I rode through the streets of Mesa, where they lived, and past the lights of his big saloon, where I heard the sound of devil's revelry and a shrill-voiced woman singing--a woman the like of which he had tried to make my Merridy.

I never skulked or sneaked in those days, and no man ever made me take back roads, so I came up to his house from the front and tied my horse to his gate-post.

She heard me on the steps and opened the door.
"'You sent for me,' said I.'Where is he ?' But he had gone away to a neighboring camp, and wouldn't be back until morning, at which I felt the way a thief must feel, for I'd hoped to meet him in his own house, and I wasn't the kind to go calling when the husband was out.

I couldn't think very clearly, however, because of the change in her.

She was so thin and worn and sad, sadder than any woman I'd ever seen, and she wasn't the girl I'd known three years before.