he last time, because--I was going to settle down to ranch
life in Texas.

"Also I handed to him the Malindore diamond. His firm lost it. His firm
has by this time been paid the insurance. It's up to him how to dispose
of the property.

"That's all I have to say about Van Vreck. I thought in fairness you
ought to know that I didn't keep the diamond. And I thought I might tell
you that my call at Van Vreck's didn't mean entering any new deal."

"Thank you," Annesley said, stiffly. "I am glad."

She _was_ glad, yet she wished the man to understand how impersonal was
her gladness; how impossible it was that any atonement could bring them
together again in spirit; how dead was the past which he had slain. And
he did understand as clearly from her few words as if she had preached
him an hour's sermon.

"Now, for what you are to do," he went on, crisply. "Although you and I
never discussed the situation on board ship, I realized what the Waldos
were letting you in for. I supposed you'd feel that your staying in New
York was out of the question. I bought our tickets to Texas. At the same
time I got a map and a guide-book which gives information about places on
the way and beyond.

"The Masons being on the train to Kansas City was a new complication.
But it wasn't my fault. And it only means that the game of keeping up
appearances must be played a little farther.

"Would you like to go to California? If you want to take back your maiden
name and be Miss Grayle--or if you care to have a new name to begin a new
life with, a quite respectable fellow called Michael Donaldson could
introduce you to a few influential people in Los Angeles. No danger of
meeting Madalena de Santiago there, though it's only a day's journey
from San Francisco, where she's very likely arrived by this time. She
has reasons for not liking Los Angeles. In her early days she had
some--er-financial troubles there, and she wouldn't enjoy being reminded
of them."

"Is Los Angeles farther than El Paso?" Annesley inquired, keeping her
voice steady, though there was a sickly chill in her heart.

"A good way farther," Knight went on, in the same businesslike tone which
separated him thousands of miles from the Knight she used to know. "Here,
I'll show you how the land lies."

Opening a map of a western railroad, he drew a little closer to her on
the seat, and pointed out place after place along the black line; told
her when they would arrive at Kansas Ci