the sand hills. Divil a wan does know who kilt 'em, but
there's some ugly stories travellin' about. Some says Injuns; some says
the posse run 'em down; an' Black Bart an' his dirthy outfit, they swear
it was Keith. Oi've got me own notion. Annyhow, there's 'bout three
hundred dollars, some mules, an' a lot o' valyble papers missin'."

"But if it wasn't father, where is he now?"

"That's what Oi've been tryin' ter foind out. First off he went out to
the Cimmaron Crossing, gyarded by a squad o' cavalry from the fort
here. Tommy Caine wint along, an' told me all about it. They dug up
the bodies, but niver a thing did they find on 'em--not a paper, nor
a dollar. They'd bin robbed all roight. The owld Gineral swore loike
a wild mon all the way back, Tommy said, an' the first thing he did
at Carson City was to start huntin' fer 'Black Bart.' He was two days
gittin' on the trail av him; then he heard the feller was gone away
trapsing after a singin' or dancin' gyurl called Christie Maclaire. She
was supposed to be ayther at Topeky or Sheridan. A freighter told the
owld man she was at Sheridan, an' so he started there overland, hopin'
ter head off 'Black Bart.' Oi reckon we could a towld mor 'n that."

"What do you mean?"

"Why shure, honey, what's the use tryin' ter decave me? Didn't Jack
Keith, wid his own lips, tell me ye was Christie Maclaire?"

"But I'm not! I'm not, Mrs. Murphy. I don't even know the woman. It is
such a strange thing; I cannot account for it--both those men mistook me
for her, and--and I let them. I didn't care who the man Hawley supposed
me to be, but I intended to have told Mr. Keith he was mistaken. I don't
know why I didn't, only I supposed he finally understood. But I want you
to believe, Mrs. Murphy--I am Hope Waite, and not Christie Maclaire."

"It's little the loss to ye not ter be her, an' Oi'm thinkin' loikely
Jack Keith will be moighty well plased ter know the truth. What's 'Black
Bart' so ayger ter git hold av this Maclaire gyurl fer?"

"I do not in the least know. He must have induced me to go to that place
in the desert believing me to be the other woman. Yet he said nothing of
any purpose; indeed, he found no opportunity."

Mrs. Murphy shook her head disparagingly.

"It was shure some divilment," she asserted, stoutly. "He'll be up to
some thrick wid the poor gyurl; Oi know the loikes av him. Shure, the
two av yez must look as much aloike as two payes in a pod. Loikely now,
it's a