OCTOBER 16, 1860

The mysterious lady was holed up in a town called Westerville about 16 miles east of Broken Bow. She had moved farther away from Dreamville, and sometimes instead of making trips there herself to spy on the inhabitants, she would just send someone there to retrieve a PEG for her.

She looked at the three-day old paper again. The announcement is what had caught her eye, and that�s the only reason she hadn�t tossed it out like the others. So the Saunders were planning a costume party. It should be very interesting she told herself again for the millionth time. She loved parties. And this was a way that she could get close to the people of Dreamville without them noticing her.

She had known if she waited long enough, that she would be able to go there and mingle amongst them somehow without them realizing that she was there. This way she could talk to some of them and get to know them even more, especially one of the Pony Express riders. She spun around in the middle of the room delighted about her evilest plan. She had thought for several days what she would go as to the party, and this morning it had hit as fast as a bolt of lightening. It was the perfect costume.

She donned her wrap and walked out of the hotel. She went over to the boutique shop where the seamstress took her measurements and began work immediately on her costume. Because the mysterious lady wanted it completed soon, and she had paid the seamstress double what she was going to charge her for it, she would get it done quickly.