"Men, see me through this," said Kells to the silent group. "Then
any deal you want--I'm on. Stay here or--sack the camp! Hold up the
stage express with gold for Bannack! Anything for a big stake! Then
the trail and the border."

He began pacing the floor. Budd and Smith strolled outside. Bate
Wood fumbled in his pockets for pipe and tobacco. Cleve sat down at
the table and leaned on his hands. No one took notice of the dead
Pearce. Here was somber and terrible sign of the wildness of the
border clan--that Kells could send out for a parson to marry him to
a woman he hopelessly loved, there in the presence of murder and
death, with Pearce's distorted face upturned in stark and ghastly
significance.

It might have been a quarter of an hour, though to Joan it seemed an
endless time, until footsteps and voices outside announced the
return of Blicky.

He held by the arm a slight man whom he was urging along with no
gentle force. This stranger's face presented as great a contrast to
Blicky's as could have been imagined. His apparel proclaimed his
calling. There were consternation and bewilderment in his
expression, but very little fear.

"He was preachin' down there in a tent," said Blicky, "an I jest
waltzed him up without explainin'."

"Sir, I want to be married at once," declared Kells, peremptorily.

"Certainly. I'm at your service," replied the preacher. "But I