s' son. But I was forced to it--I
did it in self-defense. I should not have left, and I am ready to face the
matter whenever possible."

"Oh!" said he, with a shrug, tossing the idea aside. "If that's all! I did
hear something about that, from some of my men, but nothing from Adams.
You didn't kill him, I understand; merely laid him out. I saw him, myself,
but I didn't ask questions. So you can rest easy on that score. His old
man seemed to have no grudge against you for it. Fact is, he scarcely
allowed me time to warn him of the Sioux before he told me you and a woman
were out and were liable to lose your scalps, if nothing worse. I think,"
the lieutenant added, narrowing upon me, "that you'll find those Mormons
are as just as any other set, in a show down. The lad, I gathered from the
talk, drew on you after he'd cried quits." He turned hastily. "You spoke,
madam? Anything wanted?"

The trumpeter orderly plucked me by the sleeve. He was a squat,
sun-scorched little man, and his red-rimmed blue eyes squinted at me with
painful interest. He whispered harshly from covert of bronzed hand.

"Beg your pardon, sorr. Mrs. Montoyo, be it--that lady?"

"Yes."

"From Benton City, sorr, ye say?"

"From Benton City."

"Sure, I know the name. It's the same of a gambler the vigilantes strung
up last week; for I was there to see."

I heard a gusty sigh, an exclamation from the lieutenant. My Lady had
fainted again.

"The reaction, sir," I apologized, to the lieutenant, as we worked.

"Naturally," answered he. "You'll both go back to Benton?"

"Certainly," said I.

CHAPTER XXII

STAR SHINE

It was six weeks later, with My Lady all recovered and I long since
healed, and Fort Bridger pleasant in our memories, when we two rode into
Benton once more, by horse from the nearest stage point. And here we sat
our saddles, silent, wondering; for of Benton there was little significant
of the past, very little tangible of the present, naught promising of its
future.

Roaring Benton City had vanished, you might say, utterly. The iron
tendrils of the Pacific Railway glistened, stretching westward into the
sunset, and Benton had followed the lure, to Rawlins (as had been told
us), to Green River, to Bryan--likely now still onward, for the track was
traveling fast, charging the mountain slopes of Utah. The restless dust
had settled. The Queen Hotel, the Big Tent, the rows of canvas, plank,
tin, sheet metal, what-not stores