New York ledger vol. 27 no. 5

              LIFE IN SALT LAKE CITY;
OR,
A Visit to the Mormons.
By LEON LEWIS,
AUTHOR OF "THE GIRL HERMIT," "THE BOY MA-GICIAN," "THE BROKEN HOME," "RED KNIFE," 
ETC., ETC., ETC.
CHAPTER XXVII.
WINNIE'S FURTHER ADVENTURES.
She thought of grief and pain
As giants in the olden time,
That ne'er would come again. MRS. HALE.
A night of sleeplessness and terrible mental suffering to poor Winnie Burton, followed the visit of Elder True to the herder's cottage on Church Island.
The night passed and the morning dawned. Winnie alone knew that it was day by the stir in the outer room, and the noise and bustle made by Mrs. Gotekin in the preparation of the morning meal.
The herder and his wife were at their break-fast, when suddenly a loud knock, that rang through the cabin, was heard upon the; outer door.
Winnie sprang to her feet as if suddenly electrified, and ran to her door, listening with her heart in her throat. The knock, sounding much like the rattle of light artillery, was repeated at greater length, and with greater force.
"Who—who can it be ?" ejaculated the herder.
"No one we know," returned Mrs. Gotekin. "Our friends don't knock that way. It's lucky the door is barred and bolted, or he might force his way in. He may be some friend of the gal that's traced her here!"
"That's so! P'r'aps it's that Mountain Jack the Elder warned us on."
The knock was repeated still more loudly.
"Who's there?” demanded the herder.
"A friend or an enemy, just as you like!" was the response, in a hoarse, gruff voice, that thrilled Winnie's soul with a sudden ecstasy.
And well it might, for under those half-dis-guised tones the young captive recognized the cheery voice of Mountain Jack!
A low rapturous cry broke from her parted lips. She knelt at the key-hole, still eagerly listening, although the beating of her own heart almost deafened her ears.
The herder and his wife consulted together in whispers. "What do you want?" exclaimed the herder presently.
"I am in search of a young lady whom I have reason to believe is hidden in your cot-tage," responded Jack coolly. "You had bet-ter let me in peaceably, and give her up quiet-ly. If you don't, you may find yourself cleaned out o' house and home on short notice!"
"It's that Mountain Jack, sure enough!" muttered the herder.
"He's a reg'lar border ruffian!" said the herder's wife. He'll shoot you down when you go out of the door, or he'll set fire to the house. P’r’aps he's got his gang with him!"
"Of course," assented Gotekin, sorely troub-led and alarmed. " We'll have, to let him in. We must let him search the house, and be satisfied the gal an't here. You can hurry the gal below, while I hold a parley with the fellow."
Winnie heard this speech, and comprehended that she was to be hidden in some secret place about the premises. She thought of uttering a wild scream for help, in order to convince Mountain Jack of her presence in the cabin, but a moment's reflection assured her that such a proceeding might injure more than it would help her.
Rising, she glided quickly to her bed, and untying a blue ribbon from her hair, thrust it under her pillow. This manoeuvre was scarcely accomplished, when Mrs. Gotekin entered the room, bearing a lighted candle and a formi-dable looking knife. The woman secured the door behind her, and, without a wrord to Winne, pushed the bed from its place, and lifted two short loose planks in the flooring. An aperture some three feet square was thus revealed. A ladder led down from the aper-ture, into a dark space beneath.
The herder's wife held her light high above her head, and pointed at the ladder.
"Go down," she said grimly.
Winnie hesitated, but only a moment. She hurriedly descended the ladder, finding her-self in a rude rock cellar, where the air was chill and damp. Mrs. Gotekin swiftly followed her charge, ushering her into a smaller adjoining cellar, separated from the other by a partition. As Winnie entered this second rude cellar, Mrs. Gotekin abruptly closed the door upon her, locked it, and turning fled up the ladder to the dark room.
She pushed back the bed into its place, spread out its covers hastily, and extinguish-ing her light, entered the kitchen.
The herder exchanged glances with her, and proceeded to undo the fastenings of the outer door, admitting the stalwart form of Moun-tain Jack.
The latter entered the cabin, darting quick, suspicious glances around him, even while he inclined his head to the herder’s wife, who was composedly drinking her tea.
"Come in. Come right in!" said the herder, rubbing his hands nervously.
"You are wel-come to s'arch the house, Captain. You'll find no young lady here. You must have been misinformed. We live here all alone, my wife and I. Seeing you suspect us of harboring a young lady against her will, I want you to take a good look while you're here. You an't a Mormon, I calc'late."
"No, I an't a Mormon, by a long sight," an-swered Mountain Jack.
"An' you're down on Mormions, o' course ?" asked the herder, in an aggrieved tone. "You think a Mormion is only another name for rascal-“ 
"That's pretty much so," interposed Moun-tain Jack gravely, his keen eyes sending peer-ing glances into the inner room, the door of which was ajar. 
"You can read a man's thoughts pretty well, friend. Not but what there's honest Mormons. Out of all the Mor-mons, some must believe in what they preach, but the sheep are few in comparison with the goats. Most of the poor, ignorant foreigners believe they are saints and booked straight for heaven; but there are men, a little keener and sharper, that are Mormons only to have 'a good time,' and they make their religion, if it is a religion, a cloak for evil practices."
"I don't know none o' them sort," asserted the herder. "I'm honest myself, and I sup-pose the rest all are. There's people in every religion that's hypocrites and wrong-doers, and I don't s'pose we can be 'xempt from 'em. But the majority of our people are pure and shinin' lights—"
"Such as Bishop Coulter and Elder True ?" suggested Mountain Jack. The herder winced perceptibly. "I don't know them,", he said. "I'm a true and honest believer myself, and I live up to my light. You've suspected me wrongful, but you are welcome to s'arch the house. There an't but that room and this'n. Wife, give the gentleman a light." Mrs. Gotekin lighted a candle, and Mountain Jack proceeded to explore the two rooms, but he found no sign of Winnie's late presence in either. His keen eyes noticed, however, that the partition shutting off the inner room was quite new, and he shrewdly decided in his own mind that it had been put up at the instance of Elder True, and for the purpose of forming a "secure place" for True's captive. "You see you're quite mistaken, sir," said the herder. "There’s no gal here."
"Yes, it is plain enough that she is not here," said Mountain Jack, flashing his light so that its rays fell against the wall and floor.
"I beg your pardon for troubling you, and for taking an honest man for a villain."
"And you're quite satisfied?"
"Quite."
The herder and his wife led the way to the outer room. Mountain Jack was in the act of following them, when his keen eyes caught sight of Winnie's blue ribbon just peepiug from beneath the pillow where the girl had thrust it. At the same moment a faint, muffled cry, seeming to come from beneath his feet, reached his hearing.
"Yes, I am quite satisfied," he repeated, as he emerged into the outer room. "Perfectly satisfied, as I may say. Sorry to have made you any trouble, sir. I wasn't by no means certain the girl was here, but I didn't feel jus-tified to leave any stone unturned in my search for her. Good-morning!"
"Wait a moment," cried the herder, relieved at the apparent success of his plans. "Won't you liquor? Reckon you are Mountain Jack, an't ye ?"
Mountain Jack's eyes sparkled as he listened to this unguarded question. It proved to him that the herder was the ally of True.
"My name's Weber," he explained. " And yours?" Is Gotekin—Jacob Gotekin. Will ye drink ?"
Mountain Jack declined the proffered re-freshment, and presently hurried away. A little later he was seen in his boat, on his way to the main-land.
"There, wife, you see what 'tis to have presence of mind," said the herder, standing in his door-way and watching the light boat as it skimmed the sun-lit waters. "If I'd re-fused to let the fellow in, he'd a broke in, or gone off and got his gang to smoke us out. As it is, he's been through the house, and his sus-picions are set at rest. The Elder'll come down with an extra sum when I tell him of this feat of outwitting his terrible Mountain Jack."
"The fellow's off the scent," said the herd-er's wife exultingly. "I wonder where he'll go now!"
"That's none o' our business, since our dan-ger's over," declared Gotekin. "You'd better fetch the gal up out the cellar, or she'll get the rheumatiz, and the Elder'll be hopping mad at that."
The suggestion commended itself to the woman, and she hastened to release Winnie and reinstate her in her up-stairs prison.
"I'm going over to the city this afternoon to see the Elder and get them groceries," said the herder, as his wife rejoined him. "The Elder'd ought to know that Mountain Jack's been here, and that he's as lively and pert as ever, if he has been smoked out of his ranche."
The pair talked further, and Gotekin then went to his work. At noon he came in, ate his dinner, and dressed for his trip to the city. A little later, he departed in fine spirits.
He had been absent about an hour, and his wife sat sewing in her kitchen, with her outer door open, the heat from the fireplace being excessive, and the day mild, when a tall form suddenly darkened the threshold, and a shallow fell upon the floor.
The woman started up with a shrill cry of alarm, which was not abated when she recog-nized the intruder as her visitor of the morn-ing.
It was indeed Mountain Jack, with a serene countenance, keen eyes, and an air of quiet command that vaguely impressed the herd-er's wife as menacing.
"Ah, it's Mr. Weber!" she exclaimed appre-hensively, forcing a smile. "I—I'll call Jake-" 
“I won't trouble you to call Jake, Madam," said Mountain Jack placidly. "You would have to split your throat, I fear, to make him hear you. He is travelling pretty fast on his way to Salt Lake City and Elder True, and I don't believe your voice would overtake him."
The woman's flushed and sullen face grew pale, " You—you knew he was gone ?"
"Certainly, Madam. I watched his de-parture from the shelter of the sedges on the main-land." The herder's wife turned a terrified gaze toward the door of the inner room. Following her gaze, Mountain Jack ob-served that that door was locked and barred. A sudden glow leaped to his eyes. He strode into the cabin, securing the door behind him and dropping the key in his pocket.
Then he approached the door of Winnie's room, and swiftly unbarred it, dropping the massive wooden bars upon the floor.
"The key!" he said briefly, extending his hand.
The woman trembled as with an ague fit. 
"I—I haven't got it," she faltered, retreat-ing before him. " THE KEY!" thundered Mountain Jack, his eyes blazing, and he moved a step nearer the herder's wife.
The woman uttered a shrill shriek of ter-ror, dismay and abject fear, and drawing the key from her pocket, dashed it upon the door. Mountain Jack coolly picked it up, unlocked the door of Winnie's prison, and flung it wide open.
There came from the gloom within a wild rapturous cry, a swift, impetuous rush, and Winnie—poor, pale, but joyful Winnie-bounded toward her deliverer.
He caught her flying figure as it gained the threshold, and clasped her tremulous hands in his own red and brawny palms.
"Poor girl! poor girl!" he muttered. "Did you think I had forgotten you? Not at all-not at all!" 
Winnie raised his hands to her lips.
"Don't do that, little girl!" expostulated Weber, a sudden moisture springing to his eyes. "It an't suitable. You're a dainty young lady, and I'm only a rough fellow—"
"With the best heart in the world!" inter-rupted Winnie, in a joyous, sobbing voice. "I knew you would come. But since you went away this morning, I have been in despair. I thought they had outwitted you—"
"They'd have to get up early in the morn-ing to do that!" said Mountain Jack, smiling. "Get on your hat, little one, and we'll be off! Madam here an't pleased to have us stay!" Mrs. Gotekin uttered an inarticulate cry of rage and despair.
Winnie crossed the floor with a faltering step, and put on her outer wraps. Then she came out into the kitchen, trembling and weak, but with a face fairly transfigured with her joy.
She sank down upon a chair, unable to sup-port her own weight, and Mountain Jack turned to Mrs. Gotekin, saying blandly:
"I don't know whether or no, Madam, there are other herders on the island. If there are, I don't care to have an alarm raised. If there are not, I don't choose to have you spying which way we go. I shall therefore be obliged if you'll walk into your guest-cham-ber peaceably. I shall lock you in and hang the key on the wall, so that your husband can release you on his return."
The herder's wife wept and pleaded, but under Mountain Jack's blandness was con-cealed an iron will, and she was obliged event-ually to yield to his command. She walked into Winnie's late prison, loudly bemoaning herself, and Mountain Jack locked her in, hung up the key as he had promised, and finally barred the door securely.
Then he led Winnie out of doors.
The air was pleasant, being mild yet crisp. The sun shone warmly. It was one of those lovely, dreamy autumn days when the blood dances in the veins, the very sense of living is delightful, and every object in nature is in-vested with double beauty.
"Sit down on this rock till you get your breath all right, Winnie," said Mountain Jack, surveying the scene with critical eyes.
"I see no one hereabouts. You're as pale as a sheet. We didn't exactly calculate to meet this way when we parted in the mine." "Oh, no, indeed. But tell me, did they 'smoke you out' of your cabin? Did the Danites burn your house ?" "Well, no. They came to do it," said Moun-tain Jack," and "it's hardly their fault that they failed. They came to the slaughter like raging wolves. But that was to be expected. As it happened, however, I'm a wolf too, in my own peculiar way. Three of the rene-gades surrounded my dwelling, with torches and infernal noises, and my wife being made a little nervous by these proceedings, I was compelled to put out their lights for them."
"You mean that you killed them?"
"Yes, the three. It was in self-defence, you know. I don't expect to be troubled with Danites again this winter. I left my family all snug, but I was detained with them until morning, what with defending the house and burying the wretches. But the next morning I hurried back to the mine, and you were gone."
"You traced me? You found the leaf of paper I stuck upon the thorn bush?"
"No. I calculated it was Elder True that had tracked us, and I set myself to watching him. Last night when he left Salt Lake City to come here, I tracked him. This morning, being impatient, I suppose, I couldn't wait for that herder to get out of doors before pursu-ing my inquiries; so I took the bull by the horns, as the saying is. When I saw that blue ribbon just under the edge of your pillow, and heard a kind of moan below, then I knew the game was there. I went back to the main-land and lay hid, waiting for Goatskin, or whatever his name is, to run to tell his em-ployer of my visit. When he had gone, I came. That's all." "Did you see, anything of father, Mr. Weber?" asked Winnie. "No. What of him?"
"After you had left me in the silver mine, as I began to expect your return. Bishop Coul-ter, Elder True, and some of their Danites came into the silver mine, bringing my father with them a prisoner."
"Is it possible? How did that happen?" Winnie replied by telling the whole, story of her adventures since the moment Jack had left her in the silver mine. She told of her father's peril, and related what Elder True had told her of the situation of Harry Osburn.
"You have saved me from a fearful peril, a horrible captivity," she concluded pleadingly.
"Oh, Mr. Weber, will you not save my parents and Harry?” "If mortal man can do it," cried Mountain Jack, with energy. "I will do what I can, Winnie. But first of all, I must take you to a place of safety where your enemies cannot find you. Come."
They went together to the beach, entered the boat, and were presently rowing swiftly toward the main-land.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE TRUTH DISCOVERED.
Vice for a time may shine, and virtue sigh;
But truth, like, heaven's sun, plainly doth reveal,
And scourge or crown what darkness did conceal.
DAVENPORT.
The rustle of a woman's dress within the room he had entered told Harry Osburn that his coming was awaited by his fair and mys-terious correspondent.
"You are alone, I see," murmured a femi-nine voice, in a mere whisper, as he closed the door behind him. "I thank you for coming. Here is a chair. Please be seated."
Harry seated himself promptly in the prof-fered chair, the back of it having been thrust against his hand, and at the same time en-deavored to make out the form and features before him. In vain, however. The darkness within the dwelling was such that he could not even note their outlines.
"I will turn the key," added the lady, suit-ing the action to the word. "For your sake, no less than for my own, this interview must remain a secret."
"Of course," assented Harry.
"But we can have a light, Mr. Osburn. The windows are curtained securely. With your leave, therefore, my lamp shall be lighted."
Again suiting the action to the word, the lady produced a small, quiet light, and the couple, so strangely met, took a quick, keen look at each other.
The woman was still young—evidently not more than five-and-twenty. She was also reasonably prepossessing, although her beauty, in its best estate, had been rather robust and florid. It was easy to see, however, that her body and mind were both under a cloud; that she had faded prematurely; that her life was full of unrest and worrying. A blight was visible in her thin form and sharpened fea-tures, and more especially in her sad, hollow eyes. In repose, her features were even hag-gard.
"We should be murdered, both of us, if True were to find you here," was her next observa-tion. "For this reason we will talk in whispers."
Harry bowed a quick assent, at the same time intimating to his companion, by a quiet smile, that she need not have the least fear for his safety or for her own.
"I have heard True speak of you," resumed the lady, settling herself to the interview. "Permit me to introduce myself. I am the fourth wife of the Elder."
"It is unnecessary to say that I am greatly pleased to make your acquaintance, Madam," said Harry heartily.
"I can see at a glance that you have summoned me here for a good and worthy reason. Your face is a guarantee of that." A faint smile of gratification came into the pale features, as the lady replied:
"You are right. I wish to do you a service. You are already aware, I suppose, that the Elder is plotting against you?" " Certainly—notwithstanding his denials."
"You are" the lover of a young Gentile girl, whom Elder True is resolved to make his seventh wife—you are the lover of Miss Win-nie Burton?"
Harry assented gravely.
"I have seen Miss Burton," said Mrs. True, in a low, troubled voice. "She is a lovely girl, altogether too good to be dragged down into the position the Elder designs her to occupy. Heaven save her the anguish of a life like mine!"
"And yet you believe in the doctrines you practice?" suggested Harry. "Believe in them!" repeated Mrs. True, in a broken voice. "Yes, I suppose I believe in the doctrines of Mormonism—but polygamy! Words cannot speak my horror of polygamy. When I married Elder True, I believed I was making sure of a crown of glory hereafter by wedding a 'saint' here. He a saint! He is a demon! I have aroused from my unthinking or blindly believing state, to find myself a wretched, heart-broken woman. Oh, the heart-burning, the jealousy, the rivalry, of a life like ours! It is one long misery. We have more mind than Mahometan wives, and feel our degradation keenly."
"Do all the Mormon women feel as you do ?" asked Harry thoughtfully.
"Not all. Some of them are ignorant crea-tures, of a low order of intellect—women who have been peasants in their own countries, and who accept their present lot with the stolidity of brutes. And there are women whose hearts are being eaten up and utterly consumed with the anguish and misery of a polygamic life, who believe in the doctrine of polygamy, and who willingly lead the life of martyrs in the hope of securing their eternal happiness. They are mistaken but honest souls, whom the an-gels must pity. And there are others like me, who have awakened to all the horror and bit-terness of this life, and who look forward only to the release that death will bring."
"Why don't you leave the Elder!" inquired Harry.
"Where should I go? I am homeless, but for this shelter. I am friendless, but for these people. I abandoned my own people to be-come a Mormon, and I have nowhere to go. My health is become broken under my mental troubles. I shall probably bear my cross a while longer, and then find rest in the grave.”
Her despairing voice and words aroused Harry's deepest pity. He attempted to utter word's of commiseration and encouragement, but he could say nothing that would seem to suit a case like this.
"I have no wish to parade my griefs," said Mrs. True wearily, after a pause. "When strangers from the East have called upon us, and questioned us, I have professed to be, happy. But what woman with a heart and soul could be really happy in a life so degrad-ing as this? Every true woman longs for a home of her own. If she is married, she can-not bear to have only a sixth interest in her husband. One husband to one wife is the true basis of society and right living. A plu-rality of wives might have served in the times of the patriarchs, but times have changed, and the expedients of those early days have ceased to be right or proper. What a hideous comment upon polygamy is the mortality among our children! I have borne three, and they are dead. Look into our cemeteries. You will see hundreds of small graves—graves of children born without constitution or stam-ina, to fall an easy prey to childish ailments. The proportions of death bore are greater than in monogamic communities. There is a curse on polygamy, Mr. Osburn, and its race must soon be run. We are not living in heathenish times, and a practice so barbarous must soon cease."
"I believe that. As the population sweeps westward to Utah, polygamy must cease, or the polygamists must fly to some Pacific isl-and. It is in the natural course of things. "The Mormon wives consist of but three classes," said Mrs. True: "the slavishly ig-norant; the fanatics, who hope to win heaven by their uncomplaining suffering here; and the disgusted and heart-broken, who look to death for release. I am one of these last. I have told you so much about myself, Mr. Os-burn, that you may understand and have faith in me. I want to save this young girl whom you love from the snares of Elder True. I want to save you from further trouble and peril. You will trust me?"
Harry replied in the affirmative.
"It is not necessary for me to inform you that Elder True is a hypocrite and a villain," said the lady, a painful flush burning on her thin cheeks.
"You must not think, however, because he stands so high in the Mormon church, that all Mormons are hypocrites and villains. By no means. You will find true and honest men among us. Were the real character of the Elder known to President Young, True would be expelled from the Mor-mon church. Our leaders are too wise to re-tain among them a man who can only disgrace their religion, should his villainy become known to the world. But True is too wily to reveal his true character."
"Mr. Young has impressed me as being sin-cere, and he has certainly treated me well," declared Harry. "It is strange that he should be, so deceived in Elder True."
"Not at all. There are black sheep in every flock. It is impossible for a man in the Presi-dent's position to avoid being now and then imposed upon. True effects a great religious zeal, and has served the church in various ways. But under all his pretences he carries a villainous soul. I fear I am wasting time in all these explanations. I will come to the point of what I have to say at once. Directly after you went out from the Elder's office with President Young this evening, the Elder went out also. I heard him say to Sarah, his third wife, that he should be back presently with Bishop Coulter. The two men mean to hold a private interview in True's office. The Elder loves Winnie; the Bishop wants Mrs. Burton. No doubt they mean to talk up the affairs of the Burtons. If you would like to be present unseen at the interview, I can ar-range it, as I have an extra key of his door.
"I should like to hear their conversation, by all means," cried Harry, his face flushing. "I may gain some clue to the whereabouts of those I seek."
"Then I will conduct you to the office im-mediately. The Elder may return at any moment. Follow me cautiously!" Harry arose. Mrs. True extinguished the light, and opened the outer door, emerging into the shadows of the front garden. Harry followed her cautiously, closing the door be-hind him, and the two crept silently, like a couple of shadows, past the closed windows of the houses inhabited by the other Mrs. Trues, speedily arriving at the office or private dwell-ing of the Elder.
No light gleamed from within. Mrs. True unlocked and pushed open the door softly, and taking Harry's hand, conducted him into the dark and deserted office.
"This way," she whispered. "Here is the wood-closet, beside the chimney. It will be a safe hiding-place. There is no key to the door."
Harry drew his match-case from his pocket and lighted a match. The brief glimmer re-vealed to him the empty office and the interior of the wood-closet. The latter contained a supply of wood, an old coat and hat depend-ing from a nail, arid a shelf covered with bot-tles and decanters, showing that the Elder, among his other weaknesses, was fond of in-toxicating drinks.
Harry advanced into the recess. Here he paused, taking the hand of Mrs. True, and pressing it warmly, while he expressed his gratitude to her for her friendly services and assistance.
"You need not thank me," murmured Mrs. True. "I have done little enough, although I have the will to do more. Hark! They are coming down the street now. I shall watch to see if you get off safely. Good-bye!"
She hurried away, leaving the office by a rear door. Harry softly closed the door to his retreat, and seated himself upon a pile of wood, calmly awaiting the turn of events. Presently "the office door opened, steps were heard on the office floor, and voices pene-trated to the interior of the closet. The voices belonged to Elder True and Bishop Coulter. The Elder struck a light, and the faint beams penetrated through the crevices of the closet door, falling upon the face and form of our hero, who settled himself into an easy attitude, without a shadow of apprehen-sion on his features.
"Set down, Bishop, set down!” cried True, hustling about to place a chair for his guest, " Yes, as I was sayin', you could have knocked me down with a feather when that young jackanapes of an Osburn walked into this 'ere of-fice, as bold as brass, along of the President! 'Tan't an hour ago, Bishop, and I had a sensation as if some one was pourin' melted lead down my back, when them two marched in as large as life, and twice as natural!"
"I hope you quite disarmed Brigham's suspi-cions, Elder," returned the Bishop, seating him-self heavily.
"I did indeed. I acted the picture of injured innocence complete. Brigham hadn't no right to take a Gentile's word afore mine, true or false. Them as is Mormons should stick to Mormons. 'Honor among thieves,' I say."
The, Bishop winced slightly, and drew away from his coarse companion.
"I don't quite think the President would relish your comparison," he returned bluntly. " No? Well, he an't, here to hear it—haw, haw! And you can't tell him, you know; for if I am deep in the mud, you are deep in the mire,—he! he! But to come to the p'int, The Osburn chap is hobnobbin' with the President, and is likely to make us trouble, without we cut his weasand. 'Twon't do to talk o' bringin' the gal here while he's around loose. Brigham wants to stand well with the outside world, and he, won't countenance my forcibly takin' this gal to wife. The, only way to marry her peaceable is to get rid of Osburn!" ‘You're right there. But the fellow seems to have a charmed life!"
“There's men in our gang have jest the kind of bullets to end a 'charmed life,'" returned True dryly. "I'11 set one or two on 'em arter the young feller. When he is dead, I sha'n't have no obstacle but the girl's will to contend with. And 'twon't take me long to break that! The knowledge that he's really dead'l1 wilt her like Jonah's gourd wilted in the sun."
"She's a pretty little creature," observed Coul-ter, "but is no more to be compared to her mother than a bud can be compared to a gorgeous, full-blown rose. I tell you, Elder, I am more than ever smitten with Mrs. Burton. I mean to marry her—" "Even if you have to kill Doctor Burton?" "Exactly. He won't live the week out," said Coulter significantly. "Mrs. Burton will be, a blooming widow in the course of a week, and be-fore the month is out I shall make her my wife!"
“She, won't consent—"
“I'll drive her into consent. To-day she has been running around Salt Lake City, calling upon her beloved Gentile friends, but they had one and all heard of the indictments against the Doctor, and turned the cold shoulder upon the Doctor's wife. She came in this evening worn out and disheart-ened. She said I was her only friend; and, by George! I mean to be her only friend! Everybody has turned against her, as I meant they should. No one has offered to shelter or befriend her, and she thinks that I am the noblest of men!"
"Haw, haw! That was a lucky idee o'your'n, Bishop, to personate the Doctor and commit rob-beries under the disguise, and so ruin him even among his friends—a right lucky idee!"
"Well, yes, I flatter myself," returned the Bish-op modestly. "The trick has served me. I came near doing it once too often though, for I persona-ted the Doctor after we had him safely captured, and two or three of his acquaintances stopped me to have a talk. What I said to them did not en-hance, their good opinion of the Doctor," he added, laughing.
Harry, in the, adjoining. closet, started as he com-prehended this revelation. It was Coulter, then, disguised as Dr. Burton, whom he had seen in the street, and supposed to be the Doctor himself. The clever disguise had deceived even him.
"Where did you take Burton, after we separated at the silver mine, Bishop?" inquired True, after a pause.
"To my country place—Cottonwood Ranche. There an't nothing but a hut on it. I gave my men orders to keep the prisoner bound hand and foot all the time, and to let the hut burn up accident-ally in a day or two. So I shall have little more trouble with Burton."
"Everything is goin' on swimmingly!" cried True, in a glow of sinister joy. "Burton and Os-burn dead, the women have no resource but to marry us. We have got a band of a dozen stout fellows that are devoted to us, especially since we divided among 'em Burton's money that he buried near Mountain Jack's cabin. Mountain Jack will be burned out to-night, and we shall march on ward rejoicin'."
"There's only one thing more to be done then," said Bishop Coulter, hitching his chair nearer to True's, and looking cautiously around the room, as if fearful of being overheard. "There's that old project of ours, about the church money, you know. We have got near a dozen trusty allies, whom we call Badger, Buffalo, Adder and so on, and in a daring project we could depend upon their assistance. Brigham has in his secret vaults a half a million of dollars, church tithes, offer-ings and so on, which he hasn't had time to send on to the Bank of England, where he is the largest depositor, nor yet to New York."
“Well ?"
"You understand, Elder. We've talked up the matter before. We've got keys and house-breaking tools, gunpowder and crowbars. We might put the matter through and divide that half-million. You and I would be the last men in Salt Lake City to be suspected of the robbery. Our plans have been laid this long time. What do you say to robbing the church treasury as soon as we have settled their hash for Burton and Osburn?"
There was a momentary silence. Harry listened breathlessly for True's response. There was a slight flutter at the garden window-shutters, as if some one were listening under the window to the secret discourse of the plotters. And there was a faint rustle in the, inner room by which the fourth Mrs. True had made her egress, as if one were in hiding there also.
Oblivious of these faint sounds, True exclaimed: "I am with you, Bishop.
We'll push the busi-ness through. It's too late to-night to do any-thing. To-morrow night I must see the gal. We'll say the night after, and that'll give time to our men to come into the city from their various quar-ters. We shall have to hold a secret meeting with them, and drill them like thunder."
"The matter is settled, then. The robbery shall be accomplished this week. We must be as secret as death, Elder. Burton and Osburn must be got rid of first; then we'll make our fortunes."
“’Beauty and booty' at one sweep—haw, haw!" exclaimed True. " We must drink on that, Bishop, afore we part."
He arose and approached the closet. Harry started, looking around him in the cavern-ous gloom of the closet for some safer concealment. There was none. He was in a trap, and there was no way of escape. He must meet his peril, since he could not evade it. He, arose to his feet, his band on his revolver. At the same moment Elder True opened the door. The two men stood face to face!
[TO BE CONTINUED.]