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"How'd it coun on Tull or some of them?" inquired the rider, curiously

"Jane pleaded with uns from me I lost all before I knew it," replied Venters, with the red color in his face "But, Lassiter, listen

"Out of the wreck I saved a Winchester, two Colts, and plenty of shells I packed these down into Deception Pass There, almost every day for six months, I have practiced with my rifle till the barrel burntof a Colt, hour after hour!"

"Now that's interestin' to me," said Lassiter, with a quick uplift of his head and a concentration of his gray gaze on Venters "Could you throw a gun before you began that practisin'?"

"Yes And now" Venters -swift movement

Lassiter smiled, and then his bronzed eyelids narrowed till his eyes seeray slits "You'll kill Tull!" He did not question; he affirmed

"I promised Jane Withersteen I'd try to avoid Tull I'll keep my word But sooner or later Tull and I will meet As I feel now, if he even looks at me I'll draw!"

"I reckon so There'll be hell down there, presently" He paused a e-brush with his quirt "Venters, seein' as you're considerable worked up, tell me Milly Erne's story"

Venters's agitation stilled to the trace of suppressed eagerness in Lassiter's query

"Milly Erne's story? Well, Lassiter, I'll tell you what I know

Milly Erne had been in Cottonwoods years when I first arrived there, and ot to know her pretty well She was a slip of a woion I conceived an idea that I never ht she was at heart more Gentile than Mormon But she passed as a Mormon, and certainly she had the More there are women who seem mysterious to us, but about Milly there was more than the ordinary mystery When she cairl whom she loved passionately Milly was not known openly in Cottonwoods as a Mormon wife That she really was a Mormon wife I have no doubt Perhaps the More Milly Such things happen in these villages Moret jealous Well, whatever had brought Milly to this country-- love orthe village school She quit the church And she began to fight Morirl Then the Mormons put on the screws-- slowly, as is their way At last the child disappeared