Riders of the Purple Sage

Venters leaves for the village again to secure another horse and a disguise for Bess. As Venters travels out of Deception Pass and into the open sage, Wrangle becomes nervous. He spots riders at a distance coming toward him. Venters continues forward, checking his rifle to be sure it is loaded. When the riders are a few hundred yards from him, they finally see him and begin firing. Venters fires back and hits two of the riders and wounds one. The five remaining riders separate and continue to come toward him.

Venters realizes one of the horses is Bells, Jane’s horse. With that recognition, he realizes the rider is Tull’s man, Jerry Card. He also sees that Jerry is leading Night. Venters realizes these men stole Jane’s horses and he decides to get them back. He chases after Jerry, confident that Wrangle can outrun Night, Black Star, and Bells. Venters carefully shoots at the rider on Bells and is able to knock him off the horse. He continues after Jerry, becoming aware that Jerry is moving from horse to horse in an attempt to confuse him. As they race on, Jerry releases Night and continues to ride Black Star hard. Eventually, Jerry falls into the sage.

Venters stops Wrangle and removes his saddle to allow it to rest. He rushes to Black Star and does the same. Black Star is exhausted and lies down, convincing Venters that the horse will die from overexertion. He walks back to Night and does the same, watching as the horse lies down to rest in the sage. He finds water for the horses and decides to spend the night so the horses can recover. He realizes that Black Star is recovering surprisingly well.

As Venters waits for the horses to rest, he is surprised when Jerry Card suddenly reappears on the back of Wrangle. The horse bucks, and Jerry tries to control the horse by biting its nose, but this only makes Wrangle wilder. Venters tries to shoot Jerry off Wrangle’s back because Wrangle is dangerously close to the edge of the canyon, but he misses. Finally, Venters fires a shot at Wrangle and the horse goes off the side of the canyon, taking Jerry with it.

Venters takes the horses into the village, making sure Tull’s men see the return of Jane’s horses and know that several of the thieves died in the recovery, including Jerry Card. Venters makes note that most of the men are carrying guns. He runs into Judkins and tells him how he found the horses. Judkins tells Venters that the men in the village have been protecting Tull and Dyer. Judkins says that Lassiter hasn’t done anything to confront Tull or Dyer, and that he’s getting soft in his affection for Fay and Jane. Judkins adds that he saw Lassiter speaking to Oldring in the saloon. Judkins says that Oldring got visibly upset and he wonders if Lassiter might have said something about Oldring’s missing masked rider. Venters asks Judkins to take the horses back to Jane.

Venters goes to the saloon and calls out Oldring. When Oldring comes outside, Venters tells him that Bess is still alive, but dead to him and his way of life. He pulls his gun and shoots Oldring in the chest. As Oldring lies dying in the street, he asks Venters why he couldn’t wait a minute. He starts to tell him something about Bess but dies before he can. Venters steals a burro from a barn and leaves the village quickly, haunted by Oldring’s final words. After a long day and night of travel, Venters returns to Bess. Venters tells Bess that as soon as he has rested, they must leave. But first, he asks Bess to tell him the truth about Oldring. Bess admits that she loved Oldring, and he loved her very much, because Oldring was her father. Venters is shocked by this information, leaving him filled with guilt.

Lassiter and Jane sit in the courtyard with Fay when she begins asking why Lassiter can’t marry Jane and be her father. Jane sends her to play, and when Fay is gone, Lassiter accuses Jane of teaching Fay to be fake with her emotions in the way that Jane has faked her affection for Lassiter. Lassiter asks Jane to marry him and leave Utah, but she insists that it isn’t possible because she is a Mormon woman, and he is a Mormon killer. Lassiter tells Jane she doesn’t understand love.

Lassiter tells Jane the story of his sister, Milly Erne. He explains that she was his only sibling, and they were always close. He says Milly was always curious about religion, so when a preacher came around and started courting her, she was open to it. Lassiter was the one who hesitated, but Frank Erne had similar interests as Lassiter and never tried to force his views on him, so they became friends. Lassiter was happy to see Milly marry Frank.

Lassiter left home soon after Milly and Frank married. When he returned a few years later, he found that his mother died, his father was depressed, and Milly was gone. Frank refused to talk about what happened, but Lassiter learned that a Mormon preacher had come to town and Milly befriended him. She was curious about religion, so she would talk with this preacher about his faith. At first, Frank approved because he had no issue with Milly fulfilling her curiosity. However, another man, a Mormon proselytizer, came to town to join the Mormon preacher, and he and Frank became enemies. Frank confronted him at the meeting house one day and drove the proselytizer out of town. A short time after that, Milly left her home. Frank believed she left to be with the proselytizer, but Lassiter believed she’d been kidnapped.

Lassiter began searching for his sister, following her trail wherever he could. After a time, he caught word of the proselytizer and heard stories of Milly being tied up in a cabin where she gave birth to a baby. After two years, Lassiter returned home again to learn his father was dead, and Frank was neglecting his cattle ranch. Frank continued to refuse to talk about Milly, but Lassiter found some letters from Milly that said she was kidnapped by three men and held against her will. She told of the baby, and promised to do all she could to bring it back to Frank. However, that letter was unfinished and unsigned. Another letter asked Frank to keep Lassiter from looking for her and said she’d fallen in love with the Mormon and planned to stay with him.

Lassiter spent the next 16 years looking for his sister, but he never was able to learn the name of the proselytizer. Recently, he learned that Jane might know the man’s name and that is why he came to Cottonwoods. Jane refuses to tell him the name so that he no longer obsesses over getting revenge for his sister. As Lassiter finishes his story, he believes he hears horses. He asks where Fay is. They go in search of her but cannot find her. Where Fay’s tracks end, they see the tracks of a man.