umultuous youth,
and though he would never use oaths in the presence of Sylvia, he could
still, in the seclusion of mountain or desert, let fly an imprecating
volley that would burn the rocks themselves. It was apparent to some
miners coming up the slope that their chief was no extinct volcano, and
they wisely passed in silence on the other side.

For the present there was little grief in the "King's" outpouring; the
tide of wrath was too full and sparkling to be tinged yet awhile by
other currents, and just now it flowed most against Mrs. Grayson, who
had been bold enough to tell him what he was least willing to hear. His
heart, too, was full of unspoken threats, as "King" Plummer was a
passionate man who had lived a rough life, close to the ground, and full
of primitive emotions. And the threats he expressed in words were such
as these: "They shall pay for it!" "I helped put that husband of hers
where he is, I helped make him, and I can help unmake him; and, by
thunder, I will do it, too!" In the hour of his wrath he hated Jimmy
Grayson, and his head was filled with sudden schemes. He would "teach
the man what it was to play the King of the Mountains for a sucker,"
and, still raging, he cast from him all the ties of party and
association.

Within an hour he was on his swiftest horse, riding furiously towards
Boise, his heart full of anger and his head full of plans for revenge.

Nor was he sparing in speech when he reached Boise. His words cracked so
loud that the echo of them travelled several hundred miles and reached
Mrs. Grayson, who was waiting vainly for a reply to a letter that she
had written nearly two weeks before. Now, no reply was necessary,
because this news was what she had feared, but which she had hoped would
not come.

The report was winged and full of alarms. "King" Plummer, shooting out
of the mountains like a cannon-ball, had made his appearance in the
streets of Boise, openly denouncing Jimmy Grayson, calling him a
traitor, and saying that he would beat him if he had to ruin himself to
do it. What had caused this sudden change nobody knew, but it must be
something astonishing, and it behooved the candidate to explain himself
quickly.

The loyal soul of the candidate's wife flashed back an angry reply
across the five hundred miles of mountain and desert. If "King" Plummer
was not the man she had hoped he was, then they preferred that they
should fight him rather than have him as a false frien