"No!"
"But.... Then why?" he demanded with a sudden flare of anger.
"For one thing," she told him without looking up, "because I told him that I would wait for him. For another...."
"And that is?..."
She only shook her head, brown hair tumbling about her hidden face.
"I'll stay with old Thor," she said.
She had him cast away among the lost isles of bewilderment.
"But you'll tell me.... You and I have been friends; we've stood side by side...." He broke off to demand: "You'll tell me about Mexicali Joe's gold?"
"Gold?" she said. "Is gold the greatest thing in life?"
"But you know?"