"Stop, bishop!" interjects Kruger, interrupting him. "You have scared Ermie plump off!" Which is true, for Miss Travenion has suddenly displayed a desire for rapid movement that has carried her well ahead of the gentlemen, down the trail. Her refined mind resents her father's laughing allusions to polygamy, which make her shudder. Anxious to avoid the subject entirely, she walks on so rapidly that her escorts do not overtake her till she has reached the hotel. As she walks, two ideas force themselves upon her. Her father wishes her to know that Kruger is a married man. Kruger does not care that she should learn the fact. Why is he confused and diffident over her knowledge of what he has boasted to a dozen Mormon girls at a time? She can't think of any answer to this for a little while, but just as she reaches the door of the hotel, a great wave of color flies over her face, followed by an unnatural pallor, and shivering as if struck by the ague, she sinks on to an empty box that stands near the door. A moment after her father is by her side, whispering: "You are faint!" And Kruger coming up cries: "This high air up here is too much for ye!" "I'll be better in a moment!" whispers the girl. "Could not you get me a drink of water?" Her father going on this errand, Lot laughingly suggests: "I reckon it must have been the sight of the snake that weakened ye!" "Yes--I think it was--the sight of the snake--" shudders Erma. Then Ralph brings the water to her and she drinks it as if there were a fever in her veins, and her eyes seem to follow Kruger, the Mormon bishop, as if he were the rattlesnake--only they look on him with more loathing than they did on the reptile. CHAPTER XIV. A RARE CLUB STORY. Then, under the plea of illness, Miss Travenion seeks her little room in the hotel, to get away from the sight of this man whom she has suddenly grown to loathe--she hardly fears him--the idea that has come to her about him seems so preposterous. Some two hours afterwards, her father knocking on her door, asks if she is well enough to see him. Being told to enter, he does so, whispering to her: "Speak low! Sound passes easily from one room to another." Then he informs her he has received his deed from Kruger, and has forwarded the deed of Zion's Co-operative Mining Company to Captain Lawrence, remarking: "This will bring your young springald down here very suddenly, I imagine," playfully chuckling Erma under the chin with a father's pride. "Do not deceive yourself!" answers the girl. "Captain Lawrence is not engaged to me. He has never said one word of love to me. He will now probably never say one of love to me. YOU ARE MY FATHER!" This last with a sigh is a fearful reproach to this Mormon bishop, who in the misery of his child is repenting of his sins.