"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.