“Where is Marion?”

“At the cabin!  She is at—­”

Nathaniel waited to hear no more, but sped toward the breach in the forest that marked the beginning of the path to Obadiah’s.  The shouts of the king’s men came to him unheeded.  At the edge of the woods he glanced back and saw that they had overtaken the councilor.  As he ran he drew his pistol and in his wild joy he flung back a shout of defiance to the men who were pursuing him.  Marion was at the cabin—­and a government ship had come to put an end to the reign of the Mormon king!  He shouted Marion’s name as he came in sight of the cabin; he cried it aloud as he bounded up the low steps.

“Marion—­Marion—­”

In front of the door that led to the tiny chamber in which he had taken Obadiah’s gold he saw a figure.  For a moment he was blinded by his sudden dash from the light of day into the gloom of the cabin, and he saw only that a figure was standing there, as still as death.  His pistol dropped to the floor.  He stretched out his arms, and his voice sobbed in its entreaty as he whispered the girl’s name.  In response to that whisper came a low, glad cry, and Marion lay trembling on his breast.

“I have come back for you!” he breathed.

He felt her heart beating against him.  He pressed her closer, and her arms slipped about his neck.

“I have come back for you!”

He was almost crying, like a boy, in his happiness.

“I love you, I love you—­”

He felt the warm touch of her lips.

“You will go with me?”

“If you want me,” she whispered.  “If you want me—­after you know—­what I am—­”

She shuddered against his breast, and he raised her face between his two hands and kissed her until she drew away from him, crying softly.

[Illustration:  Marion]

“You must wait—­you must wait!”

He saw now in her face an agony that appalled him.  He would have gone to her again, but there came loud voices from the forest, and recovering his pistol he sprang to the door.  Half a hundred paces away were Obadiah and the king’s sheriffs.  They had stopped and the councilor was expostulating excitedly with the men, evidently trying to keep them from the cabin.  Suddenly one of the three broke past him and ran swiftly toward the open door, and with a shriek of warning to Nathaniel the old councilor drew a pistol and fired point blank in the sheriff’s back.  In another instant the two men behind had fired and Obadiah fell forward upon his face.

With a yell of rage Nathaniel leaped from the door.  He heard Marion cry out his name, but his fighting blood was stirred and he did not stop.  Obadiah had given up his life for him, for Marion, and he was mad with a desire to wreak vengeance upon the murderers.  The first man lay where he had fallen, with Obadiah’s bullet through his back.  The other two fired again as Nathaniel rushed down upon them.  He heard the zip of one of the balls, which came so close that it stung his cheek.