But they declined. She had reached the platform alone, when, coming toward the car, she saw the man of the sombrero, and shrank back with a gasp of utter dismay. "Oh, good Heaven!" she muttered, and all the color and bravado were gone from her face, as she shrank back out of his range of vision and almost into the arms of the man Harvey, who had given the other girl his seat. "What's up?" he asked, bluntly. She only gave a muttered, unintelligible reply, pushed past him to her own seat, where her feather-laden hat was donned with astonishing rapidity, a great cloak was thrown around her, and she sank into a corner, a huddled mass of wraps and feathers. Any one could have walked along the aisle without catching even a glimpse of her flaxen hair. 'Tana and the stranger exchanged looks of utter wonder at the lightning change effected before their eyes. At that moment a tap-tap sounded on the window beside 'Tana, and, looking around, she met the dark eyes of the man with the sombrero gazing kindly upward at her. The people were getting aboard the train again--the time was so short--so short! and how can one speak through a double glass? The fingers were all unequal to the fastening of the window, and she turned an imploring, flushed face to the helpful stranger. "Can you--oh, will you, please?" she asked, breathlessly. "Thank you, I'm very much obliged." Then the window was raised, and her hand thrust out to the man, who was bareheaded now, and who looked very much as though he held the wealth of the world when he clasped only 'Tana's fingers. "Oh, it is you, is it?" she asked, with a rather lame attempt at careless speech. "I thought you had forgotten to say good-by to me." "You knew better," he contradicted. "You knew--you know now it wasn't because I forgot." He looked at her moodily from under his dark brows, and noticed the color flutter over her cheek and throat in an adorable way. She had drawn her hand from him, and it rested on the window--a slim brown hand, with a curious ring on one finger--two tiny snakes whose jeweled heads formed the central point of attraction. "You said you would not wear that again. If it's a hoodoo, as you thought, why not throw it away?" he asked. "Oh--I've changed my mind. I need to wear it so that I will be reminded of something--something important as a hoodoo," she said, with a strange, bitter smile. "Give it back to me, 'Tana," he urged. "I will--No--Max will have something much prettier for you. And listen, my girl. You are going away; don't ever come back; forget everything here but the money that will be yours for the claim. Do you understand me? Forget all I said to you when--you know. I had no right to say it; I must have been drunk. I--I lied, anyway." "Oh, you lied, did you?" she asked, cynically, and her hands were clasped closely, so close the ring must have hurt her. He noticed it, and kept his eyes on her hand as he continued, doggedly: