With a little gasp, she stopped suddenly and hid her left hand behind her. Her father was very angry, angrier than she had ever seen him before; she knew it the moment she saw his bearded face. It was all plain to her immediately. Mayfield had told her father that she had met one of the hated Wolfes halfway for the purpose of making love. Her face whitened with scorn. "Well?" she asked. "Le's see what ye've got on that 'ar third finger o' yore left hand, Louisiany," demanded Alex Singleton, slipping the butt of his repeater to the ground. Tot remembered that she had been watching the changing colors of the stone when they came upon her. She stared silently and defiantly, and made no move toward obedience. "It's his'n, that 'ar ring," frowned Mayfield. "He----" "You shet yore snaky mouth!" Tot interrupted desperately. "Le's see it, Louisiany!" Old Singleton's voice trembled now. Still no move whatever from the young woman. The Singleton chief stepped to her, caught her left forearm in his big and sinewy hand, and brought the shining stone up near his eyes by force. The clear, pure beauty of the diamond held his attention for a few seconds; then he threw his daughter's arm from him roughly, as though the bare touch of it were a contamination. "Take it off!" he blared. "I--I cain't git it off!" cried Tot, a pink splotch in either of her cheeks. "Then cut yore finger off!" Cat-Eye Mayfield chuckled, and it maddened Tot Singleton. "I don't want it off!" she declared. The old mountaineer shot upward two inches. "You--you say you don't want it off?" he roared. "You say you don't _want_ it off? By the Etarnal, you shain't never take that 'ar thing into no house o' mine as long as ye live! You're the only gyrul I got, but I'd ruther bury ye, 'an to see ye wi' that 'ar damned thing on yore finger!" Being her father's daughter, Tot also straightened. She, too, could be obstinate. She pushed the ring a little farther up. Her voice was low and pinched. "Ef you had ha' come to me and said, 'Louisiany, honey, I'd ruther ye wouldn't wear that,' I'd shorely ha' took it off don't matter how much trouble it was to me. But you a-sayin' what ye said, and the way ye said it, with Cat-Eye thar all a-grinnin' and a-gloatin'--well, pap, I shorely wouldn't be no kin to you ef I was to take it off now." "All right. You cain't never darken the door o' none o' yore people no more," decreed Alex Singleton, shaking with a great rage. "Any o' yore kin 'at harbors ye will shore haf to reckon wi' me, and I'm a hard man to reckon with--you know that." "I hain't a-goin' to take it off." "All right!" Old Singleton turned upon his heel with almost military precision, jerked his rifle into the hollow of his arm and strode away.