I was more than ever convinced of her wisdom in choice of when in early morning I glimpsed her with the two other women at the Adams fire; for, bright-haired and small, she had been sorrily dulled by the plain ill-fitting waist and long shapeless skirt in one garment, as adopted by the feminine of the train. In her particular case these were worse fitting and longer than common—an that certainly snuffed a portion of her charms for Gentile and Mormon eyes alike.  
What further of her was to be made we might not yet know. We all kept to our own tasks and our own fires, with the exception that Daniel gawked and in the manner of a silly gander, and made frequent errands to his father’s household.
 
It was after the red sun-up and the initial signaling by dust cloud to dust cloud announcing the commencement of another day’s desert traffic, and in response to the orders “Ketch up!” we were putting animals to (My Lady still in evidence forward), when a horseman bored in at a , over the road from the east.
 
“Montoyo, by Gawd!” Jenks pronounced, in a of disgust rather than with any note of alarm. “Look alive.” And—“He don’t hang up my ; no, nor yourn if I can help it.”
 
I saw him give a to his holster and slightly loosen the Colt’s. But I was unburthened by in past events, and I conceived no reason for fearing the future—other than that now I was likely to lose her. Heaven pity her! Probably she would have to go, even if she managed later to kill him. The delay in our start had been unfortunate.
 
It was dollars to doughnuts that every man in the company had had his eye out for Montoyo, since daylight; and the were that every man had sighted him as quickly as we. Notwithstanding, save by an occasional quick glance none appeared to pay attention to his rapid approach. We ourselves went right along hooking up, like the others.
 
As chanced, our was the first upon his way in. I heard him sharply beside us and his horse fidget, panting. Not until he did we lift eyes.
 
“Howdy, gentlemen?”
 
“Howdy yourself, sir,” answered Mr. Jenks, straightening up and meeting his gaze. I paused, to gaze also. Montoyo was pale as death, his lips hard set, his gray eyes and his black moustache the only vivifying features in his coldly menacing .183
 
He was in white shirt, his left arm ; fine riding boots encasing his legs above the knees and Spanish spurs at their heels—his horse’s flanks reddened by their jabs. The pearl of a six-shooter from his belt holster. He sat , excepting for his lips and eyes.
 
He looked upon me, with a trace of recognition less to be seen than felt. His glance leaped to the —traveled swiftly and surely and returned to Mr. Jenks.
 
“You’re pulling out, I believe.”
 
“Yes, you bet yuh.”
 
“This is the Adams train?”
 
“It is.”
 
“I’m looking for my wife, gentlemen. May I ask whether you’ve seen her?”
 
“You can.”
 
“You have seen her?”
 
“Yes, sir. We’ll not beat around any bush over that.”
 
He , frowning a bit, eying us narrowly.
 
“I had the notion,” he said. “If you have staked her to shelter I thank you; but now I aim to play the hand myself. This is a private game. Where is she?”
 
“I call yuh, Pedro,” my friend answered. “We ain’t keepin’ cases on her, or on you. You don’t find her in my outfit, that’s flat. She spent the night with the Adams women. You’ll find her waitin’ for you, 184on ahead.” He grinned. “She’ll be powerful glad to see you.” He sobered. “And I’ll say this: I’m kinder sorry I ain’t got her, for she’d be interestin’ company on the road.”
 
“The road to hell, yes,” Montoyo coolly remarked. “I’d guarantee you quick passage. Good-day.”
 
With sudden steely glare that embraced us both he jumped his mount into a gallop and tore past the team, for the front. He must have inquired, once or twice, as to the whereabouts of the Captain’s party; I saw fingers pointing.
 
“Here! You’ve collars on your lead span, boy,” Mr. Jenks reproved—but he likewise while he gazed.
 
I could hold back no longer.
 
“Just a minute, if you please,” I pleaded; and hastened on up, half running in my anxiety to face the worst; to help, if I might, for the best.
 
A little knot of people had formed, constantly increasing by oncomers like myself and friend Jenks who had behind me. Montoyo’s horse stood heaving, on the ; and ruthlessly pushing through I found him inside, with My Lady at bay before him—her eyes brilliant, her cheeks hot, her two hands tightly, her slim figure dangerously tense within her absurd garment, and the arm of the brightly flushed but calm Rachael resting restraintfully around her. The circling faces peered.
 
Captain Adams, at one side apart, was replying to the gambler. His small china-blue eyes had begun to glint; otherwise he maintained an air of as if immune to the outcome.
 
“You see her,” he said. “She has had the care of my own household, for I turn nobody away. She came against my will, and she shall go of her will. I am not her keeper.”
 
“You Mormons have the advantage of us white men, sir,” Montoyo . “No one of the sex seems to be denied bed and board in your establishments.”
 
“By the help of the Lord we of the elect can manage our establishments much better than you do yours,” big Hyrum responded; and his face sombered. “Who are you? A panderer to the devil, a thief with painted card-boards, a of the ignorant, and a feeder to hell—yea, a striker of women and a trafficker in flesh! Who are you, to think the name of the Lord’s anointed? There she is, your . Take her, or leave her. This train starts on in ten minutes.”
 
“I’ll take her or kill her,” Montoyo . “You call me a feeder, but she shall not be fed to your mill, Adams. You’ll get on that horse pronto, madam,” he added, stepping forward (no one could question his nerve), “and we’ll discuss our affairs in private.”
 
She cast about with swift look, as if for 186a friendly face or sign of rescue. And that quest was enough. Whether she saw me or not, here I was. With a spring I had burst in.
 
But somebody already had fresh attention. Daniel Adams was between her and her husband.
 
“Say, Mister, will yu fight?” he drawled, breathing hard, his broad quivering.
 
A silence fell. Singularly, the circle parted right and left in a jostle and a .
 
Montoyo surveyed him.
 
“Why?”
 
“For her, o’ course.”
 
The gambler smiled—a slow, contemptuous smile while his gray eyes focused .
 
“It’s a case where I have nothing to gain,” said he. “And you’ve nothing to lose. I never bet in the teeth of a pat hand. Sabe? Besides, my young Mormon , when did you enter this game? Where’s your ante? For the sport of it, now, what do you think of putting up, to make it interesting? One of your mammies? Tut, tut!”
 
Daniel’s face flushed muddy red; in the midst of it his faulty eyes were more pronounced than ever—beady, twinkling, and so at cross purposes that they did not center upon the gambler at all. But his right hand had at his side—extended there flat and tremulous like the tail of a rattlesnake. He harshly:187
 
“I ’laow to kill yu for that. Draw, yu——!”
 
We caught breath. Montoyo’s hand had down, and up, with motion too smooth and for the eye, particularly when our eyes had to be upon both. His revolver half-way out of the scabbard, held there , frozen in course; for Daniel had laughed loudly over leveled barrel.
 
How he had achieved so quickly no man of us knew. Yet there it was—his Colt’s, out, cocked, wicked and and ready.
 
He whirled it with carelessness, butt first, first, his discolored teeth set in a yellow grin. The breath of the spectators in a sigh.
 
“Haow’ll yu take it, Mister?” he . “I could l’arn an old caow to beat yu on the draw. Aw, shucks! I ’laow yu’d better go back to yore pasteboards. Naow git!”
 
Montoyo, his eyes steady, scarcely changed expression. He let his revolver slip down into its scabbard. Then he smiled.
 
“You have a pretty trick,” he commented, relaxing. “Some day I’d like to test it out again. Just now I pass. Madam, are you coming?”
 
“You know I’m not,” she uttered clearly.
 
“Your choice of company is hardly to your credit,” he sneered. “Or, I should say, to your education. Saintliness does not set well upon you, madam. Your clothes are ill-fitting already. Of your two champions——”
And here I realized that I was standing out, one foot advanced, my fists foolishly doubled, my presence a useless factor.
 
“—I recommend the gentleman from New York as more to your tastes. But you are going of your own free will. You will always be my wife. You can’t get away from that, you devil. I shall expect you in Benton, for I have the that your little flight will fetch you back pretty well tamed, to the place where damaged goods are not so heavily discounted.” He ignored Daniel and turned upon me. “As for you,” he said, “I warn you you are playing against a marked deck. You will find fists a poor hand. Ladies and gentlemen, good-morning.” With that he strode straight for his horse, climbed aboard (a trifle awkwardly by reason of his one arm disabled) and , granting us not another glance.
 
Card shark and desperado that he was, his nobody could deny, except Daniel, now and swaggering and twirling his revolver.
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