"Yes . . ." answered Ramerrez not unkindly and wholly unmoved by her
threat. "We've been good pals, Nina, but it's best for both that we
should part."

In the silence that ensued the woman did some hard thinking. That a man
could ever tire of her without some other woman coming into his life
never once entered into her mind. Something told her, nevertheless, that
the woman with whom he had been conversing was not the woman that she
sought; and at a loss to discover the person to whom he had transferred
his affections, her mind reverted to his avowed purpose of withdrawing
from the proposed Cloudy Mountain expedition. The more Nina reflected
on that subject the more convinced she became that, for some reason or
other, Ramerrez had been deceiving her. It was made all the more clear
to her when she recalled that when Ramerrez' messenger had brought his
master's message that she was to meet him, she had asked where the
band's next rendezvous was to be, and that he, knowing full well that
his countrywoman had ever been cognizant of his master's plans, had
freely given the desired information. Like a flash it came to her now
that no such meeting-place would have been selected for any undertaking
other than a descent upon Cloudy Mountain Camp. Nor was her intuition or
reasoning at fault: Ramerrez had not given up his intention of getting
the miners' gold that he knew from her to be packed away somewhere in
The Polka Saloon; but what she did not suspect, despite his peculiar
behaviour, was that he had taken advantage of the proximity of the two
camps to sever his relation, business and otherwise, with her. And yet,
did he but know it, she was destined to play no small part in his life
for the next few weeks!

Nina Micheltoreña had now decided upon her future course of action: She