nd tried to speak, but the
words died on her lips.

Finally, with an effort, she half whispered:

"Do you know where he is now?"

Then, as the men looked at each other, she cried in a clearer tone, "Is
he _dead_?"

"No, no, ma'am. He wus here, 'taint a month," said Scotty. "I think
he's off huntin' in the hills. I'll find Circus Jack, and bring him up
here. He'll be likely to know--him and Jim wus real good friends."

"Thank you," said the stranger softly, in a voice which smote Scotty's
heart exceedingly.

The Doctor, meanwhile, had gone for Mrs. Sharpe, who presently entered,
and invited the stranger to "hev a little tea."

She was a small fair woman, with a washed-out look, and a mouth not
innocent of _dipping_, but she looked and spoke kindly, and the
stranger was glad enough to answer, "Yes," and follow her into the
dining-room. The crowd fell back as she approached, but only enough to
give her room to pass. Some stealthily touched her dress as she swept
by them, and when she had disappeared, and the door had closed, forty
tongues were loosed at once, and a scene of excitement ensued only
equalled by the one which followed on the shooting of "the Judge" by
"Little Jack," over a game of poker, in that very bar-room of the Grand
Hotel.

"Mought I ax your name, ma'am?" inquired Mrs. Sharpe.

"Marian Kingsley," was the faint reply.

"Miss or Mrs., ma'am?" pursued Mrs. Sharpe, glancing at the shapely,
white, ringless hands.

The stranger gave a slight impatient twitch. "It doesn't matter," she
said. "Call me Marian. That will do as well as anything."

Mrs. Sharpe was a washed-out woman. Many of the natural and laudable
instincts remained, perhaps being fast colors; but a horror of the
class to which she now supposed Marian to belong was one which had
faded out of her nature. She gave a slightly supercilious look, which
fell upon the woman like moonlight on ice, and pursued her inquiries.

"Came from 'Frisco?"

"I came through there. I didn't see anything of the place."

"Whar _did_ yer come from?"

"Philadelphia." The tone was changed. She evidently felt the impalpable
rudeness of the faded woman, and knew how to resent it in the same way.
More conversation ensued, in the course of which Mrs. Sharpe discovered
that Marian had a little money--enough to pay her board for a few
months--and that she had come there to find "James Courtney Wilmer."

Mrs. Sharpe had information to give as well as to take,