ow, and I
heard that the mob out there propped up his body and used it for a
target."

Susannah rose up with clenched hands and pitiful face, but she went out
of the room, leaving the two men together. "Were you injured?" asked
Ephraim of the stranger.

"Well, sir, I was bruised by being trampled on, but the gaoler got hold
of me and dragged me into an iron cell and locked me in, and the next
morning he came and let me out."

"That was a year ago," said Ephraim. "Have you been in Nauvoo since
then?"

"Yes, I went back. I wanted to know, sir, what would come, and take my
share of the suffering after seeing the prophet die so courageous; but,
sir, the Church is sorely divided. I didn't like to say it before your
lady, for I see that she's got some one she cares for amongst us, but
there's a strong party among the apostles and elders that are
worshippers of Baal, and are most evil in their conduct and practice,
and are apostate, though they call themselves followers of the prophet.
And Mr. Brigham Young is at the head of them. It's a bad thing that the
Illinois militia is set out to fight against us and turn us out of the
city without mercy, but it's a sorer thing that the greater part of our
people, being ignorant, will follow Mr. Brigham Young; and he's bent on
going west, sir, into the heart of the Rocky Mountains, where he can set
up a kingdom of his own. His teaching is against good doctrine in two
respects; he says that they will wax strong there until they can avenge
the blood of their brethren who have been hunted and slain, and that the
elders and apostles will live like the patriarchs of old, and have many
wives, in order to build up the Church."

"And has the other party in your sect no strength to resist?"

"Very little strength, sir, except that God is on the side of the
righteous; but Mrs. Smith, the prophet's widow, with his sons and many
hundreds of us, will not give in to the evil, but will stay in Illinois
and Missouri in face of the worst that persecution can do, for it was
thereabouts that the prophet said that the Holy City should be, and he
gave us no word to kill and destroy our fellow-men; and although perhaps
he was led away and sinned sometimes as other men do, it is a scandalous
lie to say that he thought to teach wickedness and falsehood to his
Church."

"I wonder," asked Ephraim within himself, "if that is true, or what
strange secret that troubled soul took with him to the other side