und you or knew you were
dead. No one knows I have the plan--though _he_ would have cut throats for
it. Now do you trust me?"

She held the plan up so he could see it--a queer puzzle of lines and dots;
but a glance sufficed, and he turned his eyes again to the face of the
girl. Her eagerness, her intensity, awakened him to trust and sympathy. He
looked at her and nodded his head.

"Oh, I knew you would!" she breathed, thankfully. "And I'll stand by
you--you'll see! I've wanted a chance like this--a chance to make up for
some of the devilment he's done to folks--and some he's made me help at.
You know who I am, but none of the rest do--and they sha'n't. I'm a new
girl now. I want to make up for some of the badness that has been. It's
all over; but sometimes I hate the blood in my veins because--you know!
And if I can only do _some_ good--"

She paused, for the eyes of the paralyzed man had moved from her face, and
were resting on something back of her.

It was Overton! He entered and closed the door, and stood looking doubtful
and astonished, while 'Tana rose to her feet trembling and a little pale.

"How long--were you there?" she demanded, angrily.

He looked at her very steadily before making reply--such a curious,
searching look that she moved uneasily because of it; but her face
remained defiant.

"I just now opened the door," he said at last, speaking in a slow,
deliberate way. "I slipped here as quietly as I could, because they told
me you were asleep, and I must not make a noise. I got here just as you
were telling this man that no one but him should know who you were
before you came among us--that is all, I guess."

She had sat down on a seat close to Harris, and dropped her face in her
hands.

Overton stood with his back against the door, looking down at her. In his
eyes was a keen sorrow as she sat down in that despairing fashion, and
crept close to the stranger as though for refuge from _him_.

"I might have avoided telling what I heard," he continued; "but I don't
think that would be quite square among friends. Then, as I see you have
found a new acquaintance here, I thought maybe you would have something to
tell me if you knew what I heard you say to him."

But, kindly as his words were, she seemed to shrink from them.

"No; I can't. Oh, Mr. Dan, I can't--I can't," she muttered, with her head
still bowed on the arm of the chair occupied by Harris. "If you can't
trust me any more, I can't blame