ptible, from the effort he made to conceal it. It was
noticed for all that; and the emotion that caused it perfectly
understood. The keen eye of the _ci-devant_ law clerk was too skilled
in reading the human countenance, to be deceived by an effort at
impassibility.

"My daughter?" muttered Holt, half interrogatively.

"Your daughter!" echoed the Mormon, with imperturbable coolness.

"But which o' 'em? Thur's two."

"Oh! you know which I mean--Marian, of course."

"An' what do ye want wi' Marian, Josh?"

"Come, Brother Holt? it's no use your feigning ignorance. I've spoken
to you of this before: you know well enough what I want with her."

"Durn me, if I do! I remember what ye sayed afore; but I thort ye wur
only jokin'."

"I was in earnest then, Hickman Holt; and I'm still more in earnest now.
I want a wife, and I think Marian would suit me admirably. I suppose
you know that the saints have moved off from Illinois, and are now
located beyond the Rocky Mountains?"

"I've heern somethin' o't."

"Well, I propose going thereto join them; and I must take a wife with
me: for no man is welcome who comes there without one."

"Y-e-s," drawled the squatter, with a bitter smile, "an' from what I've
heern, I reckon he'd be more welkum if he fetched half-a-dozen."

"Nonsense, Hickman Holt. I wonder a man of your sense would listen to
such lies. It's a scandal that's been scattered abroad by a set of
corrupt priests and Methody preachers, who are jealous of us, because
we're drawing their people. Sheer wicked lies, every word of it!"

"Wal, I don't know about that. But I know one thing, to a sartinty--you
will niver get Marian's consent."

"I don't want Marian's consent--that don't signify, so long as I have
yours."

"Myen?"

"Ay, yours; and I must have it. Look here, Hickman Holt! Listen to me!
We're making too long a talk about this business; and I have no time to
waste in words. I have made everything ready; and shall leave for the
Salt Lake before three more days have passed over my head. The caravan
I'm going with is to start from Fort Smith on the Arkansas; and it'll be
prepared by the time I get there, to move over the plains. I've bought
me a team and a waggon. It's already loaded and packed; and there's a
corner in it left expressly for your daughter: therefore, she must go."

The tone of the speaker had suddenly changed, from that of saintly
insinuation, to bold open menace. The squatt