“What?” I exclaimed. “How so?”
“Meanin’ to say that layin’ on of hands by the Lord’s an’inted is necessary to reel j’inin’ in marriage.”
“But that’s monstrous!” I stammered.
“Dare say,” said he. “It’s the way white gospelers look at Injuns, ain’t it? Anyhow, to convert her out of sin, as they’d call it, and put her over into the company of the saints wouldn’t be no bad deal, by their kind o’ thinkin’. It’s been done before, I reckon. Jest thought I’d warn you. She’s made her own bed 191 and if it’s a Mormon bed she’s well quit of Montoyo, that’s sartin. Did you ever see the beat of that young feller on the draw?”
“No,” I admitted. “I never did.”
“And you never will.”
“He says his name’s Bonnie Bravo. Where did he find that?”
“Haw haw.” Friend Jenks spat. “Must ha’ heard it in a play-house or got it read to him out a book. Sounds to him like he was some punkins. Anyhow, if you’ve any feelin’s in the matter keep ’em under your hat. I don’t know what there’s been between you and her, but the Mormon church is between you now and it’s got the dead-wood on you. It’s either that for her, or Montoyo. He knows; he’s no fool and he’ll take his time. So you’d better stick to mule-whacking and sowbelly.”
Still it was only decent that I should inquire after her. No Daniel and no “Bonnie Bravo” was going to shut me from my duty. Therefore this evening after we had formed corral, watered our animals at the one good-water spring, staked them out in the bottoms of the ravine here, and eaten our supper, I went with clean hands and face and, I resolved, a clean heart, to pay my respects at the Hyrum Adams fire.
A cheery sight it was, too, for one bred as I had been to the company of women. Whereas during the day and somewhat in the evenings we Gentiles and 192 the Mormon men fraternized without conflict of sect save by long-winded arguments, at nightfall the main Mormon gathering centered about the Adams quarters, where the men and women sang hymns in praise of their pretensions, and listened to homilies by Hyrum himself.