ll, with the
exception of the wretched slavers, who, to the number of nearly three
hundred, were immediately led out to execution, and were shot, like mad
dogs, in accordance with the unchanging decree of the Mormon Holy Three,
whilst Zero, heavily ironed, was forthwith consigned to the condemned
cell in the public building, knowing that he must, in a few hours,
suffer the extreme agonies of the awful death by torture, which he had
himself often and often inflicted upon his helpless and unresisting
fellow-creatures.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

"A FRIEND IN NEED."

That very night, when our friends were conversing together in the house
of their prison, a guard appeared with a small note, which he handed to
Kenyon, and signified that he was to await his answer.

At once tearing open the cover, the wonder-stricken detective read the
simple message:--

"Follow the bearer.

"Weston Abbott (`Noughts and Crosses')."

Springing to his feet in joyful haste, he quietly whispered to
Grenville, "A friend at court! by Jove, old man! The note is from Uncle
Sam's own trusted correspondent in Salt Lake City. We're in luck
again," and, indicating to the officer his willingness to comply with
the instructions contained in the note, Kenyon quickly followed the man
out of the hall.

To the astonishment of our friend, the fellow led him directly to the
ancient Prophet's room, where he found the old man very comfortably
domiciled, and prepared to receive him most kindly, though still in a
strictly business-like manner.

"Well, Mr Kenyon," he said, "so in this out-of-the-way part of the
world we meet at last, and I assure you that it gives me pleasure to
know you personally. I am the man who wrote this note, and am also your
regular and constant correspondent in Salt Lake City.

"Now, I want you just to tell me the whole history of this affair, and
why I find you here at the ends of the earth, when I thought you in New
York. Tell me all; for, I assure you, we are at our wits' end to know
how to deal with these English people, whom, particularly the woman and
child, I rather shrink from slaying."

Kenyon then gave him a full, true, and particular account of the whole
expedition, adding that the presence of Lady Drelincourt in Equatoria
was still an enigma to him, as he believed her dead in England, slain by
Zero's hand; but that the poor woman was still so weak and hysterical
that they had not liked to question her, especially w