“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 rode fast through the villages.”

Perhaps that was the most puzzling and thought-provoking thing she had yet said to Venters.  He pondered, more curious the more he learned, but he curbed his inquisitive desires, for he saw her shrinking on the verge of that shame, the causing of which had occasioned him such self-reproach.  He would ask no more.  Still he had to think, and he found it difficult to think clearly.  This sad-eyed girl was so utterly different from what it would have been reason to believe such a remarkable life would have made her.  On this day he had found her simple and frank, as natural as any girl he had ever known.  About her there was something sweet.  Her voice was low and well modulated.  He could not look into her face, meet her steady, unabashed, yet wistful eyes, and think of her as the woman she had confessed herself.  Oldring’s Masked