h direction to take in order to come
up with her friend, and being much relieved to learn from her that this
quagga was an altogether unique specimen in East Utah, as he had feared
that the Mormons might have a cavalry troop so mounted, and this would
complicate matters fearfully so far as his own party was concerned.

In a few seconds the hoof-strokes of her strange pony died out upon the
veldt, and Grenville was once more alone with a mighty struggle before
him, but with an additional reason to nerve his arm in the voluntary
presence of this fair creature pleading for protection from the common
foe.

This, however, was no time for sentiment, and the moon again making her
appearance, Grenville looked carefully to his weapons and prepared to
make the best defence in his power, determined that no Mormon should
cross the bridge except over his dead body. The sky had partly cleared
in front of him, and he was relieved to notice this, as his only chance
of a prolonged resistance was to put in accurate shooting at a range
quite beyond that of the Mormons' rifles; behind him over the veldt the
clouds stretched away to the horizon black as ink and ominous in their
sudden death-like quietude.

In the distance he could see the outline of the Convent and the lights
actively twinkling in the Mormon town, then some three miles to the
eastward the sky-line was broken by a stream of fire, as a rocket sailed
up on its errand of inquiry, and was answered almost simultaneously by a
like vivid messenger despatched from the Mormon stronghold in the
direction of the bridge.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

"IN YON STRAIT PATH A THOUSAND MAY WELL BE STOPPED BY THREE."

And now, as Grenville listened intently, he could distinguish the tramp
of a body of armed men approaching, and with a beating heart he kneeled
down upon the bridge, projecting his rifle over the wooden parapet to
steady it; and when the Mormon band, upwards of one hundred strong, came
into view, debouching from the trees a quarter of a mile away, he, to
their utter astonishment, challenged them in the most audacious fashion:

"Halt, or I fire!"

All the reply to this was a shout of derision, and the entire party
commenced a jog-trot over the space which intervened between the trees
and the bridge.

Grenville allowed the leaders to get within about three hundred and
fifty yards, then his rifle vomited its deadly contents, and two
Mormons, running one behind the other, bit the