"You've got nerve," he said grudgingly. "More nerve than I thought any girl could have ... since it's far and away more than most men have. But just the same there's one thing you are afraid of! I've seen it a dozen times to-day, no matter how well you thought you hid it! You are afraid to death of old Thor, there!" She shivered; she laid a quick command upon her muscles as upon her spirit, but they failed her; she tried to tell herself and to show him through her bearing, head up, eyes steady, that it was only fatigue and the growing chill of the coming night that put that tremor upon her. But he laughed at her and called his big dog to him and said heavily: "Watch her, Thor! Watch her!" Thor growled, a growl coming from deep down in the powerful throat; the red eyes grew hot; bristles stood up along neck and back; there came the gleam of the wolfish teeth. She shrank back against the wall. "I have my appointment!... In an hour I must go. I give you your choice of coming along with me, in leash! or of staying here, with only Thor to guard, and taking your chances with him! Which is it?" And she cried quickly: "I'll go with you!" And then, lest he should think that he had triumphed, she added swiftly: "For I, too, am interested in Mexicali Joe!" He caught down the blankets which had hung airing since last he came here and tossed two of them to the bunk where she half lay; the third he folded and placed on the floor, stretching out his own great bulk upon it, his shoulders against the wall. He found his pipe, filled and lighted it, and lay staring into the fire....