“It shall, it shall,” he cried with passion, his eyes blazing on her as he spoke. “Oh! I foresaw all this, and that is why I was determined you should come with us, so that, should other means fail, we might have your power to fall back upon. Well, they have failed; I have been patient, I have said nothing, but now there is no other way. Will you be so selfish, so cruel, as to deny me, you who can make us all rich in an hour, and take no hurt at all, no more than if you had slept awhile?” “Yes,” answered Benita. “I refuse to deliver my will into the keeping of any living man, and least of all into yours, Mr. Meyer.” He turned to her father with a gesture of despair. “Cannot you persuade her, Clifford? She is your daughter, she will obey you.” “Not in that,” said Benita. “No,” answered Mr. Clifford. “I cannot, and I wouldn’t if I could. My daughter is quite right. Moreover, I hate this supernatural kind of thing. If we can’t find this gold without it, then we must let it alone, that is all.” Meyer turned aside to hide his face, and presently looked up again, and spoke quite softly. “I suppose that I must accept my answer, but when you talked of any living man just now, Miss Clifford, did you include your father?” She shook her head. “Then will you allow him to try to mesmerize you?” Benita laughed. “Oh, yes, if he likes,” she said. “But I do not think that the operation will be very successful.” “Good, we will see to-morrow. Now, like you, I am tired. I am going to bed in my new camp by the wall,” he added significantly. ***** “Why are you so dead set against this business?” asked her father, when he had gone. “Oh, father!” she answered, “can’t you see, don’t you understand? Then it is hard to have to tell you, but I must. In the beginning Mr. Meyer only wanted the gold. Now he wants more, me as well as the gold. I hate him! You know that is why I ran away. But I have read a good deal about this mesmerism, and seen it once or twice, and who knows? If once I allow his mind to master my mind, although I hate him so much, I might become his slave.” “I understand now,” said Mr. Clifford. “Oh, why did I ever bring you here? It would have been better if I had never seen your face again.” On the morrow the experiment was made. Mr. Clifford attempted to mesmerize his daughter. All the morning Jacob, who, it now appeared, had practical knowledge of this doubtful art, tried to instruct him therein. In the course of the lesson he informed him that for a short period in the past, having great natural powers in that direction, he had made use of them professionally, only giving up the business because he found it wrecked his health. Mr. Clifford remarked that he had never told him that before.