But this reflection aroused a defensive sympathy. The vision of Ewing as he had passed glowed before her shut eyes, the active, square-shouldered, slender figure, garbed in a decently fitting suit of gray (she was glad to remember that), the quick eyes, ardent for life, the thinned, brown face, the usual buoyance held down to an easy self-possession that was new to her, the wild, reliant expectancy of a boy tempered all at once by some heritage of insight. Outwardly, at least, he would fit his new life. So reflecting, she dozed on the look of the man in his eyes, and dreamed that she feared this and fled. But after mad flight through the windings of an interminable corridor she awoke to look squarely into his eyes, to cower instinctively under his touch on her arm. Her waking thought took the thread of the dream, her flight had been vain: he was there, and his voice throbbed fatefully within a secret chamber of her mind, even though his words rang little of portent. "We are coming to the supper station." She hastened to freshen herself with cold water, and they were presently eating a hasty meal at a crowded table. Then they were out side by side to pace the platform briskly. There was green about the station, where water had taught the desert to relent, but beyond this oasis the sand sea stretched far and flat to murky foothills. Above these they could see a range of sharp-peaked mountains that still caught the sunlight, some crystal white with snow, others muffled by clouds turned to iris-hued scarfs of filmiest gauze. "El Dorado is beyond those hills," said the youth fervently. "It looks accessible from here," she answered, "but----" "You're warning me again. You're afraid I'll be discouraged by the hills." "Not discouraged, but there are resting places on the way. They hold the bulk of the pilgrims, I fear." "I shall go on; not even you could stop me." She caught a glint in his fierce young eyes that she thought he must be unconscious of. "I? Oh, I shall spur you--if you need spurring." "I know; I'm only beginning to realize how much I owe you; I mean to repay you, though."