Shefford and Joe, by reason of the location of their camp and their alertness, met all the new-comers.  The ride from Stonebridge was a long and hard one, calculated to wear off the effects of the whisky imbibed by the adventure-seekers.  This fact alone saved the situation.  Nevertheless, Joe expected trouble.  Most of the visitors were decent, good-natured fellows, merely curious, and simple enough to believe that this really was what the Mormons had claimed—­a village of free women.  But there were those among them who were coarse, evil-minded, and dangerous.

By supper-time there were two dozen or more of these men in the valley, camped along the west wall.  Fires were lighted, smoke curled up over the cedars, gay songs disturbed the usual serenity of the place.  Later in the early twilight the curious visitors, by twos and threes, walked about the village, peering at the dark cabins and jesting among themselves.  Joe had informed Shefford that all the women had been put in a limited number of cabins, so that they could be protected.  So far as Shefford saw or heard there was no unpleasant incident in the village; however, as the sauntering visitors returned toward their camps they loitered at the spring, and here developments threatened.

In spite of the fact that the majority of these cowboys and their comrades were decent-minded and beginning to see the real relation of things, they were not disposed to be civil to Shefford.  They were certainly not Mormons.  And his position, apparently as a Gentile, among these Mormons was one open to criticism.  They might have been jealous, too; at any rate, remarks were passed in his hearing, meant for his ears, that made it exceedingly trying for him not to resent.  Moreover, Joe Lake’s increasing impatience rendered the situation more difficult.  Shefford welcomed the arrival of Nas Ta Bega.  The Indian listened to the loud talk of several loungers round the camp-fire; and thereafter he was like Shefford’s shadow, silent, somber, watchful.

Nevertheless, it did not happen to be one of the friendly and sarcastic cowboys that precipitated the crisis.  A horse-wrangler named Hurley, a man of bad repute, as much outlaw as anything, took up the bantering.

“Say, Shefford, what in the hell’s your job here, anyway?” he queried as he kicked a cedar branch into the camp-fire.  The brightening blaze showed him swarthy, unshaven, a large-featured, ugly man.

“I’ve been doing odd jobs for Withers,” replied Shefford.  “Expect to drive pack-trains in here for a while.”

“You must stand strong with these Mormons.  Must be a Mormon yerself?”

“No,” replied Shefford, briefly.

“Wal, I’m stuck on your job.  Do you need a packer?  I can throw a diamond-hitch better ’n any feller in this country.”

“I don’t need help.”

“Mebbe you’ll take me over to see the ladies,” he went on, with a coarse laugh.