“You know that I went with your permission to visit the prisoner this afternoon?” “I gave orders that you should be allowed to do so, Nina.” “Of course, Colonel Dunwoody, I feel for that unfortunate man, in spite of his having been proven an outlaw, a most kindly feeling.” “I can understand that thoroughly, Miss Nina, in that you owe to him your life, not to speak of having seen him afterward in Mexico win honors that only a hero could. It is a terrible misfortune that such a man as he was capable of becoming should allow his moral character to be broken utterly and sink to the level of a common criminal. “Brave I admit him to be, a genious in his way, one whose deeds would make him a splendid commander, and with his good looks, accomplishments and courtly manners, the wonder in my mind was that you did not fall desperately in love with him, for few girls, circumstanced as you have been, Miss Nina, could have held their hearts in their keeping. You are made of very stern and sterling material, my dear Miss Nina de Sutro.” “I thank you for saying so, Colonel Dunwoody, but as to this unfortunate man.” “Yes.” “You said that he had asked to see me that I might serve him in some way, as he wished to trust me with certain business to transact for him?” “Such was the communication that Captain Caruth brought me from him.” “Well, sir, I went to see him, and I was there fully an hour. Though he did not say as much, he is most deeply interested in a young woman in Pocket City, and he has written her a letter which he wished me to send to her by courier.” “Indeed?” “I, of course, would do nothing without consulting you, and so said to him that I would take the letter and send it through if possible.” “You have the letter, Miss Nina?” “Here it is, sir.” The colonel glanced at the address and said: “It is to Bonnie Belle, one of the most remarkable characters in this land of strange people. “She is a young and very beautiful girl, I have heard, for I have never seen her; but I have heard much of her through Surgeon Frank Powell, Captain Caruth and Buffalo Bill, who know her well.” “What do they say of her, sir?” “That she is a young lady scarcely twenty, of great loveliness of form and face, accomplished and refined, yet one who has killed her man, as they have it out here, runs a hotel and gambling-den and is beloved by every man in the mines.” “Can she be this man’s wife?” asked Nina in a low tone, and she would not look the colonel in the face as she asked the question. “It may be so, though I cannot believe that she knows him as he really is, for she is not one, from all I have heard, to be the ally of such a man, his confederate in crime.” “Well, colonel, he wishes this letter sent through to her, and I promised to do so for him, so I appeal to you for your consent.”