“She could not keep away from me,” Jose rolled his eyes sentimentally.  “You see beneath that rough old jacket of her husband’s which she wears there beats a heart.”

“I got some’p’n else that can beat and that’s a fist.”  She stretched out her arm and drew it back, gazing with pride at her great, swelling muscles.

“But never me, who will tidy your cabin and cook half your meals for you.”  He smiled ingratiatingly at Mrs. Thomas, who grew deeply pink under his admiring smile.  “Why do you not convert Saint Harry?”

“Harry’s all right,” she said.  “You need convertin’, he don’t.  I got an idea that he’s been right through the fiery furnace like them Bible boys in their asbestos coats, he’s smelted.”

“Harry got my telegram?” asked Gallito, speaking in a low tone, after first glancing toward Pearl, “and you have made a room ready for her?”

“Clean as a convent cell,” said Jose, with his upcurling, mordant smile.  “The wind has roared through it all day and swept away every trace of tobacco and my thoughts.”

“That is well,” replied Gallito with a sardonic twist of the mouth, “and where do you sleep to-night?”

“In Saint Harry’s cabin.”

“So,” Gallito nodded as if content.  “That will be best.”

“Best for both,” agreed Jose, a flicker of mirth on his face.  “My constant companionship is good for Harry.  It is not well to think you have shown the Devil the door, kicked him down the hill and forgotten him; and that he has taken his beating, learned his lesson and gone forever.  It is then that the Devil is dangerous.  It is better, Gallito, believe me, to remain on good terms with him, to humor him and to pass the time of day.  Humility is a great virtue and you should be willing to learn something even of the Devil, not set yourself up on a high, cold, sharp mountain peak, where you keep his fingers itching from morning to night to throw you off.  I have observed these things through the years of my life, and the middle course is ever the safest.  Give to the church, observe her laws as a true and obedient son, in so far as possible, and only so far.  Let her get her foot on your neck and she will demand such sacrifices!” He lifted his hands and rolled his eyes upward, “but the Devil is more reasonable; treat him civilly, be a good comrade to him and he will let you alone.  But Saint Harry does not understand that.  Saint Harry on his ice peak, and the Devil straddling around trying to find a foothold so that he can climb up to Harry and seize him with those itching fingers.  Ho, ho!” Jose’s laughter rang loud and shrill.

Pearl, hearing it, turned from the window with a disturbed frown and began to walk up and down the far end of the room, and Mrs. Nitschkan frowned ominously.  “That’s enough of your talk, Jose,” she said peremptorily.  “It sounds like blasphemin’ to me, talkin’ about the Devil that light way.  Remember one of the reasons I come here.  Gallito, you’d better lay out the cards and let’s get down to our game.  What’s the limit?”