ss, for she
had ridden in on an old sidesaddle, and she shook out the crumpled
folds in a wistful attempt to look proper. On her head was the
inevitable sunbonnet of slats and calico.

As she went up the steps of the store with Cleve, Lola of the Golden
Cloud, blazing like a comet in her red-and-black came face to face
with her purposely. What was in Lola's head none would ever know, but
she wanted to see Courtrey's wife.

As they met they stopped dead still, these two women who loved one
man, and the look that passed between them was electric, deep,
revealing. They stood so long staring into each other's eyes that
Cleve, frowning, plucked Ellen by the sleeve and made to push
forward.

But as suddenly as a flash of light Lola reached out her two hands and
caught Ellen's in a tight clasp that only women know, the swift,
clinging clasp of the secret fellowship of those who suffer.

For one tense moment she held them, while Ellen swayed forward for all
the world as if she would sink in upon the deep full breast of this
wanton whom she had hated! Then the spell broke, they fell apart with
a rush, Lola swung out and went down the steps, while Ellen obediently
followed Cleve into Baston's store, where she sat on a nail keg and
waited in a dull lethargy. Outside Courtrey, who had witnessed the
thing from across the street, slapped his thigh and laughed
uproariously.

It was a funny sight to him. But Lola's beautiful black eyes blazed
across at him with a light that none had ever seen before in their
inscrutable depths.

Then the hour struck, and all Corvan, it seemed to Cleve, strung out
toward the Court House. This was to be in open court--a spectacle.
From somewhere in the adobe outskirts of the town came Ellen's serving
women, most of them, whom Cleve had sent in early in the day. They
fell in with her and so, with only the brother who had never failed
her and these dusky women of the silent tongues to back her, Ellen
Courtrey went to her crucifixion as truly as though she had been one
of the two thieves on Golgotha.

At the sight of Courtrey across the big bare room she went whiter than
she was, if such a thing were possible, and slid weakly into the chair
placed for her.

Then the thing proceeded--swiftly, lightly, with smiles on the faces
of the crowd.

Old Ben Garland on the judge's bench, was furtive, scared, nervous,
fiddling with his papers and clearing his throat from time to time.

The county clerk a