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,