ns
and ideas when you plunge into the society game."

"'Relinquish'?" she repeated, and he saw her whole form grow tense and
rigid. "Why, it's what I'm living for--what I'm going through with
this inheritance outfit for! Dad said the Indians were right, they
never forget a kindness or an injury. I'm like them, in that. I'll
never forget, never, until the score is wiped clean!"

"Someone has hurt you?" he demanded. "You have another trouble, aside
from your grief? The government will take care of El Negrito, it must
be something else. Won't you tell me? It may be that I can help, in
some way. I--I would do anything for you!"

"Nobody can help me." She shook her head gently. "I told you once,
Mr. Thode, that I must play a lone hand."

"But you can trust me," he urged. "If I could only make you believe
that! If I could only make you see how much it would mean to me to be
of the slightest service----"

He halted abruptly, and she waited, scarcely breathing, for there was
an impetuous fervent ring in his tones which made her heart leap
suddenly and then almost cease to beat. But the young man did not
continue.

"Thank you," she said at last, very quietly. "I am sure that I could
trust you, Mr. Thode, but there is nothing you or anyone could do; it
is just that I owe a debt to someone, and I mean to pay it. But don't
let us talk of that any more. Shall I see you, sometime, up in New
York?"

"Perhaps, when my work here is finished." He turned his head away from
her. "You will have so many new friends that you will scarcely
remember those you leave behind down here."

"How unjust you are!" She faced him hotly. "Do you think I could ever
forget what you did when El Negrito came; how you rode to the barracks
at the risk of your life?"

"I had small choice," he reminded her. "Had I stayed I would have been
killed."

"So would we all. But it was not for yourself you took the chance, it
was for us." She laid her hand upon his arm. "I--I don't want you to
think that I will ever forget and I hope that we shall be friends."

"Always that!" He took her small hand in both of his. "It doesn't
seem likely, but if there is ever anything that I can do for you, any
service that I can render, I would like to feel, in spite of the little
time you have known me, that you would call on me before anyone else
you may meet. After all, Gentleman Geoff laid a charge upon me, you
know, and I want to be worthy