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the silence as he waited for his companion to speak—to take his mind off the memory of Sarah St. James's moist red mouth and the smell of her night-warm skin.
    "Have you ever wondered, just for a moment, how the other half lives, Morgan?"
    "Nah." He shook his head and tilted up his whiskey flask. He almost laughed at the lie. He'd fantasized about being rich all his life.
    "Think of it for a moment," Henry continued. "Imagine a dining room sixty feet long and ceilings soaring twenty feet high. Think of Carrara marble, crystal chandeliers, brocade drapes, and velvet-covered walls."
    "Sounds like a whore's boudoir."
    Henry raised one eyebrow and scowled. "Very well.
    Think of women. Beautiful, wealthy women... like Sarah St. James. There will be dozens of them. Hundreds! All clean and smelling like lavender. With sweet breath and shining hair and impeccable manners.''
    Morgan closed his eyes, trying not to imagine the enticing picture. * 'They're all a lot of lushes and whores, no doubt.''
    Henry's smile was kind. "Morgan, you can't compare all women to the floozies you find skulking around George- town's back alleys."
    "Or N'Orleans."
    "Or New Orleans. You could work the rest of your life down in that mosquito-infested wharf and bazaar and never save enough money to claw out of this poverty."
    Morgan stared out at the river, feeling his cheek throb. He rubbed it with his knuckles and recalled how the St. James girl had looked while tearing off her hat, hair flying and eyes flashing at him in contempt. Who would have guessed that beneath that porcelain veneer and angelic facade hid the heart of a young tigress?
    He laughed to himself, then blotted the sweat from his forehead with his wrist. He cursed the stifling heat. Ordinarily it wouldn't have bothered him; he'd grown used to the sultry South American nights long ago. But for the past week he'd been disquieted by a lot of things—ever since he'd visited the Governor's house, but he hadn't been able to place the reason for his restlessness until tonight.
    "At least think about her offer," Henry said. "Just for tonight, imagine what kind of comfort and pleasure King's treasure could buy you. You could live in a palace. You could have any woman you ever dreamed of possessing... and perhaps you could at last put the demons inside you to rest. At last you could sleep at night without the fear of King finding you."
    "I'll think about it," Morgan told him.
    In a quieter voice, Henry said, "Think hard, my friend, because I've heard from reliable sources that you've had visitors lately."
    "I always have visitors. People just don't know when the hell to leave me alone." He
    pinned the pygmy with his eyes as if to make his point.
    "I'm not referring to the bevy of lovelies who are constantly lined up outside your door, Morgan. I've heard from a few of your neighbors that two men have come here several times, asking if this is the residence of 'the Americano.'"
    Morgan didn't blink as he stared at his friend. "That's a cheap trick, trying to scare me into accepting Sarah's offer.''
    "My intention is not to scare you. My purpose is to warn you."
    "It might have been anyone."
    "Perhaps. Or it could have been King's men. Tell me, Morgan, do you intend to ran again? You have said yourself that King will stop at nothing to destroy you."
    ' 'So what's your point?''
    "Would it not be better to meet him face-to-face, as we have often discussed, and end this cat-and-mouse game once and for all?"
    "Easy for you to say. He's not after your little brown butt."
    "Ah, but I'm well aware of the atrocities he is capable of inflicting on innocent people. Don't forget, thanks to him, I no longer have a family. Thanks to him, the few remaining Putumayo pygmies of Japura have been wiped from the very face of the earth. Do you know what it is like to be the last living specimen of a race, Morgan? It is a little like being Gulliver stranded for eternity in Brob-dingnag, land of the giants. There is never a