The Press., 1895-03-21
(Continued) 4 STUDY IN SCARLET.
(Continued.)
By A. CONAN DOYLE.
CHAPTER III.


 Three weeks had passed since Jeffer- son Hope and his comrades had depart ed from Salt Lake City. John Terriers heart was sore within him when he thought of the young mans return and of the impending loss of his adopted child. Yet her bright and happy face reconciled him to the arrangement more than any argument could have done. He had always determined, deep down ill his resolute heart, that nothing would ever induce him to allow his daughter to wed a Norman. Such a marriage he regarded uI7 no marriage at all, but as shame and a disgrace. Whatever he might think of the Mormon doctrines, upon that one point he was inf1exible, He had to seal his mouth on tho sub iect however, for tC express all unor- thodOX opinion was a dangerous matter ill those days i'll the Land of the Saints.
 Yes, dangerous matter-sO danger ous that even the most saiMtly dared only whisper their religious opinions with bated breath, lest something which fell from their lips. might be Iniscon- strued and bring down a swift retribu. ton upon them. The victinis'of persecu- tion had now turned prosecutors OH their own account, and prosecutors of the most terrible description. Not the in- uuisition of Seville, nor the German Vehmgericht, nor the secret societies of Italy, were ever able to put more tor midabIe machinery ill motion than H. tory of Utah.
 Its inviSibility and the mystery which was attached to it made this organization d0ubly terrible. It appeared to be Gm- niscient and OmnipOtent, and yet was neither seen nor heard. The man who held cut against the church vanished away, and none knew whither he had gone or what had befallen him. His wife and children awaited him at home, but no father ever returned to tell them how he had fared at the hands of his secret judges. A rash word or a nasty act was followed by aMnihilation, and yet none knew what the nature might be of this terrible power which was suspended over them. No wonder that men went about in fear and trembling, and that even ill the heart of the wilder ness they dared not whisper the doubts which oppressed them.
 At first this vague and terrible power was exercised only upon the recalci- trants who, having embraced the Mor- mon faith, wished afterward to pervcrt or to abandon it. Soon, however, it took a wider range. Tho supply of adult women was running short, and pOIEg- amy without a female population OI which to draw was barren doctrine indeed. Strange rumOrs began to be banded about-rumors of murdered inn migrants and rihed camps ill regions where Indians had never been seen. Fresh women appeared in the harems of tue eldcrs-women who pined and wept and bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishable horror. Related wanderers upon the mountains spoke o1 gangs of armed men, masked, stealthy and noiseless who fitted by them il the darkness. These tales and rumOrE took substance and shape and were COT roborated and recorroborated until they resolved themselves into definite name To this day, in the lonely ranches of tht west, the name of the Danite band, ol the Averaging Angels, is sinister ant i'll omened one.
 Fuller knowledge of the organization