ow'd the thing end?"

"It ended all right."

"Was there no conviction--no sentence?" Shefford felt a curious
eagerness.

"Naw," he snorted. "That court might have saved its breath."

"I suppose. Well, Joe, between you and me, as old friends now, that
trial established one fact, even if it couldn't be proved.... Those
women are sealed wives."

Joe had no reply for that. He looked gloomy, and there was a stern line
in his lips. To-day he seemed more like a Mormon.

"Judge Stone knew that as well as I knew," went on Shefford. "Any man of
penetration could have seen it. What an ordeal that was for good women
to go through! I know they're good. And there they were swearing to--"

"Didn't it make me sick?" interrupted Joe in a kind of growl. "Reckon
it made Judge Stone sick, too. After Mary went under he conducted that
trial like a man cuttin' out steers at a round-up. He wanted to get it
over. He never forced any question.... Bad job to ride down Stonebridge
way! It's out of creation. There's only six men in the party, with a
poor lot of horses. Really, government officers or not, they're not
safe. And they've taken a hunch."

"Have they left already?" inquired Shefford.

"Were packed an hour ago. I didn't see them go, but somebody said they
went. Took the trail for Bluff, which sure is the only trail they could
take, unless they wanted to go to Colorado by way of Kayenta. That might
have been the safest trail."

"Joe, what might happen to them?" asked Shefford, quietly, with eyes on
the Mormon.

"Aw, you know that rough trail. Bad on horses. Weathered
slopes--slipping ledges--a rock might fall on you any time. Then Shadd's
here with his gang. And bad Piutes."

"What became of the women?" Shefford asked, 'presently.

"They're around among friends."

"Where are their children?"

"Left over there with the old women. Couldn't be fetched over. But there
are some pretty young babies in that bunch--need their mothers."

"I should--think so," replied Shefford, constrainedly. "When will their
mothers get back to them?"

"To-night, maybe, if this mob of cow-punchers and wranglers get out of
town.... It's a bad mix, Shefford, here's a hunch on that. These fellows
will get full of whisky. And trouble might come if they--approach the
women."

"You mean they might get drunk enough to take the oaths of those poor
women--take the meaning literally--pretend to believe the women what
they swore they were?"

"Reckon