the riders."

"Drive a few cattle! But, Bess, the Withersteen herd, the red
herd--twenty-five hundred head! That's not a few. And I tracked them
into a valley near here."

"Oldring never stole the red herd. He made a deal with Mormons. The
riders were to be called in, and Oldring was to drive the herd and keep
it till a certain time--I won't know when--then drive it back to the
range. What his share was I didn't hear."

"Did you hear why that deal was made?" queried Venters.

"No. But it was a trick of Mormons. They're full of tricks. I've heard
Oldring's men tell about Mormons. Maybe the Withersteen woman wasn't
minding her halter! I saw the man who made the deal. He was a little,
queer-shaped man, all humped up. He sat his horse well. I heard one of
our men say afterward there was no better rider on the sage than this
fellow. What was the name? I forget."

"Jerry Card?" suggested Venters.

"That's it. I remember--it's a name easy to remember--and Jerry Card
appeared to be on fair terms with Oldring's men."

"I shouldn't wonder," replied Venters, thoughtfully. Verification of his
suspicions in regard to Tull's underhand work--for the deal with Oldring
made by Jerry Card assuredly had its inception in the Mormon Elder's
brain, and had been accomplished through his orders--revived in Venters
a memory of hatred that had been smothered by press of other emotions.
Only a few days had elapsed since the hour of his encounter with Tull,
yet they had been forgotten and now seemed far off, and the interval
one that now appeared large and profound with incalculable change in his
feelings. Hatred of Tull still existed in his heart, but it had lost its
white heat. His affection for Jane Withersteen had not changed in the
least; nevertheless, he seemed to view it from another angle and see it
as another thing--what, he could not exactly define. The recalling of
these two feelings was to Venters like getting glimpses into a self
that was gone; and the wonder of them--perhaps the change which was too
illusive for him--was the fact that a strange irritation accompanied
the memory and a desire to dismiss it from mind. And straightway he did
dismiss it, to return to thoughts of his significant present.

"Bess, tell me one more thing," he said. "Haven't you known any
women--any young people?"

"Sometimes there were women with the men; but Oldring never let me know
them. And all the young people I ever saw in my life was when I