n everywhere at Robinson; Celestine was
speedily induced to learn the business, and proved an adept. He warned
her she would be suspected, but she laughed and said she knew how to
hoodwink folks. They kept up their partnership at Laramie, he receiving
and hiding the valuables she brought him; but he was sure the doctor
had recognized him; he knew there was danger, and he was determined to
slip away the first chance that came, especially after securing the
diamonds. The Fetterman despatch gave him the longed-for opportunity.
Celestine was quieted by the promise that, as soon as the thing had
blown over and he was safe, he would get word to her where to join him,
send her plenty of money, and then they would be married and live
happily ever after. On the way back from Fetterman he stopped at an
abandoned hut near Bull Bend, where he had hidden his plunder on the
way up, stowed the money and jewels in his saddle-bags, then pushed for
Hunton's on the Chug; got safely by in the night, rode his horse hard
to Lodge Pole Creek, where he left him at a ranch and secured the loan
of another. Then keeping well to the west of Fort Russell and never
going near Cheyenne, he crossed the Union Pacific and made his way to
Denver. But there, to his dismay, the "Rocky Mountain" detective
officials were on the watch for him, and every precaution had been
vain. He was captured; Miss Forrest's diamonds, Mr. Holmes's amethysts,
and Mr. Hatton's pins were found secreted in his possession, though
most of the money was gone,--gambling,--and that was all. He never knew
that Mr. Holmes had tracked him all the way and rolled up a volume of
evidence against him.

Celestine, tiger-cat that she was, had at first filled the air with
shrieks of rage and loud accusations, first against Lachlan and then
Miss Forrest, but the Irish laundresses only jeered at her; and, when
the deserter was fairly back in the garrison and the circumstances of
his capture were made known, taunted her with having been victimized by
a man who had a wife to share the profits of her plundering. Once made
to realize that this was truth, she no longer sought to conceal
anything. She seemed bent only on heaping up vengeance upon him. 'Twas
he who corrupted her; he who taught her to steal; he who showed her how
to pick locks; he who told her to wear Miss Forrest's silk skirts and
steal her handkerchiefs and leave them where they would be found; he
who let her in to the doctor's the n