fond of them. By and by they had a little girl whom they named
Jane. The coming of the baby made a change in my friends. They were
happier, and I observed that the haunting shadow did not so often
return.

"Venters had spoken of a journey west that he and his wife meant to
take some time. But after the baby came he never mentioned his wife in
connection with the trip. I gathered that he felt compelled to go to
clear up a mystery or to find something--I did not make out just what.
But eventually, and it was about a year ago, he told me his story--the
strangest, wildest, and most tragic I ever heard. I can't tell it all
now. It is enough to say that fifteen years before he had been a
rider for a rich Mormon woman named Jane Withersteen, of this village
Cottonwoods. She had adopted a beautiful Gentile child named Fay Larkin.
Her interest in Gentiles earned the displeasure of her churchmen, and as
she was proud there came a breach. Venters and a gunman named Lassiter
became involved in her quarrel. Finally Venters took to the canyon. Here
in the wilds he found the strange girl he eventually married. For a long
time they lived in a wonderful hidden valley, the entrance to which was
guarded by a huge balancing rock. Venters got away with the girl. But
Lassiter and Jane Withersteen and the child Fay Larkin were driven into
the canyon. They escaped to the valley where Venters had lived. Lassiter
rolled the balancing rock, and, crashing down the narrow trail, it
loosened the weathered walls and closed the narrow outlet for ever."

IV. NEW FRIENDS

Shefford ended his narrative out of breath, pale, and dripping with
sweat. Withers sat leaning forward with an expression of intense
interest. Nas Ta Bega's easy, graceful pose had succeeded to one
of strained rigidity. He seemed a statue of bronze. Could a few
intelligible words, Shefford wondered, have created that strange,
listening posture?

"Venters got out of Utah, of course, as you know," went on Shefford. "He
got out, knowing--as I feel I would have known--that Jane, Lassiter, and
little Fay Larkin were shut up, walled up in Surprise Valley. For years
Venters considered it would not have been safe for him to venture
to rescue them. He had no fears for their lives. They could live in
Surprise Valley. But Venters always intended to come back with Bess and
find the valley and his friends. No wonder he and Bess were haunted.
However, when his wife had the baby that made