got
drunk for the only time in my life.

"Soon after that I left home--it seems Milly was the only one who could
keep me home--an' I went to the bad, as to prosperin' I saw some pretty
hard life in the Pan Handle, an' then I went North. In them days Kansas
an' Nebraska was as bad, come to think of it, as these days right here
on the border of Utah. I got to be pretty handy with guns. An'
there wasn't many riders as could beat me ridin'. An' I can say all
modest-like that I never seen the white man who could track a hoss or a
steer or a man with me. Afore I knowed it two years slipped by, an' all
at once I got homesick, en' purled a bridle south.

"Things at home had changed. I never got over that homecomin'. Mother
was dead an' in her grave. Father was a silent, broken man, killed
already on his feet. Frank Erne was a ghost of his old self, through
with workin', through with preachin', almost through with livin', an'
Milly was gone!... It was a long time before I got the story. Father had
no mind left, an' Frank Erne was afraid to talk. So I had to pick up
whet 'd happened from different people.

"It 'pears that soon after I left home another preacher come to the
little town. An' he an' Frank become rivals. This feller was different
from Frank. He preached some other kind of religion, and he was quick
an' passionate, where Frank was slow an' mild. He went after people,
women specially. In looks he couldn't compare to Frank Erne, but he had
power over women. He had a voice, an' he talked an' talked an' preached
an' preached. Milly fell under his influence.. She became mightily
interested in his religion. Frank had patience with her, as was his way,
an' let her be as interested as she liked. All religions were devoted to
one God, he said, an' it wouldn't hurt Milly none to study a different
point of view. So the new preacher often called on Milly, an' sometimes
in Frank's absence. Frank was a cattle-man between Sundays.

"Along about this time an incident come off that I couldn't get much
light on. A stranger come to town, an' was seen with the preacher. This
stranger was a big man with an eye like blue ice, an' a beard of gold.
He had money, an' he 'peered a man of mystery, an' the town went to
buzzin' when he disappeared about the same time as a young woman
known to be mightily interested in the new preacher's religion. Then,
presently, along comes a man from somewheres in Illinois, en' he up an'
spots this preache