“Don’t worry about the boy, Helen. He is safer with the boys than with you.” They did not notice Muriel, who looked at Helen for a moment with tears in her eyes and then slipped away unseen by Helen, whose sorrows she had caused in a great measure. “Are you sure he would be safe with them? Think what it would mean to me to lose him again!” “Don’t worry. Anyone of the boys would die for you any day, and as he is your boy they would naturally transfer their allegiance to him. And you say it is his father who, to rob you of him, killed your brother, ‘Cactus Bill,’ and stole this poor Dora? Say, he must be aching for the noose. And, besides, it was he who tried to kill Goldberg!” “Yes; he is John Pierson. I saw him but just now, and he tried to take my child again. Oh, I wonder such men are permitted to live! He outraged every human emotion, abandoned me with another woman, and to think that he should have killed my poor brother! He was an honest man.” “You bet he was. We all knew him, and he was white, he was.” Shoshone stopped in his oration, saying: “Go back to the tent, girl. Some of the boys are going to get busy.” “What do you mean, Shoshone?” “Nothin’, Helen, nothin’. I didn’t mean for you to go alone. I’ll go along.” “Thank you, Shoshone, I am growing to be a coward.” They could not have gone more than fifty yards from the box when Muriel came back that way, looking behind her in terror, as she saw her two enemies following her, so that she could not escape. John approached her, saying: “What have you done with her? Where is she, you traitor?” “I have set her free, you devil! and I’m ready to die for having done it!” said Muriel, no longer seeking to escape, and folding her hands. “Then die!” Saying this, John fired point-blank at Muriel’s heart, and she fell to the ground with a cry, while John said to Dopey: “Come this way! this way, quick!” At the sound of this shot, followed by a woman’s cry, there was a rush of people, and among them Helen, for, in her excited mind, she feared for her child. As she approached, the men made way for her, and she knelt by the side of the dying woman, saying: “A woman, poor thing!” Then she started, saying, “You, you!” “Yes, I; and is it possible that I am to die in your arms--you whom I wronged so deeply?” “Yes, Muriel, if you die, it shall be in my arms and with my pardon.” “You pardon me after all I’ve done to you?” “Yes; freely and fully, but don’t think of that. Can you pray?” “Not until I tell you who killed me! It was John Pierson. The man I took away from you has been your avenger.” “I want no revenge, Muriel. Vengeance is not for us!” The unfortunate woman gasped a few times, and while Helen was praying for the passing soul the light went out of Muriel’s eyes and she was dead! “Hats off, boys; she is going over the range,” Shoshone had said while Muriel was gasping her last breaths. Helen covered the face, letting fall pearly tears as she did so.