll be missed presently——"
"Won't you bet one day out of your life?"
"No, I won't. I told you I wouldn't."
"Then—one hour. Just a single hour?"
"An hour?"
"Yes, sixty minutes, payable on demand: If I win, you will place at my disposal one entire hour out of your life. Will you dare that much, pretty dancer?"
She laughed, looked up at him; then readjusting her mask, she nodded disdainfully. "Because," she observed, "it is quite impossible for you ever to guess who I am. So do your very worst."
He sprang from the balustrade, landing lightly, his left hand spread over his heart, his bi-corne flourished in the other.
"You are Strelsa Leeds!" he said in a low voice.