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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Homesteader, by Oscar Micheaux
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+Title: The Homesteader
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Oscar Micheaux
+
+Illustrator: W.M. Farrow
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2012 [EBook #39238]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOMESTEADER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Cathy Maxam and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HOMESTEADER
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: From a painting by W.M. Farrow.
+
+"SOMETHING HAPPENED AND I WAS STRANGELY GLAD AND CAME HERE BECAUSE
+I--I--JUST _HAD_ TO SEE YOU, JEAN."]
+
+
+
+
+  THE HOMESTEADER
+
+  _A NOVEL_
+
+
+  BY
+  OSCAR MICHEAUX
+  Author of "The Forged Note"
+
+
+  _ILLUSTRATED BY W.M. FARROW_
+
+
+  SIOUX CITY, IOWA
+  WESTERN BOOK SUPPLY COMPANY
+  PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY OSCAR MICHEAUX
+  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+  BELOVED MOTHER
+
+  THIS
+  TO
+  YOU
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS TO THE READER
+
+
+_How much of the story of Jean Baptiste is a work of the author's own
+imagination and how much comes from an authentic source we do not
+consider it necessary to say. But that he has in this instance drawn
+more largely and directly from fact than is the practice of the novelist
+is admitted, and we have his consent therefore, to make certain
+statements concerning himself that relate to the story, and why he has
+written it._
+
+_To begin with, that which any writer has been more closely associated
+with, are the things he can best portray. Wherefore, in "THE
+HOMESTEADER," Oscar Micheaux has written largely along the lines he has
+lived, and, naturally of what he best knows. His experience has been
+somewhat unusual; his association largely out of the ordinary. Born
+thirty-three years ago in Southern Illinois, he left those parts at an
+early age to come into his larger education in the years that followed
+through extensive traveling and a varied association. Purchasing a
+relinquishment on a homestead in South Dakota at the age of twenty; five
+years later he had succeeded and owned considerable lands in the country
+wherein he had settled. Always literarily inclined he wrote articles for
+newspapers and magazines as a beginner, and then during his twenty-sixth
+and twenty-seventh years occurred the conflicting incident that changed
+the whole course of his life, and gave him more than anything else, the
+subsequent material for the building of this story._
+
+_Shortly after this his first book appeared, and he at last had found
+his calling. He wrote his second book two years later. But the episode
+that had changed his life from ranching to writing was ever in his mind
+and always so forcibly until he was never a contented man until he had
+written it--and "The Homesteader" is the story._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+EPOCH THE FIRST
+
+  CHAPTER       PAGE
+
+     I AGNES      13
+
+    II THE HOMESTEADER      21
+
+   III AT THE SOD HOUSE      28
+
+    IV SHE COULD NEVER BE ANYTHING TO HIM      37
+
+     V WHEN THE INDIANS SHOT THE TOWN UP      43
+
+    VI THE INFIDEL, A JEW AND A GERMAN      49
+
+   VII THE DAY BEFORE      56
+
+  VIII AN ENTERPRISING YOUNG MAN      61
+
+    IX "CHRISTINE! CHRISTINE!"      75
+
+     X "YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE"      80
+
+    XI WHAT JEAN BAPTISTE FOUND IN THE WELL      85
+
+   XII MISS STEWART RECEIVES A CALLER      89
+
+  XIII THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD      97
+
+   XIV THE ADMINISTRATING ANGEL      107
+
+    XV OH, MY JEAN      115
+
+   XVI "BILL" PRESCOTT PROPOSES      123
+
+  XVII HARVEST TIME AND WHAT CAME WITH IT      131
+
+
+EPOCH THE SECOND
+
+     I REGARDING THE INTERMARRIAGE OF RACES      143
+
+    II WHICH?      153
+
+   III MEMORIES--N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY      159
+
+    IV ORLEAN      174
+
+     V A PROPOSAL: A PROPOSITION; A CERTAIN MRS. PRUITT--AND
+         A LETTER      186
+
+    VI THE PRAIRIE FIRE      190
+
+   VII VANITY      196
+
+  VIII MARRIED      207
+
+    IX ORLEAN RECEIVES A LETTER AND ADVICE      212
+
+     X EUGENE CROOK      221
+
+    XI REVEREND MCCARTHY PAYS A VISIT      227
+
+   XII REVEREND MCCARTHY DECIDES TO SET BAPTISTE RIGHT,
+         BUT--      234
+
+  XIII THE WOLF      240
+
+   XIV THE CONTEST      247
+
+    XV COMPROMISED      252
+
+   XVI THE EVIL GENIUS      259
+
+  XVII THE COWARD      267
+
+
+EPOCH THE THIRD
+
+     I CHICAGO--THE BOOMERANG      279
+
+    II THE GREAT QUESTION      284
+
+   III GLAVIS MAKES A PROMISE      294
+
+    IV THE GAMBLER'S STORY      299
+
+     V THE PREACHER'S EVIL INFLUENCE      305
+
+    VI MORE OF THE PREACHER'S WORK      311
+
+   VII A GREAT ASTRONOMER      317
+
+  VIII N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY PREACHES A SERMON      325
+
+    IX WHAT THE PEOPLE WERE SAYING      332
+
+     X "UNTIL THEN"      339
+
+    XI "IT'S THE WRONG NUMBER"      346
+
+   XII MRS. PRUITT EFFECTS A PLAN      354
+
+  XIII MRS. MERLEY      363
+
+   XIV "OH, MERCIFUL GOD! CLOSE THOU MINE EYES!"      369
+
+    XV "LOVE YOU--GOD, I HATE YOU!"      376
+
+   XVI A STRANGE DREAM      385
+
+
+EPOCH THE FOURTH
+
+      I THE DROUGHT      395
+
+     II THE FORECLOSURE      400
+
+    III IRENE GREY      407
+
+     IV WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN      414
+
+      V "TELL ME WHY YOU DIDN'T ANSWER THE LAST LETTER
+          I WROTE YOU"      421
+
+     VI THE STORY      427
+
+    VII HER BIRTHRIGHT "FOR A MESS OF POTTAGE"      436
+
+   VIII ACTION      440
+
+     IX GOSSIP      446
+
+      X A DISCOVERY--AND A SURPRISE      456
+
+     XI THE BISHOP'S INQUISITION      464
+
+    XII THE BISHOP ACTS      479
+
+   XIII WHERE THE WEAK MUST BE STRONG      482
+
+    XIV THE TRIAL--THE LIE--"AS GUILTY AS HELL!"      488
+
+     XV GRIM JUSTICE      495
+
+    XVI A FRIEND      502
+
+   XVII THE MYSTERY      508
+
+  XVIII "VENGEANCE IS MINE. I WILL REPAY"      515
+
+    XIX WHEN THE TRUTH BECAME KNOWN      523
+
+     XX AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING      529
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  "Something happened and I was strangely glad and came here
+      because I--I just _had_ to see you, Jean"        _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                        FACING
+                                                          PAGE
+
+  He was young, The Homesteader--just passed twenty-two--and
+      vigorous, strong, healthy and courageous      22
+
+  He raised on an elbow and looked into her face while she staggered
+      forward in great surprise      35
+
+  "But, Jean, the cases are not parallel. What I did for you I
+      would have done for anybody. It was merely an act of
+      providence; but yours--oh, Jean, _can't you understand_!"      138
+
+  "Miss Pitt was so anxious to meet you and I was, too, because
+      I think you and her would like each other. She's an awfully
+      good girl and willing to help a fellow"      159
+
+  "He's going to kill you out here to make him rich, and then
+      when you are dead and--" "Please don't, father!" she almost
+      screamed. She knew he was going to say: "in your
+      grave, he will marry another woman to enjoy what you have
+      died for," but she could not quite listen to that      245
+
+  He tried to throw off the uncanny feeling, but it seemed to
+      hang on like grim death. And as he stood enmeshed in its
+      sinister thraldom, he thought he saw her rise and point an
+      accusing finger at him      518
+
+
+
+
+LEADING CHARACTERS
+
+
+  AGNES, _Whose Eyes Were Baffling_
+
+  JEAN BAPTISTE, _The Homesteader_
+
+  JACK STEWART, _Agnes' Father_
+
+  AUGUSTUS M. BARR, _an Infidel_
+
+  ISAAC SYFE, _a Jew_
+
+  PETER KADEN, _The Victim_
+
+  N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY, _a Preacher_
+
+  ORLEAN, _his Daughter, Without the Courage of Her Convictions_
+
+  ETHEL, _her Sister, Who Was Different_
+
+  GLAVIS, _Ethel's Husband_
+
+  EUGENE CROOK, _a Banker_
+
+
+
+
+EPOCH THE FIRST
+
+
+
+
+THE HOMESTEADER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AGNES
+
+
+Their cognomen was Stewart, and three years had gone by since their
+return from Western Kansas where they had been on what they now chose to
+regard as a "Wild Goose Chase." The substance was, that as farmers they
+had failed to raise even one crop during the three years they spent
+there, so had in the end, therefore, returned broken and defeated to the
+rustic old district of Indiana where they had again taken up their
+residence on a rented farm.
+
+Welcomed home like the "return of the prodigal," the age old gossip of
+"I told you so!" had been exchanged, and the episode was about
+forgotten.
+
+But there was one in the family, the one with whom our story is largely
+concerned, who, although she had found little in Western Kansas to
+encourage her to stay there, had not, on the other hand, found much
+cheer back in old Indiana so long as they found no place to live but
+"Nubbin Ridge." Although but a girl, it so happened through
+circumstances over which she had no control, that whatever she thought
+or did, concerned largely the whole family's welfare or destiny.
+
+Her father was a quaint old Scotchman, coming directly from Scotland to
+this country, a Highlander from the highest of the Highlands, and
+carried the accent still. But concerning her mother, she had never known
+her. Indeed, few had known her mother intimately; but it was generally
+understood that she had been the second wife of her father, and that she
+had died that Agnes might live. She was the only offspring by this
+marriage, although there were two boys by the first union. These lived
+at home with her and her father, but were, unfortunately, half-witted.
+Naturally Agnes was regarded as having been fortunate in being born of
+the second wife. But, what seemed rather singular, unlike her half
+brothers who were simple, she, on the other hand, appeared to be
+possessed with an unusual amount of wit; rare wit, extraordinary wit.
+
+She was now twenty, and because she possessed such sweet ways, she was
+often referred to as beautiful, although, in truth she was not. Her face
+was somewhat square, and while there was a semblance of red roses in her
+cheeks when she smiled, her complexion was unusually white--almost pale.
+Her mouth, like her face, was also inclined to be square, while her lips
+were the reddest. She had a chin that was noticeable due to the fact
+that it was so prominent, and her nose was straight almost to the point
+where it took a slight turn upwards. It was her hair, however, that was
+her greatest attraction. Unusually long, it was thick and heavy, of a
+flaxen tint, and was her pride. Her eyes, however, were a
+mystery--baffling. Sometimes when they were observed by others they were
+called blue, but upon second notice they might be taken for brown. Few
+really knew their exact color, and to most they were a puzzle. There was
+a flash about them at times that moved people, a peculiarity withal that
+even her father had never been able to understand. At such times he was
+singularly frightened, frightened with what he saw, and what he didn't
+see but felt. Always she then reminded him of her mother whom he had
+known only briefly before taking her as his wife. He had loved her,
+this wife, and had also feared her as he now feared this daughter when
+her eyes flashed.
+
+Her mother had kept a secret from him--and the world! In trust she left
+some papers. What they contained he did not know, and would not until
+the day before she, Agnes, was to marry; and should she not marry by the
+time she reached thirty, the papers were to be given her then anyhow.
+
+And so Jack Stewart had resigned himself to the situation; had given her
+the best education possible, which had not been much. She had gone
+through the grade schools, however, and barely succeeded in completing
+two years of the high school course. The love that he had been deprived
+of giving her mother because of her early death he had given to Agnes;
+she was his joy, his pride. She read to him because his eyes were not
+the best; she wrote his letters, consulted with him, assisted and
+conducted what business he had, and had avoided the society of young
+men.
+
+So we have met, and know some little of the girl we are to follow. In
+the beginning of our story, we find her anything but contented. Living
+in quaint old "Nubbin Ridge," could not, to say the most, be called
+illustrious. It was a small district where the soil was very poor--as
+poor, perhaps, as Indiana afforded. So poor indeed, that it was capable
+of producing nothing but nubbins (corn) from which it derived its name.
+When a man went to rent a farm in "Nubbin Ridge" he was considered all
+in, down and out.... To continue life there was to grow poorer. It was a
+part of the state wherein no one had ever been known to grow rich, and
+Stewarts had proven no exception to the rule. But this story is to be
+concerned only briefly with "Nubbin Ridge," so we will come back to the
+one around whom it will in a measure center.
+
+Her chief accomplishments since their disastrous conquest of Western
+Kansas had been the simple detail of keeping a diary. But at other times
+she had attempted musical composition and had even sent the same to
+publishers, one after another. Of course all she sent had duly come
+back, and she had by this time grown to expect the returned manuscripts
+as the inevitable. But since sending the same gave her a diversion, she
+had kept it up--and had today received a letter! A letter, that was all,
+and a short one at that; but even a letter in view of her previous
+experiences was highly appreciated. It stated briefly that her
+composition had been carefully examined--studied, but had, they very
+much regretted to inform her, been found unavailable for their needs.
+Although they had returned the same, they wished to say that she had
+shown some merit--"symptoms" she thought would have sounded better--and
+that they would always be patient and glad to examine anything she might
+be so kind as to submit!
+
+She read the letter over many times. Not that she hoped that doing so
+would bring her anything, but because in her little life in "Nubbin
+Ridge" there was so little to break the usual monotonous routine. When
+she had read and studied it until she knew every letter by heart, she
+sighed, picked up her diary, and wrote therein:
+
+     There is little to record tonight. Today just passed was like
+     yesterday, and yesterday was like the day before that, except it
+     rained yesterday, and it didn't the day before. Papa and Bill and
+     George have just completed picking corn--nubbins, the kind and only
+     thing that grows in Nubbin Ridge. Verily does the name fit the
+     production! We will perhaps have enough when it is sold to pay the
+     rent, send to Sears & Roebuck for a few things, and that's all.
+     George wants a gun and thinks he's worked hard enough this summer
+     to earn one. He has found one in the catalogue that can be had for
+     $4.85 and is all heart that papa will get it for him; along with
+     four boxes of shells that will, all told, reach $6.00. Little
+     enough, to say the least, for a summer's work! Bill has his mind
+     set on a watch, but papa bought him a suit of clothes that cost
+     $5.89 two months ago when we sold the hogs, so I don't think Bill
+     will get in on anything this fall or winter. As for me, I would
+     like to have a dress that I see can be had through a catalogue for
+     a reasonable sum; but if it will crowd papa I will say nothing
+     about it. He has the mortgage on the horses to pay, and by the time
+     we get the few other necessities, it will not leave much, if
+     anything.
+
+     LATER--Papa has been growing very restless of late. I don't wonder,
+     either. Any one that had any energy, any spark of ambition, would
+     grow restless or crazy in Nubbin Ridge! The very name smacks of
+     poverty, ignorance and degeneration! But a real estate man from
+     South Dakota has been in the neighborhood for a week, and has told
+     some wonderful tales of opportunities out there. He has made it
+     plain to papa that Western Kansas has been a failure to thousands
+     of people for forty years; that South Dakota is different; that the
+     rainfall is abundant; the climate is the best, and that every
+     renter in Indiana should there proceed forthwith. I'm surprised
+     that he should waste his time talking with papa who has no money,
+     but he seems to be just as anxious for him to go as he is for
+     others. Perhaps it's because he wishes a crowd. A crowd even though
+     some are poor would, I imagine, appear more like business.
+
+     Bill and George are full for going, and papa has hinted to me as to
+     whether I would like it. How should I know? It couldn't be worse
+     than this place even if it was the jumping off place of all
+     creation! I have about come to the place where I am willing to try
+     anywhere once. There surely must be some place in this wide world
+     where people have a chance to rise. Of course, with us--poor Bill
+     and George, and papa's getting old, I don't suppose we will ever
+     get hold of much anywhere. But the real estate man says we could
+     all take homesteads; that in those parts--I cannot quite call the
+     name, I'll study a while.... The Rosebud Country, is what he called
+     it--there had been a great land opening, and there would be another
+     in a few years. That we could go out now and rent on a place, raise
+     big crops and get in good financial circumstances by the time the
+     opening comes, go forth then and all take homesteads and grow rich!
+     It sounds fishy--us growing rich; but since we have nothing we
+     couldn't lose.
+
+     He says that people have grown wealthy in two years; that among the
+     successful men--those who have made it quickly--is a colored man
+     out there who came from--he couldn't say just where; but that if a
+     colored man could make it, and get money together, surely any one
+     else should. I will close this now because it is late, the light is
+     low; besides I'm sleepy, and since that is surely one thing a
+     person can do with success in "Nubbin Ridge," I will retire and
+     have my share of it.
+
+     A MONTH LATER--It has happened! We are going West! The real estate
+     man has gone back, and papa has been out there. He is carried away
+     with the country. Says it is the greatest place on earth. I won't
+     attempt to put down the wonders he has told of. Rich land to be
+     rented for one-third of the crops--and we pay two-fifths in Nubbin
+     Ridge where there is no soil, just a sprinkling of dust over the
+     surface. Has rented a place already, and has made arrangements with
+     the man that we owe to give him a year's time to pay the two
+     hundred dollars. So we have enough to get out there and buy seed
+     next spring! Everybody says we are going on another "Wild Goose
+     Chase," but they would say that if we were going into the next
+     county. It would seem better, however, if we would wait until
+     spring, but Papa is getting ready to go right after Xmas. That
+     settles it! I will make no more notes in this diary until we have
+     reached the "promised land." In the meantime I am full of dreams,
+     dreams, dreams! I had a strange dream last night; a real dream in
+     which things happened! Always I have those day dreams, but last
+     night I had a real dream. I dreamed that we went out to this
+     country and that we rented and lived on a farm near the colored man
+     the real estate man spoke of. I dreamed that he was an unusual man,
+     a wonderful personality, and that we--he and I--became very close
+     friends! That a strange murder occurred near where we went; a
+     murder that no one could ever understand; but that in after years
+     it was all made plain--and I was involved! Think of such a dream!
+     Me being involved in anything; I, of "Nubbin Ridge!" I am sure that
+     if I told out there the name of the place from where we came they
+     would think we were crazy! But that was not all the dream--and it
+     was all so plain! It frightens me when I think of it. I cannot
+     realize how I could have had such a strange dream. I dreamed after
+     we had been there a while that I fell in love--but it's the man I
+     fell in love with which makes the dream so unusual,
+     and--impossible! Yet there is a saying that nothing is impossible!
+
+     I will not record here or describe the one with whom I fell in
+     love. Strangely I feel that I should wait. I cannot say why, but
+     something seems to caution me; to tell me not to say more now.
+
+     There remains but one thing more. Yesterday I happened to glance
+     at myself in the mirror. As if by magic I was drawn closer and
+     studied myself, studied something in my features I had never seen
+     before--at least not in that way. I observed then my hands. They,
+     too, appeared unlike they had been before. It seems to have been
+     the dream that prompted me to look--and the dream that revealed
+     this about myself that I cannot understand. My eyes did not appear
+     the same; they were as if--as if, they belonged to some other! My
+     lips were red as usual; but there was about them something too I
+     had not seen before: they appeared thicker, and as I studied them
+     in the mirror more closely, I couldn't resist that singularity in
+     my eyes. They became large and then small; they were blue, so blue,
+     and then they were brown. It was when they appeared brown that I
+     could not understand. I will close now for I wish to think. My
+     brain is afire, I must think, think, think!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE HOMESTEADER
+
+
+The day was cold and dark and dreary. A storm raged over the prairie,--a
+storm of the kind that seem to come only over the northwest. Over the
+wide, unbroken country of our story, the wind screamed as if terribly
+angry. It raced across the level stretches, swept down into the draws,
+where draws were, tumbled against the hillsides, regained its
+equilibrium and tore madly down the other side, as if to destroy all in
+its path. A heavy snow had fallen all the morning, but about noon it had
+changed to fine grainy missiles that cut the face like cinders and made
+going against it very difficult. Notwithstanding, through it--directly
+against it at most times, The Homesteader struggled resolutely forward.
+He was shielded in a measure by the horses he was driving, whose bulks
+prevented the wind from striking him in the face, and on the body at all
+times. At other times--and especially when following a level stretch--he
+got close to the side of the front wagon with its large box loaded with
+coal, which towered above his head and shoulders.
+
+Before him, but not always, the dim line of the trail, despite the heavy
+snow that had fallen that morning, was outlined. Perhaps it was because
+he had followed it--he and his horses--so often before in the two years
+since he had been West, that he was able to keep to its narrow way
+without difficulty today. And still, following it was not as difficult
+as following other trails, for it was an old, old trail. So old indeed
+was it, that nobody knew just how old it was, nor how far it reached. It
+was said that Custer had gone that way to meet his massacre; that
+Sitting Bull knew it best; but to The Homesteader, he hoped to be able
+to follow it only as long as the light of day pointed the way. When
+night came--but upon that he had not reckoned! To be caught upon it by
+darkness was certain death, and he didn't want to die.
+
+He was young, The Homesteader--just passed twenty-two--and vigorous,
+strong, healthy and courageous. His height was over six feet and while
+he was slender he was not too much so. His shoulders were slightly round
+but not stooped. His great height gave him an advantage now. He followed
+his horses with long, rangy strides, turning his head frequently as if
+to give the blood a chance to circulate about and under the skin of his
+wide forehead. The fury of the storm appeared to grow worse, judging
+from the way the horses shook their bridled heads; or perhaps it was
+growing colder. Almost continually some of the horses were striking the
+ice from their nosepoints; while very often The Homesteader had to rest
+the lines he held while he forced the blood to his finger tips with long
+swings of his arms back and forth across his breast.
+
+His claim lay many miles yet before him, and his continual gaze toward
+the west was to ascertain how long the light of day was likely to hold
+out. Behind, far to the rear, lay the little town of Bonesteel which he
+had left that morning, and now regretted having done so. But the storm
+had not been so bad then, and because the snow was falling he had
+conjectured it would be better to reach home before it became too deep
+or badly drifted. As it was now he was encountering all this and some
+more.
+
+[Illustration: From a painting by W.M. Farrow.
+
+HE WAS YOUNG, THE HOMESTEADER--JUST PASSED TWENTY-TWO--AND VIGOROUS,
+STRONG, HEALTHY AND COURAGEOUS.]
+
+"Damn!" he cried as they passed down a slope to where the land
+divided, and where the wind seemed to hit hardest. His course lay
+directly northwest, straight against the wind which he could only avoid
+by hanging the lines over the lever of the brake and fall in behind the
+trail wagon. But this, unfortunately, placed him too far away from the
+horses. He had walked all the way, for to walk was apparently the only
+way to keep from freezing. He soon reached the other side of the draw,
+and when he had come to the summit beyond, he groaned. Ahead of him just
+above the dark horizon the sun came suddenly from beneath the clouds. On
+either side of it, great, gasping sundogs struggled. They seemed to vie
+with the red sinking orbit; and as he continued his anxious gazing in
+that direction they seemed to have triumphed, for as the sun sank lower
+and lower, they appeared suddenly empowered with a mighty force for only
+a few minutes later the sun had fallen into the great abyss below and
+the night was on!
+
+"We can make it yet, boys," he cried to his horses as if to cheer them.
+And as if they understood, they crashed forward with such vigor that he
+was thrown almost into a trot to keep up.
+
+As to how long it went on thus, or as to how far they had gone, he was
+not able to reckon; but out of the now pitch darkness he became
+conscious of a peculiar longing. He had a vision of his sod house that
+stood on the claim, and he saw the small barn with its shed and the
+stalls for four. He saw the little house again with its one room, the
+little monkey stove with an oven on the chimney, and imagined himself
+putting a pan of baking powder bread therein. He saw his bed, a large,
+wide, dirty--'tis true--but a warm bed, nevertheless. He fancied himself
+creeping under the covers and sleeping the sound way he always did. He
+could not understand his prolific thoughts that followed. He thought of
+his boyhood back in old Illinois; he took stock of the surroundings he
+had left there; he lived briefly through the discontentment that had
+ultimately inspired him to come West. And then he had again those
+dreams. Regardless of where his train of wandering thoughts began or of
+where they followed, always they were sure to end upon this given point,
+the girl. The girl of his dreams--for he had no real girl. There had
+never been a real girl for Jean Baptiste, for this was his name. In the
+years that had preceded his coming hither, it had been one relentless
+effort to get the few thousands together with which to start when he
+finally came West. At that he had been called lucky. He had no heritage,
+had Jean Baptiste. His father had given him only the French name that
+was his, for his father had been poor--but this instant belongs
+elsewhere. His heritage, then, had been his indefatigable will; his firm
+determination to make his way; his great desire to make good. But we
+follow Jean Baptiste and the girl.
+
+Only a myth was she. She had come in a day dream when he came West, but
+strangely she had stayed. And, singularly as it may seem, he was
+confident she would come in person some day. He talked with her when he
+was lonely, and that was almost every day. He told her why he had come
+West, because he felt it was the place for young manhood. Here with the
+unbroken prairie all about him; with its virgin soil and undeveloped
+resources; and the fact that all the east, that part of the east that
+was Iowa and Illinois had once been as this now was, had once been as
+wild and undeveloped and had not then been worth any more--indeed, not
+so much. Here could a young man work out his own destiny. As Iowa and
+Illinois had been developed, so could this--so _would_ this also be
+developed. And as railways had formed a network of those states, so in
+time would they reach this territory as well. In fact it was inevitable
+what was to come, the prime essential, therefore, for his youth, was to
+begin with the beginning--and so he had done.
+
+So he had come, had Jean Baptiste, and was living alone with a great
+hope; with a great hope for the future of this little empire out there
+in the hollow of God's hand; with a great love, too, for her, his dream
+girl. So in his prolific visions he talked on with her. He told her that
+it was a long way to the railroad now--thirty-two miles. He had that far
+to haul the coal he and others burned. There were yet no fences, and
+while there were section lines, they were rarely followed. It was nearer
+by trail. But he was patient, he was perseverant. Time would bring all
+else--and her. He had visions of her, she was not beautiful; she might
+not be vivacious, for that belonged to the city; but she was good.
+Always he understood everything that was hers, and he was confident she
+would understand him. Her name was sweet and easily pronounced. How he
+loved to call it!
+
+He staggered at times now and didn't know why. He had wanted to be home
+and in his bed where he could sleep; but home as he now regarded it was
+too far. He couldn't make it, and didn't need to. Why should they
+blunder and pull so hard to get home when all about them was a place
+where they could rest. The prairie was all about; and he had slept on
+the ground before with only the soft grass beneath him. Why, then, must
+he continue on and on! The air was pleasant--warm and luxuriant, and he,
+Jean Baptiste, was very tired--oh, how tired he really was!
+
+It was settled! He had gone far enough. He would make his bed right
+where he was. He called to the horses. But somehow they didn't seem to
+hear. He called again then, he thought, louder, and still they failed to
+hear. He wondered at their stubbornness. They were good horses and had
+never disobeyed before. He called now again at the top of his voice, but
+they heeded him not; in the meantime forging onward, onward and onward!
+It occurred to him to drop the reins, but such had never been a custom.
+Within his tired, freezing and brain-fagged mind, there was a resolution
+that made him cling to them, but struggling to pull them down to a stop
+he continued.
+
+And as he followed them now onward toward the sod house that stood on
+the claim, all realism seemed to desert him; he became a chilled
+mechanician; he seemed to have passed into the infinite where all was
+vague; where turmoil and peculiar strife only abided.... For Jean
+Baptiste did not understand that he was on the verge of freezing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Stewarts were pleased with the country. They had arrived in early
+January. The weather had not been bad, although the wind blew much
+stronger here than it did in Indiana. However, they had not forgotten
+how it blew in Western Kansas and were therefore accustomed to it. The
+house upon the place they had rented was small, just four rooms, but it
+was well built and was warm. A village was not far. The people in it
+called it a town, but you see they were enthusiastic. To be more amply
+provided they could get what they needed at Gregory which was seven
+miles. Seven miles was not far to one who could ride horseback, and this
+Agnes had learned in Western Kansas.
+
+"You had best not go to town today, my girl," cautioned Jack Stewart,
+her father, as she made ready to ride to Gregory after ordering Bill to
+saddle Dolly, the gray mare that was their best.
+
+"Tut, tut, papa," she chided. "This is a day to take the benefit of this
+wonderful air. The low altitude of Nubbin Ridge made me sallow; there
+was no blood in my cheeks. Here--ah, a nice horseback ride to Gregory
+will be the best yet for me!"
+
+"I don't like the wind--and so much snow with it," he muttered, looking
+out with a frown upon his face.
+
+"But the snow is not like it was," she argued, almost ready. "It's
+letting up."
+
+"It's growing finer, which is evidence that it is growing colder."
+
+"Better still," she cried, jumping about frolickingly, her lithe young
+body as agile as an athlete's. "Now, dada," she let out winsomely, "I
+shall dash up to Gregory, get all we need, and be back before the sun
+goes down!" And with that she kissed away further protest, swung open
+wide the door, stepped out and vaulted lightly into the saddle. A moment
+later she was gone, but not before her father cried:
+
+"If you should be delayed, stay the night in town. Above all things,
+don't let the darkness catch you upon the prairie!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AT THE SOD HOUSE
+
+
+She enjoyed the horseback ride to Gregory. Although she trembled at
+times from the sting of the intense cold, the exercise the riding gave
+her body kept the blood circulating freely, and she made the trip to the
+little town without event.
+
+Once there, after thawing the cold out of her face and eyes, she
+proceeded to do her trading, filling the saddlebags to their fullest.
+
+"Which way do you live from town?" inquired the elderly man who waited
+upon her at the general store where she was doing her trading.
+
+"Seven miles southeast," she replied.
+
+"Indeed!" he cried as if surprised. "But you didn't come from there
+today--this afternoon? That would be directly against this storm!"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Well, now, who would have thought you could have made it! 'Tis an awful
+day without," he cried as he regarded her in wonder.
+
+"It _wasn't_ warm, I admit," she agreed; "but I didn't seem to mind it
+so much!"
+
+"You will not go back today--rather tonight?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"But it would be very risky. Look! It's grown dark already!" She looked
+out and observed that it had really grown almost pitch dark during the
+few minutes she had lingered inside. She was for a moment at a loss for
+a reply, then, conscious that the wind would be to her back, she laughed
+lightly as she said:
+
+"Oh, I shan't mind. It will take me less than forty minutes, and then
+it'll all be over," and she laughed low and easily again. The man
+frowned as he pursued:
+
+"I don't like to see you start, a stranger in such a night as this.
+Since settlement following a trail is rather treacherous. One may leave
+town on one, but be on some other before they have gone two miles. And
+while the wind will be to your back, the uncertainty of direction,
+should you happen to look back or even around, is confusing. One loses
+sense of the way they are going. I'd suggest that you stick over until
+morning. It would be safer," he concluded, shaking his head dubiously.
+
+"Oh, I am not afraid," she cried cheerfully. She was ready then, and
+with her usual dash, she crossed the short board walk, vaulted into the
+saddle, and a few minutes later the dull clatter of her horse's hoofs
+died in the distance.
+
+With the wind to her back she rode easily. She enjoyed the exercise the
+riding gave her, and was thrilled instead of being frightened over what
+was before her. She followed quite easily the trail that had taken her
+into the village. In due time she passed a house that she had observed
+when going in that stood to one side of the trail, and then suddenly the
+mare came to an abrupt halt. She peered into the darkness before her. A
+barbwire fence was across the trail. She could not seem to recall it
+being there on her way in. Yet she argued with herself that she might
+have come around and not noticed it. For a moment she was in doubt as to
+which way to go to get around it. As she viewed it, it did not extend
+perhaps more than a quarter mile or a half at the most, after which she
+could come around to the other side and strike the trail again. She gave
+the ever faithful mare rein and they sailed down the fence line to where
+she estimated it must shortly end.
+
+She did not know that this was the old U-Cross fence, and that because
+it stood on Indian land, it had not been taken up when the great ranch
+had been moved into the next county when giving up to the settler. In
+truth only a few steps to her right she had left the trail she had
+followed into town. The old trail had been cut off when The Homesteader
+in whose house she had seen the light, had laid out his claim, and it
+was this which caused the confusion. She did not know that one could go
+to town, or to the railroad today and returning on the morrow, find the
+route changed. Homesteaders were without scruples very often in such
+matters. The law of the state was that before a followed trail was cut
+off, it should be advertised for five weeks in advance to that effect;
+but not one in twenty of the settlers knew that such a law existed.
+
+So Agnes Stewart had ridden fully two miles before she became
+apprehensive of the fact that she had lost her way. Now the most
+practical plan for her would been to have turned directly about and gone
+back to where she had started down the fence. But, charged with
+impatient youth, she sought what she felt to be the quickest way about.
+Now upon looking closely she could see that wires hung down in places
+and that a post here and there had sagged. She urged the mare over a
+place and then, once over, went in the direction she felt was home. The
+stiff, zero night air had somewhat dulled her, and she made the mistake
+of looking back, thereby confusing her direction to the point where
+after a few minutes she could not have sworn in what direction she was
+going, except that the wind was still at her back.
+
+She peered into the darkness before her. She thought there would be
+lights of homesteaders about, and while there was, the storm made it
+impossible for her to see them. After a time she became alarmed, and
+recalled her father's warning, also the store-keeper's. But her natural
+determination was to go on, that she would get her bearings, presently.
+So, with a jerking of her body as if to stimulate circulation of the
+blood, she bent in the saddle and rode another mile or more. She had
+crossed draws, ascended hills, had stumbled over trails that always
+appeared to lead in the wrong direction, and at last gave up for lost at
+a summit where the wind and fine snow chilled her to the marrow. She was
+thoroughly frightened now. She thought to return to Gregory, but when
+she turned her eyes against the wind, she could catch no sight of
+anything. She was sure then that she could not make it back there had
+she wished to. Not knowing what to do she allowed the mare to trot ahead
+without any effort to direct her. She had not gone far before she
+realized that they were following a level stretch. And because she
+seemed to keep warm when the horse moved, she allowed the mare to
+continue. A half mile she estimated had been covered when out of the
+darkness some dark shape took outline. She peered ahead; the mare was
+ambling gently toward it, and she saw after a time that it was a quaint,
+oblong structure, a sod house apparently, many of which she had observed
+since coming West into the new country. She was relieved. At least she
+was not to freeze to death upon the prairie, a fact that she had begun
+to regard as a possibility a few minutes before. The mare fell into a
+walk and presently came up to a low, square house, built of sod, with
+its odd hip roof reposing darkly in the outline. She called, "Hello,"
+and was patient. The wind bit into her, and she was conscious of the
+bitter cold, and that she was beginning to feel its severe effects.
+There was no response, and she called again, dismounting in the
+meantime. When she saw no one she went around to where she observed a
+low door at which she knocked vigorously. From all appearances the place
+was occupied, but no one was at home. She tried the knob. It gave, and
+she pushed the door open cautiously. All was darkness within. Then,
+dropping the bridle reins she ventured inside. She could not understand
+why her feet made no sound upon the floor, but in truth there was no
+floor except the earth. She felt in her coat pocket and presently
+produced a match. When the flaring light illuminated the surroundings,
+she gazed about. It was, she quickly observed, a one room house. There
+was at her side a monkey stove with an oven on the pipe; while at her
+left stood a table with dishes piled thereupon. There was also a lantern
+on the table and this she adjusted and lighted before the blaze died.
+She swung this about, and saw there was a bed with dirty bed clothing,
+also a trunk, some boxes and what nots.
+
+"A bachelor, I'd wager," she muttered, and then blushed when she
+considered her position. She looked about further, and upon seeing fuel,
+proceeded to build a fire. This done, she passed outside, found a path
+that extended northwest, and, leading the horse, soon came to a small
+barn. Here she saw two stalls with a manger filled with hay. She had to
+push the mare back to keep her from entering and making herself at home.
+She passed around the barn and entered the door of a small shed, for
+cattle obviously, but empty. Hay was in the manger, and, taking the bits
+from the mare's mouth, she tied the reins to the manger, unsaddled, and,
+leaving the shed after fastening the door, she carried the saddle with
+her to the house.
+
+The little stove was roaring from the fire she had started, and she was
+surprised to find the room becoming warm. She placed the saddle in a
+convenient position and lifted her cap, whereupon her heavy hair fell
+over her shoulders. She caught it up and wound it into a braid quickly,
+guiltily.... She unbuttoned her coat then, and took a seat.
+
+"There is no one here," she muttered to herself. "So since I don't know
+the way home, and there's no one here to tell me, guess I'll have to
+give it up until morning." She was thoughtful then. This _was_ something
+of an adventure. Lost upon the prairie: a bachelor's homestead: there
+alone. Then suddenly she started. From the storm swept outside she
+thought she caught a sound, and thereupon became quickly alert, but the
+next moment her tension relaxed. It was only the wind at the corner of
+the house. The room had become warm, she was uncomfortable with the
+heavy coat about her. She was conscious, moreover, that her eyes were
+heavy, sleep was knocking at her door. She shook off the depression and
+fell again to thinking. She wondered who could live there and she
+continued in her random thinking until shortly, unconsciously, she fell
+into a doze.
+
+She could not recall whether she had dozed an hour or a minute, but she
+was awakened suddenly and jumped to her feet; for, from the storm she
+had caught the sound of horses and wagons passing the house at only a
+short distance. She stood terrified. Her eyes were wide, her lips were
+apart as she listened to the grinding of the wagon wheels--and they went
+directly toward the barn. Then all was silent, and she placed her hand
+to her heart, to still the frightened beating there. She heard the
+horses shake in their harness, and came to herself. The man of the place
+had returned; she had taken charge of his house, he a bachelor and she a
+maid. She felt embarrassed. She got into her coat and buttoned it about
+her hurriedly; and then drawing the cap over her head, she waited,
+expectantly, although she was sure that time sufficient had expired,
+whoever drove the teams had not come toward the house. She could hear
+the horses, but she could not ascertain that they were being unhitched.
+She was undecided for a moment, then, catching up the lantern, she
+quickly went outside. Two wagons loaded heavily with coal greeted her.
+She passed to the front and found four horses, white with the frost from
+perspiration, standing hitched to the loads. She passed to their heads.
+No one was about, and she was puzzled. She passed around to the other
+side, and as she did so, stumbled over something. With the lantern
+raised, she peered down and then suddenly screamed when she discovered
+it was a man. Then, on second thought, fearing he had fallen from the
+wagon and become injured, she put her arm through the bail of the
+lantern, reached down, caught him by the shoulders and shook him. He was
+not injured, she was relieved to see; but _what was_ the matter? In the
+next moment she gave a quick start. She realized in a twinkling then,
+that the man was freezing--perhaps already frozen!
+
+[Illustration: From a painting by W.M. Farrow.
+
+HE RAISED ON AN ELBOW AND LOOKED INTO HER FACE WHILE SHE STAGGERED IN
+GREAT SURPRISE.]
+
+With quick intuition she reached and caught him beneath the arms, and
+turning, dragged him to the house. She opened the door, and lifting his
+body, carried him in her arms across the room and laid him upon the bed.
+Then, realizing that the night was severely cold, she rushed out,
+closing the door behind her, and a half hour later had the horses
+unhitched, unharnessed and tied in their stalls. This done she returned
+hurriedly to the house to find the man still unconscious, but breathing
+heavily. She did not know at once what to do, but going to his feet,
+took off his shoes. This was rather difficult, and she feared that from
+the way they felt, his feet were frozen. She rubbed them vigorously,
+and was relieved after a time to feel the blood circulating and the same
+giving forth warmth. She sighed with relief and then pulling off the
+heavy gloves, she exercised the same proceeding with the hands, and was
+cheered to feel them give forth warmth after a time. She unbuttoned the
+coat at his throat, and rolling him over, managed to get it off of him.
+Next she unbuttoned the collar, drew off the cap, and for the first time
+saw his face. It was swollen and very dark, she thought. She brought the
+lantern closer and looked again. She gave a start then and opened her
+mouth in surprise. Then she fell to thinking. She went back to the chair
+beside the fire and reflected.
+
+"It is all the same, of course," she said to herself. "But I was just
+surprised. It all seems rather singular," she mused, and tried to
+compose herself. The surprise she had just experienced, had,
+notwithstanding her effort at self possession, disconcerted her. She
+turned suddenly, for she had caught the sound of a noise from the bed.
+She got up quickly and went to him. He had turned from his side to his
+back. She stood over him with the lantern raised. To see him better she
+leaned over, holding the lantern so that her face was full in the light.
+She had unbuttoned her coat at the throat, and seeking more comfort, had
+also removed the cap she wore. She had, however, forgotten her hair
+which had been held about her head by the cap and it now fell in braids
+over her slender shoulders. On the instant the man's eyes opened. He
+raised on an elbow, looked into her face, smiled wanly, and murmured:
+
+"It is you, Agnes. You have come and oh, I am glad, for I have waited
+for you so long." In the next breath he had fallen back upon the bed and
+was sleeping again, while she staggered in great surprise. _Who was this
+man_ that he should call her name and say that _he_ had waited?
+
+But with Jean Baptiste, he snored in peace. His dream had come true; the
+one of his vision had come as he had hoped she would. But Jean Baptiste
+was not aware of the debt he owed her; that through strange providence
+in getting lost she had come into his sod house and saved his life. But
+what he was yet to know, and which is the great problem of our story,
+the girl, his dream girl, Agnes Stewart, happened to be white, while he,
+Jean Baptiste, The Homesteader, was a Negro.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SHE COULD NEVER BE ANYTHING TO HIM
+
+
+Jean Baptiste slept soundly all the night through, snoring loudly at
+times, turning frequently, but never awakening. And while he slept,
+unconscious of how near he had come to freezing to death upon the
+prairie, but for the strange coincidence of Agnes Stewart's having
+gotten lost and finding him, she sat near, listening to the dull roar of
+the storm outside at times; at other times casting furtive, anxious and
+apprehensive glances toward the bed, half in fear. More because the
+position she realized herself to be in was awkward, not to say
+embarrassing.
+
+Her eyes became heavy as the night wore on, and she arose and walked
+about over the dirt floor in an attempt to shake off the inertia. And in
+the meantime, the man she had saved slept on, apparently disturbed by
+nothing. Presently she approached him shyly, and, taking the coat he had
+worn and which lay near, she spread it carefully over him, then tiptoed
+away and regarded him curiously. Her life had never afforded character
+study in a broad sense; but for some reason, which she could not account
+for, she strangely trusted the sleeping man. And because she did, she
+was not in fear lest he awaken and take advantage of the compromising
+circumstances. But in her life she had met and known no colored people,
+and knew directly little about the Negro race beyond what she had read.
+Therefore to find herself lost on the wide plains, in a house alone
+with one, a bachelor Homesteader, with a terrific storm without, gave
+her a peculiar sensation.
+
+When the hand of the little clock upon the table pointed to two o'clock
+a.m., she put coal on the fire, became seated in a crude rocking chair
+that proved notwithstanding, to be comfortable, and before she was aware
+of it, had fallen asleep. Worn out by the night's vigil, and the unusual
+circumstances in which she found herself, she slept soundly and all
+sense of flying time was lost upon her. The storm subsided with the
+approach of morn, and the sun was peeping out of a clear sky in the east
+when she awakened with a start. She jumped to her feet. Quickly her eyes
+sought the bed. It was empty. The man had arisen. She looked out through
+the little window. The blizzard had left the country gray and streaked.
+Buttoning her coat collar about her throat, she adjusted her cap by
+pulling it well down over her head, and ventured outside.
+
+Never had she looked upon such a scene as met her eyes! Everywhere, as
+far as she could see, was a mantle of snow and ice. Here the snow had
+been swept into huge drifts or long ridges; while there it sparkled in
+the sun, one endless, unbroken sheet of white frost and ice. Here and
+there over the wide expanse a lonesome claim shack reposed as if lost;
+while to the northwest, she could see the little town to which she had
+gone the afternoon before, rising heroically out of the snow. Upon
+hearing a sound, she turned to find The Homesteader leading her horse,
+saddled and bridled from the barn. She turned her eyes away to hide the
+confusion with which she was suddenly overcome, and at the same time to
+try to find words with which to greet him.
+
+"Good morning," she heard from his lips, and turned her face to see him
+touch the cap he wore.
+
+"Good morning, sir," she returned, smiling with ease, notwithstanding
+her confusion of a moment before.
+
+"I judge that you must have become lost, the why you happened along,"
+said he pleasantly, courteously.
+
+"I did," she acknowledged, marveled at finding herself so much at ease
+in his presence, and him conscious. In the same instance she took quick
+note of his speech and manner, and was strangely pleased.
+
+"I see," she heard him mutter. She had cast her eyes away as if to
+think, but now turned again toward him to find him regarding her
+intently. She saw him give a quick start, and catch his breath as if in
+surprise, whereupon she turned her eyes away. But she did not understand
+the cause of his start; she did not understand that while he had
+recognized her as his dream girl, that only then had he realized that
+she was white, while he had naturally supposed his dream girl would be
+of his own blood, Ethiopian.
+
+He lowered his eyes as this fact played in his mind, and as he
+hesitated, she again turned her eyes upon him and regarded him
+wonderingly. And in that moment the instance of the night before when he
+had awakened and looked up into her eyes for the first time when she
+stood over him, and had uttered the words she would never as long as she
+lived, forget, came back. "_It is you, Agnes. You have come and, oh, I
+am glad, for I have waited for you so long._" "How did he know my name
+and come to say what he did?" was the question she now again, as she had
+been doing all the night through, asked herself. She prayed that she
+might find a way to ask him--how deeply her curiosity to know was
+aroused. And then, while she was so deeply engrossed, abruptly he raised
+his head, and his eyes fell searchingly again upon her. He saw and
+wondered at the curious intentness he saw there, and as he did so, he
+caught that something in her eyes; he saw what she had seen before
+leaving Indiana; and as she had been when she had seen it, he too, was
+strangely moved and could not understand. Apparently he forgot all else
+as the changing color of her eyes held him, and while so, unconsciously
+he advanced a step nearer her. She did not move away, but stood as if in
+a thraldom, with a feeling stealing over her that somewhere she had seen
+and known him once.... But where--_where, where!_ She had never known an
+_Ethiopian_, she full well recalled; but she was positive that she had
+seen this man somewhere before. Then _where--where, where!_
+
+As for the man, Jean Baptiste, he seemed to relax after a time, and
+looked away. He had seen her at last; she had been his dream girl; had
+come in a dream and as she stood before him she was all his wondrous
+vision had portrayed. Her face was flushed by the cold air, and red
+roses in full bloom were in her cheeks; while her beautiful hair, spread
+over her shoulders, and fanned by a light breeze, made her in his eyes a
+picture of enchantment. When he observed her again and saw that her eyes
+were blue and then again were brown, he was still mystified; but what
+was come over Jean Baptiste now was the fact, the Great fact: _The fact
+that between him and his dream girl was a chasm so deep socially that
+bridging was impossible._ Because she was white while he was black,
+according to _the custom of the country and its law_, she could never be
+anything to him....
+
+Her back was to the rising sun, and neither had observed that it was
+mounting higher in the eastern skies. She suppressed the question that
+was on her lips to ask him, the eternal question, and in that instant he
+came out of his trance. He turned to her, and said:
+
+"It was sure fortunate for me that you lost your way," and so saying
+his eyes went toward the place she had found him, and she understood.
+She could not repress a happy smile that overspread her face. He saw it
+and was pleased.
+
+"It was rather providential; but I would forget it. To think that you
+might have frozen to death out there makes me shudder when I recall it."
+
+"I cannot seem to understand what came over me--that I was in the act of
+freezing while I walked."
+
+"It was a terrible night," she commented. "I, too, might have frozen,
+but for the good fortune of my horse finding your house."
+
+"Isn't it strange," he muttered abstractedly.
+
+"I hadn't the least idea where I was," said she, musingly.
+
+"Such a coincidence."
+
+"Indeed it was----, but please, shall we forget it," and she shuddered
+slightly.
+
+"Yes," he replied readily. "Where do you live?"
+
+She pointed to where the smoke curled from the chimney of their home, a
+mile and a half away.
+
+"The Watson place? I see. You are perhaps, then, newcomers here?"
+
+"We are," and she smiled easily. He did also. He handed her the bridle
+reins then, and said:
+
+"I trust you will pardon my forgetfulness. Indeed I was so absorbed in
+the fact that I had been saved, that I forgot to--to be courteous."
+
+"Oh, no, sir!" she cried quickly. "You did not. You--" and then she
+broke off in her speech. It occurred to her that she was saying too
+much. But strangely she wanted to go on, strangely she wanted to know
+more of him: from where he had come; of his life, for already she could
+see that he was a gentleman; an unusual person--but he was speaking
+again.
+
+"You have become chilled standing there--it is severely cold. Step back
+into the house and warm yourself before you start. I will hold your
+horse while you do so." And he reached for the bridle reins.
+
+She looked up into his face, and again trusted him; again she
+experienced a peculiar gratitude, and turning she obeyed him. As she
+stood inside over the little monkey stove a moment later, she could see
+him, and appreciated how thoughtful he was.
+
+She returned after a few minutes, stood beside the animal he had brought
+and was ready to go. Suddenly she vaulted into the saddle. She regarded
+him again intently, while he returned the same a bit abstractedly. She
+started to urge the mare forward, and then she drew her to a stop before
+she had gotten fully started. Impulsively she leaned forward and
+stretched her hand toward him. Mechanically he took it. She
+unconsciously gripped his, as she said:
+
+"I'm glad it happened.... That I became lost and--and--you were saved."
+His dark face colored with gratitude, and he had an effort to keep from
+choking when he tried to reply. In the meantime, she bestowed upon him a
+happy smile, and the next moment her horse had found the trail and was
+dashing along it toward the place she lived.
+
+And as she went homeward over the hill, the man in whose life she was
+later to play such a strange and intimate part, stood looking after her
+long and silently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHEN THE INDIANS SHOT THE TOWN UP
+
+
+The claim of Jean Baptiste, containing 160 acres of land, adjoined the
+little town of Dallas on the north, and it was one of the surprises that
+Agnes Stewart had not wandered into it when she found the sod house and
+had later found Jean Baptiste in the snow.
+
+The town had been started the winter before. A creek of considerable
+depth, and plenty of water ran to the south of it a half mile, and up
+this valley the promoters of the town contended that the railroad would
+build. It came up the same valley many miles below where at a way
+station it suddenly lifted out of it and sought the higher land to
+Bonesteel. Now the promoters, because the Railroad Company owned
+considerable land where the tracks left the valley to ascend to the
+highland, contended that it was the purpose of the railroad to split the
+trade country by coming up the valley, and that was why the town had
+been located where it was, on a piece of land that had once belonged to
+an Indian.
+
+There were three other towns, platted by the government along a route
+that did not strike Dallas, and if the railroad should continue the
+route it was following where its tracks stopped west of Bonesteel, it
+was a foregone conclusion that it must hit the three government
+townsites.
+
+This had ever been, and was, the great contention in the early days of
+the country of our story. But to get back to the characters in question,
+we must come back to the little town near the creek valley.
+
+The winter preceding, when the town had been started, men had chosen to
+cast their lot with it, and by the time spring arrived, there was a half
+dozen or more business places represented. From Des Moines a man had
+come and started a lumber yard; while from elsewhere a man had
+cooperated with the promoters in establishing a bank. Two men, whose
+reputations were rather notorious, but who, nevertheless, were well
+fitted for what they chose, started a saloon. From a town that had no
+railroad in the state on the south, a man came with a great stock of
+merchandise. A weazened creature had been made postmaster; while a
+doctor, beliquored until he was uncertain, had come hither with a hope
+of redemption and had hung out his shingle. He was succeeding in the
+game of reform (?) as the best customer the saloon had. A tired man was
+conducting a business in a building that had been hauled many miles and
+was being used as a hotel. Many other lines of business were expected,
+but at this time the interest was largely in who the settlers were that
+had come, and those who were to come.
+
+A beautiful quarter section of land joined the town on the east, and the
+man who had drawn it had already established his residence thereupon, so
+that he was known. On the south the land was the allotment of an Indian;
+while the same was true on the west. Naturally, when it was reported
+that a Negro held the place on the north, considerable curiosity
+prevailed to meet this lone Ethiopian.
+
+But Jean Baptiste was a mixer, a jolly good fellow of the best type and
+by this time such was well known. As to where he had come from, we know;
+but his name had occasioned much comment because it was odd. To make it
+more illustrious, the settlers had added "Saint," so he was now commonly
+know as St. Jean Baptiste. The doctor, whose name was Slater, had
+improved even upon this. He called him "St. John the Baptist." But
+nobody took Doc very seriously. So full was he of red liquor most of the
+time, that he was regarded as a joke except in his profession. Here he
+was considered one of the best,--his redeeming feature.
+
+The coal The Homesteader had hauled from Bonesteel was not all for
+himself, but for the lumber yard which sold it at fifteen dollars the
+ton, and the quality was soft, and not of the best grade at that.
+
+He hauled it into town the morning following the episode of our story,
+and after unloading it and taking his check for the hauling, returned
+home, took care of his stock, and upon returning to town, forgot to
+relate anything concerning his experiences.... _Perhaps_ he forgot....
+Jean Baptiste could be depended upon to forget some things....
+Especially the things that were best forgotten.
+
+He walked across the quarter mile that lay between his claim and the
+town, and up to the saloon. Inside he encountered the usual crowd, Doc
+among them.
+
+"Hello, there, St. John the Baptist," cried that one in beliquored
+delight. "Did you crawl through all that storm?"
+
+"I'm here," laughed Baptiste. "How's Doc?"
+
+"Finer'n a fiddle, both ends in the middle," and called for another
+drink. Just one. It is said that saloons would not be so bad if it was
+not for the treating nuisance. Well, Doc could be regarded here then, as
+practical, for he never bought others a drink.
+
+"See you got your nose freezed, Baptiste," Doc laughed. Baptiste went
+toward the bar, took a look at himself, and laughed amusedly upon seeing
+the telltale darkness at the point of his nose, his cheeks and his
+forehead.
+
+"T' hell, I didn't know that," he muttered. The crowd laughed.
+
+"Play you a game of Casino?" suggested Doc.
+
+"You're on!" cried Baptiste.
+
+After they had played awhile a Swede who lived across the creek entered,
+took a seat and drawing his chair near, watched the game. Presently he
+spoke. "The Indians are coming in today, so I guess there will be a
+shooting up the town."
+
+The players paused and regarded each other apprehensively. Others
+overheard the remark, and now exchanged significant glances. This had
+been the one diversion of the long winter. Indians who lived on the
+creek, coming into town, getting drunk, and then as a sally ride up and
+down the main street and shoot up the town. The last time this had taken
+place, the bartender's wife had been frightened into hysterics. And
+thereupon the bartender had sworn that the next time this was attempted,
+they would have to reckon with him.
+
+The few people about became serious. They knew the bartender was
+dangerous, and they feared the Indians, breeds, mostly, who made this
+act their pastime. They were annoyed with such doings; but were inclined
+to lay the blame at the saloon door, for, although the law decreed that
+Indians should not be sold liquor they were always allowed to purchase
+all that they could possibly carry away with them inside and out. So
+upon this announcement, those about prepared themselves for excitement.
+The news quickly spread and to augment the excitement, a few minutes
+later the breeds in full regalia dashed into town. They tied their
+horses at the front, and proceeded at once to the bar.
+
+"Whiskey," they cried, shifting their spurred boots on the barroom
+floor.
+
+"Sorry, boys, but I can't serve you," advised the bartender carelessly.
+
+"What!" they cried.
+
+"Can't serve you. It's agin' the law, yu' know."
+
+"T' hell with the law!" exclaimed one.
+
+"I didn't make it," muttered the bartender.
+
+"You've been playing hell enforcing it," retorted another.
+
+"Now, don't get rough, my worthy," cautioned the bartender.
+
+"Give us what we called for, and none of this damn slush then," cried
+one, toying with the gun at his holster. The bartender observed this and
+got closer to the bar for a purpose. Those about, being of the peaceful
+kind, began shifting toward the door.
+
+"We've been breakin' the law to serve you," said the bartender "and
+you've been breaking the law after we done it. Now the last time you
+were here you pulled off a 'stunt' that caused trouble. So I'll not
+serve you whiskey, and advise you that if you try shooting up the town
+again, there'll be trouble."
+
+"Oh, is that so?" cried the bunch. "Well," sniffed one, who was more
+forward than the rest, "we'll just show you a trick or two. And,
+remember, when we've shot your little chicken coops full of holes, we
+are going to return and be served." With a hilarious laugh, they went
+outside, got into the saddles and had their fun. The population took
+refuge in the cellars in awed silence.
+
+It was over in a few minutes and the breeds, true to their statement,
+returned to the saloon, and stood before the bar.
+
+"Whiskey," they cried, and couldn't repress a grin. Ordinarily they were
+cowards, and their boldness had surprised even themselves.
+
+"Whiskey?" said the bartender, nodding toward the speaker.
+
+"That's my order!" the other cried uproarously. The bartender arranged
+several bottles in a row. This they did not understand at first. They
+did, however, a moment later.
+
+"Very well," he cried of a sudden as his eyes narrowed, whereupon, with
+deliberation he caught the bottles one by one by the neck and as fast as
+he could let go, threw the same into the faces before him with all the
+force he could concentrate quickly. So quickly was it all done that
+those before him had not time to duck below the bar before many had been
+the recipients of the deluge. Within the minute there was a wild
+scramble for the door--all but three. For while the others disappeared
+over the hill toward the creek, Dr. Slater took thirty stitches or
+thereabouts in the faces of the recalcitrants.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE INFIDEL, A JEW AND A GERMAN
+
+
+A mile north from where stood the house of St. Jean Baptiste, there
+lived a quaint old man. He was a widower; at least this was the general
+opinion, especially when he so claimed to be. In a new country there may
+be found among those who settle much that is unusual, not to say quaint
+and oftentimes mysterious. And in the case of this man, by name
+illustrious, there was all this and some more.
+
+Augustus M. Barr, he registered, and from England he hailed. How long
+since does not concern this story at this stage. Besides, he never told
+any one when, or why--well, he had been in America long enough to secure
+the claim he held and that was sufficient. But that Barr had been a man
+of some note back from where he came, there could be little doubt. Among
+the things to prove it, he was very much of a linguist, being well
+versed in English, French, Polish, German; the Scandinavian he
+thoroughly understood--and Latin, that was easy!
+
+He had been a preacher and had pastored many years in a Baker street
+church, London. Then, it seems, he concluded after all that there was no
+God; there was no Satan nor Hell either--so he gave up the ministry and
+became an infidel. And so we have him. But there was something A.M. Barr
+had never told--but that was the mystery.
+
+And while he will be concerned with our story, let us not forget that
+two miles and more west of the little town of Dallas, there lived
+another, a Jew. He was not a merchant, nor was he a trader; then, Jews
+who are not the one or the other are not the usual Jew, apparently.
+Well, Syfe wasn't, for that was his name, Isaac Syfe, and from far away
+Assyria he had come. He was dark of visage with dark hair, and piercing
+but lurking eyes with brows that ran together; while his nose was long
+and seemed to hang down at the point, reminding one of the ancient
+Judas. His mouth was small and close; and there was always a cigarette
+between the dark lips. He was of medium size, somewhere in the thirties,
+perhaps, lived alone, on a homestead that was his own, and so we have
+Isaac Syfe. But there is another still.
+
+He lived about as far southwest of Dallas as Syfe lived to the west and,
+unlike Syfe, he was light, a blond, thick, short and stout. His neck was
+muscular and slightly bull like; while his features were distinctly
+Germanic: his face was rounded and healthy with cheeks soft and red, and
+they called him Kaden, Peter Kaden. He also held a claim, having
+purchased a relinquishment in the opening, lived alone as did Syfe and
+numerous other bachelors, and did his own cooking, washing and ironing.
+
+Augustus M. Barr appeared very much impressed with Jean Baptiste. He was
+a judge of men, withal, and much impressed with Baptiste as a
+personality; but the fact that Baptiste had broken one hundred and
+thirty acres on his homestead and now had it ready for crop, the first
+year of settlement; and had wisely invested in another quarter upon
+which a girl had made proof, delighted Barr. He admired the younger
+man's viewpoint and optimism. So when Barr was in town, and the
+conversation happened around that way, he was ever pleased to speak his
+praise of Baptiste.
+
+It was the day of the Indian episode when Barr, driving a team hitched
+to a spring wagon, came to town, hoping that the lumber yard had
+received the much needed coal.
+
+"And how about the coal," cried Barr to the lumberman before he drew his
+team to a stop.
+
+"Coal a plenty," replied the lumberman cheerfully.
+
+"Good, good, good!" exclaimed Barr, his distinguished old face lighting
+up with great delight.
+
+"Yep," let out the lumberman, coming toward the buggy. "I've weighed
+you, and round to the bin is the coal. St. Jean Baptiste arrived last
+night--that is, I think he got home last night, although he brought the
+coal this morning, two loads, four tons."
+
+"Eighty hundred pounds of coal, you don't say! And it was Jean Baptiste
+who brought it! Now, say, wasn't that great! Not another man on this
+whole Reservation save he could have made it," he ended admiringly.
+
+"Jean Baptiste is the man who can bring it if anybody," rejoined the
+other.
+
+At this moment a large, stout man came driving up in a one horse rig.
+
+"Any coal?" he called lazily from his seat.
+
+"Plenty," cried Barr.
+
+"Thank God," exclaimed the other, whose name was Stark, and who held the
+claim that cornered with the town on the northeast, and therefore joined
+with the Baptiste claim on the east.
+
+"Thank Jean Baptiste," advised Barr. "He's the man that brought it."
+
+"So?" said Stark thoughtfully. "When?"
+
+"Yesterday."
+
+"Yesterday?"
+
+"That's what the lumberman said."
+
+"Well, I'll be blowed!"
+
+"You'll be warmed, I guess."
+
+"Well, I should say!"
+
+"That Baptiste is _some_ fellow."
+
+"Well, yes. Although I sometimes think he is a fool."
+
+"Oh, not so rash!"
+
+"Any man's a fool that would have left Bonesteel with loads yesterday."
+
+"Then I suppose we should be thankful to the fool. A fool's errand will
+in this case mean many lazy men's comfort."
+
+"And last summer you recall how it rained?"
+
+"I sure do."
+
+"Well, you know that fellow would go out and work in the rain."
+
+"And has a hundred and thirty acres ready and into crop while I have but
+thirty."
+
+"I have but ten, but--"
+
+"You will be in the hole--at least behind at the end of this summer."
+
+"But I'm advertised to prove up."
+
+"And leave the country when you have done so."
+
+"Well, of course. I have a house and lot and three acres back in Iowa."
+
+"And Jean Baptiste has 320 acres. In a few years he will have a rich,
+wonderful farm that will be a factor in the local history and
+development of this country; it will also mean something for posterity."
+
+"Well, I don't care."
+
+"You drew your land and got it free excepting four dollars an acre to
+the government. Baptiste bought his and paid for the relinquishment. You
+were lucky, but it will be up to Jean Baptiste and his kind to make the
+country. Had they been as you appear to be, we would perhaps all be in
+Jerusalem, or the jungle. Let's load the coal."
+
+"Good lecture, that," muttered the lumberman when the two were at the
+bin. "Lot's o' truth in it, too. Old Stark needed it. He's too lazy to
+hitch up a team, so rides to town in that little buggy with one horse
+hitched to it."
+
+"What are you talking about?" inquired another, coming up at this
+moment.
+
+"Jean Baptiste."
+
+"So?"
+
+"Barr and Stark have just had a set-to about him."
+
+"M-m?"
+
+"Stark says a man that would come from Bonesteel a day like yesterday
+was a fool."
+
+"Why will he partake of the fuel he brought to keep from freezing,
+then?"
+
+"Well, Stark is too lazy to care. He's advertised to prove up, you know,
+and he always has something to say about working."
+
+"Used to come to town after the mail during the rainy spell last summer,
+and upon seeing Baptiste at work in the field, cry 'Just look at that
+fool nigger, a workin' in the rain.'" Both laughed. A few minutes later
+the town was thrown into an uproar over the incident related in the last
+chapter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now it happened that day that Augustus M. Barr went to the postoffice
+and received a heavy envelope. He glanced through the contents with a
+serious face, and put the papers in his pocket. On the way to his claim,
+he took them out and went through them again, and returned them to his
+pocket. A few minutes later he reached into the pocket, drew out what he
+thought to be the papers, and silently tore them to threads, and flung
+the bundle of paper to the winds.
+
+When Jean Baptiste left the town for his little sod house on the hill,
+he saw A.M. Barr just ahead of him. He followed the same route that Barr
+had taken, and when he reached the draw on the town site that lay
+between his place and the town, he espied some papers. He picked them
+up, continued on his way, and presently observed the torn ball of paper
+that Barr had cast away. He idly opened the package he held. He wondered
+at the contents and as he read them through he became curious. The
+papers had to do with something between Augustus M. Barr, Isaac Syfe,
+and Peter Kaden.
+
+"Now that is singular," he said to himself. He continued to read through
+the papers, and as he did so, another fact became clear to him. Kaden
+was a sad character. And because he was so forlorn, never cultivated any
+friendship, lived alone and never visited, the people had begun to
+regard him as crazy. But now Jean Baptiste understood something that
+neither he, nor any of the people in the country had dreamed of. He read
+on. He recalled that the summer before a young lady, beautiful, refined
+but strange at times, had stayed at the Barr claim. Barr had introduced
+her as his niece. The people wondered at her seclusion. She had a fine
+claim. Barr had come to him once and spoken about selling it, stating
+that the girl had fallen heir to an estate in England and was compelled
+to return therewith.... Later he had succeeded in selling the place. She
+had disappeared; but he had never forgotten the expressions he had
+observed upon the face of Christine.... He had thought it singular at
+the time but had thought little of it since. He read further into the
+papers, and learned about some other person, a woman, but concerning
+her he could gather nothing definite. He could not understand about
+Christine either, except that she had fallen heir to nothing in England;
+was not there, but not more than three hundred miles from where he stood
+at that moment. But there was before him what he _did_ understand, and
+which was that there was something between Augustus M. Barr, Isaac Syfe,
+and Peter Kaden, _and something was going to happen_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE DAY BEFORE
+
+
+Never since the night at the sod house had Agnes Stewart been the same
+person. She could not seem to dismiss Jean Baptiste, and the instance of
+her providence in getting lost and thereby saving him, from her mind.
+His strange words and singular recognition of her was baffling. Being so
+very curious therefore, she had since learned that he was well known in
+the community and held in popular favor.
+
+She knew little and understood less with regard to predestination; but
+she had, since meeting him, recalled that he was the one she had seen in
+her dream--and loved! She tried to laugh away such a freak; but do what
+she might, she grew more curious to see him again as the days passed; to
+talk with him, and learn at last what she was anxious to know--curious
+to know. _How did he come to utter her name and say that he had waited?_
+
+And, coincident with this, she recalled anew what she had learned--which
+positively was little--regarding her mother. She had been told that she
+inherited that one's peculiarity; that her mother had possessed rare
+eyes, which in a measure explained her own. But she had not been told or
+knew why her mother had arranged the legacy as she had. Not until the
+day before she was to marry must she know. And then should she not have
+won a husband to herself by the time she had reached thirty, she was to
+have the same then, anyhow. Singular, but in a sense practical.
+
+Well, it was so, and she could only sigh and be patient. Most girls she
+had known back in "Nubbin Ridge" were usually married by the time they
+had reached her present age. But she was not quite like other girls, and
+did not even have a beau.
+
+She wondered if the man she had saved had a sweetheart. And when she
+thought of this, she had a feeling that she would know in time. And as
+the days passed she began at last to believe that in some manner he
+would play a part in her own life. But Agnes Stewart was too innocent to
+know--at least appeared not to be aware of--_the custom of the country
+and its law_, and therefore could not appreciate the invisible and
+socially invincible barrier between them. 'Twas only the man Jean
+Baptiste she saw and reckoned according to what she understood.
+Therefore, because she could get nowhere in her wonderings, as a
+diversion she turned to the little diary and recorded therein:
+
+     JANUARY 20TH, 19-- I have not had the patience since arriving here
+     to record any of the events that have transpired since we left
+     Indiana. We have been here now nearly three weeks. Have not as yet
+     had time to draw any conclusion with regard to the country, but
+     this much I can cheerfully say--and which did not prevail back
+     where we came from--there is spirit in the country, the spirit of
+     the Pioneer.
+
+     The weather has been cold, cold every day since we arrived. Because
+     we ran out of urgent provisions soon after coming here I ventured
+     to go to Gregory, which is seven miles distant, for some more. I
+     have been too much upset over what took place on that memorable
+     trip to say much about it. Because I have never kept anything from
+     him, I told papa how I started from the town, became lost, and
+     stayed all night at a house and saved a man thereby. He has been so
+     frightened over what happened that he will not let me go anywhere
+     alone again--not even in the daytime. "Just think, my girl," he has
+     said time and again, "supposing you had not stumbled into that
+     house, you would surely have frozen to death on the plains!" I
+     somehow feel that Dolly would have brought me home; but that is a
+     matter for conjecture. But what I say to papa in return is: "Had I
+     not gotten lost, that man that is known so well about the country
+     must surely have suffered death!" This seems to pacify him, and he
+     is pleased after all to know that my getting lost was so provident
+     and opportune.
+
+     He has met the man, Jean Baptiste, (such an odd name,) and likes
+     him very much--in fact, he is very much carried away with him. I
+     have not seen him since the morning I left him at his sod house;
+     but I cannot get out of my mind the events that passed while I was
+     there. Always I can see him look up into my eyes with that strange
+     recognition, and then as he turned, call "_Agnes, it is you. I'm
+     glad you have come for I've waited for you so long._" What that
+     means I would give most half my life to know. I know that I shall
+     never rest in peace until I have become well enough acquainted with
+     him to ask him why and how he knew me. Then followed the morning
+     when he talked to himself and did not know I heard. It is all so
+     vivid in my mind.
+
+     Of late I have had an uncontrollable desire. I have wanted to know
+     more of my mother. It seems that if I could have known her, I would
+     understand myself better. I am positive now, that she must have
+     been a rare person. That she was French and very high tempered,
+     papa has told me; and also that she had lived in the West Indies
+     before he met her, but that she was born in France. As to the
+     legacy, he lays that to her peculiarity. She was always peculiar
+     in a way, says he; and that at all times she was mysterious. She
+     had been over almost all the world, and was wise in many things. He
+     thinks I have inherited much of her wit, and that eventually it
+     will express itself in some manner, which is all so strange. I
+     hope, however, it will. To rise in some manner out of the simple,
+     uneventful life I've lived would certainly be appreciated; but
+     whatever it is I cannot conclude.
+
+     Should I ever rise in any way, I feel now it would be due in some
+     manner to my meeting that strange colored man. I have wondered so
+     often since meeting him, how it feels to be a Negro. Papa and I
+     have discussed it often since. I understand there is a sort of
+     prejudice against the race in this country; that in the South they
+     are held down and badly treated; that in the North, even, they are
+     not fairly treated. Papa and I were both agreed about it. We cannot
+     understand why one should be disliked because his skin is dark; or
+     because his ancestors were slaves. But withal I cannot understand
+     how one could deal unfairly with them because of this. It is said
+     that some of the race are very ignorant and vicious; that they very
+     often commit the unspeakable crime. I suppose that is possible. If
+     so, then they should be educated. Take this Jean Baptiste, for
+     instance, an educated man, and what a gentleman! But papa, (he is
+     very vindictive!) he says that only about half the colored people
+     in this country are full blood; that in the days of slavery and
+     since, even, the white man who is very often ready to abuse the
+     black men, has been the cause of this mixture.... I should think
+     their consciences would disturb them.
+
+     Oh, well, I am glad that I have grown up where prejudice against
+     races is not a custom. My mother was French; my father Scotch all
+     through, and because I know him and am so ingrained with his
+     liberal traditions--even tho' he be poor,--I am at peace with all
+     mankind.
+
+     We haven't all the money we need, and the fact worries me. Papa
+     says he will hire Bill to some one if any one should need help. It
+     might be that the colored man will hire him, maybe. They say he is
+     going to hire a man. Papa intends to speak to him about it. The
+     only thing that worries us is that we have to explain that weakness
+     in Bill and George. George is impossible: too slow, talks too much,
+     and would never earn his salt. But if one is patient with Bill
+     until he catches on, he is an excellent worker, and faithful. I
+     wish the colored man would give him the job. He owns the quarter
+     that corners with us, which he expects to complete breaking out and
+     putting into flax next summer, so we are told. If Bill could get
+     that job it would be handy. Handy for Bill, for Mr. Baptiste, and
+     for us.
+
+     We have not met many people as yet. Because it is so cold to get
+     out, I haven't met any so to speak; but papa appears to be getting
+     acquainted right along. We are going to town--to Gregory again
+     Saturday. I am looking forward to it with pleasant anticipation. I
+     sincerely trust it will be a beautiful day. In the meantime the
+     clock has struck one, papa is turning over in bed and I can hear
+     him. I'll hear his voice presently, so I will close this with hopes
+     that Saturday will be a beautiful day and that I'll meet and become
+     acquainted with some nice people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AN ENTERPRISING YOUNG MAN
+
+
+When Jean Baptiste had found the papers belonging to Barr, and had come
+to understand that it had been Barr's intention to destroy the same,
+natural curiosity had prompted him to read into and examine what was in
+his possession.
+
+But after having read them, and realizing fully to return the same then,
+would be to have Barr know, at least feel, that he was in possession of
+such a grave secret, would make their, up to this time agreeable,
+relationship rather awkward, he was at a loss as to what to do. So in
+the end he laid the papers away, and waited. If Barr should make
+inquiries for them, he would try to find some convenient way to return
+the same. But on after thought, he knew that Barr would hardly start an
+inquiry about the matter--even if he did come to realize he had lost
+instead of destroyed the papers.
+
+A few days later he saw Peter Kaden in the village, and this time
+observed him more closely than had been his wont theretofore. Always
+sad, he so remained, and down in Baptiste's heart he was sorry for the
+wretch. It was after he had returned home and lingered at the fire that
+he heard a light knock at the door. He called "Come in." The door was
+opened and Augustus M. Barr stood in the doorway.
+
+Baptiste was for a time slightly nervous. He was glad then that it was
+dark within the room, otherwise Barr must have seen him give a quick
+start.
+
+"Ah-ha," began Barr, cheerfully, coming forward and taking the chair
+Baptiste placed at his disposal. "Quite comfortable in the little sod
+house on the claim."
+
+"Quite comfortable," returned Baptiste evenly, his mind upon the papers
+so near. He didn't trust himself to comment. He waited for whatever was
+to happen.
+
+"Suppose you are thinking about the big crop you will seed in the
+springtime," ventured Barr.
+
+"Yes," admitted Baptiste, for in truth, the same had been on his mind
+before Barr put in his appearance. "Suppose you will put out quite a
+crop yourself in the spring," he ventured in return.
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Barr thoughtfully. "I fear I'm getting a
+little old to farm--and this baching!" Baptiste thought about Christine
+who was not so far away instead of in England.... He marveled at the
+man's calm nerve. It did not seem possible that a man of this one's
+broad education could be so low as to resort to fallacies.
+
+"No," he heard Barr again. "I don't think that I shall farm next summer.
+In fact I have about decided to make proof on my claim, and that is what
+I have called on you in regard to. I suppose I can count you as witness
+to the fact?" Baptiste was relieved. Barr still thought he had destroyed
+the papers. He was smiling when he replied:
+
+"Indeed, I shall be glad to attest to the fact you refer to."
+
+"Thanks," Said Barr, and rose to go.
+
+"No hurry."
+
+"I must go into town on a matter of business," said Barr from the
+doorway. "Well," he paused briefly and then said, "I am applying for a
+date, and when that is settled I shall let you know."
+
+"Very well. Good day."
+
+"Good day, my friend," and he went over the hill.
+
+Baptiste was thoughtful when he was gone. He looked after him and
+thought about the papers. He marveled again at the man's calmness....
+Then suddenly he arose as a thought struck him, and going to his trunk,
+lifted from the top the last issue of the Dallas _Enterprise_. He
+glanced quickly through the columns and then his eyes rested on a legal
+notice. He smiled.
+
+"Old Peter is going to make proof.... So is Barr. The eternal triangle
+begins to take shape...." He got up and went to the door. Over the hill
+he saw Barr just entering the town.... "This is beginning to get
+interesting.... But I don't like the Kaden end of it.... I wish I could
+do something.... Something to help Kaden...."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Saturday was a beautiful day. To Gregory from miles around went almost
+everybody. So along with the rest went Jean Baptiste. He fostered
+certain hopes,--had ulterior purposes in view. Firstly, it was a nice
+day, the town he knew would be filled; and secondly, he was subtly
+interested in Kaden. He had seen by the paper that he was advertised to
+make proof that day on his homestead.... Another thing, whenever he
+thought of Kaden, he could not keep Barr, and Syfe, and lastly,
+Christine, out of his mind....
+
+He found the little town filled almost to overflowing when he arrived.
+Teams were tied seemingly to every available post. The narrow board
+walks were crowded, the saloons were full, red liquor was doing its bit;
+while the general stores were alive with girls, women and children. A
+jovial day was ahead and old friendships were revived and new ones made.
+There is about a new country an air of hopefulness that is contagious.
+Here in this land had come the best from everywhere: the best because
+they were for the most part hopeful and courageous; that great army of
+discontented persons that have been the forerunners of the new world.
+Mingled in the crowd, Jean Baptiste regarded the unusual conglomeration
+of kinds. There were Germans, from Germany, and there were Swedes from
+Sweden, Danes from Denmark, Norwegians from Norway. There were Poles,
+and Finns and Lithuanians and Russians; there were French and a few
+English; but of his race he was the only one.
+
+As a whole the greater portion were from the northern parts of the
+United States, and he was glad that they were. With them there was no
+"Negro problem," and he was glad there was not. The world was too busy
+to bother with such: he was glad to know he could work unhampered. He
+was looked at curiously by many. To the young, a man of his skin was
+something rare, something new. He smiled over it with equal amusement,
+and then in a store he walked right into Agnes, the first time he had
+seen her since the morning at the sod house. He was greatly surprised,
+and rather flustrated,--and was glad again his skin was dark. She could
+not see the blood that went to his face; while with her, it showed most
+furiously.
+
+As the meeting was unexpected, all she had thought and felt in the weeks
+since, came suddenly to the surface in her expression. In spite of her
+effort at self control, her blushing face evidenced her confusion upon
+seeing him again. But with an effort, she managed to bow courteously,
+while he was just as dignified. They would have passed and gone their
+ways had it not been that in that instant another, a lady, a neighbor
+and friend of Baptiste's, came upon them. She had become acquainted with
+Agnes that day, and was very fond of Baptiste. Although her name was
+Reynolds, she was a red blooded German, sociable, kind and obliging. She
+had not observed that they had exchanged greetings--did not know,
+obviously, that the two were acquainted; wherefore, her neighborly
+instincts became assertive.
+
+Coming forward volubly, anxiously, she caught Baptiste by the hand and
+shook it vigorously. "Mr. Baptiste, Mr. Baptiste!" she cried,
+punctuating the hand shaking with her voice full of joy, her red,
+healthy face beaming with smiles. "How very glad I am to see you! You
+have not been to see us for an age, and I have asked Tom where you were.
+We feared you had gone off and done something serious," whereupon she
+winked mischievously. Baptiste understood and smiled.
+
+"You are certainly looking well for an old bachelor," she commented,
+after releasing his hand and looking into his face seriously, albeit
+amusedly, mischievously. "We were at Dallas and got some of the coal you
+were brave enough to bring from Bonesteel that awful cold day. My, Jean,
+you certainly are possessed with great nerve! While that coal to
+everybody was a godsend, yet think of the risk you took! Why, supposing
+you had gotten lost in that terrific storm; lost as people have been in
+the West before! You must be careful," she admonished, kindly. "You are
+really too fine a young man to go out here and get frozen to death,
+indeed!" Baptiste started perceptibly. She regarded him questioningly.
+Unconsciously his eyes wandered toward Agnes who stood near, absorbed in
+all Mrs. Reynolds had been saying. His eyes met hers briefly, and the
+events of the night at the sod house passed through the minds of both.
+The next moment they looked away, and Mrs. Reynolds, not understanding,
+glanced toward Agnes. She was by disposition versatile. But she caught
+her breath now with sudden equanimity, as she turned to Agnes and cried:
+
+"Oh, Miss Stewart, you!" she smiled with her usual delight and going
+toward Agnes caught her arm affectionately, and then, with face still
+beaming, she turned to where Baptiste stood.
+
+"I want you, Miss Stewart," she said with much ostentation, "to meet one
+of our neighbors and friends; one of the most enterprising young men of
+the country, Mr. Jean Baptiste. Mr. Baptiste, Miss Agnes Stewart." She
+did it gracefully, and for a time was overcome by her own vanity. In the
+meantime the lips of both those before her parted to say that they had
+met, and then slowly, understandingly, they saw that this would mean to
+explain.... Their faces lighted with the logic of meeting formally, and
+greetings were exchanged to fit the occasion.
+
+For the first time he was permitted to see her, to regard her as the
+real Agnes. There was no embarrassment in her face but composure as she
+extended her small ungloved hand this time and permitted it to rest
+lightly in his palm. She smiled easily as she accepted his ardent gaze
+and showed a row of even white teeth momentarily before turning
+coquetishly away.
+
+He regarded her intimately in one sweep of his eyes. She accepted this
+also with apparent composure. She was now fully normal in her
+composition. That about her which others had understood, and were
+inspired to call beautiful now seemed to strangely affect him.
+
+Was it because he was hungry for woman's love; because since he had
+looked upon this land of promise and out of the visions she had come to
+him in those long silent days; because of his lonely young life there in
+the sod house she had communed with him; was it that he had imagined
+her sweet radiance that now caused him to feel that she was beautiful?
+
+She had looked away only briefly, as if to give him time to think, to
+consider her, and then she turned her eyes upon him again. She regarded
+him frankly then, albeit admiringly. She wanted to hear him say
+something. She was not herself aware of how anxious she was to hear him
+speak; for him to say anything, would please her. And as she stood
+before him in her sweet innocence, all the goodness she possessed, the
+heart and desire always to be kind, to do for others as she had always,
+was revealed to him. His dream girl she was, and in reality she had not
+disappointed him.
+
+If visionary he had loved her, he now saw her and what was hers. Her
+wondrous hair, rolled into a frivolous knot at the back of her head made
+her face appear the least slender when it was really square; the
+chestnut glint of it seemed to contrast coquettishly with her white
+skin; and the life, the healthy, cheerful life that now gave vigor to
+her blood brought faint red roses to her cheeks; roses that seemed to
+come and go. Her red lips seemed to tempt him, he was captivated. He
+forgot in this intimate survey that she was of one race while he, Jean
+Baptiste, was of another.... And that between their two races, the
+invisible barrier, the barrier which, while invisible was so absolute,
+so strong, so impossible of melting that it was best for the moment that
+he forget it.
+
+While all he saw passed in a moment, he regarded her slenderness as she
+stood buttoned in the long coat, and wondered how she, so slight and
+fragile, had been able to lift his heavy frame upon the bed where he had
+found himself. And still before words had passed between them, he saw
+her again, and that singularity in the eyes had come back; they were
+blue and then they were brown, but withal they were so baffling. He did
+not seem to understand her when they were like this, yet when so he felt
+strangely a greater right, the right to look into and feast in what he
+saw, regardless of _the custom of the country and its law_.... And still
+while he was not aware of it, Jean Baptiste came to feel that there was
+something between them. Though infinite, in the life that was to come,
+he now came strangely to feel sure that he was to know her, to become
+more intimately acquainted with her, and with this consciousness he
+relaxed. The spell that had come from meeting her again, from being near
+her, from holding her hand in his though formally, the exchange of words
+passed and he gradually became his usual self; the self that had always
+been his in this land where others than those of the race to which he
+belonged were the sole inhabitants. He was relieved when he heard Mrs.
+Reynolds' voice:
+
+"Miss Stewart and her folks have just moved out from Indiana, Jean, and
+are renting on the Watson place over east of you; the place that corners
+with the quarter you purchased last fall, you understand."
+
+"Indeed!" Baptiste echoed with feigned ignorance, his eyebrows dilating.
+
+"Yes," she went on with concern, "And you are neighbors."
+
+"I'm glad--honored," Baptiste essayed.
+
+"He is flattering," blushed Agnes, but she was pleased.
+
+"And you'll find Mr. Baptiste the finest kind of neighbor, too," cried
+Mrs. Reynolds with equal delight.
+
+"I'm a bad neighbor, Miss Stewart," he disdained. "Our friend here, Mrs.
+Reynolds, you see, is full of flattery."
+
+"I don't believe so, Mr. Baptiste," she defended, glad to be given an
+opportunity to speak. "We have just become acquainted, but papa has told
+me of her, and the family, and I'm sure we will be the best of friends,
+won't we?" she ended with her eyes upon Mrs. Reynolds.
+
+"Bless you, yes! Who could keep from liking you?" whereupon she caught
+Agnes close and kissed her impulsively.
+
+"Oh, say, now," cried Baptiste, and then stopped.
+
+"You're not a woman," laughed Mrs. Reynolds, "but you understand," she
+added reprovingly. Suddenly her face lit up with a new thought, and the
+usual smiling gave way to seriousness, as she cried:
+
+"By the way, Jean. We hear that you are going to hire a man this spring,
+and that reminds me that Miss Stewart's father has two boys--her
+brothers--whom he has not work enough nor horses enough to use, so he
+wishes to hire one out." She paused to observe Agnes, who had also
+become serious and was looking up at her.
+
+At this point she turned to Baptiste, and with a slight hesitation, she
+said:
+
+"Do you really wish to hire a man--Mr.--a--Mr. Baptiste?" Saying it had
+heightened her color, and the anxiety in her tone caused her to appear
+more serious. She had turned her eyes up to his and he was for the
+instant captivated again with the thought that she was beautiful. His
+answer, however, was calm.
+
+"I must have a man," he acknowledged. "I have more work than I can do
+alone."
+
+"Why, papa wishes to hire Bill--" It was natural to say Bill because it
+was Bill they always hired, although George was the older; but since we
+know why George was never offered, we return to her. "I should say
+William," she corrected awkwardly, and with an effort she cast it out
+of her mind and went on: "So if--if you think you could--a--use him, or
+would care to give him the job," she was annoyed with the fact that Bill
+was halfwitted, and it confused her, which explains the slight catches
+in her voice. But bravely she continued, "That is, if you have not
+already given some one else the job, you could speak to papa, and he
+would be pleased, I'm sure." She ended with evident relief; but the
+thought that had confused her, being still in her mind, her face was
+dark with a confusion that he did not understand.
+
+Hoping to relieve the annoyance he could see, although not understanding
+the cause of it, he spoke up quickly.
+
+"I have not hired a man, and have no other in sight; so your suggestion,
+Miss, regarding your brother meets with my favor. I will endeavor
+therefore, to see your father today if possible, if not, later, and
+discuss the matter pro and con."
+
+He had made it so easy for her, and she was overly gracious as she
+attempted to have him understand in some manner that her brother was
+afflicted. So her effort this time was a bit braver, notwithstanding as
+anxious, however, as before.
+
+"Oh, papa will be glad to have my brother work for you, and I wish you
+would--would please not hire any other until you have talked with him."
+She paused again as if to gather courage for the final drive.
+
+"You will find my brother faithful, and honest, and a good worker;
+but--but--" it seemed that she could not avoid the break in her voice
+when she came to this all embarrassing point, "but sometimes--he--he
+makes mistakes. He is a little awkward, a little bunglesome in starting,
+but if you would--could exercise just a little patience for a few
+days--a day, I am sure he would please you." It was out at last. She
+was sure he would understand. It had cost her such an effort to try to
+make it plain without just coming out and saying he was halfwitted. She
+was not aware that in concluding she had done so appealingly. He had
+observed it and his man's heart went out to her in her distress. He
+remembered then too, although he had on their first meeting forgotten
+that he had been told all about her brothers, and had also heard of her.
+
+"You need have no fear there, Miss Stewart," he wilfully lied. "I am the
+most patient man in the world." He wondered then at himself, that he
+could lie so easily. His one great failing was his impatience, and he
+knew it. Because he did and felt that he tried to crush it, was his
+redeeming feature in this respect. But the words had lightened her
+burden, and there was heightening of her color, as she spoke now with
+unfeigned delight:
+
+"Oh, that is indeed kind of you. I am so glad to hear you say so. Bill
+is a good hand--everybody likes him after he has worked a while. It is
+because he is a little awkward and forgetful in the beginning that
+worries my father and me. So I'm glad you know now and will not be
+impatient."
+
+In truth while she did not know it, Jean was pleased with the prospect.
+He had not lived two years in the country, the new country, without
+having experienced the difficulty that comes with the usual hired man.
+The class of men, with the exception of a homesteader, who came to the
+country for work usually fell into the pastime of gambling and drinking
+which seemed to be contagious, and many were the griefs they gave those
+by whom they were employed. And Jean Baptiste, now that she had made it
+plain regarding her brother, had something to say himself.
+
+"There is one little thing I should like to mention, Miss Stewart," he
+said with apparent seriousness. She caught her breath with renewed
+anxiety as she returned his look. In the next instant she was relieved,
+however, as he said: "You understand that I am baching, a bachelor, and
+the fare of bachelors is, I trust you will appreciate, not always the
+best." He paused as he thought of how she must feel after having seen
+the way he kept his house, and hoped that she could overlook the
+condition in which she knew he kept it. But if he was embarrassed at the
+thought of it, it was not so with her. For her sympathy went out to him.
+She was conscious of how inconvenient it must be to bach, to live alone
+as he was doing, and to work so hard.
+
+"It is not always to hired men's liking to forego the meals that only
+women can prepare, and for that reason it is sometimes difficult for us
+to keep men."
+
+"Oh, you will not have to worry as to that, Mr. Baptiste," she assured
+him pleasantly. She caught her breath with something joyous apparently
+as she turned to him. "You see, we live almost directly between your two
+places, and my brother can stay home and save you that trouble and
+bother." She was glad that she could be of assistance to him in some
+way, though it be indirectly. With sudden impulse, she turned to Mrs.
+Reynolds who had not interrupted:
+
+"It will be nice, now, won't it?"
+
+"Just dandy," the other agreed readily. "I am so glad we all three met
+here," she went on. "In meeting we have fortunately been of some service
+to each other. You will find Mr. Baptiste a fine fellow to work for. We
+let our boys go over and help him out when he's pushed, and we know he
+appreciates it to the fullest." She halted, turned now mischievously to
+Baptiste and cried:
+
+"We are always after Jean that he should marry. Why, just think what a
+good husband he would make some nice girl." She had found her topic, had
+Mrs. Reynolds. Of all topics, she preferred to jolly the single with
+getting married to anything else, so she went on with delight.
+
+"He goes off down to Chicago every winter and we wait to see the girl
+when he returns, but always he disappoints us." She affected a frown a
+moment before resuming: "It is certainly too bad that some good girl
+must do without a home and the happiness that is due her, while he lives
+there alone, having no comfort but what he gets when he goes visiting."
+She affected to appear serious and to have him feel it, while he could
+do nothing but grin awkwardly.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Reynolds, you're hard on a fellow. My! Give him a chance. It
+takes two to make a bargain. I can't marry myself." He caught the eyes
+of Agnes who was enjoying his tender expression. Indeed the subject
+appealed to him, and he had found it to his liking. She blushed. She
+enjoyed the humor.
+
+"I suspect Mrs. Reynolds speaks the truth," she said with affected
+seriousness, but found it impossible to down the color in her flaming
+cheeks nevertheless.
+
+"Oh, but you two can jolly a fellow." He became serious now as he went
+on: "But it isn't fair. There is no girl back in Chicago; there is no
+girl anywhere for me." He was successful in his affectation of self
+pity, and her feelings went out to him in her words that followed:
+
+"Now that is indeed, too bad, for him, Mrs. Reynolds, isn't it? Perhaps
+he is telling the truth. The girls in Chicago do not always understand
+the life out here, and cannot make one feel very much encouraged." She
+wondered at her own words. But she went on nevertheless. "Even back in
+Indiana they do not understand the West. They are--seem to be, so
+narrow, they feel that they are living in the only place of
+civilization on earth." Her logical statement took away the joke. They
+became serious. The store was filling and the crowd was pushing. So they
+parted.
+
+A few minutes later as Baptiste passed down the street, he saw Peter
+Kaden coming from the commissioners' office. Across the way he observed
+Barr and Syfe stop and exchange a few words. The next moment they went
+their two ways while he stood looking after them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+"CHRISTINE, CHRISTINE!"
+
+
+One week from the day Peter Kaden made proof at Gregory on the homestead
+he held, the court record showed that he had transferred the same to
+some unknown person. In the course of events it was not noticed by the
+masses. It was because Jean Baptiste was expecting something of the kind
+that he happened to observe the record of the transfer in the following
+week's issue of the paper. He couldn't get the incident out of his mind,
+and he found his eyes wandering time and again in the direction of the
+house of Augustus M. Barr in the days that followed.
+
+From what he had gleaned from the papers, he was sure that something
+sinister was to occur in that new land soon. He tried in vain to
+formulate some plan of action--rather, some plan of prevention. But the
+plot, the intrigue, or whatever it may be called, was deep. It had taken
+root before either had ever seen the country they now called home. And
+because of its intricate nature, he could formulate no plan toward
+combatting the thing he felt positively in his veins was to take place.
+
+Over the hill two miles and more the claim shack of Peter Kaden could
+not be seen. But he could always feel where it was and the events that
+went on therein. This healthy, but sad, forlorn German had aroused his
+sympathy, and always when he thought of him, strangely he thought of
+Christine.
+
+The days passed slowly and things went on as usual. He saw Barr
+occasionally and as often saw the dark Syfe. He read as was his wont,
+and then one evening when his few chores were done, he had a desire to
+walk. He drew on his overcoat, and, taking a bucket, he walked slowly
+down the slope that led up to his house, to the well a quarter mile
+distant. He could never after account for the strange feeling that came
+and went as he ambled toward the well. He reached it in due time, filled
+his bucket, and was in the act of returning when out of the night he
+caught the unmistakable sound of horses' hoofs. Some one on horseback
+was coming. He set the bucket down and bent his ears more keenly to hear
+the sound.
+
+Yes, they were hoof beats, an unusual clatter. He gave a start. Only one
+horse in the neighborhood made such a noise with the hoofs when moving,
+for he had heard the same before, and that horse belonged to A.M. Barr,
+and was a pacer. Christine had use to ride him. And when he recalled it,
+he became curious. Christine was not there, he knew, unless she had come
+that day, which was not likely.... Then _who rode the horse_? He had
+never seen Barr on horseback.... They were coming from about where
+Barr's house stood, coming in his direction along the road. He estimated
+at that moment they must be about a quarter of a mile away. He listened
+intently. Onward they came, drawing closer all the while. He got an
+inspiration. Why should he be seen? He moved back from the road some
+distance. There was no moon and the night was dark, but the stars filled
+the night air with a dim ray. He lay upon the ground as the horseman
+drew nearer. Presently out of the shadow he caught the dim outline of
+the rider. He saw that a heavy ulster was worn, and the collar of the
+same was around the rider's neck, almost concealing the head; but he
+recognized the rider as A.M. Barr.
+
+"Now where can he be going," he muttered to himself, standing erect as
+he listened to the hoof beats on the road below. He pondered briefly.
+"Why does he never ride in the daytime?" From down the road the sound of
+hoof beats continued. And then Baptiste was again inspired.
+
+"Kaden!" he cried, and fell into deep thought.
+
+At his left was a small creek, usually dry. This stream led in an
+angling direction down toward the larger stream south of the town. It
+led directly toward the claim of Peter Kaden, although the homestead lay
+beyond the creek. By following it, one could reach Kaden's house in
+about two-thirds the distance if going by trail.
+
+A few minutes later Jean Baptiste was speedily following the route that
+led to the creek. He paused at intervals and upon listening could hear
+the hoof beats along the trail in the inevitable direction. He reached
+the creek in a short time, found his way across it, and once on the
+other side, he hurried through a school section to Kaden's cabin that
+was joined with this on the south. He crossed the school section
+quickly, and in the night air he could smell, and presently came to see,
+the smoke curling from the chimney. He approached the house cautiously.
+He was glad that poor Kaden didn't keep a dog. When he had drawn close
+enough to distinguish the objects before him, he saw Barr's horse tied
+out of the wind, on the south side of the little barn. He looked closer
+and observed another near. He reckoned that one to be Syfe's. "So the
+triangle is forming," he muttered.
+
+He went up to the house noiselessly. He passed around its dark side to
+where he saw light emanating from the small window. He peered cautiously
+through it. Sitting on the side of the bed, Kaden's face met his gaze.
+He regarded it briefly before seeking out the others. Never, he felt, if
+he lived a hundred years would he ever forget the expression of agony
+that face wore! Upon its usual roundness, perceptible lines had formed;
+in the light of the dim lamp he caught the darkness about the eyes, the
+skin under almost sagging and swollen. He permitted his gaze to drift
+further, and to take in the proportions of the room.
+
+On a stool near sat Syfe, the Jew. He wore his overcoat. Indeed,
+Baptiste could not recall having ever seen him without it about him;
+also he wore his thick, dark cap. His little mustache stood out over the
+small mouth, between the lips of which reposed the usual cigarette. He
+was drawing away easily at this, while his ears appeared to be attentive
+to what was going on. He was listening to Barr, who stood in the center
+of the room, talking in much excitement, making gestures; while he could
+see the agonized Kaden protesting. He could not catch all that was being
+said, but some of it. Barr, in particular, he observed, while speaking
+forcibly, was nevertheless controlled. It was Kaden whose voice reached
+his ears more often on the outside.
+
+"I kept you from Australia...." this from Barr. "They had you on
+shipboard.... Your carcass would be fit for the vultures now on that
+sand swept desert you were headed for...."
+
+"But I was innocent, I was innocent," protested Kaden. "I didn't go to
+Russia that trip. I didn't go to Russia, and to Jerusalem, I have never
+been!"
+
+"But you hadn't proved it. You were done for. They had you, and all you
+could do or say wouldn't have kept you in England. It was I, me, do you
+understand.... You do understand that I kept you from going. I, me, who
+saved you. No law in this land could keep you here if they knew now
+where you were...."
+
+"But you forget Christine, my poor Christine! You have her, is that not
+enough? Oh, you are hard. You drive me most insane. Tell me about
+Christine. Give her back to me and all is yours."
+
+A wind rose suddenly out of the west. A shed stood near, a shed covered
+over with hay and some poles that had been cut green, and the now dry
+leaves gave forth a moaning sound. He saw those inside start. With the
+noise, Baptiste knew he could hear no more, and might be apprehended.
+Stealthily he departed.
+
+And all the way to the sod house that night he kept repeating what he
+had heard. "_Christine, Christine! You have her, is she not enough? Give
+her back and all is yours!_"
+
+If he could only ascertain what was between Kaden and Christine--but it
+was all coming to something soon, and he knew that Augustus M. Barr was
+taking the advantage of some one; that Kaden was innocent but couldn't
+prove it; that Syfe was in some way darkly connected, and the eternal
+triangle held to its sinister purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE"
+
+
+When Agnes Stewart found her father and they were ready to return home,
+she inquired:
+
+"Did he see you?"
+
+"See who?"
+
+"You? You don't understand. I mean the colored gentleman, Mr. Baptiste?"
+
+"Why, no, my dear," her father replied wonderingly. "I saw him, but I
+had no word with him. I don't understand."
+
+"Why, I met him. Mrs. Reynolds, who knows you--she and I became
+acquainted, and we met and had a long talk with Mr. Baptiste, and he is
+going to hire a man, so we discussed Bill. He said he would see you."
+Her father drew the team to a stop.
+
+"I don't understand. I should see him, and I did, but he was talking
+with some fellows who live north of town. I think it was about horses.
+He went with them, so I suppose we may as well go on home and see him
+later."
+
+"I'm so sorry," she said and showed it in her face. "I had hoped he
+would get to see you, and that it would all be settled and Bill would
+get the job."
+
+"Don't be so out of hope," said he. "I have no doubt that we will get to
+see Mr. Baptiste, and talk it over."
+
+"I am worried, because--you know, papa, when we have paid for the seed
+and feed, we will have very little left."
+
+"Such a wonderful, such a thoughtful little girl I have," he said
+admiringly, stroking her hand fondly in the meantime. "I can't imagine
+how I could get along without my Aggie."
+
+"See him and get Bill hired and I'll not worry any more."
+
+"I'll do so, I'll do so tomorrow."
+
+"You say you saw him going north of town?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She was silent, while he was thoughtful. Presently he inquired of what
+passed when she met him.
+
+She told him.
+
+"I never spoke of having met him before."
+
+"You didn't?"
+
+"Why, no, papa. How could I? It would be hard to explain."
+
+"Well, now, coming to think of it, it would, wouldn't it?"
+
+"It _shouldn't_," she said. She didn't relish the situation.
+
+"Did he?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Speak of it."
+
+"Oh, no! He didn't...."
+
+"I wonder has he ever."
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"That is very thoughtful of him."
+
+"It is. He is a real gentleman."
+
+"So everybody says."
+
+"And so pleasant to listen to."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Mrs. Reynolds is carried away with him. Says he's one of the most
+industrious and energetic young men of the country."
+
+"Isn't that fine! But it seems rather odd, doesn't it? Him out here
+alone."
+
+"It is indeed singular. But he is just the kind of man a new country
+needs."
+
+"If the country had a few hundred more like him we wouldn't know it in
+five years."
+
+"In three years!" she said admiringly.
+
+"How shall we explain in regards to Bill?..."
+
+"I've explained."
+
+"You have!"
+
+"Oh, I didn't come out and say it in words, of course. I didn't need
+to."
+
+"Then how? How did you make him understand?"
+
+"It was easy. It was easy because he is so quick witted. He seems to
+readily understand anything."
+
+"I'll bet!"
+
+"He spoke of the fact that being a bachelor it was awkward to keep hired
+men, and this fact seemed to worry him."
+
+"But why didn't you explain that Bill could stay home?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And he was so relieved."
+
+"I'm sure he was. It is very inconvenient."
+
+"It is. And I feel rather sorry for him."
+
+"Needs a wife."
+
+She was silent.
+
+"Wonder why he doesn't marry?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Will make some girl a fine husband."
+
+Silence.
+
+"I guess he has a girl, though, and will likely marry soon."
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Well," she said slowly. She blushed unseen and went on: "Mrs. Reynolds
+joked him about it, and he denied it."
+
+"But any man would do that. They like to be modest; to appear like they
+have no loves. It creates sympathy. Men are sentimental, too. They like
+sympathy."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," she said slowly, thoughtfully. "But I don't think
+he has a girl. In my mind he is a poor lonesome fellow. Just like he has
+no close friends...."
+
+He was silent now.
+
+"I have thought about it since I met him."
+
+"You have?"
+
+"Why, yes. Certainly."
+
+Her father laughed.
+
+"Why are you laughing?" she asked, somewhat nettled.
+
+"I was thinking."
+
+"Thinking? Thinking of what?"
+
+"Of Jean Baptiste."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, there is a good chance for you."
+
+"Father!"
+
+"Why not!"
+
+"Father! How can you!"
+
+He laughed. She acted as if angry. He looked at her mischievously. She
+did not grant him a smile.
+
+"Tut, tut, Aggie! Can't you take a joke?"
+
+"But you should not joke like that."
+
+"Oh, come now. It pleased me to joke like that."
+
+"Why should it please you?"
+
+"Why, I have a sense of humor."
+
+"A sense of humor?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But I don't see the joke?"
+
+"Why, Aggie," he turned to her seriously. "Almost I don't think it is a
+joke."
+
+"Father!"
+
+"Well, dear? You seem to be so interested in the man."
+
+"Father, oh, father!" and the next instant she was crying. He reached
+out and caught her fondly to him. "My girl, my girl, I didn't intend to
+upset you. Now be papa's little darling and don't cry any more!"
+
+"You have never been this way before," she sobbed. He caressed her more
+now.
+
+"Well, dearest. You see. Well, your mother--"
+
+"My mother!" she sat quickly up.
+
+"We are going to raise a great crop this year. I feel sure of it."
+
+"But my mother!"
+
+"I think I know where I can get some good seed oats."
+
+They rode along in silence the rest of the way, consumed with their own
+thoughts. No words passed, but Agnes was thinking. She would never get
+out of her mind what her father had started to say. But he had stopped
+in time.... Her mind went back to the strange incidents in her life. She
+lived over again the day she had looked in the mirror and had seen that
+strange look, she connected it singularly with what her father had
+started to say. She was silent thereafter, but her soul was on fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WHAT JEAN BAPTISTE FOUND IN THE WELL
+
+
+"Well, my friend," said A.M. Barr, stopping before Baptiste's hut one
+day shortly after his visit to Kaden's, "I have my date and will make
+proof on the 22nd of March. I have listed you as one of my witnesses.
+Guess I may depend on you to be ready that day?"
+
+"I shall remember it, Mr. Barr," answered Baptiste. "Have you rented
+your place yet?"
+
+"No, I have not. Rather, not the buildings. My neighbor across the road,
+however, will put the thirty acres I have broken into crop, and break a
+few more."
+
+"M-m."
+
+"How much do you plan seeding this season?"
+
+"All of both places anyhow."
+
+"Ah, young man, I tell you, you are a worker! Such young men as you will
+be the making of this country. And you'll be rich in time."
+
+"Oh, no," cried Baptiste disdainfully.
+
+"If I were young and strong like you, I would be doing the same."
+
+"You expect to go away when you have completed your proof...."
+
+"Well, I don't know," whereupon A.M. Barr cast a furtive glance in his
+direction. Baptiste pretended not to see it.
+
+"What'll you do with your horses?" Another furtive glance.
+
+"Well, I might advertise a sale," he said boldly. He cast a dark look in
+Baptiste's direction, which the other pretended not to see--but did see
+nevertheless. "Why, what could he know," was in Barr's mind. "Nothing,"
+he answered his own question. A moment later he was the same Barr; the
+officious Englishman when he drove down the road a few minutes later,
+and none the wiser therefor.
+
+March the twenty-second came and went, and Augustus offered proof on his
+homestead, and passed, Baptiste assisting him as witness.
+
+Sunday was the next day, and when it came, all calm and beautiful,
+Baptiste realized that he did not have enough seed wheat to sow all his
+land that he wished put in wheat. A squaw man had raised a large crop to
+the southwest of him the year before, and this, he understood, was for
+sale. He decided to call on the squaw man, ascertain the fact, and if
+so, purchase a share of it for his purpose.
+
+Accordingly, Sunday morning after he had breakfasted, and piled the
+dishes bachelor fashion (unwashed) he started out.
+
+The route he took carried him directly by Peter Kaden's claim, and when
+he had gone that far, and found himself looking at the low, sod house
+that stood a few paces back from the road, he was curious. He paused
+unconsciously before the house and observed it idly a few moments.
+
+He was struck with the quietness about, and at once became curiously
+apprehensive. No smoke emerged from the chimney. There was no evidence
+that any one was about. Impelled by his growing curiosity, he approached
+the house and knocked at the door. There was no response from within. He
+tried it again. Still no response. He tried the knob. It gave. He pushed
+the door open cautiously, and peered in. The house was empty but for the
+crude furniture. He entered curiously and looked about. The bed was
+spread over, there was no fire in the stove, the coldness of the
+atmosphere within impressed him with a theory that no fire had been in
+the stove that day or the night before. The dishes were clean and piled
+on the table with a cloth spread over them. He went outside, closing the
+door behind him and swept the surrounding country with his gaze which
+revealed no Peter Kaden. He lowered his eyes in thought as his lips
+muttered:
+
+"Wonder where he is?"
+
+A path began at his feet. It led down to a draw some two hundred yards
+away. He fell into it aimlessly and followed its course for a short way.
+Presently, upon looking up, he saw a well at the side of the draw which
+obviously was the terminus of the path.
+
+Forthwith he made the well his objective. In that country wells were not
+plentiful. The soil was of the richest and blackest loam with a clay
+subsoil; but water except where there was sand, was not easily found
+only in or near a draw, or a flat. He reached the well, and, drawing
+aside the bucket that reposed on the lid, he opened the well and lowered
+the bucket to the water some thirty feet below.
+
+The bright sun rays somewhat blinded him and for a moment he could not
+see the water clearly. The bucket struck, in due time, however, and he
+wondered why there was no splash. He jerked it over, and when it struck
+again there was the sound of water, but it appeared difficult to sink
+it. He peered down into it again to ascertain what the matter was. A
+wave of ripples caught his gaze, while the bucket seemed to be resting
+on something. He gave the rope another jerk and twist, and it came down
+bottom-side up on the dark object.
+
+"Hell," he muttered, "this well is dry!" He took another look. "No, it
+isn't dry. There is something in the well." Bending until his face was
+shaded by the shadow of the well, he searched below very closely with
+his eyes. He could distinguish that there was something; and that _the
+something_ seemed to bobble. He withdrew the bucket, unfilled, and,
+allowing a few moments for the ripples to subside, he searched the
+darkness below again closely. He became conscious of a cold feeling
+stealing up his spine, then he caught and held his breath as slowly what
+was below took outline. It was not a dog, a coyote, a pig, or an animal
+of any kind. It was _something_ else ... and the _something_ else had
+features that were familiar. At last realization was upon him, his
+fingers gripped the boards they held as he gradually straightened up.
+
+"My God!" he cried at last, terror stricken.
+
+For below him, with white face turned upward as if laughing, was the
+dead body of Peter Kaden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+MISS STEWART RECEIVES A CALLER
+
+
+Coincident with the finding of Peter Kaden's body in the well, certain
+things became public with regard to others. But to complete this part of
+it. After finding the body Jean Baptiste hurried into Dallas and gave
+the alarm. Excitement ran high for a time, and as it was Sunday, in a
+few hours the spot around the well was crowded. From over all the
+reservation the people came, and the consensus of opinion was that it
+was suicide.... Perhaps Jean Baptiste was the only one who had his
+doubts. If it was suicide, then he was positive it was a precipitated
+suicide.
+
+Until the coroner arrived there was no disposition made of the remains,
+and when he did, the decision of suicide was sustained.
+
+Since the man Baptiste had started to see was brought to the spot by the
+excitement, the business in hand was settled thereupon, and that
+evening, he went to call on the Stewarts with a view to hiring Bill.
+
+He found Agnes alone, but was invited to enter. From her expression, he
+could see that he was expected, and while he waited for her father who
+had gone across the road, they fell into amiable conversation.
+
+"Springtime is knocking at our door," he ventured.
+
+"And I am glad to see it, and suppose you are also," she answered.
+
+"Who isn't! It has been a very severe winter."
+
+"I think so, too. Are the winters here as a rule as cold as this one has
+been?" How modest he thought she was. She was dressed neatly in a satin
+shirtwaist and tailored skirt; while from beneath the skirts her small
+feet incased in heavy shoes peeped like mice. Her neck rose out of her
+bodice and he thought her throat was so very round and white; while he
+noticed her prominent chin more today than he had before. He liked it.
+Nature had been his study, and he didn't like a retreating chin. It, to
+his mind, was an indication of weak will, with exceptions perhaps here
+and there. He reposed more confidence in the person, however, when the
+chin was like hers, so naturally he was interested. As she sat before
+him with folded hands, he also observed her heavy hair, done into braids
+and gathered about her head. It gave her an unostentatious expression;
+while her eyes were as he had found them before, baffling.
+
+"Why, no, they are not," he said. "Of course I have not seen many--in
+fact this is the second; but I am advised that, as a rule, the winters
+are very mild for this latitude."
+
+"I see. I hope they will always be so if we continue to live here," and
+she laughed pleasantly.
+
+"How do you like it in our country?" he inquired now, pleased to be in
+conversation with her.
+
+"Why, I like it very well," she replied amiably. "What I have seen of
+it, I think I would as soon live here as back in Indiana."
+
+"I have been in Indiana myself."
+
+"You have?" She was cheered with the fact. He nodded.
+
+"Yes, all over. What part of Indiana do you come from?"
+
+"Rensselaer," she replied, shifting with comfort, and delighted that by
+his having been in Indiana, he was making their conversation easier.
+
+"Oh, I see," she heard him. "That is toward the northern part of the
+state."
+
+"Yes," she replied in obvious delight.
+
+"I have never been to that town, but I have been all around it."
+
+"Well, well!" She was at a loss in the moment how to proceed and then
+presently she said:
+
+"You have traveled considerably, Mr. Baptiste, I understand."
+
+He felt somewhat flattered to know that she had discussed him with
+others apparently.
+
+"Well, yes, I have," he replied slowly.
+
+"That must be fine. I long so much to travel."
+
+"You have not traveled far?"
+
+"No. From Indiana to Western Kansas where we were most starved out, and
+then back to Indiana and out here." He laughed, she also joined in and
+they felt nearer each other by it.
+
+"And how do you like it, Mr. Baptiste?"
+
+"Out here, you mean?"
+
+"Yes, why, yes, of course," she added hastily.
+
+"Why, I like it fine. I'm thoroughly in love with the country."
+
+"That's nice. And you own such nice land, I don't wonder," she said
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh, well," he replied, modestly, "I think I should like it anyhow."
+
+"Of course; but when one has property--such nice land as you own, they
+have everything to like it for."
+
+"I'm compelled to agree with you."
+
+"I'm sorry we don't own any," she said regretfully. "But of course in a
+way we are not entitled to. We didn't get in 'on the ground floor,'
+therefore we must be satisfied as renters."
+
+He was silent but attentive.
+
+"Papa never seems to have been very fortunate. It may be due to his
+quaint old fashioned manner, but he has never owned any land at all,
+poor fellow." She said the last more to herself than to him. He was
+interested and continued to listen.
+
+"We went to Western Kansas with a little money and very good stock, and
+were dried out two years straight, and the third year when we had a good
+crop with a chance to get back at least a little of what we had lost,
+along came a big hail storm and pounded everything into the ground."
+
+"Wasn't that too bad!" he cried sympathetically.
+
+"It sure was! It is awfully discouraging to work as hard and to have
+sacrificed as much as we had, and then come out as we did. It just took
+all the ambition out of him."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," he commented tenderly.
+
+"And then we went back to Indiana--broke, of course, and having no money
+and no stock; because we had to sell what we had left to get out of
+Western Kansas. So since 'beggars can't be choosers' we had to take what
+we could get. And that was a poor farm in a remote part of Indiana, in a
+little place that was so poor that the corn was all nubbins. They called
+it 'Nubbin Ridge.'"
+
+He laughed, and she had to also when she thought of it.
+
+"Well, we were able to live and pay a little on some more stock. Because
+my brothers didn't take much to run around with like other boys but
+stayed home and worked, we finally succeeded in getting just a little
+something together again and then a real estate man came along and told
+us about this place, so here we are." She bestowed a smile upon him and
+sighed. She had told more of themselves than she had intended, but it
+had been a pleasant diversion at that; moreover, she was delighted
+because he was such an attentive listener.
+
+"So that is how you came here?" he essayed. "I have enjoyed listening to
+you. Your lives read like an interesting book."
+
+"Oh, that isn't fair. You are joking with me!" Notwithstanding, she
+blushed furiously.
+
+"No, no, indeed," he protested.
+
+She believed him. Strangely she reposed such confidence in the man that
+she felt she could sit and talk with him forever.
+
+"But it is certainly too bad that you have been so unfortunate. I am
+sure it will not always be so. You are perseverant, I see, and 'riches
+come to him who waits.'"
+
+"An old saying, but I hope it will not wait too long. Papa is getting
+old, and--my brothers would be unable to manage with any effect
+alone...." He understood her and the incident was overlooked.
+
+"Your mother is dead?"
+
+"Yes, my mother is dead, Mr. Baptiste."
+
+"Oh."
+
+"Died when I was a baby."
+
+"Well, well...."
+
+"I never knew her."
+
+"Well, I do say!" He paused briefly, while she was silent but thinking
+deeply.... Thinking of what her father had started to say and never
+finished.
+
+"And I venture to say that you have just about raised yourself?"
+
+She blushed.
+
+"You must be a wonderful girl."
+
+She blushed again and twisted her hands about. She tried to protest; but
+couldn't trust herself to say anything just then. How she liked to hear
+him talk!
+
+"You have my best wishes, believe me," he was at a loss for the moment
+as to how to proceed.
+
+"Oh, thank you." She didn't dare raise her eyes. He regarded her as she
+sat before him, blushing so beautifully, and wished they were of the
+same race.... Footsteps were heard at that moment, and both sat up
+expectantly. Quickly, then, she rose to her feet and went to the door
+and opened it in time to meet her father who was about to enter.
+
+"Oh, it's you, father! I'm glad you've come. Mr. Baptiste is here to see
+you."
+
+"Ah-ha, Mr. Baptiste, I am honored," cried Jack Stewart, her father, and
+he marched forward with outstretched hand and much ado; Scotch
+propriety.
+
+"Glad to know you, Judge," Baptiste returned warmly, grasping the
+proffered hand.
+
+"Be seated, be seated and make yourself comfortable; make yourself at
+home," he said, pushing forward the chair out of which Baptiste had
+risen. Agnes was smiling pleasantly. She could see that the two were
+going to become friends, for both were so frank in their demeanor.
+
+"Now, Aggie, you must prepare supper for Mr. Baptiste and myself," he
+said, taking hold of her arm.
+
+"Oh, no," disdained Baptiste. "Don't think of it!"
+
+"Now, now, my worthy friend," admonished Stewart, and then stopped.
+"Why--you have met my daughter?"
+
+"Yes, we have met," they spoke in the same breath, exchanging glances.
+
+"Then, while you fix us something good to eat, we will discuss our
+business."
+
+They found no difficulty in reaching a bargain in regard to Bill, the
+bargain being that Bill was to board home and sleep there also; and the
+consideration was to be one dollar per day, and by the time this was
+completed, Agnes called them to supper.
+
+"This is an unexpected pleasure, even though it be an intrusion," said
+Baptiste as he was gently urged into a seat.
+
+"Ah-ha, and I see you have a sense of humor," whereupon Jack Stewart's
+eyes glistened humorously behind the old style glasses he wore. Baptiste
+colored unseen, while Agnes regarded him smilingly.
+
+"We haven't much, but what is here you are welcome to," she said.
+
+"It's a feast," said he.
+
+"About as good as baching, anyhow," joined Stewart.
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"How do you like it?"
+
+"Didn't I say hush? That should be sufficient!" Agnes took a seat and
+surveyed the table carefully to see that all was there. Her father was
+pious. He blessed the table, and when this was over, fell to eating with
+his knife.
+
+"By the way," cried Baptiste near the end of the meal. "Did you hear the
+news?"
+
+"What news," they asked in chorus.
+
+"The man dead in the well."
+
+"Is that so!" they exclaimed, shocked.
+
+He then told them in detail all about the finding of the body, and the
+opinion that it was a suicide. They listened with the usual awe and
+curiosity. But Jean Baptiste did not voice his suspicions, or tell them
+anything he knew. At a later hour he took his leave.
+
+And neither of the three realized then that the self-same tragedy
+linked strangely an after event in their lives. But when Jean Baptiste
+went over the hill to his sod house that stood on the claim, Jack
+Stewart went outside and walked around for almost an hour. He was
+thinking. Thinking of something he knew and had never told.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD
+
+
+It is not likely that the people in the neighborhood of Dallas would
+have ever known any more than they did regarding A.M. Barr, had it not
+been for two accounts. When proof had been offered by him on his
+homestead and a loan sought, to keep from invalidating the title to his
+land, he was compelled to admit that he was married; but, fortunately
+for him, it was not necessary to state when or how long he had been
+married, and this he obligingly did not state. But the surprise came
+when upon admittance, he then confessed to the promoters that he had
+married Christine.... Of course everybody was positive then that he had
+been married to Christine when he came to the country, and that he was
+married to her at the time she was holding the claim. Perjury was a
+penitentiary offense. He had sold her claim on pretense that she must go
+to England. Christine, as Baptiste had come to know by the papers he
+found, had not, of course, gone to England; but merely to Lincoln,
+Nebraska, where she was safe to keep silent about what she knew in
+regard to the subtle transactions of Augustus M. Barr.
+
+The incident went the usual route of gossip, the people wondering how
+such a beautiful girl as Christine could be happy as the wife of an old,
+broken down infidel like Barr. But they never came into the truth, the
+whole truth; they never connected Barr with the dark Assyrian Jew, Isaac
+Syfe; nor were they aware that he had ever known the forlorn Peter
+Kaden. Only Jean Baptiste knew this, and that, although Barr called a
+sale and immediately left the country, there was something still to be
+completed. But Jean Baptiste didn't know then that it would all come
+back to him in such an unusual manner. However, the public learned a
+little more concerning the previous activities of this august
+contemporary before long. It came in the form of a sensational newspaper
+feature story. And was in brief to wit:
+
+While pastor of the Baker Street church, London, Isaac M. Barr, and not
+Augustus, mind you, although there was no question about the two being
+one and the same became very much in the confidence of his flock. Of
+London's great middle class they were and possessed ambition, which Barr
+apparently appealed to. The result was that a great colony set sail for
+a land of promise, the land being Western Canada. The full details were
+not given; but it seems that Barr was the trustee and handled the money.
+On arrival, Barr suddenly disappeared and the good people from England
+never saw him again, which perhaps accounts in some measure for his
+becoming an infidel.... Who would not under such circumstances?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is a feature regarding a new country--that is, a country that lays
+toward the western portion of the great central valley, that is always
+questioned, and is ever a source for knockers. But we should explain one
+thing that might be of benefit to those who would go west to settle and
+develop with hopes of success. And this is rainfall. In this country of
+our story, which lay near the line where central time is changed to
+mountain time, near the fifth principal meridian the altitude is about
+2000 feet above the level of the sea, and the rainfall may be estimated
+accordingly. Rainfall is governed by altitude and is a feature beyond
+discussion. This is a very serious matter, and could multitudes of
+people going west to take homesteads, or settle, be impressed with the
+facts and know then what to expect, much grief could be avoided.
+
+But unfortunately this is not so. Masses can be convinced--were
+convinced in the country of our story, and all the west beyond, in other
+parts, that rainfall was governed by cultivation. An erroneous idea! As
+has been stated, rainfall is governed by elevation: air pressures are
+such that when in contact with the heavy air due to the lower elevation,
+thunder showers and general rains fall more frequently on the whole and
+this can be certified by the record of any weather bureau, comparing the
+elevation to the amount of precipitation over a given period, say five
+or ten years. It is a fact, however, that in the most arid districts
+cloudbursts do occur, but they are always a detriment to the parts over
+which they may fall. And it is also true that in a given year or season,
+more rain may fall over a certain arid district than some well
+cultivated portion in a country where the fall of rain is beyond
+question.
+
+Because of these contending features, many portions of the country have
+received a boom one season and failed to produce the next. When one year
+had proven exceedingly wet, the theory was that the whole climatic
+origin of the country had changed; drought had passed forever, and
+people and capital flowed in to sometimes go out, broken and shattered
+in spirits, hopes and finances later. Such instances hurt and hinder a
+country instead of helping it. If, in coming to the country of our story
+the masses of people could have understood that at an elevation of from
+two thousand to twenty-two hundred feet, the rainfall over a period of
+ten years would approximate an average of twenty-five inches annually,
+it is reasonable to suppose that they would expect dry years and wet
+years; some cold winters and some fair, open winters; some cloudbursts
+and some protracted droughts. But when the first years of settlement
+were accompanied by heavy rains, the boom that followed is almost beyond
+our pen to detail.
+
+From over all the country people came hither; people with means, for it
+was the land of opportunity. The man who was in many cases wealthy in
+older portions of the country, had come there with next to and very
+often with nothing and had grown rich--not by any particular ability or
+concentrated effort on the part of himself; not by the making and
+saving, investing and profiting, but because in the early days the land
+was of such little value and brought so little when offered for sale
+that it had been a case of staying thereon; result, riches came in the
+advance later in the price according to demand.
+
+Such was not the circumstances altogether in the land where Jean
+Baptiste had cast his lot in the hope for ultimate success. While
+opportunity was ripe, a few thousands had been expedient. For what could
+be had for a small amount here would have cost a far greater amount back
+east. But while land was selling and selling readily the country would
+and could not maintain its possible quota of development without
+railroad facilities. This question, therefore, was of the most urgent
+anxiety. When would the railroad be extended out of Bonesteel westward?
+At Bonesteel they said never. Others, somewhat more liberal said it
+might be extended in twenty years. They argued that since it had taken
+that many years after Bonesteel had been started before the company
+placed their tracks there, the same would in all probability hold with
+regards to the country and the towns west. So be it.
+
+The promoters of the town of Dallas argued that it would not be
+extended from Bonesteel at all; that when it was extended, it would come
+up the valley from the town some miles below Bonesteel, where the tracks
+lifted to the highlands. Meaning, of course that Dallas would be the
+only town in the newly opened portion of the country to get the
+railroad.
+
+Jean Baptiste and Bill had seeded all the land that was under
+cultivation on Baptiste's property, and were well under way of breaking
+what was left unbroken, when Baptiste was offered a proposition that
+looked good to him. It was 200 acres joining his place near Stewart's,
+the property of an Indian, the allotee having recently expired. Under a
+ruling of the Department of the Interior, an Indian cannot dispose of an
+allotment under twenty-five years from the time he is alloted. This
+ruling is dissatisfactory to the Indian; for, notwithstanding all the
+roles in which he is characterized in the movies and dramas as the great
+primitive hero, brave and courageous, the people of the West who are
+surrounded with red men, and know them, know that they wish to sell
+anything they might happen to possess as soon as selling is possible.
+Therefore, when one happens to expire, leaving his land to his heirs who
+can thereupon sell, dispose, give away or do what they may wish with the
+land, as long as it accords with the dictates of the Indian agent, the
+tract of land in question can be expected to pass into other hands
+forthwith.
+
+The two hundred acres offered Jean Baptiste was convenient to his land,
+and was offered at twenty dollars per acre. Other lands about had sold
+as high as thirty dollars the acre. A thousand dollars down and a
+thousand dollars a year until paid was the bargain, and he accepted it,
+paying over the thousand, which was the last of the money he had brought
+from the East with him.
+
+This was before something happened that turned the whole country into an
+orgy of excitement.
+
+A few days after this one of the long rainy periods set in, and the
+little town was overrun with homesteaders, agreeing that the land that
+was broken was acting to their advantage: bringing all the good rains,
+and drought would never be again.
+
+Then one day a man brought the news. The surveyors were in Bonesteel. It
+was verified by others, and really turned out to be true. The surveyors
+being in Bonesteel was an evident fact that the railroad would follow
+the highlands and would not come up the valley, and that settled Dallas
+as a town. It was doomed before a stake was set, and here passes out of
+our story, in so far as a railway in its present location was concerned.
+But whatever route a railroad took, it meant that the value to a
+homestead by the extension of the railroad would approximate to exceed
+ten dollars per acre. And Jean Baptiste now owned five hundred and
+twenty acres.
+
+Since the work now in breaking the extra two hundred acres was before
+him, and was more than three miles from his homestead, he sought more
+convenience, by determining to approach the Stewarts with a request to
+board him.
+
+It was a rainy day, when he called, only to find Jack Stewart out, while
+George and Bill were tinkering about the barn. They had not been
+informed of his purchase.
+
+"Oh, it is you--Mr. Baptiste," cried Agnes upon opening the door in
+response to his knock. "Come right in."
+
+"Where's the governor?" he inquired when seated.
+
+"Search me," she laughed. "Papa's always out, rain or shine."
+
+"Busy man."
+
+"Yes. Busy but never gets anything by it, apparently."
+
+She was full of humor, her eyes twinkled. He was also. It was a day to
+be grateful. Rainfall, though it bring delay in the work, such days
+always are appreciated in a new country. It made those there feel more
+confident.
+
+"Lots of rain."
+
+"Yes. I suppose you are glad," she said interestedly.
+
+"Well, I should be."
+
+"We are, too. It looks as if, should this keep up, we will really raise
+a crop."
+
+"Oh, it'll keep up," he said cheerfully, confidently. "It always rains
+in this country."
+
+"How optimistic you are," she said, regarding him admiringly.
+
+"Thanks."
+
+She smiled then and bit her lip.
+
+"How's your neighbors across the road? I've never become acquainted with
+them."
+
+"Their name is Prescott. I don't know much about them; but papa has met
+them."
+
+"How many of them?"
+
+"Three. The man and wife and a son."
+
+"A son?"
+
+"M-m."
+
+"How old is he--a young man?"
+
+"M-m."
+
+He smiled mischievously.
+
+"Oh, it will be great," and she laughed amusedly.
+
+"He farms with his parents?"
+
+"I don't think so. He has rented a few acres on the place north of us.
+Don't seem to be much force."
+
+"You should wake him up."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"My congratulations," irrelevantly.
+
+"Please don't. He's too ugly, too lazy; loves nothing but a stallion he
+owns, and is very uninteresting."
+
+"Indeed!" Suddenly he jumped up. "I have forgotten that I came to see
+your dad."
+
+"I can't say when papa will be home," she answered, going toward the
+door and looking out.
+
+"I wanted to see him regarding a little business about boarding. I
+wonder if he could board me?"
+
+"He'll be home about noon, anyhow."
+
+"That won't be so long, now," said he, regarding the clock.
+
+"So you are tired of baching," she said with a little twinkle of the
+eyes.
+
+"Oh, baching? Before I started. But that is not what has expedited my
+wishing to board. I bought some more land. Couple hundred acres of that
+dead Indian land over south."
+
+"You did!"
+
+"Why, yes." He did not understand her exclamation.
+
+"Oh, but you are such a wonderful man, and to be such a young man!" She
+was not aware of the intimacy in her reference, and spoke thoughtfully,
+as if to herself more than to him.
+
+He was flattered, and didn't know how to reply.
+
+"You are certainly deserving of the high esteem in which you are held
+throughout the community," and still she was as if speaking to herself,
+and thoughtful.
+
+He could not shut out at once the vanity she had aroused in him. He
+wished to appear and to feel modest about it, however. After all, he had
+most of the other land to pay for, which, nevertheless, gave him no
+worry. His confidence was supreme. He continued silent while she went
+on:
+
+"It must be wonderful to be a young man and to be so courageous; to be
+so forceful and to be admired."
+
+"Oh, you flatter me."
+
+"No; I do not mean to. I am speaking frankly and what I feel. I admire
+the qualities you are possessed with. I read a great deal, and when I
+see a young man like you going ahead so in the world, I think he should
+be encouraged."
+
+How very frankly, and considerately she had said it all. His vanity was
+gone. He saw her as the real Agnes. He saw in her, moreover, that which
+he had always longed for in his race. How much he would have given to
+have heard those words uttered by a girl of his blood on his trips back
+East. But, of course the West was foreign to them. They could not have
+understood as she did. But the kindness she had shown had its effect. He
+could at least admire her openly for what she was. He spoke now.
+
+"I think you are very kind, Miss Stewart. I can't say when any one has
+spoken so sensibly to me as you have, and you will believe me when I say
+that such shall never be forgotten." He paused briefly before going on.
+"And it will always be my earnest wish that I shall prove worthy of such
+kind words." He stopped then, for in truth, he was too overcome with
+emotion, and could not trust himself to go on.
+
+She stood with her back to him, and could he have seen her eyes he would
+also have observed tears of emotion. They were honest tears. She had
+spoken the truth. She admired the man in Jean Baptiste, and she had not
+thought of his color in speaking her conviction. But withal she felt
+strangely that her life was linked in some manner with this man's.
+
+Her father's appearance at this moment served to break the silent
+embarrassment between them, the embarrassment that had come out of what
+she had said.
+
+They settled with regards to his boarding with them, and a few minutes
+later he took his leave. As he was passing out, their eyes met. Never
+had they appeared so deep; never before so soft. But in the same he saw
+again that which he had seen before and as yet could not understand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE ADMINISTRATING ANGEL
+
+
+Never before since Jean Baptiste had come West and staked his lot and
+future there, doing his part toward the building of that little empire
+out there in the hollow of God's hand, had he worked so hard as he did
+in the days that followed that summer. When the rains for a time ceased
+and the warm, porous soil had dried sufficiently to permit a return to
+the fields, from early morn until the sun had disappeared in the west
+late afternoons, did he labor. Observation with him seemed to be
+inherent. Ever since he had played as a boy back in old Illinois he had
+been deeply sensitive with regards to his race. To him, notwithstanding
+the fact that he realized that less than fifty years had passed since
+freedom, they appeared--even considering their adverse circumstances--to
+progress rather slowly. He had not as yet come fully to appreciate and
+understand why they remained always so poor; always the serf; always in
+the position to gain so little--but withal to suffer so much! Oh, the
+anguish it had so often given him!
+
+His being in the West had come of an ulterior purpose. It has been
+stated that he was a keen observer. While so he had cultivated also the
+faculty of determination. By now it had became a sort of habit, a sort
+of second nature as it were. But there were certain things he could not
+seem to get away from. For instance: It seemed to him that the most
+difficult task he had ever encountered was to convince the average
+colored man that the Negro race could ever be anything. In after years
+he understood more fully why this was--but we deal with the present;
+those days when Jean Baptiste with a great ambition was struggling to
+"do his bit" in the development of the country of our story. He
+struggled with these problems at times until he became fatigued; not
+knowing that he could never understand until the time came for him to.
+
+When he dined late one afternoon and found himself alone with Agnes, he
+spoke of being tired.
+
+"You work too hard, Jean," she said, kindly.
+
+"Perhaps so," he admitted. "And, still, the way I choose to see that is,
+that I'll not know the difference this time next year."
+
+"That is quite possible," she agreed thoughtfully. "But your case is
+this, I think. You seem inspired by some high compulsion; some infinite
+purpose in the way you work, and in your mind this is so uppermost that
+you forget the limit of your physical self." She paused and gazed at the
+knife she held. Her mind appeared to deliberate, and he wondered at her
+deep logic. What a really mindful person she was, and still but a girl.
+
+"I cannot help thinking of you and your effort here," she resumed, "and
+if I was asked, I would advise you to exercise more discretion in regard
+to yourself. To labor as you do, without regard to rain, sun, or time,
+is not practical. It would be very sad if, in conducting yourself as you
+do, something should happen to you before you had quite fulfilled that
+to which you are aspiring--not to accomplish altogether, but to
+demonstrate."
+
+"You seem to have such a complete understanding of everything, Agnes,"
+he said. "You appear to see so much deeper than the people I have met,
+to look so much beneath the surface and read what is there. I cannot
+always understand you." He paused while she continued in that
+thoughtful manner as if she had not heard what he said. "Now in your
+remark of a moment ago, you so defined a certain thing I would like to
+tell you.... But I shall not now. The instance is always so much in my
+mind that indeed, I lose sense of physical endurance; I lose sight of
+everything but the one object. It is not that I care so much for the
+fruits of my labor; but if I could actually succeed, it would mean so
+much to the credit of a multitude of others.--Others who need the
+example...." He paused and thought of his race. The individual here did
+not count so much, it was the cause. His race needed examples; they
+needed instances of successes to overcome the effect of ignorance and an
+animal viciousness that was prevalent among them.
+
+In this land, for instance, which had been advertised from one end of
+the country to the other; this land where four hundred thousand acres of
+virgin soil had been opened to the settler, he was about the only one of
+that race who had come hither, or paid the instance any attention. Such
+examples of neglected opportunity stood out clearly, and were recorded;
+and the record would give his race, claiming to be discriminated
+against, no credit.... Such examples of obliviousness to what was around
+them would be hard to explain away. So in his ambitious youth, Jean
+Baptiste's dream was to own one thousand acres of land. He was now
+twenty-three and possessed half that much. He conjectured that he could
+reach the amount by the time he was thirty--providing nothing serious
+happened to retard him....
+
+He had finished his meal and was ready to go back to that little place
+over the hill. The girl who had made proof on the homestead he had
+purchased, had lived fourteen months alone in a little sod house her
+father had built for her in which he now had his bed. She had come of a
+prosperous family in the East. She had come hither and put in the time,
+and the requirements, and had sold the land that he had bought at a good
+profit to herself. Such instances were common in that country, so common
+indeed, that little was thought of it. In his trips back East when
+Baptiste told of such opportunities, he was not taken seriously. The
+fact that the wealth of the great Central Valley was right at their
+door; that from the production there they purchased the food they ate;
+that sheep were raised whose wool was later manufactured into the very
+clothes they wore, had no meaning to them. And always he felt
+discouraged when he returned from a visit among them.
+
+He had never seen Agnes so serious as she was that night. She arose and
+followed him to the door, and stood with him a moment before he left.
+Her eyes were tired and she appeared worried. He became possessed with
+an impulse to shake her hand. She seemed to sense his desire, and as he
+stepped out into the night, she extended it. He grasped and held it
+briefly. He whispered goodnight to her, and as he went through the yard
+and out into the road, she watched him from the open door until he was
+out of sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jean Baptiste thought he had secured a bargain in a team he had
+purchased a week before, and, from all appearances he had. For, after
+working them a week, he found them model horses--apparently. As stated,
+he slept in the little sod house on the place near Stewart's, and also
+had a barn there in which he kept his horses while working. The morning
+following the conversation with Agnes, just related, he went out to
+curry and feed this team along with the other horses, and received a
+kick that was almost his ending. Right at the temple one spiked him, and
+he knew no more for hours.
+
+"I wonder why Jean is so late," said Agnes, going to the window and
+gazing up the road. He was a hardy eater and the fact that he was late
+for breakfast was unusual. They waited a while longer and then ate
+without him. Bill who had been to care for his horses at the place
+before breakfast, reported that he had seen Baptiste go into the barn.
+So he had arisen, that was sure; but why had he not come for his meal?
+The subject was dismissed by all except Agnes, who was strangely uneasy.
+
+"Bill," said she, "see what is the matter with your boss when you go
+over, and tell him to come to breakfast."
+
+Bill had no difficulty ascertaining, and returned quickly with the news.
+
+"I knew it!" exclaimed Agnes, excitedly. "I just felt that something was
+the matter," whereupon she got into a light coat and followed her father
+and brothers to where he lay outside the barn door, bleeding freely from
+the temple.
+
+They carried him into their house, and were cheered to see that the
+blood had ceased to flow. His head was bandaged while Bill went for Doc.
+Slater, who pronounced the wound serious but not fatal. He awakened
+later in the day and called for water. It was brought him forthwith by
+Agnes.
+
+When he had drunk deeply and lay back weakly upon the pillow, he heard:
+
+"How do you feel, Jean?" He looked around in the semi-darkness of the
+room, and upon seeing her, sighed before answering. When he did it was a
+groan. She came quickly to where he lay and bent over him.
+
+"Jean," she repeated softly, tenderly. "How do you feel? Does your head
+pain you much?"
+
+"Where am I?" he said, turning his face toward her. She put her hand
+lightly over his bandaged head.
+
+"You're here, Jean. At Stewart's. You are hurt, do you understand?"
+
+"Hurt?" he repeated abstractedly.
+
+"Yes, hurt, Jean. You were kicked on the temple by one of your horses."
+
+"Is that so?" and he suddenly sat up in the bed.
+
+"Careful, careful," she cried, excitedly, pushing him gently back upon
+the pillow. He was silent as if in deep thought, while she waited
+eagerly. Presently she said in a low voice:
+
+"Do you feel hurt badly, Jean?"
+
+"I don't know." He raised his hand to his head as if trying to think
+more clearly. She caught his hands and held them as if trying to
+estimate his pulse, to see if he had any fever.
+
+"How did you come to get kicked, Jean?" she asked, speaking in the same
+low tone.
+
+"I don't know. When I opened the barn door I had a vision of one of the
+horses moving and I knew no more."
+
+"You must be very careful and not start the bleeding again," she
+advised. "You bled considerably."
+
+"And you say I am at your house. At where I board?"
+
+"Yes, Jean."
+
+He turned and stared at her, and for the first time seemed to be
+himself. He closed his eyes a moment as if to shut out something he did
+not wish to see.
+
+"And you have me here and are caring for me?"
+
+"We brought you here and are caring for you, Jean," she repeated.
+
+"It is singular," said he.
+
+"What is singular?"
+
+"That you have twice happened to be where you can serve me when I am
+injured or in danger." She was silent. She didn't know how to answer, or
+that there was to be any answer.
+
+"Has a doctor been here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What did he seem to think of it?"
+
+"He said your wound was serious, but not fatal."
+
+"Did he say I could get up soon?"
+
+"He didn't say, Jean; but I don't think it would be wise." He groaned.
+
+"Now you must be patient and not fret yourself into a fever," she said
+seriously.
+
+"But I have so much work to do."
+
+"That will have to wait. Your health is first," she said firmly.
+
+"But the work should be done," he insisted.
+
+"But you must consider your health before you can even think about the
+work."
+
+He groaned again. She was thoughtful. She was considerate, and she could
+see that he would worry about his work and injure himself or risk fever.
+
+"I'll speak to papa, and perhaps George can take your place for a few
+days, a week or until you can get out."
+
+"You are so kind, Agnes," he said then. "You are always so thoughtful. I
+don't know how I can accept all you do for me."
+
+"Please hush--don't mention it." She arose and presently returned with
+her father.
+
+"Ah-ha," he always greeted. "So you've come to. Thought something would
+show up in that 'bargain.'"
+
+"Please don't, father," admonished Agnes, frowningly.
+
+"I'll look after everything while you are down, old man," said Stewart.
+"I'll start the horses you've been working this afternoon. Aggie has
+explained everything. I understand."
+
+"I'm so thankful," he said, then closing his eyes, and a few minutes
+later had fallen asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+OH, MY JEAN!
+
+
+When Jack Stewart left Indiana, and left owing the two hundred dollars
+which was secured by a chattel mortgage on his horses, he failed to do
+something he now had cause to regret. The man to whom he owed this money
+agreed to give him one year in which to pay it, but didn't renew the
+mortgage. He was a close friend of Jack's, and there had been no worry.
+But the man died; his affairs fell into the hands of an administrator,
+whose duties were to clean up, to realize on all due and past due
+matter. And because the note of Jack Stewart's was due and past due, the
+extension being simply a verbal one, the administrator wrote Jack
+demanding that he take up his note at once.
+
+We know the circumstances of Jack Stewart; that because Jean Baptiste
+had hired his son Bill, and now was boarding with them, he was able to
+get along; but Jack Stewart had nothing with which to pay $200 notes....
+So while Jean Baptiste was recovering from his illness, Jack Stewart had
+cause to be very much worried.
+
+Possessed, however, with a confidence, Jack took the matter up with the
+banker in the town where he received his mail. Now a common saying in a
+new country is: "I'm going to borrow five dollars and start a bank...."
+Inferring that while there is, as a whole, an abundance of banks in a
+new country, they do not always have the wherewithal to loan. What they
+have is usually retained for the accommodation of their regular patrons,
+and they were unable to accommodate Jack, even had they wished to do so.
+
+Now, he could have secured the money had he been a claimholder or a land
+owner. But Jack, being neither, found himself in a bad plight. He had
+Aggie write a long letter in which he tried to explain matters, and
+requested until fall to pay, as had been verbally agreed upon. But the
+class of people in the old East who regard the new West as a land of
+impossibilities, where drought burns all planted crops to crisp, where
+grasshoppers eat what is left, who still regard those who would stake
+their fortunes and chances in the West as fools, were not all dead.
+
+The administrator happened to be one of this kind. He had no confidence
+in the country Jack wrote about, the crops he had planted; what he
+expected to reap, and no patience withal into the bargain. So he wrote
+Jack a brief letter, and also one to the bank in the town, sending the
+papers with it at the same time, with instructions to foreclose at a
+given time. And when Jack knew more of it, he was confronted with paying
+the note in thirty days or having his horse taken, and sold at auction.
+
+Jean Baptiste recovered, went back to his work, and noticed that Jack
+Stewart and Agnes were much worried; but, of course, didn't understand
+the cause of it.
+
+"Have you tried elsewhere, father?" said Agnes when they had gotten the
+notice giving them thirty days' grace.
+
+"But I am not known, dear. There is not much money in a new country, and
+it is very difficult to get credit where there is nothing to lend."
+
+"There must be some way to avoid this. Oh, that man, why couldn't he be
+reasonable!"
+
+"It is always bad when one has to write. If I were back in Indiana I
+could go and see this man and reason it out, but when a thousand miles
+is between us--it's bad!"
+
+"If we could have only just three months."
+
+"Two months," he exclaimed.
+
+The days that followed were days of grave anxiety, of nervous
+anticipation for them. There was but one person they could turn to at
+such a time, and that was Jean Baptiste. Agnes thought of him, she
+started to speak with her father regarding him, but in the end did not
+bring herself to do so.
+
+So the time went on, and the thirty days became twenty; and the twenty
+fell to ten; and the ten fell to five, and then Jean Baptiste could bear
+their worry no longer without speaking.
+
+"You and your father have been very kind to me, Agnes, and I can see you
+are greatly worried about something. If I could help you in any way, I
+would be glad to do so."
+
+She was so near to crying when she heard this that she had much
+difficulty keeping back the tears. But she managed to say:
+
+"Why, it's nothing serious. Just a little matter, that's all," and she
+went into her room. He pondered. It was more than that. Of this he was
+sure. He left the house and came around to where Jack sat, and was moved
+by his expression. But Jack would say nothing. He could not understand.
+He tried to dismiss the subject from his mind, and so came Sunday, the
+day of days.
+
+He was walking from his meal to his place to look over his crops, when
+from up the road he caught the sound of buggy-wheels. Two men, driving a
+single horse hitched to a light buggy were coming his way. When they
+caught sight of him, they hurried the animal forward slightly by
+touching him up with the whip, and beckoned to him to stop. Presently
+they drew up to where he stood and he recognized one as a homesteader,
+and having a claim near and the other as a professional dealer in
+horses. They exchanged greetings and some remarks about the weather and
+crops, and then the trader said:
+
+"By the way, Jean, where does that old Scotchman live out this way? The
+old fellow who moved out here recently from Indiana?"
+
+"That's the place there," and Baptiste pointed to the top of the house
+that could just be seen from where they stood.
+
+"I see," said the other thoughtfully. "Wonder where that dappled gray
+mare he owns is grazing. I'd like to take a look at 'er."
+
+"I think you will see her grazing in the pasture," said Baptiste
+curiously.
+
+"How--what kind of animal is it?"
+
+"Why, she's a hum-dinger," returned Baptiste more curiously. His
+curiosity aroused the other, who, looking at him said:
+
+"Well, you see the old man is to be sold out--foreclosed, and I thought
+I'd take a look at his stuff and if I thought there was anything in it,
+I might save the old scout the humiliation by buying it."
+
+"T' hell you say!" exclaimed Baptiste.
+
+"Oh, yes. Hadn't you heard about it?"
+
+"This is my first knowledge of it."
+
+"Yes, the sheriff's coming to get the stuff Tuesday--that is, providing
+the old man don't come across with a couple of hundred before that time,
+and it is not likely he can, I don't think."
+
+"Well, well!" Baptiste exclaimed, thinking of the worry he had observed
+in the faces of Agnes and her father, and at last beginning to
+understand.'
+
+"Yes, it's rather bad, that. But this follows the old gent from where he
+comes, and he is not known here, so I guess I'll mosey along and take a
+look at the stuff--just a glance at it from the road, you understand.
+And if things look good, I'll drop by 'n see him later." Whereupon they
+went their way cheerfully, while Baptiste resumed his, thoughtfully.
+
+He returned to his house by a roundabout way, and, later, hitching a
+team to a light buggy, he drove into the town where Jack traded and
+looked up the banker.
+
+"Say, Brookings," he opened, "what kind of deal is the old Scotchman up
+against out there? You understand."
+
+"Oh, yes!" exclaimed the cashier. "The old man out there on the Watson
+homestead! Well, it seems like the old fellow stands a good chance of
+being sold out." He then explained to Baptiste regarding the note and
+the circumstances.
+
+"That don't look just right to me," muttered Baptiste when he had heard
+the circumstances.
+
+"Well, now, it _isn't_ right. But what can be done?"
+
+"Can't you loan the old man the money?"
+
+"I could; but I don't like letting credit to strangers and renters. If
+he could get a good man on his note I'd fix it out for him, since we've
+just received quite a sum for deposit."
+
+"Well, if I should go it," said Baptiste suggestively. The other looked
+quickly up.
+
+"Why, you! Gee, I'd take care of him for ten times the amount if you'd
+put your 'John Henry' on the note."
+
+"Well, I'll be in town early in the morning," said Baptiste, turning to
+drive away.
+
+"All right, Jean. Sure! I'll look for you."
+
+The day was bright and lovely for driving, and Baptiste drove to his
+homestead, and from there to the Reynolds' where he had dinner and
+visited late. The next morning he went to the town, and when Jack
+Stewart, exhausted by the strain of worry under which he was laboring,
+came into town, having decided to try and sell the mare and one of the
+other horses, thereby leaving him only one with which to complete the
+cultivating of his corn and the reaping of his crops, he was called into
+the bank.
+
+"Now if you'll just sign this, Mr. Stewart," said Brookings, "you can
+have until December first on that stuff."
+
+"You mean the note!" the old man exclaimed, afraid to believe that he
+had heard aright.
+
+"Yes, the note that is about to be foreclosed. You've been granted an
+extension." Jack Stewart was too overcome to attempt to comment. The
+realization that he was to be allowed to go on and not be sold out or be
+forced to dispose of his little stock at such a critical time, was too
+much for words. He caught up the pen, steadied his nerves, and wrote his
+name, not observing that the banker held a blotter over the lower line
+of the note. Jean Baptiste had cautioned him to do this. In view of the
+circumstances he had not wished Stewart or Agnes to know that he had
+gone on the note.
+
+Jack Stewart hurried home in a fever of excitement. He could not get
+there fast enough. He thought of Agnes, he did not wish her to have a
+minute more grief than what she had endured. He reached home and
+stumbled into the house, and to Agnes he said:
+
+"Oh, girl, girl, girl! They have extended the note! The sheriff is not
+coming! We are saved, saved, saved!" He was too overcome with emotion
+and joy then to proceed. He sank into a chair, while Agnes, carried
+away with excitement over the news, caressed him; said words of love and
+care until both had been exhausted by their own emotions. When they at
+last became calm, she turned to her father who now walked the floor in
+great joy.
+
+"How did they come to extend the note, father?"
+
+"Why--why, dear, that had never occurred to me! I became so excited when
+they told me that I had been granted an extension, I can only recall
+that I signed the note and almost ran out of the bank. The man had to
+call me back to give me my old note and mortgage. I don't know why they
+granted the extension." He stood holding his chin now and looking down
+at the floor as if trying to understand after all how it happened. Then
+his eyes opened suddenly wide. "Why, and, do you know, now, since I come
+to think of it, they did not take a new mortgage on the stock."
+
+"I don't believe that the administrator had anything to do with it," she
+said after a time. "I know that man. He would sell his mother out into
+the streets. Now I wonder who has influenced the bank into giving us
+this time...."
+
+"Bless me, dear lord. But right now I am too tickled to try to think
+who. To be saved is enough all at once. Later, I shall try to figure out
+who has been my benefactor." And with this he left the house and went to
+walk with his joy in the fields where George was plowing corn,
+unconscious of the fact that the team he was driving was to have been
+seized on the morrow and sold for debt.
+
+"Now I wonder _who_ saved papa," Agnes said to herself, taking a seat by
+the window and gazing abstractedly out into the road. She employed her
+wits to estimate what had brought it about, and as she sat there, Jean
+Baptiste came driving down the road. He had not been there since
+breakfast the morning before. He had taken his morning's meal at the
+restaurant in the town. As he drove down the slope that began above the
+house wherein she sat, his dark face was lighted with a peaceful smile.
+He drove leisurely along, concerned with the bright prospects of his
+four hundred acres of crop. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he
+passed on by without seeing Agnes at the window; without even looking
+toward the house.
+
+Upon seeing him Agnes had for the moment forgotten what she was thinking
+about. But when he had passed by, she was suddenly struck with an
+inspiration. She jumped quickly to her feet: She raised her hands to her
+breast and held them there as if to still a great excitement, as she
+cried:
+
+"Jean! Jean, Jean Baptiste! It was you, you, who did it. It was you who
+saved my father, saved me; saved us all! Oh, my Jean!"
+
+She was overcome then with a great emotion. She sank slowly upon a
+chair. And as she did so sobs broke from her lips and she wept long and
+silently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+BILL PRESCOTT PROPOSES
+
+
+Summertime over the prairie country; summertime when the rainfall has
+been abundant, is a time of happiness to all settlers in a new land. And
+such a summer it was in the land of our story. God had been unusually
+kind to the settlers; he had blessed them with abundant moisture; with
+sunshine, not too warm and not too cold. The railroad was under course
+of construction and would be completed far enough west for the settlers
+from the most remote part--from the farthest corner of the reservation
+to journey with their grain or hogs, chickens or cattle to it and return
+to home the same day. And now the fields which had been seeded to winter
+wheat had turned to gold. Only a few thousand acres had been sowed over
+the county, and of this amount one hundred thirty acres grew on the
+homestead of Jean Baptiste. The season for its growth had been ideal,
+and the prospects for a bumper yield was the best. Ripe now, and ready
+to cut, the air was filled with its aroma.
+
+He had brought a new self-binder from Gregory which now stood in the
+yard ready for action, its various colors green, red, blue and white,
+resplendent in the sunlight.
+
+So now we see Jean Baptiste the cheerful, Jean Baptiste the hopeful,
+with hopes in a measure about realized; Jean Baptiste the Ethiopian in a
+country where he alone was black. He whistles at times, he sings, he is
+merry, cheery and gay.
+
+But while Jean Baptiste was happy, cheerful and gay, there was in him
+what has been, what always will be that which makes us appreciate the
+courage that is in some men.
+
+Bill Prescott, from the first day he had seen Agnes, had considered a
+match between her and himself a suggestive proposition. Bill Prescott
+might be referred to as a "feature." He was not so fortunate as to have
+been born handsome, and could not be called attractive. He had not,
+moreover, improved the situation by cultivation of wit, of art or pride.
+The West had meant no more to him than had the East, the South--or the
+West Indies, for that matter. Because Bill had no homestead, no deeded
+land, and had not tried to get any. His wealth consisted of a few
+horses, among which, an old, worn out, bought-on-credit-stallion, was
+his pride.
+
+Of this stallion Bill talked. He told of his pedigree, tracing him back
+almost to the Ark. He was fond of tobacco, was Bill Prescott; he chewed,
+apparently, all the time. He had lost his front teeth; wore his thin
+hair long, and upon his small head a hat, oiled to the point where its
+age was a matter for conjecture. He had apparently appreciated that the
+wind blew outrageously over those parts at times, and, therefore, had
+hung a leather string to his hat which he pulled down over the back of
+his head to hold his hat in place. This succeeded in frumpling the long,
+thin hair and kept it in a dishevelled condition.
+
+Now Bill had been a frequent caller at the Stewarts' home since they had
+come West. He did not always take the trouble to remove his hat when
+inside. That he was fond of Agnes was apparent, and smiled always upon
+seeing her, and at such times showed where his front teeth had been but
+where tobacco more frequently now was, with lazy delight.
+
+He called this day wearing a clean, patched jumper over his cotton
+shirt. When once inside, sprawling his legs before him, and while Jack
+Stewart worked in the sun outside, repairing harness, he said to Agnes:
+
+"Well, old girl, how'd you like to marry?" Agnes changed color a few
+times before she could decide whether to answer or not. In the meantime,
+patient and in no hurry, Bill grinned with pleasure at the ease with
+which he had started; showed tobacco where his teeth had been, and spat
+a pound of juice, with plenty of drippings trailing out the window by
+which she sat. It made considerable argument getting through the screen,
+but succeeded finally--most of it, the remainder, clung, hesitated,
+wavered, and finally giving up, dripped slowly to the ledge below.
+
+"Dog-gone, myself," said Bill, getting up heavily from his chair, and
+going to the window and thumping it lightly, whereupon the hesitant
+amber, dashed in many directions about. Agnes had observed it all with
+calm disgust. Bill, however, not the least perturbed over his apparent
+breach of impropriety, became reseated, and resumed:
+
+"Well?"
+
+She turned her eyes slowly toward him, surveyed him coldly, and
+continued at her sewing.
+
+Bill muttered something.
+
+She regarded him again with cold disdain.
+
+"Haw, haw!" he laughed loudly. "You don't pretend t' hear me, haw! haw!
+Then I guess you're stuck on that nigger you got a hangin' round here."
+
+"Will you go!" she cried, as she quickly jumped to her feet and swung
+open the door. She controlled herself with considerable effort.
+
+"Oh, ho! So that's the way you treat a white man--and honor a d--n
+nigger!" And with that he dashed out and passed to where the senior
+worked away over his harness. Jack Stewart saw and heard Bill
+approaching without looking up. He greeted:
+
+"Ah-ha, William. And how are you today?"
+
+Bill was struck with a sudden inspiration. In his way he really liked
+Agnes, and it was all settled in his mind to wed her. He realized now
+that he had rather bungled matters, and thereupon decided to exercise a
+little more discretion. So, choking down the anger that was in him, and
+swallowing a bit of tobacco juice at the same time, he said to Stewart:
+
+"Good morning! Ah, by the way, Jack, I'd like to marry Agnes." So
+saying, he was pleased with himself again, and spat tobacco juice more
+easily in the next squirt. Jack continued working at his harness. For
+the moment he did not appear to comprehend, but presently he raised his
+eyes with the old style glasses before them, and surveyed Bill slowly.
+
+"You want to do what?" he said, uncomprehendingly.
+
+"To marry Agnes," Bill repeated calmly. He paused, looked away, sucked
+his soft mouth clean of amber and spat it tricklingly at Jack's feet,
+and looked up and at Jack with a wondrous smile.
+
+Now Jack Stewart was possessed with certain virtues. He did not smoke,
+chew, drink, swear nor shave. He was rather put out, but with
+considerable effort at self control he managed to say:
+
+"Well, if that's the way you feel about it, why don't you take it up
+with the girl?" Bill hesitated at this point, sucked his mouth clear
+again of tobacco juice, cleared his throat, spat the juice, and, after a
+hasty glance toward the house, decided not to mention that he had spoken
+with Agnes. He replied:
+
+"Well, I thought it best to speak to you, and if it's all right with
+you, it ought to be all right with the gal."
+
+Jack Stewart drew up, and then tried to relax. He did not think so much
+of Bill; but he did think the world of Agnes and wanted her respected by
+everybody. Moreover, he did not like to hear her "galled." He turned to
+William; he regarded him keenly, and then in a voice and words that were
+English, but accent that was very much Scotch, the which we will not
+attempt to characterize, he said:
+
+"You're a joke. Just a great, big joke." He paused briefly, and then
+continued: "I'd like to be patient with you; but honestly, with you it
+wouldn't pay. You are not worth it. And in so far as my girl--any girl
+is concerned, I cannot imagine how you could even expect them to be
+interested." He paused and looked away, too full up to go ahead. In the
+meantime he heard Bill:
+
+"Is that so!"
+
+"Is _it_ so!" cried Stewart with a touch of vehemence. "Gad! See
+yourself. See how you go! Don't you observe what's around you close
+enough to see that girls want some sedateness; they admire in some
+measure cleverness, clothes, and--well, manhood!"
+
+"So I don't guess I have it?" retorted William, sneeringly.
+
+"Oh, you bore me!" Jack returned disgustingly. He bent to his work in an
+attempt to forget it. And then he again heard from Bill:
+
+"So that's the way yu' got it figgered out, eh!" He drew his mouth tight
+shut. He gave another soft suck that drew his skin close to his gums,
+and with his tongue, he cleared his mouth and spat tobacco, juice and
+all in a soft lump at Stewart's feet and said in unconcealed anger: "So
+that's the way you got me figgered out! And I want to say, now, that I
+don't think I want yer gal, anyhow. I'm a white man, I am. And what
+white man would want a gal that a nigger is allowed to hang aroun' and
+court!"
+
+Jack Stewart was struck below the belt. He was fouled, and for a time
+everything went dark around him, he was so angry. He did not know that
+Jean Baptiste had saved him from losing his stock or being forced to
+sell them; he had never connected Baptiste and Agnes as being other than
+friends, and friends they had a right to be. But Jack Stewart _did_
+regard Jean Baptiste as a gentleman and gentlemen he respected. His
+knockout therefore was brief. He soon recovered. He could not speak, he
+could not even stammer; but with a sudden twitch of the tug his hands
+held, he came away around with it, and the heavy leather took Bill
+fairly in the mouth, in the middle of the mouth. And then Jack got his
+voice, and ready for another swing; but not before Bill found something,
+too. It was his feet.
+
+"You stinkin', low down, pup!" cried Stewart, falling over from the
+force of the swing he had missed. "You trash of the sand hills! You
+tobacco chewin', ragga-muffin!" Getting his balance, and turning after
+William madly, he resumed: "You ornery, nasty, filthy, houn'! If I get
+my han's on you, I swear t' God I'll kill you."
+
+But Bill Prescott now held the advantage. He was younger, and more fleet
+of foot; so therefore out ran Jack, who was left before he reached the
+gate, far to the rear, and Bill gained his side of the wide road with a
+safe lead. Jack finally came to a stop before getting off the premises
+with his blood boiling with such heat that he drew his hat off and beat
+himself with it. In the meantime, Agnes, who had witnessed the
+controversy from the gate, ventured out to where her father stood and
+taking him gently by the arm, she led him inside.
+
+"My blood's up, my blood's up!" Jack kept crying and repeating. "That
+stinkin', triflin' peace a nothin', has been gittin' smart. Tryin' to
+low rate me; tryin' to low rate my girl. Insultin' Jean Baptiste! Dang
+him, dang him!"
+
+"Father, father!" cried Agnes soothingly.
+
+"Did you hear'm! Did you hear'm! Why, the low down, good for nothin',
+I'm a good mind to go cross the road and skin him alive!"
+
+"Father, father!" begged Agnes.
+
+"Did you hear what he said," insisted the infuriated senior.
+
+"Yes, father," she confessed. "I heard him."
+
+"You did! 'N that's worse!" Whereupon he tore loose and threw up his
+arms in an angered gesture.
+
+"Now, papa," Agnes argued kindly. "I heard him, and what he said to you.
+He was in here and insul--spoke to me before he went out there.... I
+understand all about it.... So you must simply be calm--and forget it.
+That's all...."
+
+"I don't care so much for myself, but that he should speak about you and
+Baptiste! I just wish Baptiste could have heard him and just beat the
+gosh danged manure right out of him."
+
+"Please be quiet, papa. Forget Bill Prescott and what he has tried to
+insinuate.... We understand _him_ and what he _is_, and we understand
+Mr. Baptiste--and what _he is_, so let us just think of other things."
+
+"Yes, Aggie, I suppose you're right. You always seem to be right. And I
+will try to forget it; but I'll say this much: If that ornery, lazy cuss
+ever crosses this road to my place again I'll thresh him within an inch
+of his life!"
+
+"You've agreed to forget it, father...."
+
+"I agree again; but it's outrageous that he should say what he did about
+Jean Baptiste, now isn't it?"
+
+"It is, father," she admitted with downcast eyes.
+
+"Of course it is. Never was there more of a gentleman in the world than
+Jean Baptiste."
+
+"Mr. Baptiste is a real gentleman," acknowledged Agnes again.
+
+"There never was, and he knows it, the pup!"
+
+Agnes was strangely silent, which Jack, in his excitement overlooked.
+
+"And even if he should like my girl--"
+
+"Father!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Oh, please hush!"
+
+"I will, Aggie," he said slowly. He bent forward presently, folded her
+close, kissed her, and then placing his hat on his head, went back to
+his work....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+HARVEST TIME AND WHAT CAME WITH IT
+
+
+Harvest time, harvest time! When the harvest time is, all worries have
+passed. When the harvest time is, all doubts, droughts, fears and tears
+are no more. When the golden grain falls upon the canvas; when the
+meadow larks, the robins and all the birds of the land sing the song of
+harvest time, the farmer is happy, is gay, and confident.
+
+And harvest time was on in the country of our story.
+
+Jean Baptiste pulled his new binder before the barn, jumped from the
+seat, and before he started to unhitch, he gazed out over a stretch of
+land which two years before, had been a mass of unbroken prairie, but
+was now a world of shocked grain. Thousands upon thousands of shocks
+stood over the field like a great army in the distance. His crop was
+good--the best. And no crops are like the crop on new land. Never, since
+the beginning of time had that soil tasted tamed plant life. It had
+seemed to appreciate the change, and the countless shocks before him
+were evidence to the fact.
+
+From where he stood when he had unhitched, he gazed across country
+toward the southeast where lay his other land. Only a part of which he
+could see. As it rose in the distance he could see the white topped
+oats; and just beyond he could see the deep purple of the flaxseed
+blossoms. He sighed contentedly, unharnessed his horses, let them drink,
+and turned them toward the pasture. He was not tired; but he went to
+the side of the house which the sun did not strike, and sat him down. At
+the furthest side of the field he observed Bill and George as they
+shocked away to finish. He was at peace again, as he always was, and
+thereupon fell into deep thought.
+
+"My crop of wheat will yield not less than thirty bushels to the acre,"
+he whispered to himself. "And one hundred and thirty acres should then
+yield almost four thousand bushels. I should receive at least eighty
+cents the bushel, and that would approximate about three thousand
+dollars, with seed left to sow the land again." He paused in his
+meditation, and considered what even that alone would mean to him. He
+could pay the entire amount on the land he had purchased, and perhaps a
+thousand or two more from the flax crop. That would leave him owing but
+four hundred dollars on the land he had bought, and that amount he felt
+he would be able to squeeze out somewhere and have 520 acres clear!
+
+He could not help being cheerful, perhaps somewhat vain over his
+prospects. He was now just twenty-three and appreciated that most of his
+life was yet before him. With, at the most, two or three more seasons
+like the present one, he could own the coveted thousand acres and the
+example would be completed.
+
+That was the goal toward which he was working. If he or any other man of
+the black race could acquire one thousand acres of such land it would
+stand out with more credit to the Negro race than all the protestations
+of a world of agitators in so far as the individual was concerned.
+
+"It is things accomplished," he often said to himself.
+
+"It is what is actually accomplished that will get notice--and credit!
+Damn excuses! The best an excuse can secure is dismissal, and positively
+that is no asset." He would then invariably think deeply into the
+conditions of his race, the race who protested loudly that they were
+being held down. Truly it was an intricate, delicate subject to try to
+solve with prolific thinkings. He compared them with the Jew--went away
+back to thousands of years before. Out of the past he could not solve it
+either. All had begun together. The Jew was hated, but was a merchant
+enjoying a large portion of the world commerce and success. The Negro
+was disliked because of his black skin--and sometimes seemingly for
+daring to be human.
+
+At such times he would live over again the life that had been his before
+coming West. He thought of the multitudes in the employment of a great
+corporation who monopolized the sleeping car trade. Indeed this company
+after all was said, afforded great opportunities to the men. Not so much
+in what was collected in tips and in other devious ways, nor from the
+small salary, but from the great opportunity of observation that that
+particular form of travel afforded.
+
+But so few made the proper effort to benefit themselves thereby. He
+continued to think along these lines until his thoughts came back to a
+point where in the past they were wont to come and stop. He could not in
+that moment understand why they had not been coming back to that
+selfsame point in recent months.... Since one cold day during the first
+month of that year.... He gave a start when he realized why, then
+sighed. It seemed too much for his thoughts just then. He regarded Bill
+and George at their task of trying to finish their work. Upon hearing a
+sound, he turned. Behind him stood Agnes.
+
+"My, how you frightened me!" he cried.
+
+She held in her hand a basket containing lunch for him and her brothers.
+This she had brought every day, but he had been so absorbed in his
+thoughts that he had quite forgotten that she was coming on this day as
+well. As she stood quietly before him, she seemed rather shorter than
+she really was, also more slender, and appeared withal more girlish than
+usual. Her eyes twinkled and her heavy hair drawn together at the back
+of her head, hung over her shoulders. Her sunkist skin was a bit tanned;
+her arms almost to the elbows were bare, brown and were very round. And
+as Jean Baptiste regarded her there in the bright golden sunlight she
+appeared to him like the Virgin Mary.
+
+"You are tired," he cried, and pointed to a crude bench that reposed
+against the sod house, which he had just left in his prolific thinking
+of a moment before.
+
+"Sit down, please, and rest yourself," he commanded. She obeyed him
+modestly, with a smile still upon her pleasant face.
+
+"I judge that Bill and George will finish in a few minutes, so I'll
+wait, that we may all dine together. You'll be so kind as to wait until
+then, will you not?" he asked graciously, and bowed.
+
+"Until then, my lord," she smiled, coquettishly.
+
+"Thanks!" he laughed, good humoredly. Suddenly she cried:
+
+"Oh, isn't it beautiful!" And swept her hands toward the field of
+shocked wheat. He had been looking away, but as she spoke he turned and
+smiled with satisfaction.
+
+"It is."
+
+"Just lovely," she cried, her eyes sparkling.
+
+"And all safe, that's the best part about it," he said.
+
+"Grand. I'm so glad you have saved it," she said with feeling.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"You have earned it."
+
+"I hope so. Still I thank you."
+
+"It will bring you lots of money."
+
+"I am hoping it will."
+
+"Oh, it will."
+
+"I was thinking of it before you came up."
+
+"I knew it."
+
+"You knew it!"
+
+"I saw you from a distance."
+
+"Oh...."
+
+"And I knew you were thinking."
+
+"Oh, come now."
+
+"Why shouldn't I? You're always thinking. The only time when you are not
+is when you are sleeping."
+
+"You can say such wonderful things," he said, standing before her, the
+sun shining on his tanned features.
+
+"Won't--ah--won't you be seated?" she invited. He colored unseen. She
+made room for him and he hesitatingly took a seat, at a conventional
+distance, on the bench beside her.
+
+"Your other crops are fine, too," she said, sociably.
+
+"I'm going over to look at them this afternoon."
+
+"You should."
+
+"Where is your father today?"
+
+"Gone to town."
+
+"Wish I'd known he was going; I'd had him bring out some twine for me. I
+think the oats will be ready to cut over on the other place right away,
+and I don't want to miss any time."
+
+"No, indeed. A hail storm might come up." He glanced at her quickly. She
+was gazing across the field to where her halfwitted brothers worked,
+while he was thinking how thoughtful she was. Presently he heard her
+again.
+
+"Why, if it is urgent--you are out, I--I could go to town and get the
+twine for you." She was looking at him now and he was confused. Her
+offer was so like her, so natural. Why was it that they understood each
+other so well?
+
+"Oh, why, Agnes," he stammered, "that would be asking too much of you!"
+
+"Why so? I shall be glad--glad to oblige you in any way. And it is not
+too much if one takes into consideration what you have done for--I'll be
+glad to go...."
+
+"Done for what?" he said, catching up where she had broken off, and
+eyeing her inquiringly.
+
+She was confused and the same showed in her face. She blushed. She had
+not meant to say what she did. But he was regarding her curiously. He
+hadn't thought about the note. She turned then and regarded him out of
+tender eyes. She played with the bonnet she held in her lap. She looked
+away and then back up into his face, and her eyes were more tender
+still. In her expression there was almost an appeal.
+
+"What did you mean by what you started to say, Agnes," he repeated,
+evenly, but kindly.
+
+"I--I--mean what you did for papa. What--you--you did about
+that--that--note." It was out at last and she lowered her eyes and
+struggled to hold back the tears with great effort.
+
+"Oh," he laughed lowly, relievedly. "That was nothing." And he laughed
+again as if to dismiss it.
+
+"But it _was_ something," she cried, protestingly. "It _was_ something.
+It was _everything_ to us." She ended with great emotion apparent in
+her shaking voice. He shifted. It was awkward, and he was a trifle
+confused.
+
+"Please don't think of it, Agnes."
+
+"But how can I keep from thinking of it when I know that had it not been
+your graciousness; your wonderful thoughtfulness, your great kindness,
+we would have been sold out--bankrupted, disgraced, oh, me!" She covered
+her face with her hands, but he could see the tears now raining down her
+face and dropping upon her lap.
+
+"Oh, Agnes," he cried. "I wish you wouldn't do that! Please don't. It
+hurts me. Besides, how did you know it? I told Brookings that your
+father was not to know it. I did not want it known." He paused and his
+voice shook slightly. They had drawn closer and now she reached out and
+placed her small hand upon his arm.
+
+"Brookings didn't tell. He didn't tell papa; but I knew." She was
+looking down at the earth.
+
+"I don't understand," she heard him say wonderingly.
+
+"But didn't you think, Jean, that I understood! I understood the very
+day--a few minutes after papa returned home, brought the old note and
+told me about the extension." She paused and looked thoughtfully away
+across the field. "I understood when you drove by a few minutes later.
+You had forgotten about it, I could see, and your mind was on other
+things; but the moment you came into my sight, and I looked out upon you
+from the window, I knew you had saved us."
+
+Her hand still rested lightly upon his arm. She was not aware of it, but
+deeply concerned with what she was saying. Presently, when he did not
+speak, she went on. "I understood and knew that you had forgotten
+it--that you were too much of a man to let us know what you had done. I
+can't forget it! I have wanted to tell you how I felt--I felt that I
+owed it to you to tell you, but I couldn't before."
+
+"Please let's forget it, Agnes," she heard him whisper.
+
+"I can keep from speaking of it, but forget it--never! It was so much
+like you, like the man that's in you!" and the tears fell again.
+
+"Agnes, Agnes, if you don't hush, almost I will forget myself...."
+
+"I had to tell you, I _had_ to!" she sobbed.
+
+"But it is only a small return for what you did for me. Do you realize,
+Agnes, had it not been for you, I--I--would not be sitting here now? Oh,
+think of that and then you will see how little I have done--how very
+little I can ever do to repay!" His voice was brave, albeit emotional.
+He leaned toward her, and the passion was in his face. She grasped his
+arm tighter as she looked up again into his face out of her tear
+bedimmed eyes and cried brokenly:
+
+"But Jean, the cases are not parallel. What I did for you I would have
+done for anybody. It was merely an act of providence; but yours--oh,
+Jean, _can't you understand_!" He was silent.
+
+"Yours was the act of kindness," she went on again, "the act of a man;
+and you would have kept it secret; because you would never have had it
+known, because you would not have us feel under obligation to you. Oh,
+that is what makes me--oh, it makes me cry when I think of it." The
+tears flowed freely while her slender shoulders shook with emotion.
+
+[Illustration: From a painting by W.M. Farrow.
+
+"BUT, JEAN, THE CASES ARE NOT PARALLEL. WHAT I DID FOR YOU I WOULD HAVE
+DONE FOR ANY ONE; BUT YOURS--OH, JEAN, _CAN'T_ YOU UNDERSTAND!"]
+
+And when she had concluded, the man beside her had forgotten _the custom
+of the country, and its law_ had passed beyond him. He was as a man
+toward the maid now. Beside him wept the one he had loved as a dream
+girl. Behind him was the house with the bed she had laid him upon
+when she saved his life. And when he had awakened, before being
+conscious of where he was or what had happened to him, he had looked
+into her eyes and had seen therein his dream girl. She was his by the
+right of God; he forgot now that she was white while he was black. He
+only remembered that she was his, and he loved her.
+
+His voice was husky when he answered:
+
+"Agnes, oh, Agnes, I begged you not to. I almost beseeched you,
+because--oh, don't you understand what is in me, that I am as all men,
+weak? To have seen you that night--the night I can never forget, the
+night when you stood over me and I came back to life and saw you. You
+didn't know then and understand that I had dreamed of you these two
+years since I had come here: that out of my vision I had seen you, had
+talked with you, oh, Agnes!" She straightened perceptibly; she looked up
+at him with that peculiarity in her eyes that even she had never come to
+understand. They became oblivious to all that was about them, and had
+unconsciously drawn closer together now and regarded each other as if in
+some enchanted garden. She sang to him then the music that was in her,
+and the words were:
+
+"Jean, oh, Jean Baptiste, you have spoken and now at last _I_
+understand. And do you know that before I left back there from where I
+came, I _saw_ you: I dreamed of you and that I would know you, and then
+I came and so strangely met and have known you now for the man you are,
+oh, Jean!"
+
+Gradually as the composure that had been theirs passed momentarily into
+oblivion, and the harvest birds twittered gayly about them, his man's
+arm went out, and into the embrace her slender body found its way. His
+lips found hers, and all else was forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+EPOCH THE SECOND
+
+
+
+
+EPOCH THE SECOND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+REGARDING THE INTERMARRIAGE OF RACES
+
+
+It was winter, and the white snow lay everywhere; icicles hung from the
+eaves. All work on the farms was completed. People were journeying to a
+town half way between Bonesteel and Gregory to take the train for their
+former homes; others to spend it with their relatives, and Jean Baptiste
+was taking it for Chicago and New York where he went as a rule at the
+end of each year.
+
+He was going with an air of satisfaction apparently; for, in truth, he
+had everything to make him feel so--that is, _almost_ everything. He had
+succeeded in the West. The country had experienced a most profitable
+season, and the crop he reaped and sold had made him in round numbers
+the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars. He had paid for the two
+hundred acres of land he had bargained for; he had seeded more land in
+the autumn just passed to winter wheat which had gone into the winter in
+the best of shape; his health was the best. For what more could he have
+wished?
+
+And yet no man was more worried than he when he stepped from the stage
+onto the platform of the station where he was to entrain for the
+East.... It is barely possible that any man could have been more sad....
+To explain this we are compelled to go back a few months; back to the
+harvest time; to his homestead and where he sat with some one near, very
+near, and what followed.
+
+"I couldn't help it--I loved you; love you--have loved you always!" he
+passionately told her.
+
+For answer she had yielded again her lips, and all the love of her warm
+young heart went out to him.
+
+"I don't understand you always, dear," he whispered. "Sometimes there is
+something about you that puzzles me. I think it's in your eyes; but I
+_do_ understand that whatever it is it is something good--it couldn't be
+otherwise, could it?"
+
+"No, Jean," she faltered.
+
+"And did you wonder at my calling your name that night?"
+
+"I have never understood that fully until now," she replied.
+
+"You came in a vision, and it must have been divine, two years ago gone
+now," she heard him; "and ever since your face, dear, has been before
+me. I have loved it, and, of course, I knew that I would surely love you
+when you came."
+
+"Isn't it strange," she whispered.
+
+"But beautiful."
+
+"So beautiful."
+
+"Was it providence, or was it God that brought you that night and saved
+me from the slow death that was coming over me, Agnes?"
+
+"Please, Jean, don't! Don't speak again of that awful night! Surely it
+must have been some divine providence that brought me to this place; but
+I can never recall it without a tremor. To think that you would have
+died out there! Please, never tell me of it again, dear." She trembled
+and nestled closer to him, while her little heart beat a tattoo against
+her ribs. They looked up then, as across the field her halfwitted
+brothers were approaching. It was only then that they seemed to realize
+what had transpired and upon realization they silently disembraced. What
+had passed was the most natural thing in the world, true; and to them it
+had come because it was in them to assert themselves, but now before him
+rose the Custom of the Country, and its law. So vital is this Custom; so
+much is it a part of the body politic that certain states have went on
+record against it. Not because any bad, or good, any wealth or poverty
+was involved. It had been because of sentiment, the sentiment of the
+stronger faction....
+
+So it ruled.
+
+In the lives of the two in our story, no thought but to live according
+to God's law, and the law of the land, had ever entered their minds, but
+now they had while laboring under the stress of the pent-up excitement
+and emotion overruled and forgot the law two races are wont to observe
+and had given vent and words to the feeling which was in them.... They
+stood conventionally apart now, each absorbed in the calm realization of
+their positions in our great American society. They were obviously
+disturbed; but that which had drawn them to the position they had
+occupied and declared, still remained, and that was love.
+
+So time had gone on as time will; never stopping for anything, never
+hesitating, never delaying. So the day went, and the week and the month,
+and the month after that and the month after that, until in time the
+holidays were near, and Jean Baptiste was going away, away to forget
+that which was more to him than all the world--the love of Agnes
+Stewart.
+
+He had considered it--he had considered it before he caught the one he
+loved into his arms and said the truth that was in him.... But there was
+another side to it that will have much space in our story.
+
+Down the line a few stations from where he now was, there lived an
+example. A man had come years ago into the country, there, a strong,
+powerfully built man. He was healthy, he was courageous and he was dark,
+because forsooth, the man was a Negro. And so it had been with time this
+man's heart went out to one near by, a white. Because of his race it was
+with him as with Jean Baptiste. Near him there had been none of his
+kind. So unto himself he had taken a white wife. He had loved her and
+she had loved him; and because it was so, she had given to him children.
+And when the children had come she died. And after she had died and some
+years had passed, he took unto himself another wife of the same blood,
+and to that union there had come other children.
+
+So when years had passed, and these selfsame children had reached their
+majority, they too, took unto themselves wives, and the wives were of
+the Caucasian blood. But when this dark man had settled in the land
+below, which, at that time, had been a new country, he decided to claim
+himself as otherwise than he was. He said and said again, that he was of
+Mexican descent, mongrel, forsooth; but there was no _Custom Of The
+Country_ with regard to the Mexican, mongrel though he be. But the
+people and the neighbors all knew that he lied and that he was
+Ethiopian, the which looked out through his eyes. But even to merely
+claim being something else was a sort of compromise.
+
+So his family had grown to men and women, and they in turn brought more
+children into the world. And all claimed allegiance to a race other than
+the one to which they belonged.
+
+Once lived a man who was acknowledged as great and much that goes with
+greatness was given unto him by the public. A Negro he was, but as a
+climax in his great life, he had married a wife of that race that is
+superior in life, wealth and achievements to his own, the Caucasian. So
+it had gone.
+
+The first named, Jean Baptiste never felt he could be quite like. Even
+if he should disregard _The Custom Of The Country, and its law_, and
+marry Agnes, he did not feel he would ever attempt that. But to marry
+out of the race to which he belonged, especially into the race in which
+she belonged, would be the most unpopular thing he could do. He had set
+himself in this new land to succeed; he had worked and slaved to that
+end. He liked his people; he wanted to help them. Examples they needed,
+and such he was glad he had become; but if he married now the one he
+loved, the example was lost; he would be condemned, he would be despised
+by the race that was his. Moreover, last but not least, he would
+perhaps, by such a union bring into her life much unhappiness, and he
+loved her too well for that.
+
+Jean Baptiste had decided. He loved Agnes, and had every reason to; but
+he forswore. He would change it. He would go back from where he had
+come. He would be a man as befitted him to be. He would find a girl; he
+would marry in his race. They had education; they were refined--well, he
+would marry one of them anyhow!
+
+So Jean Baptiste was going. He would forget Agnes. He would court one in
+his own race. So to Chicago he now sped.
+
+He had lived in the windy city before going West, and was very familiar
+with that section of the city on the south side that is the center of
+the Negro life of that great metropolis. Accordingly, he approached a
+station in the loop district, entered one of the yellow cars and took a
+seat. He looked below at the hurly-burly of life and action, and then
+his eyes took survey of the car. It was empty, all save himself and
+another, and that other was a girl, a girl of his race! The first he had
+seen since last he was in the city. How little did she know as she sat
+across the aisle from him, that she was the first of his race his eyes
+had looked upon for the past twelve months. He regarded her curiously.
+She was of that cross bred type that are so numerous, full bloods
+seemingly to have become rare about those parts. She was of a light
+brown complexion, almost a mulatto. She seemed about twenty-two years of
+age. Of the curious eyes upon her she seemed entirely unaware, finally
+leaving the train at a station that he was familiar with and
+disappeared.
+
+At Thirty-first Street he left the train, fell in with the scattered
+crowd below and the dash of the city life was his again in a twinkling.
+He found his way to State Street, the great thoroughfare of his people.
+The novelty in viewing those of his clan now had left him, for they were
+all about. Even had he been blind he could have known he was among them,
+for was not there the usual noise; the old laugh, and all that went with
+it?
+
+He hurried across and passed down Thirty-first to Dearborn Street,
+Darktown proper; but even when he had reached Federal, then called
+Armour, he had seen nothing but his race. He had friends--at least
+acquaintances, so to where they lived he walked briskly.
+
+"And if it isn't Jean Baptiste, so 'elp me Jesus," cried the woman, as
+she opened the door in response to his knock, and without further
+ceremony encircled his neck with her arms, and kissed his lips once and
+twice. "You old dear!" she exclaimed with him inside, holding him at
+arms' length and regarding him fondly. "How are you, anyhow?"
+
+"Oh, fine," he replied, regarding her pleasantly.
+
+"You are certainly looking good," she said, looking up into his face
+with fun in her eyes. "Sit down, sit down and make yourself at home,"
+she invited, drawing up a chair.
+
+"Well, how's Chicago?" he inquired irrelevantly.
+
+"Same old burg," she replied, drawing a chair up close.
+
+"And how's hubby?"
+
+"Fine!"
+
+"And the rest of the family?"
+
+"The same. Pearl, too."
+
+"Oh, Pearl.... How is Pearl?"
+
+"Still single...."
+
+"Thought she was engaged to be married when I was here last year?"
+
+"Oh, that fellow was no good!"
+
+"What was the matter?"
+
+"What's the matter with lots of these nigga' men 'round Chicago? They
+can't keep a wife a posing on State Street."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"It's the truth!"
+
+"And how about the women? They seem to be fond of passing along to be
+posed at...."
+
+"Oh, you're mean," she pouted. Then: "Are you married yet?"
+
+"Oh, lordy! How could I get married? Not thirty minutes ago I saw the
+first colored girl I have seen in a year!"
+
+"Oh, you're a liar!"
+
+"It's the truth!"
+
+"Is it so, Jean? Have you really not seen a colored girl in a whole
+year?"
+
+"I have never lied to you, have I?"
+
+"Well, no. Of course you haven't; but I don't know what I would do under
+such circumstances. Not seeing nigga's for a year."
+
+"But I've seen enough already to make up."
+
+She laughed. "Lordy, me. Did you ever see so many 'shines' as there are
+on State Street!" She paused and her face became a little serious for a
+moment. "By the way, Jean, why don't you marry my sister?"
+
+"You're shameful! Your sister wouldn't have me. I'm a farmer."
+
+"Oh, yes she would. Pearl's getting tired of getting engaged to these
+Negroes around Chicago. She likes you, anyhow."
+
+"Tut, tut," he laughed depreciatingly. "Pearl would run me ragged out
+there on that farm!" She laughed too.
+
+"No, she wouldn't, really. Pearl is good looking and is tired of
+working."
+
+"She's good looking, all right, and perhaps tired of working; but she
+wouldn't do out there on the farm."
+
+"Oh, you won't do. I'll bet you are married already."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. White!"
+
+"But you're engaged?"
+
+"Nope!"
+
+"Jean. I'll bet you'll marry a white girl out there and have nothing
+more to do with nigga's."
+
+"Now you're worse."
+
+"And when you marry a white woman, I want to be the first one to shoot
+you--in the leg."
+
+He laughed long and uproariously.
+
+"You can laf all you want; but you ain't goin' through life lovin'
+nobody. You gotta girl somewhere; but do what you please so long as it
+don't come to that."
+
+"Come to what?"
+
+"Marrying a white woman."
+
+"Wouldn't that be all right?"
+
+She looked up at him with a glare. He smiled amusedly. "Don't you laf
+here on a subject like that! Lord! I think lots of you, but if I should
+hear that you had married a white woman, man, I'd steal money enough to
+come there and kill you dead!"
+
+"Why would you want to do that?"
+
+"_Why would I want to do that?_ Humph! What you want to ask me such a
+question for? The idea!"
+
+"But you haven't answered my question?"
+
+She glared at him again, all the humor gone out of her face. Presently,
+biting at the thread in some sewing she was doing, she said: "In the
+first place, white people and Negroes have no business marrying each
+other. In the second place, a nigga' only gets a po' white woman. And in
+the third place, white people and nigga's don't mix well when it comes
+to society. Now, supposin' you married a white woman and brought her
+here to Chicago, who would you associate with? We nigga's 's sho goin'
+to pass 'er up. And the white folks--you better not look their way!"
+
+He was silent.
+
+"Ain't I done outlined it right?"
+
+"You've revealed some very delicate points with regard to the matter,"
+he acknowledged.
+
+"Of course I have, and you can't get away from it. But that ain't all.
+Now, to be frank with yu'. I wouldn't ceh so much about some triflin' no
+'count nigga' marrying some old white woman; but that ain't the kind no
+white woman wants when she stoops so low as to marry a nigga'. Uh, naw!
+Naw indeedy! She don't fool with nothin' like that! She leaves that kind
+for some poor colored woman to break her heart and get her head broken
+over. She marries somebody like you with plenty of money and sense with
+it, see!"
+
+He laughed amusedly.
+
+"No laffin' in it. You know I'm tellin' the truth. So take warning!
+Don't marry no white woman up there and come trottin' down here
+expectin' me to give you blessin'. Because if you do, and just as sure
+as my name is Ida White, I'm going to do something to you!"
+
+"But a white woman might help a fellow to get up in the world," he
+argued.
+
+"Yes, I'll admit that, too. But ouh burden is ouh burden, and we've got
+to bear it. And, besides, you c'n get a girl that'll help you when you
+really want a wife. That ain't no argument. Of course I'd like to see
+Pearl married. But you ain't going to fool with her, and I know it.
+Pearl thinks she would like it better if she could marry somebody from
+out of Chicago; but they'd all be the same after a month or so with
+her."
+
+"Well," said he, "I'd better get over to the Keystone. You've interested
+me today. I've learned something regarding the amalgamation of
+races...."
+
+"I hope you have, if you had it in your mind. Anything else might be
+forgiven, but marrying a white woman--never!"
+
+They parted then. She to her sewing, and Jean Baptiste to his
+thoughts....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+WHICH?
+
+
+Jean Baptiste returned to the West after two months' travel through the
+East, and the spring following, sowed a large crop of small grain and
+reaped a bountiful yield that fall. About this time the county just west
+of where he lived was opened to settlement, and a still larger crowd
+than had registered for the land in the county he lived came hither and
+sought a quarter section.
+
+The opening passed to the day of the drawing, and when all the lucky
+numbers had secured their filings, contracts for the purchases of
+relinquishments began. By this time the lands had reached great values,
+and that which he had purchased a short time before for twenty dollars
+the acre, had by this time reached the value of fifty dollars the acre.
+And now he had an opportunity of increasing his possessions to the
+number coveted, one thousand acres.
+
+He had paid a visit to his parents that winter, and found his sisters,
+who were mere children when he had left home, grown to womanhood, and
+old enough to take claims. So with them he had discussed the matter.
+Inspired by his great success, they were all heart and soul to follow
+his bidding; so thereupon it was agreed that he would try to secure
+three relinquishments on good quarters, and upon one or more of these
+they would make filings.
+
+His grandmother, who had raised a family in the days of slavery agreed
+and was anxious to file on one; one sister on another, and the third
+place,--was to be his bride's.
+
+By doing this, he could have her use her homestead right, providing she
+filed on the claim before marrying him. So it was planned. But Jean
+Baptiste knew no girl that he could ask to become his wife, therefore
+this was yet to be. When he had given up his real love to be loyal to
+his race, he had determined on one thing: that marriage was a business,
+even if it was supposed to be inspired by love. But when Agnes was left
+out, he loved no one. Therefore it must be resolved into a business
+proposition--and the love to come after.
+
+So, resigned to the fact, he set himself to choose a wife.
+
+On his trip East the winter before he met two persons with whom he had
+since corresponded. One, the first, was a young man not long out of an
+agricultural college whose father was a great success as a potato
+grower. He and Jean became intimate friends. It now so happened that the
+one mentioned had a sister, and through him Jean Baptiste was introduced
+to her by mail.
+
+Correspondence followed and by this time it had become very agreeable.
+She proved to be a very logical young woman, and Jean Baptiste was
+favorably impressed. She was, moreover, industrious, ambitious, and well
+educated. Her age was about the same as his, so on the surface he
+thought that they should make a very good match. So be it.
+
+In the meantime, however, he had opened a correspondence with another
+whom he had met on his trip the winter before where she had been
+teaching in a coal mining town south of Chicago. The same had developed
+mutually, and he had found her agreeable and obviously eligible. Her
+father was a minister, a dispenser of the gospel, and while for reasons
+we will become acquainted with in due time, he had cultivated small
+acquaintance with preachers, he took only such slight consideration of
+the girl's father's profession that he had good cause to recall some
+time later.
+
+About the time he was deeply engrossed in his correspondence with both
+the farmer's daughter and the young school teacher, he received a letter
+from a friend in Chicago introducing him to a lady friend of hers
+through mail. This one happened to be a maid on the Twentieth Century
+Limited, running between New York and Chicago. Well, Jean Baptiste was
+looking for a wife. Sentiment was in order, but it was with him, first
+of all, a business proposition. So be it. He would give her too a
+chance.
+
+He was somewhat ashamed of himself when he addressed three letters when
+perhaps, he should have been addressing but one. It was not fair to
+either of the three, he guiltily felt; but, business was business with
+him.
+
+From his friend's sister he received most delightful epistles, not
+altogether frivolous, with a great amount of common sense between the
+lines. But what was more to the point, her father was wealthy, and she
+must have some conception of what was required to accumulate and to
+hold. He rather liked her, it now seemed.
+
+Now from the preacher's daughter he received also pleasing letters.
+Encouraging, but not to say unconventionally forward. He appreciated the
+fact that she was a preacher's child, and naturally expected to conform
+to a certain custom.
+
+But from New York he received the most encouragement. The position the
+maid held rather thrilled him. He loved the road--and she wrote such
+letters! It was plain to be seen here what the answer would be.
+
+Which?
+
+He borrowed ten thousand dollars, giving a mortgage upon his land in
+security therefor. He purchased relinquishments upon three beautiful
+quarter sections of land in the county lying just to the west. The same,
+having to be homesteaded before title was acquired, had all ready been
+in part arranged for. His grandmother and sister were waiting to file on
+a place each--the third was for the bride-to-be. There remained a few
+weeks yet in which to make said selection; but, notwithstanding, all
+must be ready to make filing not later than the first day of
+October--and September at last arrived.
+
+He became serious, then uneasy. Which? He wrote all three letters that
+would give either or all a right to hear the words from him, but did not
+say sufficient to any to give grounds for a possible breach of promise
+suit later.
+
+He rather liked the girl whose father had made money. Yes, it so
+seemed--more than either of the other two. A match with her on the
+surface seemed more practical. But for some reason she did not reply
+within the time to the letter he had written her. Oh, if he could only
+have courted her; could have been in the position to have seen her of a
+warm night; to have said to her: "----." Poor Jean Baptiste your life
+might not have later come to what it did....
+
+He waited--but in vain. October was drawing dangerously near when at
+last he left for somewhere. Indeed he had not a complete idea where, but
+of one thing he had concluded, when he returned he would bring the
+bride-to-be.
+
+At Omaha he made up his mind. The girl whose father had made money had
+had her chance and failed. He regretted it very much, but this was a
+business proposition, and he had two thousand dollars at stake that he
+would lose if he failed to get some one to file on that quarter section
+he had provided, on October first.
+
+He was rather disturbed over the idea. He really would have preferred a
+little more sentiment--but time had become the expedient. "Of course,"
+he argued, as he sped toward Chicago, "I'll be awfully good to the one I
+choose, so if it is a little out of the ordinary--why, I'll try to make
+up for it when she is mine."
+
+With this consolation he arrived in Chicago, wishing that the girl who
+lived two hundred miles south of Omaha and whose father was well-to-do
+had replied to his letter. He really had chosen her out of the three.
+However, he resigned himself to the inevitable--one of the other two.
+
+He left the train and boarded the South Side L. He got off again at
+Thirty-first Street, and found what he had always found before, State
+Street and Negroes. He was not interested in either this time. He had
+sent a telegram to New York from Omaha to the effect that he was headed
+for Chicago. It was to the maid, for she had drawn second choice. He
+planned to meet her at the number her dear friend--and the match maker,
+lived.
+
+So it was to this number he now hurried.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Baptiste," cried this little woman, whose name happened to be
+Rankin, and she was an old maid. She gave him her little hand, and was
+"delighted" to see him.
+
+"And you've come! Miss Pitt will be so glad! She has talked of nobody
+but Mr. Baptiste this summer. Oh, I'm so glad you have come!" and she
+shook his hand again.
+
+"I sent her a telegram that I was coming, and I trust she will let me
+know...."
+
+"She is due in tomorrow," cried their little friend, and her voice was
+like delicate music.
+
+"I expect a telegram," he said evenly. "I am somewhat rushed."
+
+"Indeed! But of course, you are a business man, Mr. Baptiste," chimed
+Miss Rankin with much admiration in her little voice. "How Miss Pitt
+will like you!"
+
+Jean Baptiste smiled a smile of vanity. He was getting anxious to meet
+Miss Pitt himself--inasmuch as he expected to ask her to become his wife
+on the morrow.
+
+"Ting-aling-aling!" went the bell on the street door, and little Miss
+Rankin rushed forth to open it.
+
+"Special for Mr. Jean Baptiste," he heard and went to get it. After
+signing, he broke the seal a little nervously, and drawing the contents
+forth, read the enclosed message.
+
+He sighed when it was over. Miss Pitt had been taken with a severe
+attack of neuralgia in New York, was indisposed and under the care of a
+physician, but would be in Chicago in six days. He studied the calendar
+on the wall. Six days would mean October second!
+
+Too late, Miss Pitt, your chance is gone. And now we turn to the party
+of the third part who will follow us through our story.
+
+[Illustration: From a painting by W.M. Farrow.
+
+"MISS PITT WAS SO ANXIOUS TO MEET YOU AND I WAS, TOO, BECAUSE I THINK
+YOU AND HER WOULD LIKE EACH OTHER. SHE'S AN AWFULLY GOOD GIRL AND
+WILLING TO HELP A FELLOW."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MEMORIES--N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY
+
+
+"She will not be in tomorrow," said Baptiste, handing the letter to Miss
+Rankin.
+
+"Oh, is that so!" cried Miss Rankin in a tone of deep disappointment, as
+she took the letter. "Now isn't that just too bad!"
+
+"It is," agreed Baptiste. "I will not get to see her, since I shall have
+to return to the West not later than two or three days." He was
+extremely disappointed. He sat down with a sigh and rested his chin in
+his palm, looking before him thoughtfully.
+
+"I'm sure sorry, so sorry," mused Miss Rankin abstractedly. "And you
+cannot possibly wait until next week?" she asked, anxiously.
+
+He shook his head sadly.
+
+"Impossible, absolutely impossible."
+
+"It is certainly too bad. Miss Pitt was so anxious to meet you. And I
+was, too, because I think you and her would like each other. She's an
+awfully good girl, and willing to help a fellow. Just the kind of a girl
+you need."
+
+He shifted his position now and was absorbed in his thoughts. He had
+come back to his purpose. He was sorry for Miss Pitt; but he had also
+been sorry that Miss Grey had not answered his letter.... The
+association with neither, true, had developed into a love affair, so
+would not be hard to forget. He had agreed with himself that love was
+to come later. He had exercised discretion. Any one of the three was a
+desirable mate from a practical point of view. After marriage he was
+confident that they could conform sufficiently to each other's views to
+get along, perhaps be happy. Miss McCarthy was, in his opinion, the most
+intelligent of the three, as she had been to school and had graduated
+from college. He had confidence in education uplifting people; it made
+them more observing. It helped them morally. And with him this meant
+much. He was very critical when it came to morals. He had studied his
+race along this line, and he was very exacting; because, unfortunately
+as a whole their standard of morals were not so high as it should be. Of
+course he understood that the same began back in the time of slavery.
+They had not been brought up to a regard of morality in a higher sense
+and they were possessed with certain weaknesses. He was aware that in
+the days of slavery the Negro to begin with had had, as a rule only what
+he could steal, therefore stealing became a virtue. When accused as he
+naturally was sure to be, he had resorted to the subtle art of lying. So
+lying became an expedient. So it had gone. Then he came down to the
+point of physical morality.
+
+The masters had so often the slave women, lustful by disposition, as
+concubine. He had, in so doing of course, mixed the races, Jean Baptiste
+knew until not more than one half of the entire race in America are
+without some trait of Caucasian blood. There had been no defense then,
+and for some time after. There was no law that exacted punishment for a
+master's cohabitation with slave women, so it had grown into a custom
+and was practiced in the South in a measure still.
+
+So with freedom his race had not gotten away from these loose practices.
+They were given still to lustful, undependable habits, which he at times
+became very impatient with. His version was that a race could not rise
+higher than their morals. So in his business procedure of choosing a
+wife, one thing over all else was unalterable, she must be chaste and of
+high morals.
+
+Orlean McCarthy, however she as yet appeared from a practical
+standpoint, could, he estimated rightly, boast of this virtue. No doubt
+she was equally as high in all other perquisites. But strangely he did
+not just wish to ask Miss McCarthy to become his wife. He could not
+understand it altogether. He was confident that no girl lived who
+perhaps was likely, as likely, to conform to his desires as she; but
+plan, do as he would, that lurking aversion still remained--infinitely
+worse, it grew to a fear.
+
+He sighed perceptibly, and Miss Rankin, catching the same, was deeply
+sympathetic because she thought it was due to the disappointment he felt
+in realizing that he was not to see Miss Pitt on the morrow. She placed
+her arm gently about his shoulders, leaned her small head close to his,
+and stroked his hair with her other hand.
+
+"Well," said he, after a time, and to himself, "I left the West to find
+a wife. I've lived out there alone long enough. I want a home, love and
+comfort and only a wife can bring that." He paused briefly in his
+mutterings. His face became firm. That will that had asserted itself and
+made him what he was today, became uppermost. He slowly let the
+sentiment out of him, which was at once mechanically replaced by a cold
+set purpose. He smiled then; not a sentimental smile, but one cold,
+hard, and singularly dry.
+
+"Oh, by the way, Miss Rankin," he essayed, rising, apparently cheerful.
+"Do you happen to be acquainted with a family here by the name of
+McCarthy?"
+
+"McCarthy?"
+
+"Yes. I think the man's a preacher. A Rev. N.J. McCarthy, if I remember
+correctly." She looked up at him. Her face took on an expression of
+defined contempt as she grunted a reply.
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"Well...."
+
+"Who doesn't know that old rascal!"
+
+"Indeed!" he echoed, in affected surprise; but in the same instant he
+had a feeling that he was to hear just this. Still, he maintained his
+expression of surprise.
+
+"The worst old rascal in the state of Illinois," she pursued with equal
+contempt.
+
+"Oh, really!"
+
+"Really--yes, _positively_!"
+
+"I cannot understand?"
+
+"Oh well," she emitted, vindictively. "You won't have to inquire far to
+get the record of N.J. McCarthy. Lordy, no! But now," she started with a
+heightening of color, "He's got a nice family. Two fine girls, Orlean
+and Ethel, and his wife is a good little soul, rather helpless and
+without the force a woman should have; but very nice. But that
+husband--forget him!"
+
+"This is--er--rather unusual, don't you think?"
+
+"Well, it is," she said. "One would naturally suppose that a man with
+such a family of moral girls as he has, would not be so--not because he
+is a preacher." She paused thoughtfully. "Because you know that does not
+count for a high morality always in our society.... But N.J. McCarthy
+has been like he is ever since I knew him. He's a rascal of the deep
+water if the Lord ever made one. And such a hypocrite--there never
+lived! Added to it, he is the most pious old saint you ever saw! Looks
+just as innocent as the Christ--and treats his wife like a dog!"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"No!" disdainfully. "Well, you'd better hush!" She paused again, and
+then as if having reconsidered she turned and said: "I'll not say any
+more about him. Indeed, I don't like to discuss the man even. He is the
+very embodiment of rascalism, deceit and hypocrisy. Now, I've said
+enough. Be a good boy, go out and buy me some cream." And smilingly she
+got his hat and ushered him outside.
+
+"Well, now what do you think of that," he kept repeating to himself, as
+he went for the ice cream, "_what do you think of that?_" Suddenly he
+halted, and raised his hands to his head. He was thinking, thinking,
+thinking deeply, reflectively. His mind was going back, back, away back
+into his youth, his earliest youth--no! It was going--had gone back to
+his childhood!
+
+"N.J. McCarthy, _N.J. McCarthy_? Where did I _know you_! Where, where,
+_where_!" His head was throbbing, his brain was struggling with
+something that happened a long time before. A saloon was just to his
+left, and into it he turned. He wanted to think; but he _didn't_ want to
+think too fast. He took a glass of beer. It was late September, but
+rather warm, and when the cold beverage struck his throat, his mind went
+back into its yesterdays.
+
+It had happened in the extremely southern portion of the state, in that
+part commonly referred to as "Egypt," where he then lived. He recalled
+the incident as it occurred about twenty years before, for he was just
+five years of age at the time. His mother's baby boy they called him,
+because he was the youngest of four boys in a large family of children.
+It was a day in the autumn. He was sure of this because his older
+brothers had been hunting; they had caught several rabbits and shot a
+few partridges. He had been allowed to follow for the first time, and
+had carried the game.... How distinctly it came back to him now.
+
+He had picked the feathers from the quail, and had held the rabbits
+while his brothers skinned them. And, later, they had placed the game in
+cold water from their deep well, and had thereupon placed the pan
+holding the same upon the roof of the summer kitchen, and that night the
+frost had come. And when morning was again, the ice cold water had drawn
+the blood from the meat of the game, and the same was clear and white.
+
+"Now, young man," his mother said to him the following morning, "you
+will get into clean clothes and stay clean, do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, mama, I understand," he answered. "But, mama, why?" he inquired.
+Jean Baptiste had always asked such questions and for his doing so his
+mother had always rebuked him.
+
+"You will ask the questions, my son," she said, raising his child body
+in her arms and kissing him fondly. "But I don't mind telling you." She
+stood him on the ground then, and pointed to him with her forefinger.
+"Because we are going to have company from town. Big people. The
+preachers. Lots of them, so little boys should be good, and clean, and
+be scarce when the preachers are around. They are big men with no time,
+or care, to waste with little boys!"
+
+"M-um!" he had chimed.
+
+"And, why, mama, do the preachers have no time for little boys? Were
+they not little boys once themselves?"
+
+"Now, Jean!" she had admonished thereupon, "you are entirely too
+inquisitive for a little boy. There will be other company, also.
+Teachers, and Mrs. Winston, do you understand! So be good." With that
+she went about her dinner, cooking the rabbits and the quail that he had
+brought home the day before.
+
+It had seemed an age before, in their spring wagon followed by the
+lumber wagon, the dignitaries of the occasion wheeled into the yard. He
+could not recall now how many preachers there were, except that there
+were many. He was in the way, he recalled, however, because, unlike his
+other brothers, he was not bashful. But the preachers did not seem to
+see him. They were all large and tall and stout, he could well remember.
+But the teachers took notice of him. One had caught him up fondly,
+kissed him and thereupon carried him into the house in her arms. She
+talked with him and he with her. And he could well recall that she
+listened intently to all he told her regarding his adventures of the day
+before in the big woods that was at their back. How beautiful and sweet
+he had thought she was. When she smiled she showed a golden tooth,
+something new to him, and he did not understand except that it was
+different from anything he had ever seen before.
+
+After a long time, he thought, dinner was called, and, as was the
+custom, he was expected to wait. He had very often tried to reason with
+his mother that he could sit at the corner of the table in a high chair
+and eat out of a saucer. He had promised always to be good, just as good
+as he could be, and he would not talk. But his mother would not trust
+him, and it was understood that he should wait.
+
+At the call of dinner he slid from the teacher's lap upon the floor and
+went outside. He peeped through the window from where he stood on a
+block. He saw them eat, and eat, and eat. He saw the quail the boys had
+shot disappear one after another into the mouths of the big preachers,
+and since he had counted and knew how many quail there were, he had
+watched with a growing fear. "Will they not leave one?" he cried.
+
+At last, when he could endure it no longer, he ran into the house,
+walked into the dining room unseen, and stood looking on. Now, the
+teacher who had the golden tooth happened to turn and espy him and
+thereupon she cried:
+
+"Oh, there is my little man, and I know he is hungry! Where did you go,
+sweet one? Come, now, quick to me," whereupon she held out loving arms
+into which he went and he had great difficulty in keeping back the
+tears. But he was hungry, and he had seen the last quail taken from the
+plate by a preacher who had previously taken two.
+
+Upon her knee she had sat him, and he looked up into all the faces
+about. He then looked down into her plate and saw a half of quail. His
+anxious eyes found hers, and then went back to the plate and the half of
+quail thereon.
+
+"That is for you, sweetness," she cried, and began to take from the
+table other good things, while he fell to eating, feeding his mouth with
+both hands for he was never before so hungry.
+
+After a few moments he happened to lift his eyes from the plate. Just to
+the side of the beloved teacher, he observed a large, tall and stout
+preacher. He wore a jet black suit and around his throat a clerical vest
+fit closely; while around his neck he wore a white collar hind part
+before. The preacher's eyes had found Jean's and he gave a start. The
+eyes of the other were upon him, and they were angry eyes. He paused in
+his eats and gazed not understanding, into the eyes that were upon him.
+Then suddenly he recalled that he had observed that the preacher had
+been smiling upon the teacher. He had laughed and joked; and said many
+things that little Jean had not understood. As far as he could see, it
+appeared as if the teacher had not wished it; but the flirtation had
+been kept up.
+
+At last, in his child mind he had understood. His crawling upon the
+teacher's lap had spoiled it all! The preacher was angry, therefore the
+expression in his eyes.
+
+From across the table his mother stood observing him. She seemed not to
+know what to say or do, for it had always been so very hard to keep this
+one out of grown people's way. So she continued to stand hesitatingly.
+
+"Didn't your mother say that you were to wait," growled the preacher,
+and his face was darker by the anger that was in it. This frightened
+Jean. He could find no answer in the moment to such words. His little
+eyes had then sought those of the teacher, who in reply drew him closely
+to her.
+
+"Why, Reverend," she cried, amazed, "he's a little boy, a nice child,
+and hungry!" Whereupon she caressed him again. He was pacified then, and
+his eyes held some fire when he found the preacher's again. The others,
+too, had grown more evil. The preacher's lips parted. He leaned slightly
+forward as he said lowly, angrily:
+
+"You're an impudent, ill mannered little boy, and you need a spanking!"
+
+Then suddenly the child grew strangely angry. He couldn't understand.
+Perhaps it was because he had helped secure the quail, all of which the
+preachers were eating, and felt that in view of this he was entitled to
+a piece of one. He could not understand afterward how he had said it,
+but he extended his little face forward, close to the preacher's, as he
+poured:
+
+"I ain't no impudent 'ittle boy, either! I went to hunt with my brothers
+yistidy and I carried all the game, and now you goin' eat it all and
+leave me none when I'm hungry. You're mean man and make me mad!"
+
+As he spoke everything seemed to grow dark around him. He recalled that
+he was suddenly snatched from the teacher's lap, and carried to the
+summer kitchen which was all closed and dark inside. He recalled that
+switches were there, and that soon he felt them. As a rule he cried and
+begged before he was ever touched; but strangely then he never cried,
+and he never begged. He just kept his mouth shut tightly, and had borne
+all the pain inflicted by his mother, and she had punished him longer
+than she had ever done before. Perhaps it was because she felt she had
+to make him cry; felt that he _must_ cry else he had not repented. After
+a time he felt terribly dazed, became sleepy, and gradually fell into a
+slumber while the blows continued to fall.
+
+How long he slept he could not remember, but gradually he came out of
+it. There were no more blows then. Yet, his little body felt sore all
+over. When he looked up (for he was lying on his back in the summer
+kitchen), his mother sat near and was crying and wiping the tears with
+her apron, while over him bent the teacher, and she was crying also. And
+as the tears had fallen unchecked upon his face he had heard the teacher
+saying:
+
+"It's a shame, an awful shame! The poor, poor little fellow! He was
+hungry and had helped to get the game. And to be punished so severely
+because he wanted to eat is a shame! Oh, Mrs. Baptiste, you must pray to
+your God for forgiveness!" And his mother had cried more than ever then.
+
+Presently he heard a heavy footfall, and peeped upward to see his father
+standing over him. His father was fair of complexion, and unlike his
+mother, never said much and was not commonly emotional. But when he was
+angry he was terrible, and he was angry now. His blue eyes shone like
+fire.
+
+"What is this, Belle," he cried in a terrible voice, "you've killed my
+boy about that d--n preacher!" His father stooped and looked closely
+into his face. In fear he had opened his eyes. "Jean!" he heard his
+father breathe, "God, but it's a blessing you are alive, or there would
+be a dead preacher in that house."
+
+"Oh, Fawn," his mother cried and fell on him, weeping. The teacher
+joined in to pacify him, and in that moment Jean was forgotten. Stiffly
+he had slipped from the room, and had gone around near the kitchen step
+of the big house to a place where the dogs had their bed. Here he kept a
+heavy green stick, a short club. He passed before the door, and observed
+the preacher still sitting at the table, talking with Mrs. Winston. He
+glared at him a moment and his little eyes narrowed to mere slits. Then
+he thought of something else.... It was Mose Allen, Mose Allen, a hermit
+who lived in the woods. It was miles--in his mind--to where Mose lived,
+through heavy forests and timber; but he was going there, he was going
+there to stay with old Mose and live in the woods. He had done nothing
+wrong, yet had been severely punished. Before this he had thought
+several times that when he became a man he would like to be a preacher,
+a big preacher, and be admired; but, now--never! He would go to old Mose
+Allen's, live in the woods--and hate preachers forever!
+
+Later, deep into the forest he plodded. Deep, deeper, until all about
+him he was surrounded with overgrowth, but resolutely he struggled
+onward. He crossed a branch presently, and knew where he was. The branch
+divided their land with Eppencamp's, the German. From there the forest
+grew deeper, the trees larger, and the underbrush more tangled. But he
+was going to Mose Allen and remembered that that was the way. He grasped
+his green club tighter and felt like a hunter in the bear stories his
+big brothers had read to him. He crossed a raise between the branch and
+the creek where the water flowed deeply, and where they always went
+fishing. He paused upon reaching the creek, for there a footlog lay. For
+the first time he experienced a slight fear. He didn't like foot logs,
+and had never crossed one alone. He had always been carried across by
+his brothers; but his brothers were not near, and he was running away!
+So he took courage, and approached the treacherous bridge. He looked
+down at the whirling waters below with some awe; but finally with a
+grimace, he set his foot on the slick trunk of the fallen tree and
+started across. He recalled then that if one looked straight ahead and
+not down at the water, it was easy; but his mind was so much on the
+waters below. He kept his eyes elsewhere with great effort, and finally
+reached the middle. Now it seemed that he could not go one step further
+unless he saw what was below him. He hesitated, closed his eyes, and
+thought of the whipping he had received and the preacher he hated,
+opened them, and with calm determination born of anger, crossed safely
+to the other side.
+
+He sighed long and deeply when he reached the other side. He looked back
+at the muddy waters whirling below, and with another sigh plunged into
+the forest again and on toward Mose Allen's.
+
+He gained the other side of the forest in due time, and came into the
+clearing. A cornfield was between him and another forest, and almost to
+the other side of this Mose Allen lived. The sun was getting low, and
+the large oaks behind him cast great shadows that stretched before him
+and far out into the cornfield. He thought of ghosts and hurried on. He
+must reach Mose Allen's before night, that was sure.
+
+It was a long way he thought when he reached the other side, and the
+forest before him appeared ominous. He was inclined to be frightened,
+but when he looked toward the west and home he saw that the sun had sunk
+and he plunged grimly again into the deep woodland before him.
+
+Now the people of the neighborhood had made complaints, and it was
+common talk about the country, that chickens, and young pigs, and calves
+had been attacked and destroyed by something evil in the forests. At
+night this evil spirit had stolen out and ravaged the stock and the
+chickens.
+
+Accordingly, those interested had planned a hunt for what was thought to
+be a catamount. It was not until he had gone deeply into the woods, and
+the darkness was everywhere about him, that he remembered the catamount.
+He stopped and tried to pick the briers out of his bleeding hands, and
+as he did so, he heard a terrible cry. He went cold with fear. He hardly
+dared breathe, and crouched in a hole he had found where only his
+shoulders and head were exposed. He awaited with abated breath for some
+minutes and was about to venture out when again the night air and
+darkness was rent by the terrible cry. He crouched deeper into the hole
+and trembled, for the noise was drawing nearer. On and on it came. He
+thought of a thousand things in one minute, and again he heard the cry.
+It was very near now, and he could hear the crunch of the animal's feet
+upon the dry leaves. And still on and on it came. Presently it was so
+close that he could see it. The body of the beast became dimly outlined
+before him and he could see the eyes plainly, as it swung its head back
+and forth, and its red eyes shone like coals of fire. Again the varmint
+rent the night air with its yell, as it espied its prey crouching in the
+hole.
+
+By watching the eyes he observed the head sink lower and lower until it
+almost touched the earth. And thereupon he became suddenly calm and
+apprehensive. He held his breath and met it calmly, face to face. His
+club was drawn, his eyes were keen and intense. He waited. Suddenly the
+air was rent with another death rendering cry, and the beast sprung.
+
+It had reckoned well, but so had he. He had, moreover, struck direct.
+The blow caught the beast on the point of its nose and muffled and
+spoiled its directed spring. He quickly came out of the hole and then,
+before the animal could get out of his reach, he struck it again with
+such force at the back of the head, that the beast was stunned. Again
+and again he struck until the head was like a bag of bones. When his
+strength was gone, and all was quiet, he became conscious of a
+drowsiness. He sank down and laid his head upon the body of the dead
+animal, and fell into a deep sleep.
+
+And there they found him during the early hours of the morning and took
+him and the dead catamount home.
+
+"Another beer, Cap'n?" he heard from the bartender. He quickly stood
+erect and gazed about in some confusion.
+
+"Yes," he replied, throwing a coin upon the bar. He drank the beer
+quickly, went out, bought Miss Rankin the cream and after delivering it
+to her, went outside again and up State Street.
+
+He was overcome with memories, was Jean Baptiste. He had a task to
+accomplish. He was going to Vernon Avenue where Miss McCarthy lived to
+ask her to become his wife.
+
+And the preacher who had been the cause of his severe punishment twenty
+years before was her father, the Rev. N.J. McCarthy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ORLEAN
+
+
+"Oh, Mama," cried Orlean E. McCarthy, coming hastily from the hallway
+into the room where her mother sat sewing, and handing her a note, "Mr.
+Baptiste is in the city and wishes to call at the earliest possible
+convenience."
+
+"Indeed," replied her mother, affecting a serious expression, "this is
+rather sudden. Have you sent him word when he could?"
+
+"Yes, mama, I wrote him a note and returned it by the boy that brought
+this one, that he could call at two o'clock." Her mother's gaze sought
+the clock automatically.
+
+"And it is now past one," she replied. "You will have to get ready to
+receive him," she advised ceremoniously.
+
+"All right, mama," said Orlean cheerfully, and suddenly bending forward,
+kissed her mother impulsively upon the cheek, and a moment later hurried
+upstairs.
+
+"What is this I hear about somebody coming to call," inquired another,
+coming into the room at that moment. Mrs. McCarthy looked up on
+recognizing the voice of her younger daughter, Ethel, who now stood
+before her. She gave a perceptible start as she did so, and swallowed
+before she replied. In the meantime the other stood, regarding her
+rather severely, as was her nature.
+
+She was very tall, was Ethel, and because she was so very thin she
+appeared really taller than she was. She did not resemble her mother,
+who was a dumpy light brown skinned woman. She was part Indian, and
+possessed a heavy head of hair which, when let down, fell over her
+shoulders.
+
+Ethel, on the other hand, was somewhat darker, had a thin face, with
+hair that was thick, but rather short and bushy. Her eyes were small and
+dark, out of which she never seemed to look straight at one. They
+appeared always to be lurking and without any expression, unless it was
+an expression of dislike. Forsooth, she was a known disagreeable person,
+ostentatious, pompous, and hard to get along with.
+
+She was a bride of a few weeks and was then resting after a short
+honeymoon spent in Racine, Wisconsin, sixty miles north of Chicago.
+
+"Why, Mr. Baptiste is coming. Coming to call on your sister. He has been
+corresponding with her for some time, you understand," her mother
+returned in her mild, trained manner.
+
+"Oh!" echoed Ethel, apparently at a loss whether to be pleased or
+displeased. She was as often one way as the other, so her mother was
+apprehensive of something more.
+
+"I think you have met him, have you not?" her mother inquired.
+
+"Yes, I've met him," admitted Ethel. "Last winter while teaching."
+
+"And what do you think of him, my dear?"
+
+"Well, he has some ways I don't like."
+
+"What ways, please?" She had started to say "naturally" but thought
+better of it.
+
+"Oh, he does not possess the dignity I like in a man. Struck me as much
+too commonplace."
+
+"Oh," her mother grunted. She was acquainted with Ethel's disposition,
+which was extremely vain. She loved pomp and ceremony, and admired very
+few people.
+
+"What's he calling to see Orlean for?"
+
+Her mother looked up in some surprise. She regarded her daughter keenly.
+"Why, my dear! Why do you ask such a question! Why do young men call to
+see any young ladies?" Both turned at this moment to see Orlean coming
+down the stairway, and attention was fastened upon her following.
+
+"All 'dolled' up to meet your farmer," commented Ethel with a touch of
+envy in her voice. In truth she was envious. Her husband was just an
+ordinary fellow--that is, he was largely what she was making of him. It
+was said that she had found no other man who was willing to tolerate her
+evil temper and that, perhaps, was why she had married him. While with
+him, he had been anxious to marry her to satisfy his social ambition.
+Although an honest, hardworking fellow, he had come of very common
+stock. From the backwoods of Tennessee where his father had been a
+crude, untrained preacher, he had come to Chicago and had met and
+married her after a courtship of six years.
+
+"You look very nice, my dear," said her mother, addressing Orlean.
+Between the two children there was a great difference. Although older,
+Orlean was by far the more timid by disposition. An obedient girl in
+every way, she had never been known to cross her parents, and had the
+happy faculty of making herself generally liked, while Ethel invited
+disfavor.
+
+She was not so tall as Ethel, and while not as short as her mother, she
+was heavier than either. She was the image of her father who was dark,
+although not black. After her mother she had taken her hair, which,
+while not as fine, was nevertheless heavy, black and attractive. Her
+eyes were dark like her mother's, which were coal black. They were
+small and tender. Her expression was very frank; but she had inherited
+her mother's timidness and was subservient unto her father, and in a
+measure unto her younger sister, Ethel.
+
+She was a year older than the man who was coming to see her, and had
+never had a beau.
+
+"Do I look all right, mama?" she asked, turning so that she might be
+seen all around.
+
+"Yes, my dear," the other replied. She always used the term "my dear."
+She had been trained to say that when she was a young wife, and had
+never gotten out of the habit.
+
+"Now sit down, my daughter," she said judiciously, "and before the young
+man comes to call on you, tell me all about him."
+
+"Yes, and leave out nothing," interposed Ethel.
+
+"She is talking to your mother, Ethel. You will do her a favor by going
+to your room until it is over," advised their mother.
+
+"Oh, well, if I'm not wanted, then I'll go," spit out Ethel wickedly,
+whereupon she turned and hastened up the stairs to her room and slammed
+the door behind her.
+
+"Ethel has such a temper," her mother sighed deploringly. "She is so
+different from you, dear. You are like your mother, while she--well, she
+has her father's ways."
+
+"Papa is not as mean as Ethel," defended Orlean, ever obedient to her
+mother, yet always upholding her father, it mattered not what the issue.
+
+Her mother sighed again, shifted in her chair, and said no more on that
+subject. She knew the father better than Orlean, and would not argue.
+She had been trained not to....
+
+"Now where did you meet Mr. Baptiste, my dear?" she began.
+
+"Where I taught last winter, mother," she replied obediently.
+
+"And how did you come to meet him, daughter?"
+
+"Why, he was calling on a girl friend of mine, and I happened along
+while he was there, and the girl introduced us."
+
+"M-m. Was that the first time you had seen him?"
+
+"No, I had met him on the street when he was on the way down there."
+
+"I see. Did he speak to you on the street?"
+
+"Oh, no, mother. He did not know me."
+
+"But he might have spoken anyhow...."
+
+"But he was a gentleman, and he never spoke." She paused briefly, and
+then, her voice a trifle lower, said: "Of course he looked at me. But--"
+
+"Well, any man would do that. We must grant that men are men. How were
+you impressed with him when you met him later at this friend's house?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," returned Orlean hesitatingly. "He seemed to be a
+great talker, was very commonplace, dressed nicely but not showily. He
+knew quite a few people in Chicago that we know, and was born near the
+town in which I met him. He was just returning from New York, and--well,
+I rather admired him. He is far above the average colored man, I can
+say."
+
+"M-m," her mother mused thoughtfully, and with an air of satisfaction.
+She couldn't think of anything more to say just then, and upon looking
+at the clock which showed ten minutes of two, she said: "Well, you had
+better go in the parlor, and after he has called, when convenient, call
+me and permit me to meet him. You will be careful, my dear, and
+understand that we have raised you to be a lady, and exercise your usual
+dignity."
+
+"Yes, mama."
+
+On the hour the street door bell was pulled with a jerk, and arising,
+Orlean went toward the door expectantly.
+
+"Oh, how do you do," she cried, a moment later, her face lighted with a
+radiant smile as she extended her hand and allowed it to rest in that of
+Jean Baptiste's.
+
+"Miss McCarthy," he cried, with her hand in one of his, and his hat in
+the other, he entered the door.
+
+"May I take your hat?" asked Orlean, and taking it, placed it on the
+hall tree. In the meantime, his habitually observing eyes were upon her,
+and when she turned she found him regarding her closely.
+
+"Come right into the parlor, please, Mr. Baptiste, and be seated." She
+hesitated between the davenport and the chairs; while he, without ado,
+chose the davenport and became seated, and the look he turned upon her
+commanded more than words that she, too, be seated. With a little
+hesitation, she finally sank on the davenport at a conventional
+distance, beside him.
+
+"I was not certain, judging by your last letter, just when you would get
+here," she began timidly. He regarded her out of his searching eyes
+attentively. He was weighing her in the balance. He saw in those close
+glances what kind of a girl she was, apparently, for, after a respite,
+he relaxed audibly, but kept his eyes on her nevertheless.
+
+"I was not certain myself," he said. "I am so rushed these days that I
+do not know always just what comes next. But I am glad that I am here at
+last--and to see you looking so well."
+
+They exchanged the usual words about the weather, and other conventional
+notes, and then she called her mother.
+
+"Mama, I wish you to meet Mr. Baptiste. Mr. Baptiste, this is my
+mother."
+
+"Mr. Baptiste," said her mother, giving him her hand, "I am glad to know
+you."
+
+"The same here, madam," he returned cheerfully. "Guess your health is
+good!"
+
+"Very good, I'm glad to say."
+
+They talked for a time, and all were cheered to find themselves so
+agreeable.
+
+"I think I can slightly recall your people, Mr. Baptiste," her mother
+remarked, thoughtfully. "My husband, Dr. McCarthy," she said, giving him
+an honorary term, "pastored the church in the town near where you were
+born, many years ago."
+
+"I do say," he echoed non-commitally.
+
+"Do you recall it?" she asked.
+
+He appeared to be thinking.... He hardly knew what to say, then, after
+some deliberation he brightened and said: "I think I do. I was very
+young then, but I think I do recall your husband...."
+
+"Your name--the name of your family has always remained in my mind,"
+said she then, reflectively.
+
+"Indeed. It is a rather peculiar name."
+
+"It is so, I should say," she cried. "If it is quite fair, may I ask
+where or how your father came by such a name?"
+
+"Oh, it is very simple. My father, of course, was born a slave like
+most--almost all Negroes previous to the war--and took the name from his
+master who I suppose was of French descent."
+
+"Oh, that explains it. Of course that is natural. M-m; but it's a
+beautiful name, I must say."
+
+He smiled.
+
+"It is an illustrious name, also," she commented further.
+
+"But the man who carries it in this instance, is much to the contrary
+notwithstanding," he laughed depreciatingly.
+
+"It is a very beautiful day without, my dear," she said, addressing her
+daughter, "and perhaps Mr. Baptiste might like to walk out and see some
+of the town."
+
+"I most assuredly would," he cried, glad of something for a change. He
+was restless, and estimated that if he felt the air, with her at his
+side, it might help him.
+
+Orlean arose, went upstairs, and returned shortly wearing a large hat
+that set off her features. He rather liked her under it, and when they
+walked down the street together, he was conscious of an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Where would you like to go?" she asked as they neared the intersection.
+
+"For a car ride on the elevated," he replied promptly.
+
+"Then we will go right down this street. This is Thirty-third, and
+there's an elevated station a few blocks from here."
+
+They walked along leisurely, she listening attentively, while he talked
+freely of the West, his life there and what he was doing. When they
+reached the L. he assisted her upstairs to the station, and in so doing
+touched her arm for the first time. The contact gave him a slight
+sensation but he felt more easy when they had entered the car and taken
+a seat together. A moment later they were gazing out over the great city
+below as the cars sped through the air.
+
+It was growing dark when they returned, and she invited him to dinner.
+He accepted and thereupon met Ethel and her husband.
+
+Ethel was all pomp and ceremony, while her husband, with his cue from
+her, acted in the same manner, and they rather bored Jean Baptiste with
+their airs. He was glad when the meal was over. He followed Orlean back
+to the parlor, where they took a seat on the davenport again, and drew
+closer to her this time. Soon she said: "Do you play?"
+
+"Lord, no!" he exclaimed; "but I shall be glad to listen to you."
+
+"I can't play much," she said modestly; "but I will play what little I
+know." Thereupon she became seated and played and sang, he thought, very
+well. After she had played a few pieces, she turned and looked up at
+him, and he caught the full expression of her eyes. He could see that
+they were tender eyes; eyes behind which there was not apparently the
+force of will that he desired; but Orlean McCarthy was a fine girl. She
+was fine because she was not wicked; because she was intelligent and had
+been carefully reared; she was fine because she had never cultivated the
+society of undesirable or common people; but she was not a fine girl
+because she had a great mind, or great ability; or because she had done
+anything illustrious. And this Jean Baptiste, a judge of human nature
+could readily see; but he would marry her, he would be good to her; and
+she would, he hoped, never have cause to regret having married him. And
+thereupon he bent close to her, took her chin in his hand and kissed her
+upon the lips. She turned away when he had done this. In truth she was
+not expecting such from him and knew not just how to accept it. Her lips
+burned with a new sensation; she had a peculiar feeling about the heart.
+She arose and went to the piano and her fingers wandered idly over the
+keys as she endeavored to still her beating heart.
+
+Shortly she felt his hand upon her shoulder and she turned to hear him
+say:
+
+"Won't you come back into the parlor? I--would like to speak to you?"
+
+She consented without hesitation, and arising followed him timidly back
+to the seat they had occupied a few minutes before. Again seated he drew
+closely but did not deign to place his arm about her, looked toward the
+rear of the house where the others were, and, seeing that the doors were
+closed between them, sighed lightly and turned to her.
+
+"Now, Miss McCarthy," he began, evenly. "I am going to say something to
+you that I have never said to a woman before." He paused while she
+waited with abated breath.
+
+"I haven't known you long; but that is not the point. What I should say
+is, that in view of our brief correspondence, it will perhaps appear
+rather bold of me to say what I wish to. Yet, there comes a time in life
+when circumstances alter cases.
+
+"Now, to be frank, I have always regarded matrimony as a business
+proposition, and while sentiment is a very great deal in a way, business
+considerations should be the first expedient." She was all attention.
+She was peculiarly thrilled. It was wonderful to listen to him, she
+thought, and not for anything would she interrupt him. But _what_ did he
+mean; what was he _going_ to say.
+
+"Well, I, Miss McCarthy, need a wife. I want a wife; but my life has not
+been lived where social intercourse with girls of my race has been
+afforded, as you might understand." She nodded understandingly,
+sympathetically. Her woman's nature was to sympathize, and what she did
+was only natural with all women.
+
+"It has not been my privilege to know any girl of my race intimately; I
+am not, as I sit here beside you able to conscientiously, or truly, go
+to one and say: 'I love you, dear, and want you to be my wife,' in the
+conventional sense. Therefore, can I be forgiven if I say to you; if I
+ask you, Miss McCarthy," and so saying, he turned to her, his face
+serious, "to become my wife?"
+
+He had paused, and her soul was afire. Was _this_ a proposal or was it a
+play? For a time she was afraid to say anything. She wouldn't say no,
+and she was afraid to say yes, until--well, until she was positive that
+he had actually asked her to marry him. As it was, she hesitated. But it
+was so wonderful she thought. It was so beautiful to be so near such a
+wonderful young man, such a strong young man. The young men she had
+known had not been like this one. And, really, she wanted to marry. She
+was twenty-six, and since her sister had married, she had found life
+lonely. To be a man's wife and go and live alone with him must be
+wonderful. She was a reader, and he had sent her books. In all books and
+life and everything there was love. And love always had its climax in a
+place where one lived alone with a man. Oh, glorious! She was _ready to
+listen to anything he had to say_.
+
+"Now, I do not profess love to you, Miss McCarthy, in trying to make
+this clear. I could not, and be truthful. And I have always tried to be
+truthful. Indeed, I could not feel very happy, I am sure, unless I was
+truthful. To pretend that which I am not is hypocrisy, and I despise a
+hypocrite. I am an owner of land in the West, and I believe you will
+agree with me, that it behooves any Negro to acquire all he can. We are
+such a race of paupers! We own so little, and have such little prestige.
+Thankfully, I am at present, on the high road to success, and, because
+of that, I want a wife, a dear, kind girl as a mate, the most natural
+thing in the world." She nodded unaware. What he was saying had not been
+said to her in that way; but the way he said it was so much to the
+point. She had not been trained to observe that which was practical;
+indeed, her father was regarded as a most impractical man; but she liked
+this man beside her now, and was anxious for him to go on. He did.
+
+"I own 520 acres of very valuable land, and have consummated a deal for
+480 more acres. This land is divided into tracts of 160 acres each, and
+must be homesteaded before the same is patented.
+
+"Now, my grandmother, and also a sister are already in the West, and
+will homestead on two places. The other, I have arranged for you. The
+proceeding is simple. It will be necessary only for you to journey out
+West, file on this land as per my directions, after which we can be
+married any time after, and we can then live together on your claim. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"I think so," she said a bit falteringly.
+
+"Now, my dear, do not feel that I am a charter barterer; we can simply
+acquire a valuable tract of land by this process and be as we would
+under any other circumstances. Once you were out there all would be very
+plain to you, but at this distance, it is perhaps foreign to you, that I
+understand."
+
+She looked up into his face trustingly. Right then she wanted him to
+kiss her. It was all so irregular; but he was a man and she a maid, and
+she had never had a love.... He seemed to understand, and passionately
+he caught her to him, and kissed her many, many times.
+
+It was all over then, as far as she was concerned. She had not said yes
+or no with words, but her lips had been her consent, and she knew she
+would love him. It was the happiest hour in the simple life she had
+lived, and she was ready to become his forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PROPOSAL; A PROPOSITION; A CERTAIN MRS. PRUITT--AND A LETTER
+
+
+"Oh, mama, Mr. Baptiste has asked me to marry him," cried Orlean,
+rushing into the room and to the bed where her mother lay reading, after
+Jean Baptiste had left.
+
+"Why, my child, this--this is rather sudden, is it not? Mr. Baptiste has
+known you only a few months and has been corresponding with you just a
+little while," her mother said with some excitement, suddenly sitting
+erect in the bed.
+
+"Yes, mama, what you say is true, but he explained. He said--well, I
+can't quite explain, but he--he wants to marry me, mama, and you
+know--well, mama, you understand, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, I understand. All girls want husbands, but it must be regular. So
+take off your clothes, dear, get into bed and tell me just what Mr.
+Baptiste did say."
+
+The other did as instructed, and as best she could, tried to make plain
+what Jean had said to her regarding the land and all. She didn't make it
+very plain, and the matter rather worried her, but the fact that he had
+asked her to marry him, was uppermost in her mind, and she finally went
+to sleep happier than she had ever been in her life before.
+
+"Now, when the young man calls today, you will have him take his
+business up with me," her mother instructed judiciously the following
+morning.
+
+"He will explain it all, mama. He can do so very easily," she said, glad
+to be relieved of the difficult task. Yet she had her worries withal.
+Her mother was a very difficult person to explain anything to; besides,
+Orlean knew her mother was in constant fear of her father who was a
+Presiding Elder, traveling over the southern part of the state, and who
+came into the city only every few months. And if her mother was hard to
+make understand anything, her father was worse--and business, he knew
+next to nothing about although he was then five and fifty.
+
+Jean Baptiste had accomplished a great many more difficult tasks than
+explaining to his prospective mother-in-law in regard to the land. When
+she seemed to have sensed what it all meant, he observed that she would
+give a peculiar little start, and he would have to try it all over
+again. In truth she understood better than she appeared to; but it was
+the girl's father whom she feared to anger--for in all her life she had
+never been able to please him.
+
+But she found a way out along late that afternoon when a caller was
+announced.
+
+The visitor was a woman possessed of rare wits, and of all the people
+that Mrs. McCarthy disliked, and of all who disliked Mrs. McCarthy, Mrs.
+Pruitt was the most pronounced. Yet, it was Mrs. Pruitt who settled the
+difficulty and saved the day for Orlean and Jean Baptiste. But as to why
+Mrs. Pruitt should dislike Mrs. McCarthy, and Mrs. McCarthy should
+dislike Mrs. Pruitt, there is a story that was known among all their
+friends and acquaintances.
+
+When Miss Rankin had said what she did about Rev. N.J. McCarthy, she had
+not told all, nor had she referred to any woman in particular. She was
+not a scandal monger. But she knew as all Chicago knew, that in so far
+as the parties in question were concerned there was a friendship
+between Mrs. Pruitt and the Reverend that was rather subtle, and had
+been for years. And it was this which caused the two mentioned to
+dislike each other with an unspoken hatred.
+
+But Mrs. McCarthy trusted Orlean's going eight hundred miles west to
+file on a homestead, and what might come of it, to Mrs. Pruitt rather
+than to herself. While she could--was aware of it--she did not dare
+venture anything to the contrary where it might come back to her
+husband's ears, she knew Mrs. Pruitt had more influence with her husband
+than had she.... Therefore when she invited Jean Baptiste to meet Mrs.
+Pruitt, who had met him years before, she breathed a sigh of relief.
+
+It was over in a few hours. Mrs. Pruitt would accompany Orlean to the
+West and back, with Jean Baptiste paying expenses, and preparations were
+made thereto.
+
+In two days they had reached Gregory where the great land excitement was
+on. From over all the country people had gathered, and the demand for
+the land had reached its greatest boom since Jean Baptiste had come to
+the country.
+
+His sister and grandmother had arrived during his absence, and, after
+greeting them, he was handed a letter, which read:
+
+     _My dear Mr. Baptiste_:
+
+     Your most delightful letter was received by me today, and that you
+     may see just how much I appreciate it, I am answering at _once_ and
+     hope you will receive the same real soon.
+
+     To begin with: the reason I have not answered sooner is quite
+     obvious. I was away on a short visit, and only returned home today,
+     to find that your _most_ interesting letter had been here several
+     days. Think of it, and I would have given most _anything_ to have
+     had it sooner.
+
+     Well, in reference to what you intimated in your letter regarding
+     the land up there, I am deeply interested. Nothing strikes my fancy
+     so much as homesteading--which I think you meant. I would the best
+     in the world like to hold down a claim, and am sure I would make a
+     great homesteader. But why write more! An hour with you will
+     explain matters more fully than a hundred letters, so I will close
+     with this: You hinted about coming down, and my invitation is to do
+     so, and do so at _your earliest possible convenience_. I am waiting
+     with great anxiety your honored appearance.
+
+     In the meantime, trusting that you are healthy, hopeful and happy,
+     please believe me to be,
+
+     Cordially, sincerely--and anxiously yours,
+
+     IRENE GREY.
+
+He regarded the letter a little wistfully, and the next moment tore it
+to bits, flung it to the winds, and went about his business.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PRAIRIE FIRE
+
+
+     "My mother grabbed me, kissed and hugged me time and again when I
+     returned," Jean Baptiste read in the letter he received from his
+     wife-to-be a few days after she had returned to the windy city, and
+     he was satisfied. "She had been so worried, you see, because she
+     had written father nothing about it, and this was the first time in
+     her married life that she has dared do anything without a long
+     consultation with him. But she is glad I went now, and thinks you
+     are a very sensible fellow therefor. Papa sent a telegram advising
+     that he had been reappointed Presiding Elder over the same
+     district, and would come into Chicago for a few days before
+     entering into another year of the work.
+
+     "I am deluged with questions regarding the West, and it gives me a
+     great deal of pleasure to explain everything, and of the wonderful
+     work you are doing. Now, papa will be home in a few days, and,
+     knowing how hard he is to explain anything to, I am preparing
+     myself for quite a task. I will close now. With love and kisses to
+     you, believe me to be,
+
+     "Your own,
+
+     "ORLEAN."
+
+Jean now went about his duties. His sister and grandmother were with
+him, and he had planned to put them on their claims at once, so as to
+enable them to prove up as soon as possible. Therefore to their places
+he hauled lumber, coal and provisions. Their claims lay some forty-five
+miles to the northwest beyond the railroad which now had its terminus at
+Dallas. And, referring to that, we have not found occasion to mention
+what had taken place in the country in the two years passed.
+
+When the railroad had missed Dallas and struck Gregory and the other two
+government townsites, Dallas was apparently doomed, and in a few months
+most of the business men had gone, and the business buildings, etc., had
+been moved to Gregory. This town, because of the fact that it was only
+five miles from the next county line--the county that had been opened
+and which contained the land that Jean Baptiste had secured for his
+relatives and bride--was, for a time, expected to become the terminus.
+And to this end considerable activity had transpired with a view to
+getting the heavy trade that would naturally come with the opening and
+settlement of the county west, which had twice the area of the county in
+which Gregory lay.
+
+Now, it was shortly after the railroad was under course of construction
+that one, the chief promoter of the townsite, called on the "town Dad's"
+of Gregory with a proposition. The proposition was, in short, to move
+Dallas to Gregory, and thereupon combine in making Gregory a real city.
+
+Unfortunately for Gregory, her leaders were men who had grown up in a
+part of the country where the people did not know all they might have
+known. They consisted in a large measure of rustic mountebanks, who,
+because, and only because, Gregory happened to have been in the direct
+line of the railroad survey, and had thereby secured the road, took unto
+themselves the credit of it all. So, instead of entertaining the offer
+in a logical, business and appreciative manner, gave the promoter the
+big haw! haw! and turned their backs to him.
+
+There was a spell of inactivity for a time on the part of the said
+promoter. But in the fall, when the ground had frozen hard, and the corn
+was being gathered, all that was left in the little town of Dallas,
+laying beside the claim of Jean Baptiste, was suddenly hauled five miles
+west of the town of Gregory. And still before the Gregory illogics had
+time even to think clearly, business was going on in what they then
+chose to call New Dallas--and the same lay directly on the line of the
+two counties, and where the railroad survey ended.
+
+It is needless to detail the excitement which had followed this. "Lies,
+lies, liars!" were the epithets hurled from Gregory. "The railroad is in
+Gregory to stay; to stay for"--oh, they couldn't say how many years,
+perhaps a hundred; but all that noise to the west was a bluff, a simon
+pure bluff, and that ended it. That is, until they started the same
+noise over again. But it had not been a bluff. The tracks had been laid
+from Gregory to Dallas early in the spring that followed, and now Dallas
+was _the_ town instead of Gregory, and the boom that had followed the
+building of the town, is a matter never to be forgotten in the history
+of the country.
+
+Gregory's one good fortune was that she had secured the land office
+which necessitated that all filings should be entered there, and in this
+way got more of the boom that was occasioned by the land opening at the
+west than it had expected to when the railroad company had pushed its
+way west out of the town.
+
+It was about this time while great excitement was on and thousands of
+people were in the town of Dallas that something occurred that came near
+literally wiping that town off the map. Jean Baptiste had loaded his
+wagons and was on the way from his land to the claims of his sister when
+the same came to pass.
+
+The greatest danger in a new country comes after the grass has died in
+the fall and before the new grass starts in the spring. But in the fall
+when the grass is dry and crisp, and the surface below is warm and dry,
+is the time of prairie fires. No time could have been more opportune for
+such an episode than the time now was. The wind had been blowing for
+days and days, and had made the short grass very brittle, and the
+surface below as hot as in July. Jean Baptiste was within about a mile
+of where New Dallas now reposed vaingloriously on a hillside, her many
+new buildings rising proudly, defiantly, as if to taunt and annoy
+Gregory, against the skyline, when with the wind greeting him, he caught
+the smell of burning grass. He reached a hillside presently, and from
+there he could see for miles to the west beyond, and the sight that met
+his gaze staggered him.
+
+"A prairie fire," he cried apprehensively, and urged his teams forward
+toward Dallas. One glance had been sufficient to _convince_ him what it
+might possibly mean. A prairie fire with the wind behind it as this was,
+would bid no good for Dallas, and once there he could be of a little
+service, since he knew how to fight it.
+
+When he arrived at the outskirts of the embryo city, he was met by a
+frightened herd of humanity. With bags and trunks and all they could
+carry; with eyes wide, and mouths gaped, in terror they were hurrying
+madly from the town to an apparent place of safety--a plowed field
+nearby. Miles to the west the fire and smoke rose in great, dark
+reddened clouds, and cast--even at that distance, dark shadows over the
+little city. As he drew into the town, he could see a line of figures
+working at fire breaks before the gloom. They were the promoters and the
+townspeople, and he imagined how they must feel with death possible--and
+destruction, positive, coming like an angry beast directly upon them.
+
+Soon, Jean Baptiste, with wet horse blankets, was with them on the
+firing line. The speed at which the wind was driving the fire was
+ominous. Soon all the west was as if lost in the conflagration, for the
+sun, shining out of a clear sky an hour before was now shut out as if
+clouds were over all. The dull roar and crackle of the burning grass
+brought a feeling of awe over all before it. The heat became, after a
+time, intense; the air was surcharged with soot, and the little army
+worked madly at the firebreaks.
+
+Rolling, tumbling, twisting, turning, but always coming onward, the
+hurricane presently struck the fire guards. In that moment it was seen
+that a mass of thistles, dried manure, and all refuse from the prairie
+was sweeping before it, as if to draw the fire onward. The fire plunged
+over the guards as though they had not been made, pushed back the little
+army and rushed madly into the town.
+
+It was impossible now to do more. The conflagration was beyond control.
+Now in the town, an effort was therefore made to get the people out of
+their houses where some had even hidden when it appeared that all would
+be swept away in the terrible deluge of fire. One, two, three, four,
+five, six--ten houses went up like chaff, and the populace groaned,
+when, of a sudden, something happened. Like Napoleon's army at Waterloo
+there was a quick change. One of those rare freaks--but what some chose
+to claim in after years as the will of the Creator in sympathy with the
+hopeful builders, the wind gradually died down, whipped around, and in
+less than five minutes, was blowing from the east, almost directly
+against its route of a few minutes before. The fire halted, seemed to
+hesitate, and then like some cowardly thing, turned around and started
+back of the same ground it had raged over where it lingered briefly,
+sputtered, flickered, and then quickly died. And the town, badly
+frightened, hard worked, but thankful withal, was saved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+VANITY
+
+
+     "My father is home, and, oh! but he did carry on when he was
+     informed regarding my trip West to take the homestead," Orlean
+     wrote her betrothed in her next letter. "He was so much upset over
+     it that he went out of the house and walked in the street for a
+     time to still his intense excitement. When he returned, however, he
+     listened to my explanation, and, after a time, I was pleased to
+     note that he was pacified. And still later he was pleased, and when
+     a half day had passed he was tickled to death.
+
+     "Of course I was relieved then also, and now I am fully satisfied.
+     I have not written you as soon as I should have on this account. I
+     thought it would be best to wait until papa had heard the news and
+     was settled on the matter, which he now is. He has written you and
+     I think you should receive the letter about the same time you will
+     this. He has never been anxious in his simple old heart for me to
+     marry, but of course he understands that I must some day, and now
+     that I am engaged to you, he appears to be greatly pleased.
+
+     "By the way, I have not received the ring yet, and am rather
+     anxious. Of course I wish to be quite reasonable, but on the whole,
+     a girl hardly feels she's engaged until she is wearing the ring,
+     you know. Write me a real sweet letter, and make it long. In the
+     meantime remember me as one who thinks a great deal of you,
+
+     "From your fond,
+
+     "ORLEAN."
+
+Baptiste heard from his father-in-law-to-be in due time, and read the
+letter carefully, replying to the same forthwith.
+
+We should record before going further that the incident which had
+happened between them in his youth had been almost as completely buried
+as it had been before the day of its recent resurrection. In his reply
+he stated that he would come into the city Xmas, which meant of course,
+that they would meet and come to understand each other better. He was
+glad that the formalities were in part through with, and would be glad
+when it was over. He did not appreciate so much ado where so little was
+represented, as it were. He had it from good authority without inquiry
+that the Reverend McCarthy had never possessed two hundred dollars at
+one time in his life, and the formalities he felt compelled to go
+through with far exceeded that amount already. And with this in mind he
+began gathering his corn crop which he had been delayed in doing on
+account of the stress of other more urgent duties.
+
+He had been at work but a few days when snow began to fall. For days it
+fell from a northwesterly direction, and then turning, for a week came
+from an easterly direction. This kept up until the holidays arrived,
+therefore most of the corn crop over all the country was caught and
+remained in the field all the winter through. By the hardest work his
+sister and grandmother succeeded in reaching his place from their
+homesteads, and stayed there while he went into Chicago.
+
+"Mr. Baptiste, please meet my father," said Orlean when he called,
+following his arrival in the city again. He looked up to find a tall,
+dark but handsome old man extending his hand. He regarded him, studied
+him carefully in a flash, and in doing so his mind went back twenty
+years; to a memorable day when he had been punished and had followed it
+by running away. He extended his hand and grasped the other's, and
+wondered if he also remembered.... They exchanged greetings, and if the
+other recalled him, he gave no evidence of the fact in his expression.
+
+When he had sat beside the teacher, such a long time before, Baptiste
+recalled now, that at the back of the other's head there had been a
+white spot where the hair was changing color; but now this spot spread
+over all the head, and the hair was almost as white as snow. With his
+dark skin, this formed a contrast that gave the other a distinguished
+appearance which was noticeably striking. But his eyes did not meet with
+Baptiste's favor, though he was not inclined to take this seriously. But
+as he continued to glance at him at times during the evening he did not
+fail to see that the other seemed never to look straight and frankly
+into his eyes; and there was in his gaze and expression when he met
+Baptiste,--so Baptiste thought--a peculiar lurking, as if some hidden
+evil were looking out of the infinite depths of the other's soul. It
+annoyed Baptiste because every time he caught the other's gaze he
+recalled the incident of twenty years before, and wanted to forget it;
+declared he would forget it, and to that task he set himself, and
+apparently succeeded while in the city.
+
+With Ethel and her husband, whose name was Glavis, he never got along at
+all. Ethel was pompous, and known to be disagreeable; while Glavis was
+narrow, and a victim of his wife's temper and disposition. So unless
+the talk was on society and "big" Negroes, which positively did not
+interest Jean Baptiste, who was practical to the superlative, there was
+no agreement.
+
+So when Jean Baptiste returned West, he was conscious of a great relief.
+
+The severe winter passed at last and with early spring everybody
+completed the gathering of the corn and immediately turned to seeding
+their crops. Work was plentiful everywhere, and to secure men to
+complete gathering his crop of corn, Baptiste had the greatest
+difficulty. Stewarts had failed to secure any land at all--either of the
+four in the drawing, and, being unable to purchase relinquishments on
+even one quarter at the large sum demanded therefor, had gone toward the
+western part of the state and taken free homesteads. As for Agnes, she
+had apparently passed out of his life.
+
+He labored so hard in the cold, wet muddy fields in trying to get his
+corn out that he was taken ill, and was not able to work at all for
+days, and while so, he wrote his fiancee his troubles; and that since he
+was so indisposed, with a world of work and expense upon him she would
+do him a great favor if she would consent to come to him and be married.
+
+Now the McCarthys had given Ethel a big wedding although her husband
+received only thirteen dollars a week for his work. Two hundred dollars,
+so it was reported, had been expended on the occasion. Such display did
+not appeal to the practical mind of Jean. He had lived his life too
+closely in accomplishing his purpose to become at this late day a victim
+of such simple vanity; the ultra simple vanity of aping the rich. Upon
+this point his mind was duly set. The McCarthys had started to buy a
+home the summer before which was quite expensive, and had entered into
+the contract with a payment of three hundred dollars. The Reverend had
+borrowed a hundred dollars on his life insurance and paid this in, while
+Glavis had paid another. Ethel had used what money she had saved
+teaching, to expend in the big wedding, so Orlean had paid the other
+hundred out of the money she had saved teaching school.
+
+Now, if there was any big wedding for Orlean, then he, Jean Baptiste,
+knew that he would be expected to stand the expense. Therefore, Baptiste
+tried to make plain to Orlean in his letters the gravity of his
+position. She would be compelled to establish residence on her homestead
+early in May, and this was April, or forfeit her right and sacrifice all
+he had put into it.
+
+But Orlean became unreasonable--Jean Baptiste reasoned. She set forth
+that she did not think it right for her to go away out there and marry
+him; that he should come to her. She seemed to have lost sense of all he
+had written her, regarding the crops, responsibilities, and other
+considerations. He wrote her to place it up to her mother and father,
+which she did, to reply in the same tenor. They had not agreed to it,
+either. He replied then heatedly, and hinted that her father was not a
+business man else he would have realized his circumstances, and, as man
+to man, appreciated the same.
+
+The next letter he received had enclosed the receipt for the first
+payment of the purchase price of six dollars an acre, a charge the
+government had made on the land, amounting to some $210, in the first
+payment. She released him from his promise--but kept the ring.
+
+"Now, don't that beat the devil!" he exclaimed angrily, when he read the
+letter. "As though this receipt is worth anything to me; or that it
+would suffice to get back the $2,000 I paid the man for the
+relinquishment. The only thing that will suffice is, for her to go on
+the land, so I guess I'll have to settle this nuisance at once by going
+to Chicago and marrying her."
+
+So he started for the Windy City.
+
+At Omaha he sent a telegram to her to the effect that he was on the way,
+and would arrive in the city on the morrow.
+
+He arrived. He called her up from the Northwestern station, and she
+called back that it was settled; she had given him her word. The
+engagement was off.
+
+"Oh, foolish," he called jovially.... "It isn't," she called back
+angrily.... "Well," said he, "I'll call and see you...." "No need," she
+said.... "But you'll see me," he called.... "Yes, I'll see you. I'll do
+you that honor...."
+
+Now when Jean Baptiste had called over the 'phone, Glavis had answered
+the call, and thereupon had started an argument that Orlean had
+concluded by taking the receiver from his hand. Of course she had jilted
+Jean Baptiste and had sent back the papers; moreover, she had declared
+she would not marry him--_under any circumstances_. But she would
+attend to that herself and did not need the assistance of her
+brother-in-law....
+
+Glavis was quite officious that morning--acting under his wife's orders.
+When the bell rang, although he should have been at his work an hour
+before he opened the door. Baptiste was there and Glavis started to say
+something he felt his wife would be pleased to know he said. But, being
+affected with a slight impediment of speech, his tongue became twisted
+and when he could straighten it out, Baptiste had passed him and was on
+his way to the rear of the house where Orlean stood pouting. Ethel stood
+near with her lips protruding, and Mrs. McCarthy, whom he had termed,
+"Little Mother Mary," stood nearby at a loss as to what to say.
+
+"Indeed, but it looks more like you were waiting for a funeral than for
+me," as he burst in upon them. Pausing briefly, he observed the one who
+had declared everything against him, turned her face away and refused to
+greet him.
+
+"What's the matter, hon'," he said gaily and laughed, at the same time
+gathering her into his arms.
+
+"Will you look at that!" exclaimed Ethel, ready to start something. But
+Glavis, countered twice the morning so soon, concluded at last that it
+was his time to keep his place. So deciding, he cut his eyes toward
+Ethel, and said: "Now, Ethel, this is no affair of yours," and cautioned
+her still more with his eyes.
+
+"No, Ethel," commanded Orlean, "This is _my_ affair. I--" she did not
+finish, because at that moment Jean Baptiste had kissed her.
+
+"It beats anything I ever witnessed," cried Ethel, almost bursting to
+get started.
+
+"Then don't witness it," said Glavis, whereupon he caught her about the
+waist and urged her up the stairs and locked her in their room.
+
+"You've been acting something awful like," chided Baptiste, with Orlean
+still in his arms. She did not answer just then. She could not. She
+decided at that moment, however, to take him into the parlor, and there
+tell him all she said she would. Yes, she would do that at once. So
+deciding, she caught him firmly by the arm, and commanded:
+
+"Come, and I will get you told!"
+
+He followed meekly. When they reached the parlor she was confronted with
+another proposition. Where would they sit? She glanced from the chairs
+to the davenport; but he settled it forthwith by settling upon the
+davenport. She hesitated, but before she had reached a decision, she
+found herself pulled down by his side--and dreadfully close. Well, she
+decided then, that this was better, after all, because, if she was close
+to him he could hear her better. She would not have to talk so loud. She
+did not like loud talking. It was too "niggerish," and she did not like
+that. But behold! He, as soon as she was seated, encircled her waist
+with his arm. Dreadful! Then, before she could tell him what she had
+made up all the night before to say to him, she felt his lips upon
+hers--and, my! they were so warm, and tender and soft. She was confused.
+Ethel and her father had said that the country where Jean lived was
+wild; that all the people in it were hard and coarse and rough--but
+Jean's kisses were warm, and soft and tender. She almost forgot what she
+had intended telling him. And just then he caught her to him, and that
+felt so--well, she did not know--could not say how it felt; but she was
+forgetting all she had planned to tell him. She heard his voice
+presently, and for a moment she caught sight of his eyes. They were real
+close to hers, and, oh, such eyes! She had not known he possessed such
+striking ones. How they moved her! She was as if hypnotized, she could
+not seem to break the spell, and in the meantime she was forgetting more
+of what she had made up her mind to say. He spoke then, and such a
+wonderful voice he seemed to have! How musical, how soft, how
+tender--but withal, how strong, how firm, how resolute and determined it
+was. She was held in a thraldom of strange delight.
+
+"What has been the matter with my little girl?" And thereupon, as if
+they were not close enough, he gathered her into his arms. Oh, what a
+thrill it gave her! She had forgotten now, all she had had in mind to
+say and it would take an hour or so, perhaps a day, to think and
+remember it all over again.... "Hasn't she wanted to see me? Such
+beautiful days are these! Lovely, grand, glorious!" She looked out
+through the window. It _was_ a beautiful day, indeed! And she had not
+observed it before.
+
+"And hear the birds singing in the trees," she heard. And thereupon she
+listened a moment and heard the birds singing. She started. Now she had
+felt she was thoughtful. She really loved to listen to the twitter of
+birds--and it was springtime. It was life, and sunshine and happiness.
+She had not heard the birds before that morning, therefore it must have
+been because she had let anger rule instead of sunshine. And as if he
+had read her thoughts, she heard his voice again:
+
+"And because you were angry--gave in to evil angriness and pouted
+instead of being cheerful, happy and gay, you have failed to observe how
+beautiful the sun shone, and that the birds were singing in the trees."
+
+She felt--was sensitive of a feeling of genuine guilt.
+
+"And away out west, where the sunshine kisses the earth, and the wheat,
+the corn, the flax, and the oats grow green in great fields, everybody
+there is about his duty; for, when the winter has been long, cold and
+dreary, the settlers must stay indoors lest they freeze. So with such
+days as these after the long, cold and dreary winters, everybody must be
+up and doing. For if the crops are to mature in the autumn time, they
+must be placed in the earth through seed in the springtime. But there
+is, unfortunately, one settler, called St. Jean Baptiste, by those who
+know him out there, who is not in his fields; his crops are not being
+sown; his fields--wide, wide fields, which represent many thousands of
+dollars, and long years of hard, hard work, are lying idle, growing to
+wild weeds!"
+
+"But, Jean," she cried of a sudden. "It is not so?"
+
+"Unfortunately it is so, my love!"
+
+"Then--Jean--you must go--hurry, and sow your crops, also!" she echoed.
+
+"For years and years has Jean Baptiste labored to get his fields as they
+are. For, in the beginning, they were wild, raw and unproductive,
+whereupon naught but coyotes, prairie dogs and wild Indians lived; where
+only a wild grass grew weakly and sickly from the surface and yielded
+only a prairie fire that in the autumn time burned all in its path; a
+land wherein no civilized one had resided since the beginning of time."
+
+"Oh, Jean!"
+
+"And he has longed for woman's love. For, according to the laws of the
+Christ, man should take unto himself a wife, else the world and all its
+people, its activity, its future will stop forthwith!"
+
+"You are so wonderful!"
+
+"Not wonderful, am I," quoth Baptiste. "Just a mite practical."
+
+"But it is wonderful anyhow, all you say!"
+
+"And yet my Orlean does not love me yet!"
+
+"I didn't say that," she argued, thinking of what she had written him.
+
+"Since therefore she has not said it, then methinks that she does not."
+
+"I--I--oh, you--are awful!"
+
+"And she will not go to live alone with me and share my life--and my
+love!"
+
+"I--oh, I didn't say I wouldn't do all that." She was done for then. She
+had shot her last defense.
+
+"Then you will?" he asked anxiously. "You will go back with me, and be
+mine, all mine and love me forever?"
+
+She sought his lips and kissed him then, and he arose and caught her
+close to him and kissed her again and looked into her eyes, and she was
+then all his own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MARRIED
+
+
+"Why--why--why, what does this mean!" exclaimed "Little Mother Mary"
+coming upon them at this minute. Notwithstanding the fact that she was
+surprised, it was obviously a glad surprise. She admired Jean Baptiste,
+and had been much upset over their little controversy. She understood
+the root of the trouble, and knew that it had been on account of what
+Baptiste had written and intimated in the letter regarding the Elder.
+Her husband did not admire real men, although of course, he was not
+aware of it. In truth, he admired no man, other than himself. And when
+others did not do likewise, he usually found excuses to disagree with
+them in some manner.
+
+Jean Baptiste was not the type of man to make friends with her husband.
+He was too frank, too forward, too progressive in every way ever to
+become very intimate with N. Justine McCarthy. To begin with, Jean had
+never flattered his vanity as it was not his wont to give undue praise.
+And as yet he had no reason especially to admire the Reverend. That it
+had not been Orlean who had objected to coming West to marry him he was
+aware. Nor had it been her mother. It had been N. Justine who had a way
+of making his faults and shortcomings appear to be those of
+others--especially within his family, and in this instance his elder
+daughter bore the blame.
+
+"What would you expect us to do, Little Mother," he said, turning a
+beaming face upon her.
+
+"But--Orlean, I thought--I thought--"
+
+"Oh, Mother," cried Jean Baptiste, "don't think. It will hurt you.
+Besides, it will not be necessary for you to think any more with regards
+to us now. We are as we were, and that is all. There is nothing wrong
+between us--never has been, nor between you and I now either, is there?"
+Whereupon he drew her down and upon the davenport and placed himself
+between her and her daughter.
+
+"Now let's reason this thing out together," he began. "There is no need
+for quarreling. We'll leave that to idle, disagreeable people. The first
+thing in life is to know what you want--and then go get it. That's the
+way I do. When I proposed to Orlean I did so after due consideration.
+There has been some little disagreement with regards to my coming to get
+her, which was due to the fact that I have been so overrun with work
+until I really felt I had not the time to spare. However, here I am and
+ready to marry her. So let's get those who are concerned together and
+have it over with. What do you say to it?" he said, looking from one to
+the other. In the meantime, Ethel had crept down from upstairs to see
+what was going on, and saw the three on the davenport together, with
+Jean Baptiste in the middle. Whereupon, she turned and hurried back
+upstairs to where her husband was, with these words: "Glavis, Glav--is,"
+she cried all out of breath with exasperation. "I just wish you'd look!
+Just step down there and look!"
+
+"Why, why--what is the matter, Ethel!" he cried, rising from his chair
+in some excitement.
+
+"Why, that Jean Baptiste is sitting down there on the davenport with
+mama on one side of him and my sister on the other!"
+
+"Oh, is that all!" he breathed with relief.
+
+"Is that all!" she echoed in derision, her narrow little face screwed
+up.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Will you 'well' me when that man just comes in here and takes the house
+and all that's in it!"
+
+"Oh, Ethel." he argued. "Will you use some sense!"
+
+"Will I use some sense! After what Orlean said? You remember well enough
+what she said, no longer than last night when she received that
+telegram. That she was through with that man; that she was not going to
+marry him, and had sent his old papers back to him to prove it!"
+
+"Well, now, get all excited over the most natural thing in the world!
+Have you never seen a woman who never changed her mind--especially when
+there was a man in the case?"
+
+"Of course I have," she shouted. "I am one who has never changed their
+mind!"
+
+"I agree, and that is what's the matter with you," so saying, he made
+his get-away to avoid what would have followed.
+
+"Now, you will have to deal with my husband in regard to this matter,
+Mr. Baptiste," admonished Mother Mary. She had given into him along with
+Orlean. It was useless to try to pit their weak wits against the
+commanding and domineering reason, the quick logic and searching
+intuition of Jean Baptiste. So they had quickly resigned to the
+inevitable, and left him to the rock of unreason, the Reverend N. J.
+McCarthy.
+
+"All settled. I'll bounce right out and get him on the wire. Best words
+to send are: 'Please come to Chicago today. Important!' Will that be
+alright?"
+
+"Jean Baptiste, you are a wonder!" cried Orlean, and, encircling his
+neck with her arms, kissed him impulsively.
+
+In answer they received by special delivery a letter that night, stating
+that his honor, N.J., was on the way, and would arrive the following
+morning. Preparations were entered into at once therefore for a simple
+wedding, only Ethel holding aloft from the proceedings. It was while at
+the supper table that evening that Orlean took upon herself to try to
+set Baptiste right with what was before him in dealing with regards to
+her father.
+
+"Now, my dear," she said lovingly, "if you would get along with papa,
+then praise him--you understand, flatter him a little. Make him think
+he's a king."
+
+"Oh-ho!" he laughed, whereat she was embarrassed. "That's the 'bug,'
+eh!"
+
+"Well," she hesitated, awkwardly, "he _is_ rather vain."
+
+Baptiste was thoughtful. Rev. McCarthy was vain.... He must be praised
+if one was to get along with him.... Make him think he was a king. His
+Majesty, Newton Justine, sounded very well as a title. All he needed
+now, then, was a crown. If necessary for peace in the family he would
+praise him, although it was not to his liking.
+
+Jean Baptiste had little patience with people who must be praised. In
+his association he had chosen men, men who were too busy to look for or
+care for praise. But he failed to reckon then that he was facing another
+kind of person, one whom he was soon to learn.
+
+His Majesty, Newton Justine, arrived on schedule the next morning, very
+serious of expression, and apparently tired into the bargain. Baptiste
+recalled when he saw him what he had been advised with regards to making
+him think he was a king. "Well," sighed Baptiste, "providing 'His
+Majesty' is not a despot, we may be able to get along for a day or two."
+
+Later, when convenient, Baptiste attempted and was apparently
+successful in making the matter so plain that despite his reputed
+dislike for fair reasoning, the Elder was compelled to call his daughter
+and say:
+
+"Now, Orlean, you have heard. Are you in love with this man?" The
+melting smile she bestowed him with was quite sufficient, so seeing, he
+continued:
+
+"And do you wish to become his wife?" She looked down into her lap then,
+turned her hands in childish fashion, and replied in a very small voice:
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then, that settles it," said the Elder, and thereafter made himself
+very amiable. By the morrow arrangements had been completed for a simple
+little home wedding, and at two o'clock, the ceremony was performed.
+
+And when the bride and groom had been kissed according to custom, a
+storm without broke of a sudden, and the wind blew and the rain fell in
+torrents. So terrible became the storm that the piano, which some one
+played loudly, as if to shut out the roar of the storm outside, could
+hardly be heard. And in the meantime, so dark did it become that at two
+thirty the lights had to be turned on, the people could hardly
+distinguish each other in the rooms. Nor did the storm abate as the
+afternoon wore on, but continued in mad fury far into the night and the
+guests were compelled to leave in the downpour and wind.
+
+And there were among those who departed, many who thought and did not
+speak. They were, for the most part, the new Negro, hence loathe to
+admit of superstitions--besides, they had great respect for the two who
+were about to start upon matrimony's uncertain journey. But regardless
+of what they might have said openly, it was a long time before they
+forgot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ORLEAN RECEIVES A LETTER AND ADVICE
+
+
+"Jean!" called Orlean three months later, as she came out of the house,
+the house where Stewarts had lived, and which Jean Baptiste had rented
+for the season so as to be near all his land in the older opened county.
+"I have something to tell you."
+
+"What is it, dear?" he replied, drawing his horses to a stop, while she
+climbed on the step of the spring wagon he was riding in. He could see
+she was excited, and he was apprehensive.
+
+She got up on the seat beside him, and placing her arms around him,
+began to cry. He petted her a moment and then, placing his hand under
+her chin, raised her head and said: "Well, now, my dear, what is the
+matter?" whereupon, he kissed her. Drawing his head down then, she
+whispered something in his ear.
+
+"Oh!" he cried, his face suddenly aglow with an expression she had never
+seen in it before. The next instant he caught and drew her closely to
+him, and kissed her fondly. "I am so happy, dear; the happiest I have
+been since we married!"
+
+"But, Jean!" she started and then hesitated. He appeared to understand.
+
+"Now, my wife, you must not feel that way," he admonished. "That is the
+ultimate of young married life--children. Of course," he added, slowly,
+"couples are not always ready they feel, but such does not wait. We are
+not always ready to die, but old death comes when he gets ready and
+there's no use trying to argue a delay. So now, instead of looking
+distressed, just fancy what a great thing, a beautiful and heavenly
+thing after all it is, and be real nice." He kissed her again and
+assisted her from the buggy, and while he drove to his work she went
+into the house and picked up a letter.
+
+It was from Ethel, and ran:
+
+     "_My dear sister_:
+
+     "I am writing you to say that I am very unhappy. You cannot imagine
+     how disagreeable, how very inconvenient it is to be as I am. Never
+     did I want a child--or children; but that silly man I'm married to
+     is so crazy for a family that he has given me no peace.
+
+     "As a result I must sit around the house during these beautiful
+     summer days and be satisfied to look out of the window and go
+     nowhere. Oh, it is distressing, and I am so mad at times I can seem
+     not to see! Can you sense it: Him so anxious for a family, when
+     what he earns is hardly sufficient to keep us in comfort and
+     maintain the payments on the home. I have tried to reason with him
+     on the score, but it is no use at all. So while I sit around so
+     angry I cannot see straight, he dances around gleefully, wondering
+     whether it will be a girl or a boy!
+
+     "Now, I thought I would write you in time so that you could protect
+     yourself. I am, therefore, sending you certain receipts which have
+     been given me--but too late! They will not be again, though--trust
+     me to attend to that! Don't wait too long, and use them as per
+     direction. Do it and run no chance of getting to be as I am.
+
+     "I hope you are well and write me any time anything happens, and if
+     these don't work, then tell me right quick and I will send you
+     something that is sure. I depend on you taking care of yourself
+     now, and don't let anybody put foolishness in your head.
+
+     "Hoping to hear from you soon, and that you are safe as yet,
+     believe me to be,
+
+     "As ever your sister,
+
+     "ETHEL."
+
+When she had completed the letter, she was thoughtful as her eyes
+wandered out to where her husband worked away in the field beyond. She
+tried to see a few months ahead. It was then midsummer, and Ethel and
+her father and all the girls were writing her already that they supposed
+they might as well not expect her until Xmas. But Jean had intimated
+already that he did not expect to go to Chicago Xmas. Still, that was
+several months away, and the dry weather of which he was complaining at
+the present, might be offset by rain soon. So she might get to see old
+Chicago Xmas after all. But she would be unable to go out if she did go
+to the city Xmas with what she knew now. She pondered, and while she did
+so, she read through certain receipts her sister had sent her. One was
+very simple, and she was tempted. It stated that the blossom of a
+certain weed was positive when made into a tea.
+
+She was thoughtful a moment, and her eyes wandered again toward where
+her husband worked in the field. Finally they fell upon the creek that
+ran near the house, and she gave a start as she saw growing upon its
+banks, a peculiar weed with purple blossom. She wondered what kind of
+weeds they were. She made a mental note of the same and decided that
+when her husband came to luncheon she would ask him. She sighed then as
+she thought of the months to come, and what was to come with it.
+Presently, having nothing else urgent to do, she picked up paper, pen
+and ink and replied to Ethel's letter:
+
+     "_My dear sister_:
+
+     "Receipt of your recent letter is here acknowledged, and in reply,
+     will say that I have read the same carefully, and made a note of
+     what you said.
+
+     "I hardly know how to reply to what you set forth in your letter,
+     and I am not fully decided. But I might as well admit that I have
+     just discovered that I also am to become a mother and, Jean, like
+     Glavis, is tickled to death! I just told him this morning and he
+     said it was the happiest moment he had experienced since we have
+     been married.
+
+     "I am entirely at a loss what to do; but I will consult him
+     regarding it. I don't think I ought to do as you advise--not let
+     him know anything--because that would hardly be fair. He is just as
+     good to me as he can be, and considers my every need. Sometimes I
+     do not think he loves me as much as I would wish, but what can I
+     do! He is my husband and gives me all his attention. I am,
+     therefore, afraid that he will object to the measures you suggest.
+     I am very much afraid he will, but I will ask him.
+
+     "He's a perfect dear, so jolly, so popular everywhere about, and, I
+     repeat, so good to me that I hardly think my conscience would be
+     clear if I did something in secret and something that he would not
+     like.
+
+     "In the meantime, thanking you for your suggestions, and begging
+     you not to act foolish, I am,
+
+     "Your affectionate sister,
+
+     "ORLEAN."
+
+Jean Baptiste drove into the yard at noon singing cheerfully. He was met
+by his wife at the gate which she opened. The wind was blowing from the
+south, and the air was very hot. It had been blowing from that direction
+for days. He stopped singing while he unhitched the horses and gazed
+anxiously toward the northwest.
+
+"What is it, dear?" she inquired, observing the old frown upon his face.
+He shook his head before replying, and tried to smile.
+
+"This wind."
+
+"The wind?"
+
+"Yes. It's terribly hot. It's awfully drying. The oats are suffering,
+the wheat is hurt. I wish it would rain, and rain soon," whereat he
+shook his head again and his frown grew deeper.
+
+He led the horses to the well to drink and while they were drinking she
+stood near, holding her hands and looking at the patch of strange weeds
+that were in blossom near. Presently she observed him, and, seeing that
+his mind was concerned with problems, she would satisfy her mind.
+
+"Jean!" she called.
+
+"Yes," he replied abstractedly.
+
+"What kind of weeds are those?" and she pointed to the wild blossoms.
+
+"Those!" he said, his mind struggling between what he was thinking about
+and the question. "Oh, those are evil weeds," he concluded, and turning,
+led his horses into the barn.
+
+"Evil weeds!" she echoed. Slowly she turned and looked again. She was
+strangely frightened. Then taking courage, she went playfully to where
+they grew, and, gathering a bunch in a sort of bouquet, carried them
+into the house, laid them down, and began to place the meal upon the
+table.
+
+"Why, Orlean," she heard, and turned to meet her husband. "What are you
+doing with these old things in here! My dear, you could find something
+better for the table than these things! Just outside the fence in the
+road roses are blooming everywhere, and the air is charged with their
+sweet fragrance." He paused briefly and held them to his nose. "And,
+besides, they stink. Booh!" he cried, holding them away. "They make me
+sick! Now, if you'll agree I'll throw these things away and run out into
+the road and get you a big bunch of roses. Will that be all right,
+dear?"
+
+"Yes," she answered, and he did not understand why her eyes were
+downcast.
+
+"Good!" he exclaimed, and she was glad to see that the frown upon his
+face was gone, if only for a while. "I'll bring you some nice flowers.
+You know," he paused in the doorway and turned to her, "I never liked
+this weed, anyhow. I have always connected them with all that's vile and
+evil." So saying, he turned and a few minutes later she heard his voice
+coming cheerfully from the road where he picked the various shades of
+roses.
+
+"Now, my dear," said he pleasantly, "I have brought you a real bouquet,"
+and he placed the vase containing the same in the center of the table,
+stood back and regarded the flowers admiringly.
+
+"Why," he suddenly exclaimed, his eyes widening, "what is the matter?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," she stammered more than spoke.
+
+"Now there must be something?" While standing where he was he caught
+sight of Ethel's letter. Immediately she reached forth to snatch it from
+beneath his gaze. He made no effort to take it, but regarded her in the
+meantime wonderingly. The receipt concerning the weed lay in plain
+sight, and he could hardly help reading it. She caught it up then, while
+he still looked after her wonderingly. He raised his hand to his head
+and was thoughtful, before saying:
+
+"Why were you so disturbed over me seeing the letter, Orlean? You have
+never been so before. Of course," he said, and hesitated, and then went
+on patiently, "I have no wish to pry into women's affairs or secrets,
+but I am curious to know why you acted as you did?"
+
+She was an emotional girl. Never in her life had she violated the rules
+of her parents, and she had never thought of disobeying, or keeping
+secrets from her husband. When she was confronted with the situation,
+she broke down thereupon, and crying on his breast, told him all the
+letter contained, and what the receipt meant.
+
+He listened patiently and when she was through he hesitated before
+speaking. After a moment he led her to the table, sat down, and fell to
+eating the luncheon.
+
+"When we have dined," he paused after a few minutes to remark, "and you
+have washed the dishes, we will spare a few minutes for a talk, Orlean."
+
+"Now," he resumed at the appointed time, "when we married, Orlean, it
+was my hope--and I feel sure 'twas yours, that we would live happily."
+
+"Of course, Jean," she agreed tremulously.
+
+"Then, dear, there are certain things we should come to an understanding
+thereto lest we find our lives at variance. To begin with, I wish your
+sister would not write you such letters as the one you received today.
+But, if she must and offer--yes, criminal advice, I trust you will not
+incline toward such seriously. You and I, as well as those who have gone
+before us; and as those who must perforce come after us, did not come
+into this world altogether by ours or others' providence. And if the
+world, and the people in the world are growing wicked, as yet, thank
+God, race suicide has not come to rule!" He was meditatively silent then
+for a time, gazing as if into space off across the sunkist fields.
+
+"First," he resumed, "selfishness is a bad patient to nurse. Secondly,
+we must appreciate that ours--our lives have a duty to fulfill. Bringing
+children into the world and rearing them to clean and healthy man and
+womanhood is that duty--our greatest duty. And now with regards to that
+receipt, or receipts.
+
+"I will not seek to deny that such practices are not in some measure a
+custom. Such very often are given thoughtlessly as to the infinite harm,
+ill health and unhappiness they might later bring. But the fact that
+others cultivate and heed such is no reason, dear, do you feel, that we
+should?"
+
+"No, Jean," she admitted without hesitation and very humbly.
+
+"I feel more inspired to say this at this point in our new union,
+Orlean, because I cannot believe that it is your nature to be wicked; to
+wilfully practice and condone the wrong."
+
+"Oh, Jean," she cried, moving toward him; laying her hands upon him, and
+seeking his eyes with her soul standing out in hers. "You are so noble
+and so good," and in the next minute she was weeping silently upon his
+shoulder.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The dry weather continued over all the West, and for two weeks the wind
+remained in the south, and blew almost day and night. Heretofore, it had
+been known to blow not more than a week at the most, before the heat
+would be broken by a rain. And coincident with the heat and drought, the
+crops began to fire, plants of all kinds to wither, and every one in the
+country of our story became ominous.
+
+But the Creator seemed to be with the struggling people of the new
+country, the drought was broken by rain before the crops were destroyed;
+the harvest was very good, and with the completion of the same, Orlean
+met her husband one evening with a letter, announcing that her father
+was coming to visit soon. And the next day they got another letter--no,
+a paper. It was a summons, and concerned Orlean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+EUGENE CROOK
+
+
+Tripp County, laying just to the west of the town of Dallas and where
+Jean Baptiste had purchased the relinquishments for his people was a
+large county and rich in soil. There had been little delay on the part
+of the railroad company in extending their line into it. But before this
+occurred--before even the county had been thrown open to the settlers,
+new promoters, conscious of the great success which had been achieved by
+the men who had promoted Dallas, purchased an allotment from an Indian,
+or a breed and started a town thereon almost directly in the center of
+the county in a valley of a creek known as the Dog Ear.
+
+And it was about this time that a political ring was formed in the newer
+county for the avowed and subtle purpose of securing the county seat.
+Settlement on the whole had not as yet been possible, so the politics
+included the rabble. The cowboy, and the ex-cowboy; saloon men,
+bartenders--some freighters, squaw men and cattle thieves represented
+the voters. So it happened that before the bona-fide settlers had a
+chance in the way of political expression, they found the county
+organized, controlled and exploited by this ilk. But, as we have already
+stated, a town in the West--nor the East for that matter--is ever a town
+until a railway has found its way thither.
+
+The difficulty began when the survey was run. Notwithstanding the fact
+that the county seat had been secured by the promoters of the town in
+the valley of the Dog Ear, the surveyors, from the route they took, did
+not seem to have had any orders to go via of Lamro, the county seat in
+question. On the contrary, they went smack through a section of land
+that had been secured in due time by the promoters who had made Dallas
+possible as a town.
+
+Where the line of the survey stretched, less than two miles northwest of
+the county seat, they started a town, and were now bidding the
+townspeople and business men of the county seat to move their building
+over. A bitter fight was the answer--at the start. A railroad is
+everything almost to an aspiring town, and these people were capable of
+appreciating the fact. As a result, the little town in the valley a few
+months later, was no more. Another election was held and through the
+same the bona fide settlers asserted their rights and administered a
+severe rebuke by defeating the town in the valley and electing the new
+town which had been entitled Winner as the county seat.
+
+Nevertheless, a few people remained in what was left of the valley town.
+Some were unable to move their buildings, others were indifferent, while
+others still remained there for purposes of their own.
+
+Among those who remained, there was a banker, whose little bank reposed
+all alone with caves and broken sidewalks and all the leavings of the
+moved away town about. His name was Crook, Eugene Crook, and it was
+common knowledge that he was fond of his name and conducted his affairs
+so as to justify it. 'Gene Crook would rather, it was said, acquire
+something by beating some one in a deal than to secure it honestly. He
+possessed an auto, and had business to the northwest of the town some
+fifteen or eighteen miles, and had been seen in the neighborhood quite
+often.
+
+Perhaps it was due in some measure to an unscrupulous character who had
+drawn a claim in those parts, and pretended to be homesteading there;
+but who in truth homesteaded more around the saloons of Winner and
+Crook's town than he did on the claim. His name was James J. Spaight.
+
+James J. Spaight, and Eugene Crook were very close. 'Gene Crook had
+advanced Spaight considerable money towards his claim, and had him tied
+up in many ways, therefore, they were understood cohorts.
+
+"They are never here," said Spaight, jumping from the auto and sweeping
+his hand about over a beautiful quarter section of land, one of the
+finest in the county.
+
+"But I see a sod shack over in the draw," returned Crook. "They have
+apparently called themselves establishing a residence on the land."
+
+"Yes; but let me tell you," said Spaight. "I can get you this piece of
+land--I can win it for you through contest. I know a thing or two, and I
+believe when we let the fellow know that we've got him dead to right,
+he'll weaken, and sell it to you for a song."
+
+"Well," said Crook, thoughtfully, "we'll drive back to town and consult
+Duval about it."
+
+On the way they drove by the homesteaders near and held subtle
+conversations with many, always in the end ascertaining how many times
+the people had been seen on the claim they had just left.
+
+When they returned to the town in the valley, and retired into the
+private office of the little bank, Spaight went for Duval, a lawyer, who
+came forthwith. He was a tall, lean creature who attracted attention by
+his unusual height and leanness. He, also, was one of the "left overs."
+He was told of the beautiful homestead, and that the claimant had been
+seen only a few times there, and of the proposition to contest it.
+
+"Who holds the place, did you say?" inquired Duval in his deep, droll
+voice, crossing his legs judiciously.
+
+"Why, a nigger woman," said Spaight.
+
+"A Negro woman?"
+
+"Yes, what do you think of that?" pursued Spaight, his eyes widening. "I
+told Crook that if he worked a bluff good and right he could more than
+likely scare them out. A nigger in a white man's country!"
+
+Crook smiled; Duval was thoughtful.
+
+"What's her name--this Negress? Is she a single woman or married?"
+
+"Why, she _was_ single when she took it, of course. But she's got
+married since. I think the guy she married put up the money, and that's
+where we have them again."
+
+"And the name?" inquired Duval again.
+
+"Oh, yes, Baptiste. That's it. Jean Baptiste is her husband's name."
+
+"Oh, hell!" cried Duval, and spat upon the floor.
+
+"Why--what's the matter?" cried Crook and Spaight in chorus.
+
+"I was struck with the joke."
+
+"The joke?"
+
+"Yes. The bluffing."
+
+"But we don't understand?"
+
+"Then you ought to. Jean Baptiste, huh! You'll bluff Jean Baptiste! Say,
+that's funny." Suddenly his face took on a cold hard expression. "Why,
+that's one of the shrewdest, one of the wisest, one of the most forcible
+men in this country. Have you never heard of Jean Baptiste? Oh, you
+fools! He's worth forty thousand dollars--made it himself and is not
+over twenty-five."
+
+"Is that so?" they echoed, taken aback.
+
+"Well, I should say so, and everybody in the county knows it."
+
+"But they haven't lived on the place as they should!" protested Spaight,
+weakly.
+
+"Something like yourself," laughed Duval. Spaight colored guiltily.
+
+"But I can prove it," insisted Spaight.
+
+"Well, in so far as that goes, I wouldn't doubt but they have not lived
+on the land. Baptiste owns a lot of land in the county east, and the
+chances are that he's been so busy that his wife has neglected to stay
+on the claim as she should have. Yes, that is quite likely."
+
+"Then we can contest it?" cried Spaight.
+
+"Of course. You can contest any place so far as that goes."
+
+"Well, that's what we intend to do. And I have the goods on him and am
+sure we can win."
+
+"They're all sure of that when they start," said Duval, sarcastically.
+"But I want to disillusion you. If you contest the place then do so with
+a realization of what we are up against. Don't go down there with any
+'rough stuff' or with a delusion that you are going to meet a weakling.
+Go down there with the calm, considerate understanding that you are
+going to vie with a man all through, and that man is Jean Baptiste. And
+while I'll take the case and do what I can, before we start, I'd advise
+that you keep away from that fellow as much as possible."
+
+"Well, now, to be frank, Duval," said Crook, "What do you think of it
+anyhow?"
+
+Duval regarded him closely a moment out of his small eyes. And then
+spoke slowly, easily, carefully. "Well, Crook, being frank with you, I
+don't think you can beat that fellow fairly. No one will beat Jean
+Baptiste in a fair fight. But of course," he added, "there are other
+ways. Yes, and when the time is right--if ever, you may try the _other_
+way."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+REVEREND McCARTHY PAYS A VISIT
+
+
+"Well," said Baptiste to his wife, following the service of the summons.
+"We're up against a long, irksome and expensive contest case." Under his
+observation had come many of such. Only those who have homesteaded or
+have been closely related to such can in full appreciate the annoyance,
+the years of annoyance and uncertainty with which a contest case is
+fraught. Great fiction has been created from such; greater could be. Oh,
+the nerve racking, the bitterness and very often the sinister results
+that have grown out of one person trying to secure the place of another
+without the other's consent. Murder has been committed times untold as a
+sequel--but getting back to Jean Baptiste and his wife.
+
+He was inclined to be more provoked than ordinarily, for the reason that
+by sending his wife--at least taking her to the homestead, he knew he
+could have avoided the contest. As a rule places are not contested
+altogether without a cause. He felt that it was--and it no doubt
+was--due to his effort to farm his own land and assist his folks in
+holding their claims as well. He had discovered before he married Orlean
+that she was likely to prove much unlike his sister, who possessed the
+strength of her convictions, for she was on the clinging vine order.
+Being extremely childish, this was further augmented by a stream of
+letters from Chicago, giving volumes of advice in regards to something
+the advisors had not a very keen idea of themselves. He also was
+cautioned not to expose her. So she had, in truth only gone to her
+homestead when taken by him, returning when he did as well. The fact
+that he had arranged in regards to the renting of his land the next
+season would be no evidence to assist him before the bar that would hear
+his case.
+
+The contest against his wife's homestead did not, of course alter his
+plans in any way. He would continue along the lines he had started. But
+there were other things that came to annoy him at the same time. Chiefly
+among these was his wife's father. Always there had to be some ado when
+it came to him. He had reared his daughter, as before intimated, to
+consider him of the world's greatest men--especially the Negro race's,
+and to avoid friction, Baptiste came gradually to see that he would
+almost have to be beholden unto this creature in whom he was positively
+not very deeply interested.
+
+N. Justine McCarthy's accomplishments were of a nature which Baptiste
+would rather have avoided. The fact that he had been a Presiding Elder
+in one of the leading denominations of Negro churches out of which he
+managed to filch about a thousand a year, was in a measure foreign to
+his son-in-law. And the Reverend was not an informed or practical man.
+
+The truth was that all the pretensions made to the Elder, flattering him
+into feeling he was a great man, Jean Baptiste came to regard as a
+deliberate fawning to flatter an extreme vanity. Far from being even
+practical, N.J. McCarthy was by disposition, environment and
+cultivation, narrow, impractical, hypocritical, envious and spiteful. As
+to how much he was so, not even did Jean Baptiste fully realize at the
+time, but came to learn later from experience.
+
+He was expected in early October. The hearing of the contest was to
+convene a few days later, so as a greeting to his Majesty, he was to be
+given an opportunity to see Orlean on the stand and mercilessly grilled
+by non-sentimental lawyers. Baptiste was appreciative of what might
+result, and wished the visit could have been deferred for a while.
+
+Another source of irritation continually, was Ethel's letters, and his
+wife's nervousness over the child that was to come. For the first time
+in her life she had been disobedient. Secretly she had, after many
+misgivings, fears and indecisions, brewed a tea from the weed as per
+Ethel's prescription--but in vain! Later, the guilt, the
+never-to-be-forgotten guilt; the unborn child that refused the poison,
+seemed to haunt her. And she could not tell her husband. But this was
+not all. Ethel's letters continued to come, filled with the same advice;
+the same suggestions; the same condemnation of motherhood--and she was
+compelled to keep it all a hopeless secret from the man she had sworn to
+love and obey.
+
+One thing was agreed upon, they decided not to inform the Elder--at
+least, in so far as Orlean was concerned, she left it to Jean, and Jean,
+with as many troubles as he cared for and more, to deal with, was
+becoming perceptibly irritant. So with this state of affairs prevailing,
+the Reverend finally arrived for his long anticipated visit.
+
+The letter advising the day he would arrive did not happen to reach them
+in time to meet him. Accordingly, neither was at the station to greet
+him, but, recalling that Baptiste had spoken of the Freedom and no
+narrow prejudices and customs to irk one, the Elder went forthwith to
+the leading hotel in Gregory where he was accorded considerable
+attention as a guest. This indeed satisfied his vanity, and he was
+taken much notice of by those about because of his distinguished
+appearance. A fact that he seldom ever lost sight of.
+
+But Baptiste happened to be in town that night on horseback, and when
+the train had come and gone, he inquired carelessly of a fellow he met,
+and who had come in on the train, if he had seen a colored man aboard.
+
+"Yes," said the other. "An elderly man, very distinguished looking."
+
+"My father-in-law!" ejaculated Baptiste, and went forthwith to the hotel
+to find his erstwhile compatriot very much at ease among those filling
+the place.
+
+"And it's a great way to greet me," exclaimed the Reverend, cheerfully,
+upon seeing him. Baptiste made haste to explain that he had not been
+aware of the day when he would arrive.
+
+"Oh, that's all right, my son," said the other heartily. "And how is
+Orlean?"
+
+"Fine! She'll be tickled to death to see you."
+
+"And I her." The old gent was very cheerful. Such a trip was much to
+him. A life spent among the simple black people to whom he preached
+afforded little contrast compared with what was about him now. And,
+pompous by disposition, he was thrilled by the diversity. Baptiste
+decided thereupon to try to make his sojourn an agreeable one.
+
+"Now, there is an old neighbor of mine in town with a buggy, and I'll
+see him and figure to have him take you out with him, as I am in on
+horseback."
+
+"Very well," returned the Elder, and Baptiste went for the neighbor who
+happened to be a German with a very conspicuous voice. He found him at a
+saloon where the old scout was pretty well "pickled" from imbibing too
+freely in red liquor.
+
+"Sure thing," he roared in his big voice when Baptiste stated his
+errand. "Bring him down here and I'll buy him a drink."
+
+"But he's a preacher," cautioned Baptiste with a laugh.
+
+"A preacher! Well, I'll be damned!" exclaimed the German, humorously.
+Whereupon he ordered drinks for the house, and two for himself. Baptiste
+grinned.
+
+"I shall now depart," essayed the German, swaying not too steadily
+before the bar, and raising his glass, "to become sanctimonious and
+good," and drained his glass. The crowd roared.
+
+"Where is he?" called the German loudly, as he drew his team to a stop
+before the hotel. Baptiste got out, went in and called to the Reverend.
+The other came forward quickly, carrying his bags and other accessories.
+
+"Ah-ha!" roared the German from the buggy, sociably, "So there you are!"
+
+"Why--Jean--the man is--drunk, is he not?" whispered the Elder.
+
+"But he's alright--gets that way when he comes to town, but is perfectly
+safe withal." The Reverend stood for a moment, regarding the other
+dubiously.
+
+"Come on, brother, and meet me!" called the German again in a voice
+sufficiently loud almost to awaken the dead.
+
+"But, Jean," said the Reverend, lowly but apprehensively, "I don't know
+whether I want to ride with a drunken man or not."
+
+Now it happened that the German's ears were very keen, and he overheard
+the Elder's remark, so without ceremony, and while the Reverend
+hesitated on the pavement, the German who did not like to be referred
+to as drunk, roared:
+
+"Ah-ha! Naw, naw, naw! You don't have to ride with me! Naw, naw, naw!"
+And turning his horses about, he went back to the saloon where his voice
+rang forth a minute later in a raucous tune as he unloaded another
+schooner.
+
+The Reverend beat a hasty retreat back into the hotel, while Baptiste
+called after him:
+
+"I'll send Orlean for you in the morning," and went to look up his
+neighbor who had made himself so conspicuous.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, now, if this doesn't beat all," cried the Reverend when he had
+kissed his daughter the following morning and they were spinning along
+the road on the way to the farm. "I would never have believed three
+months ago had some one said you could and would be driving these
+mules!"
+
+"Oh, I have driven them fifty miles in a day--John!" she called suddenly
+to the off mule who was given to mischievous tricks.
+
+"Well, well," commented the Reverend, "but it certainly beats all."
+
+She was cheered and pleased to demonstrate what she had learned. They
+sailed along the country side in the autumn air, and talked of home,
+Ethel, her mother, Glavis and Jean. They came presently to Baptiste's
+homestead and viewed with great delight the admirable tract of land that
+stretched before them. She talked on cheerfully and told her father all
+that had passed, of how happy they were, but said nothing about her
+prospects of becoming a mother. When they had passed her husband's
+homestead and were nearing a corner where they must turn to reach the
+house in which they were living, they passed an automobile carrying two
+men. They bowed lightly and the men returned it. When they had gotten
+out of hearing distance, one of the men whispered to the other:
+
+"That's her!"
+
+'Gene Crook thereupon turned and looked after the retreating figure of
+the girl in the buggy whose place he had determined to secure through
+subtle methods. But not even 'Gene Crook himself conceived of the
+unusual circumstances that came to pass and brought him on a visit to
+these selfsame people, later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+REVEREND MCCARTHY DECIDES TO SET BAPTISTE RIGHT, BUT--
+
+
+"Now the first thing, daughter," said the Reverend, "when Jean comes and
+you have the time, is to go up and see your claim." Orlean swallowed,
+and started to tell him that it was contested; but on second thought,
+decided to leave the task to her husband, and said instead:
+
+"I have a fine claim, papa. Jean says it is the best piece of land we
+have."
+
+"Now isn't that fine!"
+
+"It is," Orlean said, thinking of her husband.
+
+"Your husband has a plenty, my dear, and we have been surprised that you
+have not been sending money to Chicago to have us buy something for
+you."
+
+Orlean swallowed again and started to speak; to say that while her
+husband was a heavy land holder, the crops had not been the best the
+year before and were not as good this year as he had hoped for. Then she
+thought Jean could explain this better, also, instead she said:
+
+"I--I haven't wanted for anything, papa."
+
+"No, perhaps not. But you know papa always thinks of his baby; always
+buys her little things and so on, you know." He paused, regarded her and
+the dress she wore. He recognized it as one that she had bought just
+before she had gotten married--forgetting that Jean Baptiste had paid
+for it--and said:
+
+"And you have on the same dress you wore away from Chicago! Indeed, and
+that is a spring dress! Why do you not wear some of your summer dresses?
+Some you have bought since you have been married?"
+
+"I haven't bought--my husband hasn't--I haven't needed any more clothes,
+really," she argued falteringly. He saw that she was keeping something
+back, and pursued:
+
+"Why, dear, what do you mean! You don't mean to say that Jean hasn't
+bought you any dresses since he married you, and him owning so much
+land!"
+
+"But I haven't needed any, papa--I have not asked him for any." He
+looked at her keenly. He saw that she was shielding the man she married,
+but with this he had no patience.
+
+"Now, now, my dear. Jean ought not to treat my girl like that. He ought
+to buy you lots of things, and pretty things. I'm rather inclined to
+think he is miserly--have rather felt he was all the time." He paused
+briefly, posed in the way he did when preaching, and then went on. "Yes,
+you are sacrificing a great deal by coming away out here in a new
+country and living with him. Yes, yes, my dear. You see you are deprived
+of many conveniences; conveniences that you have been accustomed to." He
+looked around the little house; at its floor with only rugs, and its
+simple furniture. "Just compare this to the home you came out of. The
+good home. Yes, yes. I'm afraid that--that the rough life your husband
+has been living rather makes him forget the conventions my daughter has
+been accustomed to. Yes, I think so. I'm afraid I'll have to kind
+of--a--bring such to his attention that he might see his duty. Yes, my
+dear--"
+
+"But, papa! I--I--think you had--better not. You see--" and she caught
+his arm and was thoughtful, looking downward in the meantime. She loved
+Jean Baptiste, but she was not a strong willed person by nature,
+training or disposition. She had inherited her mother's timidness. At
+heart she meant well to the man she married, but she had always been
+obedient to her father; had never sauced him and had never crossed him,
+which was his boast. Perhaps it was because of these things and that he
+knew it, that his nature asserted itself.
+
+"I'm afraid you, like any newly married wife, are inclined to forget
+these things, rather accept your husband's excuse. Now your husband has
+a plenty, and can well afford to give to you. And, besides, you--he
+should not forget the sacrifices you are making for him. That is what he
+should see. Yes, yes. Now take Ethel," he suddenly turned to her. "Why,
+Glavis only makes thirteen dollars a week, and--why, Ethel makes him do
+just what she wants him to. Buys her a dress any time she wants it; a
+hat, a pair of shoes--and whatever she wishes. That's Ethel," he ended,
+forgetting to add that Glavis also bought and paid for the food Mrs.
+McCarthy ate, or that he, himself only brought--and never bought things
+to eat only when he came into Chicago, three or five times a year--and
+sent a few things infrequently. But Orlean had taken a little courage.
+It was rather unusual, and she was surprised at herself. She was
+surprised that she dared even argue--just a little--with her father. He
+had always been accepted as infallible without question. To get along
+with him--have peace, her mother and she had always followed the rule of
+letting everything be his way, and be content with their own private
+opinion without expression as to conclusions. Moreover, whether he was
+right or wrong, abused or accused, the rule was to praise and flatter
+him notwithstanding. And at such times they could depend on him to do
+much for them. But she found her voice. Jean Baptiste was her husband,
+and she was not ungrateful. He gave her real love and husbandry, and it
+was perhaps her woman's nature to speak in defense of her mate. So she
+said:
+
+"But Jean is not like Glavis, papa. They are two different men
+entirely."
+
+"Well, yes, my dear," he said slowly, his dark face taking on a
+peculiar--and not very pleasant expression, "I'm afraid I will have to
+agree with you. Yes. They are different. Glavis is a fine boy, though.
+Don't own a thousand acres of land, but certainly takes care of home
+like a man. No, no. I never have to worry about anything. Just come home
+every few months to see that everything is all right--and find it so.
+Yes, that is Glavis. While Jean," and his mind went quickly back to an
+incident that had happened twenty-one years before, "is rather set in
+his ways. Yes, very much so, I fear. That is one of his failings. Some
+people would call it hard headed, but I should not quite call it that.
+No. Then, again," he paused a moment, looked at the floor and looked up.
+"He's crazy to get rich. You see, dear--of course you don't know that.
+Not old enough. That's where your father has the advantage over you--and
+Jean also. He's older. It's bad when a man is ambitious to get rich, for
+he is liable to work himself and his wife to death. Jean's liable to do
+that with you. Not like your old father, you know."
+
+"Here he comes now," she cried excitedly, going quickly to the kitchen
+and making a fire and starting the meal. Her father looked after her. He
+looked out the window to where his son-in-law was unhitching his horses.
+He looked back to where his daughter was working nervously over the
+stove, and muttered to himself. "Has her trained to run like something
+frightened at his approach. That's the same spirit I tried to conquer
+twenty-one years ago and it is still in him. M-m. I'll have to look
+after that disposition." And with that he went outside to where his
+daughter's husband worked.
+
+"Hello, Reverend," called Jean cheerfully. The "Reverend" darkened and
+glowered unseen. He did not like that term of address. Glavis called him
+"father." That was better. But he returned apparently as cheerful:
+
+"Hello, my boy. So you are home to dinner?"
+
+"Yes. Guess it's ready. She is very prompt about having my meals on
+time. Yes. Orlean is a good girl, and appreciates that I believe in
+always being on time," he rattled off.
+
+"And how are the crops?"
+
+"Not so good, not so good, I regret to say," said Jean moodily. "No; to
+be truthful, it is the poorest crop I have ever raised. Yes," he mused
+as if to himself. "And I need a good crop this year worse than I have
+ever needed one. Yes, I sure do.
+
+"Indeed so. Got lots of expense. Borrowed ten thousand dollars to buy
+that land out there in Tripp County, and have none of it producing
+anything. And on top of that a guy comes along and slaps a contest on
+Orlean's place, and so I have that on my hands in addition to all the
+other burdens. So, believe me, it keeps me hopping."
+
+"A contest on Orlean's place? What does that mean?"
+
+"Does that mean! But of course you couldn't understand," whereat,
+Baptiste tried to explain to him what it meant.
+
+"So you see you find us with our troubles." The Reverend made no reply
+to this. Indeed, he had never been able to reply to Jean Baptiste. In
+the first place, the man was ever too hurried; moreover, he understood
+so little regarding practical business matters until their relations had
+never been congenial. When Jean had watered and fed his teams he came
+back to where the Elder stood and said:
+
+"Well, Judge, we'll go in to dinner." Now the Reverend was almost upset.
+Such flat expressions! Such a little regard for his caste. Horrid! He
+started to speak to him regarding his lack of manners, but that one had
+his face in the tub where the horses had drank, washing himself eagerly.
+When he was through, he drew water from the well, and pouring it into a
+wash basin rinsed himself, and called for the towel. No sooner had he
+done so than out of the house came Orlean with the goods.
+
+"Wash up," cried Baptiste, pointing to the horse tub.
+
+"Jean!" called his wife remonstratingly. "You forget yourself. Asking
+papa to wash where the horses have drank! You must be more thoughtful!"
+
+Baptiste laughed. "Beg pardon, Colonel. You see this open life has made
+me--er--rather informal. But you'll get used to and like it with time.
+Wash up and let's eat!"
+
+"He's wild, just wild!" muttered the Reverend, as he followed them into
+the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE WOLF
+
+
+"Now, Elder," said Baptiste, getting up from the table without going
+through the usual formalities of resting a few minutes after the meal.
+"I've bought a building in town that I'm going to move onto Orlean's
+place. I'm preparing to jack it up and load it, so if you would like to
+come along, very well, we'll be glad to have you. But it's rather a
+rough, hard task, I'll admit."
+
+"Now, now, son," started the Reverend, holding back his exasperation
+with difficulty. His son-in-law had never addressed him more than once
+by the same name. It was either Colonel, Judge, Reverend, Elder, or some
+other burlesque title in the sense used. He wanted to tell him that he
+should call him father, but before he had a chance to do so, that worthy
+had bounced out of the room and was heard from the barn. The Reverend
+looked after him with a glare.
+
+"Dreadful!" he exclaimed when the other was out of hearing distance.
+
+"What, papa?" inquired his daughter, regarding him questioningly. She
+had become accustomed to Jean's ways and did not understand her father's
+exclamation.
+
+"Why, the man! Your husband!"
+
+"Jean?"
+
+"Such rough ways!"
+
+"Oh," she exclaimed. "That's his way. He has always lived alone, you
+know. And is so ambitious. Is really compelled to hurry a little because
+he has so much to do."
+
+"Well, I never saw the like. I'm afraid he and Ethel would never get
+along very well. No, he--is rather unusual."
+
+"Oh, father. You must pay no attention to that! Jean is a fine fellow, a
+likeable man, and is loved by every one who knows him," she argued,
+trying to discourage her father's mood to complain. She had never been
+able to bring her father and husband very close. Perhaps it was because
+of their being so far apart in all that made them; but she was aware
+that Jean had never flattered her father, and that was very grave! No
+relation had ever risked that. Her father was accustomed to being
+flattered by everybody who was an intimate of the family, and Jean
+Baptiste had come into the family, married her, and apparently forgot to
+tell the Reverend that he was a great man. Moreover, from what she knew
+of her husband, he was not likely to do so. Her mother had tried to have
+Baptiste see it, she recalled, her little mother of whom Baptiste was
+very fond of. As has been stated it was generally known that her father
+was not very kind and patient, with her mother, and never had been.
+
+It was, moreover, no secret that her father was unusually friendly with
+Mrs. Pruitt. But she was not supposed to let on that she was aware of
+such. If she was--and she certainly was--she did not mention the fact.
+Jean Baptiste knew of the Reverend's subtle practices, and in his mind
+condemned rather than admired him therefor. He knew that the Elder
+expected to be praised in spite of all these things. Now what would it
+all come to?
+
+This thought was passing through Orlean's mind when she heard her father
+again:
+
+"Now, he said something about a contest." She caught her breath quickly,
+swallowed, changed color, and then managed, hardly above a whisper, to
+say:
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"I don't understand. And he never takes the time to explain anything.
+Seems to take for granted that everybody should know, and tries to know
+it all himself, and it makes it very awkward," he said complainingly.
+
+"It's all my fault, papa," Orlean admitted falteringly.
+
+"Your fault!" the other exclaimed, not understanding.
+
+"Yes," she breathed with eyes downcast.
+
+"And what do you mean? How can it be your fault when you have sacrificed
+the nice home in Chicago for this wilderness?"
+
+"But, papa," she faltered. "You have never been West before. You--you
+don't understand!"
+
+"Don't understand!" cried the Reverend, anger and impatience evident.
+"What is there to understand about this wilderness?"
+
+"Oh, papa," she cried, now beseechingly. "You--" she halted and
+swallowed what she had started to say. And what she had started to say
+was, that if he kept on like he had started, he would make it very
+difficult for her to be loyal to her husband and obedient to him as she
+had always been; as she was trying to be. Perhaps it was becoming
+difficult for her already. Subservience to her father, who insisted upon
+it, and obedience and loyalty to her husband who had a right and
+naturally expected it. It was difficult, and she was a weak willed
+person. Already her courage was failing her and she was beginning to
+sigh.
+
+"It is very hard on my daughter, I fear," said the Elder, his face now
+full of emotion and self pity. "I worked all my life to raise my two
+darlings, and it grieves me to see one of them being ground down by a
+man."
+
+"Oh, father, my husband is not cruel to me. He has never said an unkind
+word. He is just as good to me as a man can be--and I love him." This
+would have been sufficient to have satisfied and pacified any man, even
+one so unscrupulous. But it happens that in our story we have met one
+who is considerably different from the ordinary man. The substance of N.
+Justine McCarthy's vanity had never been fully estimated--not even by
+himself. Orlean did not recall then, that since she had been married she
+had not written her father and repeated what a great man he was. She
+had, on the other hand, written and told him what a great man her
+husband was. In her simplicity, she felt it was expected of her to tell
+that one or the other was great. But here she had encountered
+discouragement. Her husband apparently was considerably opposed to
+flattery. And she had difficulty to have him see that it was an evidence
+of faith on her part. But her husband had not seen it that way. He had
+dismissed it as a waste of time and had gradually used his influence
+with her to other ends; to the road they were following; the road to
+ultimate success, which could only be achieved by grim, practical
+methods. And that was one of his words, practical. But her father was
+speaking again.
+
+"Now I wish you would explain how you could be at fault for this contest
+upon your place, and why your husband accuses you of such?"
+
+"But Jean does not accuse me of being at fault, father," she defended
+weakly. "I accuse myself. And if you will be just a little patient," she
+begged almost in tears, "I'll explain." He frowned in his usual way,
+while she sighed unheard, and then fell to the task before her.
+
+"It is like this," she began with an effort at self control. "Jean has
+not wished to ask me to stay on my claim alone as his sister and
+grandmother have done, you see."
+
+"Oh, so he has them living out there alone like cattle, helping him to
+get rich!"
+
+"They do not live like cattle, father," she defended in the patient
+manner she had been trained to. "They have a horse and buggy that he has
+furnished them, and get all their needs at the stores which is charged
+to him. They have good neighbors, awfully nice white people--women, too,
+who live alone on their claims as his sister and grandmother are doing."
+
+"But they are not like you, daughter. Those are all rough people. You
+cannot live like them. You have been accustomed to something."
+
+She sighed unheard again and did not try to explain to his Majesty that
+most of the people--women included--were in a majority from the best
+homes in the East, as well as families; that many had wealth where she
+had none; and that Jean's sister had been graduated from high school and
+was very intelligent. It was difficult, and she knew it, to explain
+anything to her father; but she would endeavor to tell him of the
+contest.
+
+"Well, father, since I was not on my place as I should have been, a man
+contested it, and now we must fight it out, Jean says, so that is it."
+
+"M-m-m," sighed that one. "He's going to kill you out here to make him
+rich. And then when you are dead and--"
+
+"Please, don't, father," she almost screamed. She knew he was going to
+say: "and in your grave, he will marry another woman and bring her in
+to enjoy what you have died for." But she could not quite listen to
+that. It was not fair. It was not fair to her and it was not fair to
+Jean. She was surprised at the way she felt. She forgot also, and for
+his benefit, that they had never been very happy at home when he was in
+Chicago. They had only pretended to be. It had been because of him being
+away all the time and their relation having been confined to letters
+that they had been contented. But Orlean had made herself believe for
+this occasion that when he came to visit, they were going to have a
+really pleasant time. And now so soon she was simply worn out. She had
+become more sensitive of her tasks in life than it had occurred to her
+she could ever be. For the first time she was getting the idea that,
+after all they were burdensome.
+
+[Illustration: From a painting by W.M. Farrow.
+
+"HE'S GOING TO KILL YOU OUT HERE TO MAKE HIM RICH, AND THEN WHEN YOU ARE
+DEAD AND"--"PLEASE DON'T, FATHER!" SHE ALMOST SCREAMED. SHE KNEW HE WAS
+GOING TO SAY: "IN YOUR GRAVE, HE WILL MARRY ANOTHER WOMAN TO ENJOY WHAT
+YOU HAVE DIED FOR," BUT SHE COULD NOT QUITE LISTEN TO THAT.]
+
+"Wouldn't you like to go to town, papa?" she cried, trying to be jolly.
+"Jean is ready now, and please come along and see the nice little house
+he has bought and is going to move on my claim." She was so cheerful, so
+anxious to have him enjoy his visit that his vanity for once took a back
+seat, and a few minutes later they were driving into Gregory.
+
+As they drove along Baptiste told of what he was doing; discussing at
+length the West and what was being done toward its development. When
+they arrived in the town they approached the small but well made little
+building that he had purchased for $300, and went inside.
+
+"Awfully small, my boy," said the Reverend, as they looked around.
+
+"Of course," admitted Baptiste. "But it is not practical to invest in
+big houses in the beginning, you know. We must first build a good big
+barn, and that, I cannot even as yet afford."
+
+"Places his horses before his wife, of course," muttered the Reverend,
+but obligingly unheard.
+
+"And you say you intend to move it. Where? Not away down on that farm
+southeast?" he said, standing outside and looking up at the building.
+
+"Oh, no," Baptiste returned shortly. "Onto Orlean's place, west of
+here."
+
+"Oh. How far is that?"
+
+"Not so far. About fifty miles."
+
+"Good lord!" And the Reverend could say no more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE CONTEST
+
+
+Moving a building fifty miles across even a prairie is not an easy task,
+and before Jean Baptiste reached his wife's homestead with the building
+he had purchased, he had suffered much grief. And with the Reverend
+along, ever ready to keep their minds alive to the fact, it was made no
+easier. But because he was so chronic, he was left to grumble while his
+son-in-law labored almost to distraction into getting the building to
+the place before he would be compelled to turn back and face the contest
+which was scheduled for an early hearing. They succeeded in getting it
+within twenty miles of the claim when they were compelled to abandon the
+task for the time and return to Gregory to fight the contest.
+
+This developed at times into a rather heated argument, and a prolonged
+one that tried the patience of all, dragging over a period of three
+days. It became obvious during the proceedings that the contestant and
+his cohorts desired as much as possible to keep away from Baptiste and
+on the other hand to concentrate their cross-fire upon his wife. But,
+expecting this, they found him on his guard, countering them at every
+angle, and, assisted by an able land attorney, he was successful in
+upsetting in a large way, their many, subtle and well laid plans,
+causing them to fail in making the showing they had expected to.
+
+To begin with their corroborating witness, James J. Spaight, developed
+before the close to more definitely corroborate for the defense. He had
+come to the trial with false testimony prepared, and had, under a
+fusillade of cross-examinations, broken down and impaired and weakened
+the prosecution. In all such cases the one contesting is placed at a
+moral disadvantage, and the fact that Crook was a banker, fully able to
+have purchased relinquishment as others over all the county had done,
+was ever in the witness' mind, and did not help his case. Baptiste's
+wife proved much stronger after the first day. This was due largely to
+the fact that her father had been present on the first day, and had kept
+her so much alive to what she was sacrificing in struggling to assist
+her husband in his ambition to be rich, until she was perceptibly weak.
+The time limit on his ticket having about expired he had been compelled
+to return to Chicago the morning of the second day of the trial.
+
+It was the consensus of opinion that she would retain her claim, though
+with so many cases to consider, it was obvious that it would take many
+months, and possibly a year to get a hearing--that is, before the
+officers of the local land offices could settle the case.
+
+This done, Jean Baptiste returned and completed moving the house on the
+claim, fixed it up, dug a well, fenced in a small pasture and returned
+to gather his corn which amounted to about half a crop.
+
+So time passed and the holidays approached and another phase in their
+relations took shape when the Reverend insisted that they come to
+Chicago to spend the holidays. It was very annoying. Orlean was
+expecting to become a mother in the early spring, and because they had
+never informed him of the fact, it brought considerable embarrassment to
+all.
+
+It was difficult to explain to his Majesty that they would not come
+into the city for the holidays. The Elder had insisted that he would
+send them tickets, and because Jean Baptiste had scoffed at the idea,
+trouble was brewing as a result. It was then he lost his patience.
+
+"Can your father not understand, Orlean," he complained, with a deep
+frown, "that I cannot accept his charity? Because I have made up my mind
+not to go to Chicago, does not mean that I am not able to purchase our
+transportations there and back. It's the expense of the trip and what
+goes with it that has caused me to decide to dispense with it. But it's
+almost useless to try to reason anything with him, and I'll not waste
+the effort." Whereupon he would say no more.
+
+He was having troubles of his own. He owed ten thousand dollars, and
+upon this, interest accrued every few months, and the rate was high.
+Besides, he had other pressing bills, and the grain he had raised was
+bringing very low prices. Therefore, he was in no mood to dally with a
+poverty poor preacher whose offer was more to show himself off and place
+Baptiste in a compromising position, than his desire for them to be
+home. He made no effort to appreciate the sentiments or to understand
+Jean Baptiste. And the fact that his daughter loved her husband and was
+willing to help him seemed to be lost sight of by N. Justine McCarthy.
+Being accustomed to having people flatter him as a rule, was so engraved
+in his shallow nature, that he was unable to see matters from a liberal
+point of view.
+
+Their relations reached a climax when Orlean was with his sister on the
+claim a few days before the Yuletide. Baptiste received a letter
+addressed to her from the Elder. Thinking that, since she was on the
+claim, it might be something urgent, he opened it. It _was_ urgent. It
+contained a money order covering the price of a ticket to Chicago with
+a trite note that he expected her soon, and that he, her husband, could
+come on later.
+
+We shall not attempt to describe the anger that came over Jean Baptiste
+then. And, as is most likely the case when a man is angry, he does the
+thing he most likely would not do when his feelings are under control.
+With hands that trembled with anger, he turned the note over, wrote in a
+few words that he had defined his position with regards to coming to
+Chicago; that he would be obliged if the other would mind his own
+business; that he had married his wife and was trying to be a husband in
+every way to her; but that he was running his house, and was therefore
+returning the money therewith.
+
+It served as a declaration of the war between the two that had been
+impending for months. We are too well acquainted with their regard for
+each other, so upon this we will not dwell; but upon receipt of
+Baptiste's letter, the Reverend sang his anger in a letter that fairly
+scorched the envelope in which it was enclosed. He threatened to turn
+the world over, and set it right again if the other did not do thus and
+so. To the threats, Baptiste made no reply. In a measure he was
+relieved; he had at last made his position clear to the other, and his
+wife, of course, was with him in the controversy. In view therefore, of
+the manner in which she had been trained, this made matters rather
+awkward. The yield of crops had not been one half the average, and it
+took almost all he had made to pay the interest, taxes and expenses.
+Baptiste was not cheerful; but Orlean was to become a mother, and he was
+a practical man. So together they passed a happy Xmas after all. In fact
+the only cloud upon their horizon of happiness was her father.
+
+Evidently he voiced what he had done to near friends, and they had not
+endorsed his action. Orlean was the wife of Jean Baptiste and if he
+expected her to stay with him, it was their affair, even if the Reverend
+had only intended to help. Attempting to force charity on others is not
+always sensible, so the Elder wrote later that it was "up to them," and
+if they had agreed to stay in the West Xmas, it was alright with him.
+
+This was very considerate of him--apparently, after all the noise he had
+made, and Orlean was much relieved, and loved her father still. Her
+husband was also relieved, and forgot the matter for the time. But did
+the Reverend?
+
+Well, that was not his nature. He never forgot things he should forget.
+Oh, no! He had not been a hypocrite forty years for nothing! In the
+meantime, the Xmas passed as it has for more than nineteen hundred
+years, winter set in, and the spring was approaching when the
+catastrophe occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+COMPROMISED
+
+
+"Please don't go, Jean," she begged. "I don't want you to go. Stay with
+me."
+
+"Now, Orlean," he said gently. "I have such a lot of work to do. I will
+go, tear down some of the old buildings on the homestead and be back
+before many days."
+
+She cried for a time while he held her in his arms. Crying was nothing
+new with her. As the time for her delivery drew near, she was given to
+such spells. He was patient. After a few moments she dried her eyes and
+said:
+
+"Well, dear, you can go. But hurry back. I want you to be home then, you
+understand."
+
+"Of course I want to be home then, wifey, and sure want it to be a boy."
+
+"It _will_ be a boy, Jean," she said with a strange confidence. "I
+believe it. I am sure it will."
+
+"I shall love you always then, my wife. All our cares and burdens will
+vanish into the air, and we shall be as happy as the angels."
+
+"Oh, Jean, you can make life seem so light."
+
+"Life should be made to appear light, sweetheart," he said, caressing
+her. "Grandmother will be here with you and if you need for anything,
+draw a check and have the neighbors below bring it out. It is only three
+miles over the hill to Carter, you understand."
+
+"By the way, dear," she said suddenly, going into the bedroom, and
+returning presently with a letter. "This is from mama. She writes that
+they have never told papa yet, and hopes that nothing serious will
+happen for then she would never--we would never be forgiven by him."
+
+"Dear Little Mother Mary," he said fondly. "I hope nothing will happen,
+Orlean, for our sakes." And then he paused. He had started to say that
+he was not worried about her father's forgiveness. He had lost what
+little patience he had ever had with that one, and did not propose to be
+annoyed with his love, the love that he had to be continually making
+excuses and apologies to entertain. But before he had spoken he thought
+better of it, and decided to say nothing about it. His wife had been
+trained to regard her father as a king, and because he had succeeded in
+letting her see that after all he was just a Negro preacher with the
+most that went with Negro preachers in him, she had at last ceased to
+bore him with telling him how great her father was.
+
+They were at her claim, and he was about to depart for his original
+homestead to clean up work preparatory to moving onto her claim
+permanently as he had intended to do. Already his wagons with horses
+hitched thereto stood near, and he was only lingering for a few parting
+words with her.
+
+"I am kind of sorry we placed mother in this position," he heard her say
+as if talking more to herself than he.
+
+"In what position, Orlean?"
+
+"In keeping this a secret."
+
+"From your father, you mean?" said he, frowning.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, Orlean, I have tried to be a husband to you."
+
+"And you have been, Jean."
+
+"Then it is our business if I chose to keep such a secret."
+
+"Yes, Jean," she said, lowering her eyes and thinking.
+
+"But the one burden of our married life has been your father. I never
+anticipated that his love would be such a burden. Ever since we have
+been married we have had to waste our substance on fear over what he
+will think. He seems to lose sight of a husband's sentiment or right. I
+can fancy him in my position with regard to your mother before they had
+been married long. My God, if any father or mother would have ventured
+any suggestion as to how they should live or what they should do I can
+see him!"
+
+His wife laughed.
+
+"Have I spoken rightly?"
+
+"Yes," she agreed and was momentarily amused.
+
+"Yes. But he just makes our life a burden with his kind of love. Now
+take this matter for instance. Why should we be keeping this a secret
+from him--rather, why should I? It's just simply because I have too much
+other cares to be annoyed with a whole lot of to-do on his part. If he
+knew you were going to become a mother, he would just make our life
+unbearable with his insistences and love. Your mother knows it, and
+Ethel. Ethel who would have had you dispose of that innocent, knows it
+and keeps it from him, with fear all the while of what will come of it,
+should anything happen.
+
+"Now, I'll say this much. I don't propose to make any excuses to him
+about anything I do or have you do hereafter. I'm going to be husband
+and master, and have nothing to do with what he does with regard to your
+mother. As long as I am good and kind to you, and don't neglect you,
+then I have a right, and positively will not be annoyed even by your
+father!"
+
+"Please hush, Jean," she begged, her arms about him. But he was aroused.
+He had made himself forget as he should have forgotten the punishment
+he had been given twenty-two years before. But he did not like the man's
+conduct. Everywhere and with everybody back in Illinois who knew N.
+Justine McCarthy, he was regarded as an acknowledged rascal.
+
+"Just look how he treats your mother!" She pulled at him and tried to
+still his voice; but speak he would. "If I was ever guilty of treating
+you as your father has treated your mother ever since he married her, I
+hope the Christ will sink my soul into the bottom-most pit of hell!"
+
+"Jean, my God, please hush!"
+
+"But I speak the truth and you know it. Would you like to look forward
+and feel that you had to go through all your life what your mother has
+endured?"
+
+"Oh, no, no, no! But you must hush, Jean, in heaven's name, hush." He
+did then. The storm that had come over him had spent its force and he
+kissed her, turned then, went to where his teams stood, got into the
+front wagon, and looking back, drove upon his way.
+
+"Poor Jean," murmured Orlean. "Father and he will never be friends and
+it makes it so hard for me." She continued to stand where he left her,
+looking after him until he had disappeared over the hills to the east.
+
+Arriving at Gregory late that afternoon, Jean found a Lyceum concert,
+the number consisting of Negroes, one of whom, a girl, he had known some
+years before, for she had lived next door to where he then roomed.
+
+He attended and afterward renewed their acquaintance. It so happened
+that a lumber company was going out of business in the next town east
+from Gregory, and some coal sheds there were for sale. Desiring
+something of the kind to use as a granary on his wife's claim, Baptiste
+journeyed hither the following day to look the same over. Now it also
+happened that the same concerters were billed for the same town for an
+evening performance of that day. The day after being Sunday, and the
+company laying over until Monday, the days were passed together, with
+Baptiste scheduled to go out to his old place Sunday night.
+
+It was a cheer to revive old acquaintances; to talk of Chicago and olden
+days with those who still lived there. It was a cheer to all, but Jean
+Baptiste had cause to regret it as we shall later see. In the meantime,
+he went to his old place as per schedule, returning to the little town
+the following morning, where he purchased a hundred foot shed and
+prepared to move it to his wife's claim forthwith.
+
+A few miles only had been traversed before an intermittent thaw set in,
+the soft uncertain surface of the earth making it hazardous to pull a
+heavy load over. So when he reached his old place, he decided to leave
+it there, tear down his old granary and haul the lumber instead.
+
+While in this act, his sister, who had been on a visit to Kansas,
+returned, and worried with regards to his wife, alone with his grandma
+out on the homestead, he hurried her therewith at once. The next day he
+was relieved to receive a letter from Orlean, advising that she was
+well, but to come home as soon as possible.
+
+A week had passed and Saturday was upon him again before he was ready to
+make a start. Now there often comes in the springtime in the West,
+severe winds that may blow unchecked for days. And one came up just as
+Jean Baptiste had set out, and blew a terrific gale. It almost upset his
+wagons, and made driving very difficult. This was augmented further,
+because the wind was right in his face, and there was no way to avoid
+it. However, he finally reached a town about eleven miles west of
+Dallas, by the name of Colome that day. The next morning the wind had
+gone down and the day was beautiful, and he was cheered to think he
+could reach home that day, by getting started early. But bad luck was
+with Jean Baptiste that day, which was Sunday, and when he was going
+down a hill, the wagon struck a rocky place, bounced, and the right
+front wheel rolled out ahead of him. The axle had broken, and his load
+went down with a crash.
+
+He went to a house he saw near, secured a wagon, and there met a man who
+had known his father, and had lived and run a newspaper in the same town
+near where he was born twenty-six years before. He wasted hours getting
+his load transferred to another wagon, and finally got started again.
+But not two miles had been covered before the coupling pole snapped, and
+his loads almost went down again. What trick of fate was playing him, he
+wondered, and swore viciously. Hours it took before the break was
+repaired, and he pulled into Winner, eighteen miles from home, late that
+night.
+
+Early morning found him, however, resolutely on the way. He had covered
+about half the distance when he met a man who lived neighbor to him on
+his wife's claim, who told him he had tried to get him on the 'phone
+Saturday, at Gregory and again at Dallas; that his wife had given birth
+to a baby which had come into the world dead, on a Saturday.
+
+He almost tumbled from the wagon when he heard this. "Dead!" he
+repeated. Finally he heard himself speaking, and in a voice that seemed
+to come from far away:
+
+"Ah--well--did my wife have--attention?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the other. "Your sister, and two doctors. Yes, she had
+all the attention necessary. But I'm sorry for you, old man. It was sure
+a big, fine kid. She couldn't give it birth, so they had to kill it in
+order to save her life."
+
+He started to resume his journey East, while Baptiste, now with unstrung
+nerves, started to resume his way West. But before his horses had gone
+many steps he suddenly drew them down to a halt, and, turning, heard the
+other call out: "I went to Carter and sent her father a telegram as per
+a request of hers. I suppose it was all right," and continued on his
+way.
+
+"To him!" cried Baptiste inaudibly. "_To_ him!" he repeated. "To him no
+doubt, that the baby--which he had not known was to be, had come
+and--dead!"
+
+Mechanically he drove upon his way. He did not think, he did not speak.
+He said nothing for a long, long time; but down in his heart _Jean
+Baptiste knew that he was coming nearer to the parting of the ways_.
+
+Back in old Illinois N. Justine McCarthy, upon receiving the telegram,
+he realized would in all probability depart at the earliest convenience
+for the West. And when he arrived, would learn still more than the
+message had told; would learn that he had been absent when his wife had
+given birth to the dead baby. Oh, his child, why could it not have
+lived.... Yes, she had had all the attention that was possible; but such
+would not be credited by N. Justine McCarthy. The fact that not every
+man had found it possible to be present at the bedside of their wives
+when children came, would not be considered by N. Justine McCarthy. _The
+fact that he himself had been absent when his own Orlean came into the
+world_ would be no counter here. Jean Baptiste's absence at the critical
+time would serve as an excuse for the Reverend to vent his spite, and he
+would demand a toll. Jean Baptiste was compromised, and would have to
+make a sacrifice....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE EVIL GENIUS
+
+
+"Oh, Jean," breathed Orlean, from the bed, "where have you been?"
+
+He had come unto the house then, and the man in him was much downcast.
+He was, and had cause to feel discouraged, sorrowful and sad. So he
+explained to the one who lay upon the bed where he had been, and what
+had happened to him, and why he had been delayed.
+
+She sighed when he was through and was sorry. For a long time he was on
+his knees at the bedside, and when an hour had passed, she reached and
+placed her arm about his neck, and was thankful that he was spared to
+her, and they would live on hopeful; but both felt their loss deeply.
+
+"I sent papa a telegram," she said presently. Because he knew he made no
+answer. He knew the other would come, and he was resigned as to what
+would follow. She sighed again. Perhaps it was because she knew and also
+feared what was to follow.... She had not known her father her lifetime
+without knowing what must happen. But she loved her husband, and now in
+the weak state the delivery had left her she was struggling to withstand
+the subtle attack her father was sure to make.
+
+Two days passed, and she was progressing toward health as well as could
+be expected. Since her marriage her health on the whole had improved
+wonderfully. The petty aches and pains of which she complained formerly
+had gradually disappeared, and the western air had brought health and
+vigor to her.
+
+And then on the third day he arrived. Moreover, he brought Ethel with
+him. They rode over the hill that led to the claim in a hired rig, and
+Baptiste espied them as soon as they were in sight.
+
+Our pen cannot describe what Jean Baptiste read in the eyes of N.J.
+McCarthy when he alighted from the buggy and went into the house. But
+suffice to say, that what had passed twenty-two years before had come
+back. There was to be war between them and as it had been then Baptiste
+was at a disadvantage, and must necessarily accept the inevitable.
+
+Ethel was crying, and her tears meant more than words. She had never
+cried for love. It had always been something to the contrary. But we
+must turn to the one in bed--and helpless!
+
+She saw her father when he stepped from the buggy, and understood what
+he carried behind his masklike face. He did not allow his eyes to rest
+on Jean Baptiste, and she noted this. She settled back upon the pillow,
+and tried to compose herself for the event that was to be. Her husband
+was compromised, and could not defend himself.... Therefore it fell upon
+her and from the sick bed to defend him.
+
+He was inside the house now, and came toward her, and she was frightened
+when he was near and saw his face and what it held. Hatred within was
+there and she shuddered audibly. She closed her eyes to shut it out. Oh,
+the agony that came over her. She opened her eyes when his lips touched
+hers, and then began the struggle that was to be hers.
+
+"Papa," she whispered, and in her voice there was a great appeal. "Don't
+blame Jean. Jean has burdens, he has responsibilities--he's all tied
+up! He's good to me, he loves me, he gives me all he has." But before
+she had finished, she knew that her appeal had fallen upon deaf ears.
+Her father had come--and he had brought a purpose to be fulfilled.
+
+He caressed her; he said many foolish things, and she pretended to
+believe him; she made as if his coming had meant the saving of her life;
+but she knew behind all he pretended was the evil, the evil that was his
+nature, and the fear that filled her breast made her weaker; made her
+sick.
+
+The doctor had said that she would be able to leave the bed in ten days,
+probably a week; but now with grim realization of what was before her
+she became weak, weaker, weakest. And all the time she saw that it was
+being charged to Jean Baptiste, and to his neglect.
+
+We should perhaps try to make clear at this point in this story that
+Jean Baptiste could have settled matters in a very simple manner....
+True, the manner in which he could have settled it, would be the manner
+in which wars could be avoided--by sacrificing principle. He could have
+gone to his Majesty and played a traitor to his nature by pretending to
+believe the Elder had been right and justified in everything; whereas,
+he, Jean Baptiste, had been as duly wrong. He could have acted in such a
+manner as to have his Majesty feel that he was a great man, that he had
+been honored by even knowing him, much less in being privileged to marry
+his daughter. This, in view of the fact that having been absent from her
+bedside at that crucial time, he was compromised, would have satisfied
+the Elder, and Baptiste would not have been compelled to forego all that
+later came to pass in their relations. _But Jean Baptiste had a
+principle, and was not a liar, nor a coward, nor a thief._ And,
+although, he had been so unfortunate as not to have been by the bedside
+of his wife during that hour, he could have sentimentally appeased his
+father-in-law, but Jean Baptiste had not nor will he ever in the
+development of this story, sink so low. Of what was to come--and the
+most is--in this story, Jean Baptiste at no time sacrificed his manhood
+for any cause.
+
+N. Justine McCarthy, and this is true of too many of his race and to
+this cause may be attributed many of their failures, was not a reader.
+He never read anything but the newspapers briefly and the Bible a
+little. He was, therefore, not an informed man. As a result he took
+little interest in, and appreciated less, what the world is thinking and
+doing. He had never understood because he had not tried, what the people
+around where Jean Baptiste had come were doing for posterity. Yet he
+claimed very loudly to be an apostle of the race--to be willing--and
+was--sacrificing his very soul for the cause of Ethiopia. He took great
+pride in telling and retelling how he had sacrificed for his
+family--wife included. As he was heard by others, he had no faults;
+could do no wrong, and would surely reach heaven in the end!
+
+So while they lingered at the bedside of Orlean, he and Ethel, as a
+pastime argued with each other, and involved everybody but themselves
+with wrongs. For instance, the Reverend, affecting much piety, would in
+discussing his wife, whom he ever did in terms regarding her faults,
+find occasion to remark in a burst of self pity--and of self pity he had
+an abundant supply:
+
+"After all I have done for that woman; after all I have sacrificed for
+her; after all the patience I have endured while she has held me
+down--kept me from being what I would have been and should, she is ever
+bursting out with: 'You're the meanest man in the world! You're the
+meanest man in the world!'" Whereupon he would affect a look of deep
+self pity and eternal mortification.
+
+Unless we lengthen the story unnecessarily, we would not have the space
+to relate all he said in reference to his son-in-law in subtle ways
+during these days. But Jean Baptiste was too busy building a barn and
+other buildings to listen to these compliments the Elder was bestowing
+upon his wife with regard to him. "Yes, my dear," he said time and
+again, "If Jean was like your father, you would not be here now with
+your child lying dead in the grave. No, no. You would be in the best
+hospital in Chicago, with nurses and attendants all about you and your
+darling baby at your side," and, so saying, he would affect another sigh
+of self pity.
+
+At first she had struggled to protest, but after a few days she gave up
+entirely and became resigned to the inevitable. She received an
+occasional diversion, however, when the Elder and Ethel entered into a
+controversy. Unlike Orlean, Ethel was not afraid of her father,
+especially when he had something to say about Glavis. The truth was,
+that while he so pretended, N.J. McCarthy had no more love for Glavis
+than he had for Baptiste; but he could tolerate Glavis because Glavis
+endeavored to satisfy his vanity. Baptiste, on the other hand, while he
+now accepted all his father-in-law chose to pour upon him in the way of
+rebuke for what he had done and should not have, and what he had not
+done and should have, he never told the Elder that he was a great man.
+
+The first few days the Elder had held the usual prayer; but after some
+days he dispensed with this, and turned all his energy to rebuking Jean
+Baptiste, when he was out of sight.
+
+"Now, don't you talk about Glavis," cried Ethel one day when his
+Majesty had tired of abusing Baptiste and sought a diversion by
+remarking that Glavis had come from a stumpy farm in the woodlands of
+Tennessee. "No, you don't! Glavis is my husband and you can't abuse him
+to his back like you are doing Baptiste!"
+
+"Just listen how she treats her father, Orlean," cried the Elder,
+overcome with self pity. Orlean then rebuked Ethel and chided her
+father. But the part which escaped her, was that Ethel defended her
+mate, while Orlean suffered to have hers rebuked at will. The greatest
+reason why Ethel and her father could not agree, as was well known, was
+that they were too much alike.
+
+When Jean Baptiste had completed his barn, and his wife was out of
+danger, according to the doctor--but would never be according to the
+Elder--who insisted that the only cure would be for her to return to
+Chicago with them,--he was ready to go to work. His wife wanted to go to
+Chicago, for what the Reverend had done to her in the days he had sat by
+her and professed his great love, would have made her wish to go
+anywhere to appease him for even a day.
+
+"Now, after the expense we have been to," said Baptiste, "I hardly know
+whether I can let you go to Chicago or not."
+
+The Elder sighed, and said to her low enough for her husband's ears not
+to hear: "Just listen to that. After all I have done! Then I will have
+to pay your way to Chicago where I shall endeavor to save your life,
+your dear life which this man is trying to grind out of you to get
+rich."
+
+"But I'll think it over," said Baptiste. "We have lots of work this
+summer, and will try to get caught up," and the next moment he was gone.
+
+"Did you hear that, daughter?" said the Reverend, now aloud, when the
+other's back was turned. "Oh, it's awful, the man you have married! Just
+crazy, crazy to get rich! And puts you after his work; after his horses;
+after his everything! And after all your poor old father has done for
+you," whereupon he let escape another sigh, and fell into tears of self
+pity.
+
+Orlean stroked his head and swallowed what she would have offered in
+defense of the man she had married. It was useless to offer defense, he
+had broken this down long since.
+
+"Yes, he is wanting to kill, to kill my poor daughter after all she has
+sacrificed," he sobbed, "and when you are dead and in your grave like
+your baby is out in this wild country," his voice was breaking now with
+sobs, "he will up and marry another woman to enjoy the fruits of your
+sacrifice!" He was lost in his own tears then, and could say no more.
+
+"Now, dear," she suddenly heard her husband, and looked up to find that
+he had returned. He stooped and kissed her fondly, and then went on: "I
+am going up to my sister's homestead to start the men to work with the
+engine breaking the land and I must haul them the coal, which I will get
+at Colome. Now I will not be back for several days, but will make up my
+mind in the meantime as to whether I can let you go to Chicago or not."
+
+"All right, dear," she said, raising from the bed and caressing him long
+and lingeringly. She could not understand how much she wanted him then,
+it seemed that she could hold him so forever. She kissed him again and
+again, and as he passed out of the room she looked after him long and
+lingeringly, and upon her face was a heavenly smile as he passed out of
+sight and disappeared over the hill. As he did so, the Elder got from
+his position at the other side of the bed, went to the door, and also
+watched him out sight. As he turned away, Baptiste's grandmother who had
+fed many a preacher back there in old Illinois, the Reverend included,
+started. She had seen his face, and what she had seen therein had
+frightened her. When he went back into the room and to the bed where
+Orlean lay, she dropped by the table and buried her face in her old arms
+and sobbed, long and silently. And a close observer could have heard
+these shaken words:
+
+"Poor Jean, poor Jean, poor Orlean, oh, poor Orlean! You made all the
+fight you could but you were weak. You were doomed before you started,
+for he knew you and knew you were weak. But would to God that the world
+could end today, for it will end tomorrow for you two. Poor Orlean, poor
+Jean!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE COWARD
+
+
+"Hello, Jean," cried a friend of his at Colome some days later, as he
+was leading his horses into the livery barn, after loading the coal he
+was hauling to the men who were breaking prairie on his sister's claim
+with a steam tractor. "Were those your folks I seen driving into town a
+while ago?"
+
+"My folks?"
+
+"Yeh. Three of them. A man and two women. One of the ladies appears to
+be sick."
+
+"Oh," he echoed, and before he could or would have answered in his
+sudden surprise, the other passed on. It was some moments before he
+recovered from the shock the other's words had given him. He knew
+without stopping to think that the ones referred to were the Reverend,
+Ethel and his wife. He had written his wife a few days before that he
+would be home the following Sunday, and when he would be caught up in
+his hauling sufficiently and could spend a few days there.
+
+"So he moves without my consent or bid," he breathed, and for a time he
+was listless from the feeling that overcame him. He attended to his
+horses, mechanically, had supper and went to verify what he had heard.
+
+He had little difficulty in doing so, for the town was small, but that
+night, happened to be full of people, and the Reverend had found some
+difficulty in securing lodging. The day had not been a beautiful one by
+any means. It was in early April and the month had borrowed one of the
+dreary days of the previous month. Light snow had fallen, which, along
+toward evening had turned into a dismal sleet. A bad day to say the
+least, to be out, and a sick person of all things!
+
+He went directly to the preacher when he saw him. He was aroused, and
+the insults he had suffered did not make him pleasant.
+
+"Now, look here, Reverend McCarthy," he said and his tone revealed his
+feelings, "what kind of a 'stunt' are you pulling off with my wife?" And
+he blocked his way where they stood upon the sidewalk.
+
+"Now, now, my son--"
+
+"Oh, don't 'son' me," said the other impatiently. "You and I might as
+well come to an understanding right here tonight as any other time. We
+are not friends and you know it. We have never since we have known each
+other been in accord--not since we met--yes, twenty-two years ago. Oh,
+you remember it." The other started guiltily when Jean referred to his
+youth.
+
+"You remember how my mother licked me for letting Miss Self help me upon
+her lap and fed me, thereby disturbing your illegitimate flirtation...."
+The other's pious face darkened. But it was not his nature to meet and
+argue openly as men should and do. Always his counter was subtle. So
+while Jean Baptiste was in the mood to come to an understanding, to
+admit frankly to the other, that enemies they were, the Elder permitted
+a womanish smile to spread over his face and patted the other on the
+back, saying:
+
+"Now, now, Jean. You are my daughter's husband, and it is no time or
+place to carry on like this. The girl lays sick over here and if you
+would be a husband you would go to her. Now let's dispense with such
+things as you refer to and go forth to the indisposed." He appeared
+more godly now than he had ever. Distrust was in the face of Baptiste.
+He knew the preacher was not sincere, but his wife, the girl he had
+married, lay ill. He suspicioned that the Elder had intended stealing
+her away without his knowledge; he knew, moreover, that all his affected
+tenderness was subtle; but he hushed the harsh words that were on his
+tongue to say and followed the other.
+
+"Yes, my children," his pious face almost unable to veil the evil behind
+the mask, "here we are together," he said when he entered the room
+followed by Baptiste. Orlean was in bed and made no effort to greet her
+husband; while Ethel sat sulkily in a chair nearby and kept her mouth
+closed. Jean went to the bed and sat by his wife and regarded her
+meditatively. She did not seem to recognize him, and he made no effort
+to arouse her to express her thoughts which seemed to come and go. He
+was lost in thoughts, strange and sinister. Verily his life was in a
+turmoil. The life he had come into through his marriage had revived so
+many old and unpleasant memories that he had forgotten, until he was in
+a sort of daze. He had virtually run away from those parts wherein he
+had first seen the light of day, to escape the effect of dull indolence;
+the penurious evil that seemed to have gripped the populace, especially
+a great portion of his race. In the years Jean Baptiste had spent in the
+West, he had been able to follow, unhampered, his convictions. But now,
+the Reverend's presence seemed to have brought all this back.
+
+In a conversation one day with that other he had occasion to mention the
+late James J. Hill, in his eulogy of the northwest and was surprised to
+find--and have the Reverend admit--that he had never even heard of him.
+Indeed, what the Elder knew about the big things in life would have
+filled a very small book. But when it came to the virtues of the women
+in the churches over which he presided, he knew everything. And whenever
+they had become agreeable in any way, it was sure to end with the
+Reverend relating incidents regarding the social and moral conduct of
+the women in the churches over which he presided. Moreover, the Elder
+sought in his subtle manner, to dig into the past life of members of
+Baptiste's family, of what any had committed that could be used as a
+measure for gossip. And this night, as they sat over Jean's wife whose
+sentiment and convictions had been crushed, the Elder attempted to dwell
+on the subject again.
+
+"Yes, when your older sister taught in Murphysboro, and got herself
+talked about because she drew a revolver on Professor Alexander, that
+was certainly too bad."
+
+"Looks as if she was able to take care of herself," suggested Baptiste,
+deciding to counter the old rascal at his own game.
+
+"But that's what I'm trying to show you, and you could see it if you
+wasn't inclined to be so hard headed," argued the Elder.
+
+"We'll leave personalities out of it, if you please," said Baptiste,
+coloring.
+
+"Oh, but if your sister had had protection, such a deplorable incident
+would not have happened. Now, for instance," argued the Elder, "my girls
+have never had their good names embarrassed with such incidents."
+
+"Oh, they haven't," cried Baptiste, all patience gone.
+
+"Then what about their half brother in East St. Louis, eh? And the other
+one who died--was stabbed to death. Those were yours, and you were never
+married to their mother!"
+
+The other's face became terrible. The expression upon his face was
+dreadful to behold. He started to rise, but Baptiste was not through.
+He was thoroughly aroused now, and all he had stood from this arch
+sinner had come back to him. Therefore, before the other could deny or
+do anything, said he:
+
+"Oh, you needn't try to become so upset over it. Your morals are common
+knowledge to all the people of Illinois, and elsewhere. And let me tell
+you, you can--as you have--in your family, force those who know it and
+condemn it to keep quiet by making yourself so disagreeable that they
+will honey you up to get along with you. But it is not because they, or
+all those who know you, are not aware of it! That's your reputation, and
+some day you are going to suffer for it. You deliberately make people
+miserable to satisfy your infernal vanity; your desire to be looked upon
+and called great. Now right here you are bent upon crucifying your own
+daughter's happiness just because I haven't tickled your rotten vanity,
+and lied." He arose now, and pointed a threatening finger at the other.
+
+"You are out to injure me, and you are taking advantage of your own
+child's position as my wife to do so. I'm going to let you go ahead.
+Orlean's a good girl, but she's weak like the mother that you have
+abused for thirty years! But remember this, N.J. McCarthy, and I've
+called you Reverend for the last time. The evil that you do unto others
+will some day be done unto you and will drag your ornery heart in its
+own blood. Mark my words!" And the next instant he was gone.
+
+The other looked after him uneasily. The truth had come so forcibly, so
+impulsively, so abruptly, that it had for the time overcome his
+cunningness; but only for a moment after the other had disappeared was
+he so. He regained his usual composure soon enough, and he turned to
+the sick woman for succor--to her whom he was dragging down to the
+gutter of misery for his own self aggrandizement.
+
+"Did you hear how he abused your father?" he cried, the tears from his
+piggish eyes falling on her cheeks. She reached and stroked his white
+hair, and mumbled weak words.
+
+"Oh, I never thought I would come to this--be brought to this through
+the daughter that I have loved so much. Oh, poor me, your poor old
+father," whereupon he wept bitterly.
+
+"You see, you see," cried Ethel, who had risen and stood over her,
+pointing her finger to Orlean as she lay upon the bed. "This is what
+comes of marrying that man! I tried, oh, I tried so hard to have you see
+that no good could come of it, no good at all!" The other sighed. She
+was too weak from mortification to reply in the affirmative, or the
+negative.
+
+"I tried, and I tried to have you desist, but you would! When I had at
+last gotten you to quit him, and you swore you had, no sooner did he
+come and place his arm about you and whisper fool things in your ear,
+than did you but up and consent to this. This, this, do you hear? This
+that has brought your poor father to that!" and she stopped to point to
+where that one lay stretched across the bed, sobbing.
+
+The night was one long, miserable, quarrelsome night. Ethel and the
+Elder wore themselves out abusing Baptiste, and along toward morning all
+fell into a troubled sleep.
+
+Baptiste met them the next morning as they came from the rooms, and
+helped his wife across the street to a restaurant. When they had
+finished the meal, he said to her as they came from the restaurant,
+
+"Now, dear, I'll step into the bank here and get you some money--"
+
+"No, no, no, Jean," she said quickly, cutting him off before he
+completed what he had started to say.
+
+"Well," and he started toward the bank again as if he had not understood
+her.
+
+"No, no, no, Jean," she repeated, and caught his arm nervously. "No,
+don't!"
+
+"But you are going away, dear, and will surely need money?" he insisted.
+
+"Yes, but--Jean--Jean--I have money."
+
+"You have money?" repeated the other uncomprehendingly. "But how came
+you with money? That much money?"
+
+"I--I had--a--check cashed. That is--papa had one cashed for me."
+
+"Oh, so that was it. M-m. _Your father_ had it cashed for you?" he
+understood then, and his suspicion that the Elder had intended taking
+her to Chicago without letting him know it was confirmed. They walked
+down the street toward the depot, and while she held nervously to his
+arm, his mind was concerned with his thoughts. It occurred to him that
+he should take his wife back to the claim right then. He felt that if
+she went to Chicago there would be trouble. He began slowly to
+appreciate that in dealing with Reverend McCarthy he was not dealing
+with a man; nor a near man. He was not dealing with a mere liar, or a
+thief, even--he was dealing with the lowest of all reptiles, a snake!
+Then why did not he, Jean Baptiste, act?
+
+Perhaps if he had, we should never have had this story to tell. Jean
+Baptiste did not act. He decided to let her go. Beyond that he had no
+decision. It seemed that his mind would not work beyond the immediate
+present. Soon she heard him, as she clung to his arm, allowing her body
+to rest against his shoulder:
+
+"How much for, Orlean?"
+
+"Two--two--hundred dollars."
+
+"Why--two hundred dollars!" he cried. "Why, Orlean, what has come over
+you?" She burst into tears then, and clung appealingly to him. And in
+that moment she was again his God-given mate.
+
+"Besides," he went on, "I haven't such an amount in the bank, even." He
+looked up. A half a block in their lead walked Reverend McCarthy,
+carrying the luggage.
+
+"Papa, p-a-pa!" called Orlean at the top of her voice. "Pa-p-a," she
+called again and again until she fell into a fit of coughing. He halted,
+and was uneasy, Baptiste could see. They came up to him. Orlean was
+running despite her husband's effort to hold her back.
+
+"Papa, papa! My God, give Jean back that money. Give it back, I say! Oh,
+I didn't want to do this, oh, I didn't want to! It was you who had me
+sign that check, you, you, you!" She was overcome then, and fell into a
+swoon in her husband's arms. He stood firmly, bravely, then like the
+Rock of Gibraltar. His face was very hard, it was very firm. His eyes
+spoke. It told the one before him the truth, the truth that was.
+
+And as the other ran his hand to his inside vest pocket and drew forth
+the money, he kept saying in a low, cowardly voice:
+
+"_It was her, it was her. She did it, she did it!_"
+
+Baptiste took the money. He looked at it. He took fifty dollars from it
+and handed the amount to the other. He spoke then, in a voice that was
+singularly dry:
+
+"I will not keep her from going. She can go; but you know I ought not
+let her."
+
+They carried her to where the cars stood, and made her comfortable when
+once inside. She opened her eyes when he was about to leave upon
+hearing the conductor's call. She looked up into his eyes. He bent and
+kissed her. She looked after him as he turned, and called: "Jean!"
+
+"Yes, Orlean!"
+
+"Goodby!"
+
+He stood on the platform of the small western station as the train
+pulled down the track. A few moments later it disappeared from view, and
+she was gone.
+
+
+
+
+EPOCH THE THIRD
+
+
+
+
+EPOCH THE THIRD
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+CHICAGO--THE BOOMERANG
+
+
+The Reverend McCarthy had scored. He had succeeded in separating his
+daughter from the man she married. The fact that there was positively no
+misunderstanding between the two, was not seen or considered by him.
+Jean Baptiste had opposed him, and that was enough. He hated any member
+of his household, or any one related to the one of his household who
+dared disagree with him. Of course his "Majesty" did not see it that
+way. He saw himself as the most saintly man in the world and sympathized
+with himself accordingly. No man thought himself more unjustly abused
+than did N. Justine McCarthy.
+
+But there were other things to complete. He had not wilfully
+participated in what had just passed--in fact, he had not meant to part
+the couple at all. He prided himself with having some judgment. He was
+merely undertaking that which in a way had grown common to him--the task
+of getting even.
+
+Now he had estimated that he knew Jean Baptiste, although studying
+characters and their natural tendencies had not been a part of his theme
+in life. He felt albeit, that he had this one's tender spot clearly
+before him. To begin with: he put himself right with his own conscience
+by believing that Baptiste was a vain, selfish character, bent on one
+purpose--getting rich! He concluded--because he wished to--that
+Baptiste did not, and had never, loved Orlean. The fact that Orlean had
+not said anything to the contrary did not matter. He was her father, and
+therefore predicated and privileged to think and act for her. That was
+why he had always been of so much service, such fatherly help. He was
+protecting his daughter from the cruelty of men. But how he had planned
+it all!
+
+"Now that hard-headed rascal," meaning of course his son-in-law, "is not
+going to lay down. Oh, no! My poor girl has that claim. He does not want
+her, but he does want the claim. To hold the claim, he must have her,
+and have her back on the claim. He's all war now; but when he realizes
+that to lose her is to lose the claim into the bargain--oh, well, I'll
+just set right down at home here and wait. Yes, I'll wait. He'll be
+coming along. And when he appears here, then I'll bend his ornery will
+into the right way of seeing things." So thereupon he took up his vigil,
+waiting for Jean Baptiste to put in his appearance.
+
+But for some reason the other had not hastened to Chicago as soon as the
+Elder had anticipated he would. Three weeks had been consumed in the
+trip West, so he was somewhat behind in his church work. While it was
+true that ministers in some of the towns in his itinerary collected from
+the members at the quarterly conference and sent the money to him; on
+the other hand if he expected to get what was due him in any great
+measure, it was highly necessary that he be there in person.
+Accordingly, the time he spent in Chicago, waiting for the coming of his
+son-in-law that he might have the satisfaction of bending the other to
+his will began to grow long and irksome.
+
+Moreover, if he sat at home, he was obliged to meet and greet the many
+visitors who called to see his sick daughter. More largely of course for
+the purpose of securing information for gossip, but compelling him
+therefore to make or offer some explanation. And here arose another
+phase of the case that was not pleasant. Following Jean Baptiste's
+marriage to Orlean, and after the Reverend had paid them his first
+visit, he had said a great deal in praise of his "rich" son-in-law. That
+he was so extremely vain, was why he had done this. It had tickled his
+vanity to have the people see his daughter marry so well, since it was
+well known about Chicago that Jean Baptiste was very successful. When
+the Elder had boasted to the people he met of the "rich" man his
+daughter had married, he wrote telling the young couple of it. To be
+referred to as "rich" he conjectured, should have flattered any man's
+vanity--it would have his--and he estimated that he was doing Baptiste a
+great favor when he let him know that he, the Elder, was advertising him
+as rich.
+
+But the same had brought no response from that one. He had been too busy
+to take any interest in being praised. And even after the Elder had made
+his first visit, and returned and told of the wonders his daughter had
+married into, he still hoped this would soften Baptiste's disposition
+into praising and fawning upon him. It was not until Baptiste had
+returned the money he had sent his daughter for railway fare the Xmas
+before that the Reverend had thrown down the gauntlet and declared war.
+So the very thing he had played up a few months before, came back now to
+annoy him. Because he had never lived as he should have it was proving a
+boomerang. He had made a practice of pretending not to hear what was
+being said about him by others. But he could not seal his ears to the
+fact that the people were asking themselves and everybody else what had
+happened to his daughter, or between his daughter and the "rich"
+son-in-law. This was very uncomfortable, it was very annoying. It was
+reported that he was compelled to go out West and get her, and it was
+exasperating to explain all without making it seem that what he had said
+a few months before was boast, pure and simple.
+
+"Yeh. All you could hear a few months ago, was the 'rich' man Orlean had
+married. Yeh. Mr. Mc. would make it his business to get around so you
+had to ask 'im about them. Then he'd swell up lak a big frog and tell
+all about it. Then of a sudden he jumps up and goes out there and brings
+her back. Ump! Now I wonder what is the mattah."
+
+During these times, those of the household had little peace. With
+impatience over Baptiste's not showing up so he could read him the riot
+act, and his work being neglected; with having to listen to no end of
+gossip that his meddling had brought about, he became the most obstinate
+problem imaginable about the house. All the love he had pretended for
+Orlean while on the claim, was now changed to severe chastisement. He no
+longer fondled and wasted hours over her. She had no longer the
+convenient check book. The fact that she had to have a little medicine,
+and that she also had to have other necessities; that she had to
+eat--and the most of this he was forced to provide, made him so
+irritable, that those near prayed for the day when he would leave. But
+if Jean Baptiste would only come so that he could say to him what he had
+planned to say. Just to have the opportunity to bend that stubborn
+will--that would be sufficient to repay him for all he was now actually
+sacrificing.
+
+As for "Little Mother Mary" these were the darkest days of her never
+happy married life. Of all the men she had met or known, she had truly
+admired and loved Jean Baptiste more than any other. In truth it was her
+disposition to be frank, kind and truthful. She dearly loved her
+son-in-law for his manly frank and kind disposition. She trusted him,
+and, knowing that Orlean was of her disposition, weak and subservient to
+the will of those near, she had been relieved to feel that she had
+married the kind of man that would be patient and love a person with
+such a disposition.
+
+She had been sincere in her praise of him to her many friends. She had
+told of him to everybody she knew or met. So much so indeed, that the
+Reverend on his last trip West in his daily rebuke, then had said: "And
+Mary has just sickened me with telling everybody she meets about Jean."
+Ethel had joined with him in this. The truth was that when her mother
+had sung her praise to the people regarding Jean Baptiste, there was
+nothing left to say about Glavis, but more especially about the Elder.
+
+What the Reverend was forced to endure at this time, he promptly of
+course charged to the indiscretions of Jean Baptiste. If he had not done
+this, or if he had done that, the Elder would not have been forced to
+endure such annoyance. If he would only show up with his practical ideas
+in Chicago! Every morning when the door bell rang, he listened eagerly
+for the voice of his son-in-law. He watched the mail, and in assorting
+the letters, looked anxiously for the Western postmark. But a week
+passed, and no letter and no Jean Baptiste. Then at the end of two
+weeks, the same prevailed. And at the end of three weeks, he knew he
+would have to go to work or reckon with the bishop.
+
+So on Tuesday of the following week, the Elder left for his work, and
+that same afternoon, Jean Baptiste arrived in Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE GREAT QUESTION
+
+
+The days that followed after the Elder had taken his wife away, were
+unhappy days for Jean Baptiste. In his life there were certain things he
+had held sacred. Chief among these was the marriage vow. While a strong
+willed, obviously firm sort of person, he was by nature sentimental. He
+had among his sentiments been an enemy of divorces. Nothing to him was
+so distasteful as the theory of divorce. He had always conjectured that
+if a man did not drink, or gamble, or beat his wife there could be no
+great cause for divorce; whereas, with the woman, if she was not guilty
+of infidelity a man could find no just cause, on the whole, to ask for a
+divorce. But whatever the cause be--even a just cause--he disliked the
+divorcing habit. He persisted in believing that if two people whose
+lives were linked together would get right down to a careful
+understanding and an appreciation of each other's sentiments, or points
+of view, they could find it possible to live together and be happy.
+
+Fancy therefore, how this man must have felt when he arrived at the
+little house upon the wife's claim and found his grandmother alone. They
+had taken his wife and all her belongings. He lived in a sort of
+quandary in the days that followed. His very existence became
+mechanical. And one day while in this unhappy state, he chanced to find
+a little sun bonnet that they had evidently overlooked. She had bought
+it the summer before, and it was too small. But he recalled now that he
+had thought that it made her look very sweet. How much the bonnet meant
+to him now! He placed it carefully away, and when he was alone in the
+house in after days with only her memory as a companion he would get and
+bring it forth, gaze at it long and tenderly. It seemed to bring back
+the summer before when he had been hopeful and happy and gay. It brought
+him more clearly to realize and appreciate what marriage really meant
+and the sacred vow. And during these hours he would imagine he could see
+her again; that she was near and from under the little bonnet that was
+too small he communed with her and he would thereupon hold a mythical
+conversation, with her as the listener.
+
+Was it all because Jean Baptiste loved his wife? What is there between
+love and duty? It had never been as much a question with Jean Baptiste
+as to how much he loved her as it was a question of duty. She was his
+wife by the decree of God and the law of the land. Whatever he had been,
+or might have been to others, therefore had gone completely out of his
+mind when he had taken her to him as wife. And now that she was away, to
+his mind first came the question, _why_ was she away?
+
+Yes, that was the great question. _Why was she away?_
+
+Oh, the agony this question gave the man of our story.
+
+Not one serious quarrel had they ever had. Not once had he spoken
+harshly to her, nor had she been cross with him. Not once had the
+thought entered his mind that they would part; that they could part;
+that they would ever wish to part. In the beginning, true, there had
+been some little difficulties before they had become adjusted to each
+other's ways. But that had taken only a few months, after which they had
+gradually become devoted to each other. And so their lives had become.
+Out there in the "hollow of God's hand," their lives had become
+assimilated, they had looked forward to the future when there would be
+the little ones, enlarging their lives and duties.
+
+And yet, why was his wife in Chicago without even a letter from her to
+him; or one from him to her? Why, why, _why_?
+
+N. Justine McCarthy!
+
+Oh, the hatred that began to grow--spread and take roots in the breast
+of this man of the prairie toward the man who had wilfully and
+deliberately wronged him, wrecked that which was most sacred to him. The
+days came and went, but that evil, twisting, warping hatred remained; it
+grew, it continued to grow until his very existence became a burden and
+a misery. No days were happy days to him. From the moment he awakened in
+the morning until he was lost in slumbers in the evening, Jean Baptiste
+knew no peace. While that perpetrator of his unhappiness waited
+impatiently in Chicago with plans to grind and humiliate him further,
+this man began to formulate plans also. With all the bitter hatred in
+his soul against the cause of his unhappiness, his plans were not the
+plans of "getting even," but merely to see his wife where no subtle
+influences could hamper her or warp her convictions and reason. He knew
+that to write to her would be but to prove useless. The letters would be
+examined and criticized by those around her. He knew that sending her
+money would be only regarded as an evidence of weakening on his part,
+and if he was to deal, weakness must have no place. So as to how he
+might see his wife, and give her an opportunity to appreciate duty,
+became his daily determination.
+
+The great steam tractor, breaking prairie on his sister's homestead was
+diligently at its task, and while it turned over from twenty to thirty
+acres of wild sod each day, it also ate coal like a locomotive. So to
+it he was kept busy hauling coal over the thirty-five miles from Colome.
+On the land he was having broken (for he had teams breaking prairie in
+addition to the tractor) he had arranged to sow flaxseed. For two years
+preceding this date, crops had been perceptibly shorter, due to drought.
+Therefore seeds of all kind had attained a much higher price than
+previously. Flaxseed that he had raised and sold thousands of bushels of
+in years gone by for one dollar a bushel he was now compelled to pay the
+sum of $3.00 a bushel therefor.
+
+So with a steam tractor hired at an average cost of $60 a day; with
+extra men in addition to be boarded; and with hauling the coal for the
+tractor himself such a distance and other expenses, Jean Baptiste,
+unlike his august-father-in-law, had little time or patience to sit
+around consuming his time and substance perpetrating a game of spite.
+
+But he was positive that he would needs lose his mental balance unless
+he journey to Chicago and see his wife. Alone she would have time, he
+conjectured to think, to see and to realize just what she was doing. Why
+should they be separated? Positively there was nothing and never had
+been anything amiss between them, was what passed daily through his
+mind. Well, he decided that he would go to her as soon as he had
+arranged matters so he could. He was peeved when he recalled that the
+spring before he had been forced to make a trip to that same city that
+could as well have been avoided. But when anything had to be done, Jean
+Baptiste usually went after it and was through. In business where he was
+pitted against men, this was not difficult, and instead of disliking to
+face such music, he rather relished the zest it gave him. But when a man
+is dealing with a snake--for nothing else can a man who would sacrifice
+his own blood to vanity be likened to, it must be admitted that the
+task worried Jean Baptiste. If N. Justine McCarthy had been a reader,
+an observer, and a judge of mankind as well as a student of human nature
+and its vicissitudes he could have realized that murder was not short
+for such actions as he was perpetrating. But here again Jean Baptiste
+was too busy. He had no time to waste in jail--for even if killing the
+man who had done him such an injury be justified he realized that
+justice in such cases works slowly. But it would be vain and untruthful
+to say that with the bitterness in his heart, Jean Baptiste did not
+reach a point in his mind where he could have slain in cold blood the
+man with whom he was dealing.
+
+At last came the time when he could be spared from his farm, and to
+Chicago he journeyed. Positively this was one trip to that city that
+gave him no joy. He estimated before reaching there, that he should best
+not call up the house, but bide his time and try to meet his wife
+elsewhere. But when he arrived in the city, and not being a coward, he
+dismissed this idea and went directly to the house in Vernon Avenue.
+
+He was met at the door by "Little Mother Mary," who did not greet him as
+she might have, but for certain reasons. The most she could do even to
+live in the same atmosphere with her husband was to pretend to act in
+accordance with his sentiments. Baptiste followed her back to the rear
+room where she took a seat and he sat down beside her. She had uttered
+no word of greeting, but he came directly to the point. "Where is
+Orlean?"
+
+"She's out."
+
+"Out where?"
+
+"She just walked out into the street."
+
+"How is she?"
+
+"Better than when she came home," meaningly.
+
+"When she was _brought_ home," he corrected.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"But I am not here to argue whereof. I am here to see her."
+
+"But she's out."
+
+"However, she'll return, I hope. If not, then, where might I find her?"
+
+"She'll return presently."
+
+He was silent for a time while she regarded him nervously, listening in
+the meantime as if expecting some one. She was afraid. Her husband had
+left the city only that morning; but behind him he had left an
+escutcheon who could--and was, as capable of making matters as
+disagreeable. It was Ethel, and Mrs. McCarthy was aware that that one
+was upstairs. The household had been conducted according to the desires
+and dictates of the Elder. Wherefore she was uneasy. Baptiste observed
+her now, and made mental note as to the cause of the expression of
+uneasiness upon her face.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked.
+
+She did not reply, but sighed.
+
+"What's the matter, Mother Mary?" he asked kindly. Her love and
+admiration asserted itself momentarily in the look with which she
+replied to him. How in that moment she wanted to tell him all, and to be
+to him as she had always wanted to be. But only a moment was she so,
+then that look of hunted fear overspread her face again, and she turned
+uneasily toward the stairs.
+
+"Won't you tell me what the matter is, mother?" she heard him again. For
+answer the quick glance over her shoulder was sufficient. It was as if
+to say. "Hush! Enemies are near!" He then estimated that the Elder had
+gone to the southern part of the state, but Ethel must be near, and it
+was Ethel whom the mother feared. He understood then, that the Reverend
+had a cunning way of having Ethel do his bidding. Because she was
+possessed of his evil disposition, he could trust her to carry out
+anything on this order--that is, providing she disliked the person in
+question, and that was usually the case, for, like him, there were few
+people whom she really liked.
+
+"What have you been doing to my child?" he heard from Mother Mary,
+presently. He studied her face again and saw that she was trying to
+reckon with him herself, although he knew that it mattered little what
+she thought or did on the whole.
+
+"Has she told you what I have been doing to her?" he said. She shifted
+uncomfortably, looked around a little, listened for a sound that she
+expected to hear sooner or later, and then replied, and in doing so, he
+saw that she was again subservient to the old training.
+
+"My husband told me," she countered.
+
+"Oh," he echoed.
+
+"You have not acted with discretion," she said again, and he understood
+her. Acting with "discretion" would been never to have given the
+Reverend an excuse for making that trip....
+
+"I have been good to your daughter; a husband to the best of my
+ability."
+
+"But you--you--should not have blundered." Again he was reminded of what
+it meant to displease or give her husband any excuse.
+
+"I did not agree in this room a year ago to be regardful of the opinion
+of others," he defended. "I agreed to the word of the law and of God. I
+have tried to fulfill that word. I did not intend to be absent when the
+child came." She shifted again uneasily, and her mind went back to the
+day Orlean was born and that her husband, too, had been away....
+
+"If I can see Orlean that will be sufficient," he said.
+
+"She went to walk."
+
+"Mother?"
+
+She regarded him again, and then turned her eyes away for she could not
+stand to look long into his. The truth there would upset her and she
+knew it.
+
+"Why must this be so?" She shifted uneasily again. Oh, if she could only
+be brave. If she could only dare--but she was not brave, Orlean was not
+brave. They had lived their lives too long subservient to the will of
+others to attempt bravery now. She rested her eyes on some sewing she
+pretended to do and waited. It could only be for a little while. Ethel
+must learn sooner or later of his presence, and then--! There would be a
+scene or he must go.
+
+"It's a shame," said the other.
+
+"You should have been careful," she returned meaningly. But in her mind
+was still the dream. If she could be brave....
+
+"Mother!" called some one sharply. Jean recognized the voice, the
+command. The other's face went pale for a moment, while her eyes closed.
+He understood. The worst had come. In the minutes they had been sitting
+there, she had almost dared hope that Orlean would return, and that in
+some way--perhaps it would have to come from heaven--they could fly. But
+chances now were gone. His cohort had appeared. "Who is it out there?"
+she asked, and came toward where they sat. She saw him then, and
+regarded him coldly. Through her mind shot the fact that her father had
+waited three weeks for him, and had just left that morning. Her
+disappointment was keen. For a moment she was frightened. In truth she
+held a fearsome admiration for the man, and then she stiffened. She had
+come back to herself; to the fact that she had a reputation for being
+disagreeable. She turned to him, and said:
+
+"What are you doing here?"
+
+He answered her not. Her mother was trembling.
+
+"Get out of this house!" she commanded, getting control of herself.
+
+Baptiste was in a quandary. He recalled how he had seen her make her
+husband jump as if trying to get out of his skin when she was in her
+evil spasms.
+
+"Did you hear!" she almost screamed.
+
+"I am waiting for my wife," he replied then calmly.
+
+"She is my sister!" she screamed again.
+
+"I suppose I am aware of that."
+
+"Then you cannot have her!"
+
+"She is mine already."
+
+"You're a liar!" she yelled, crying now, and her evil little face
+screwed up horribly in her anger. Mrs. McCarthy was trembling as if a
+chill had come over her. Ethel suddenly flew to the 'phone. She got a
+number, and he heard her scream:
+
+"Glavis! Glav--is.... That man is here!... Glav--is!... That man is
+here!..." He could understand no more, then, but saw that she was
+frantic. He finally heard Mother Mary.
+
+"You're wanted at the 'phone," she said, tremblingly. He got up and went
+to it. Ethel was dancing about the room like a demon.
+
+"Hello!" he called.
+
+"Hello!" came back. "Ah--ha--who--who--who is th-is?" the other
+sputtered, all excitement.
+
+"Baptiste," replied the other, wondering at his excitement.
+
+"Wh--at a--re yo--u do-i-ng a--t m-y h-o-u-s-e?"
+
+"Oh, say," called back Baptiste. "There's nobody dead out here. Now calm
+yourself and say what you want to. I'm listening."
+
+"We--ll," said the other, a little better controlled. "I ask what you
+are doing at my house?"
+
+"Your house!" echoed Baptiste, uncomprehendingly. "Why, I do not
+understand you."
+
+"I want to know what you are doing at my house after what you said about
+me!"
+
+"At your house after what I said about you!" Baptiste repeated.
+
+"Yes. You said I was 'nothing but a thirteen dollars a week jockey,' and
+all that." Baptiste was thoughtful. He had never said anything about
+Glavis--and then he understood. Some more of the Elder's work.
+
+"Now, Glavis, I do not understand what you mean when you say what I said
+about you; but as for my being here, that is distinctly no wish of mine.
+But you know my wife is here, and it is her I am here to see. No other."
+
+"But I want to see you downtown--you come down here!"
+
+Baptiste was thoughtful. He knew that he could exert no influence over
+Orlean when she did return with Ethel acting as she was, so he might as
+well be downtown for the present as elsewhere. So he answered:
+
+"Well, alright."
+
+Ethel slammed and locked the door behind him, and he walked over to
+Cottage Grove Avenue and boarded a car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+GLAVIS MAKES A PROMISE
+
+
+Glavis tried to appear very serious when Baptiste called at where he
+worked an hour later, but it was beyond him to be so. It was said that
+he was in the habit of trying to appear like the Reverend, but since the
+pretended seriousness of that one had never affected Jean Baptiste,
+Glavis' affectation had still less effect.
+
+"Well, Glavis," he began pointedly. "I'm here as per your suggestion,
+and since it is quite plain what the matter is, we may as well come
+directly to the point."
+
+"Well, yes, Baptiste, I guess I may as well agree with you," replied
+Glavis.
+
+"Then, to begin with. That remark you made over the 'phone regarding
+what I had said about you, let me say is a falsehood pure and simple.
+What I said or would say to your back I will say to your face."
+
+"Well, Baptiste," he replied quickly, and his expression confirmed the
+words that followed, "I believe you."
+
+"I have no occasion to lie. It is very plain that our father-in-law and
+I are not in accord, and while it may be nothing to you perhaps, I do
+not hesitate to say that there is nothing wrong between Orlean and
+me--and never has been. It is all between her father and me, and he is
+using her as the means."
+
+"Well, that is rather direct," suggested Glavis.
+
+"Evidently so; but it's the truth and you know it. It is simply a case
+which you are supposed not to see all sides of."
+
+"Now, Baptiste," defended Glavis, "I am no party to your wife's being
+here in Chicago."
+
+"And I agree with you," returned Baptiste. "It is not your nature to
+make trouble between people, Glavis. I'll do you that honor. People are
+inclined to follow their natural bent, and yours, I repeat, is not to
+cause others misery. Therefore, you can rest assured that I do not mean
+to involve you in any of my troubles."
+
+"That is sure manly in you, Baptiste," Glavis said heartily.
+
+"But it is a fact, I venture, that you have been advised that I spoke
+ill of you--at least, I spoke disparagingly of you while your folks were
+in the West. Am I speaking correctly?"
+
+"I'll have to admit that you are," and he scowled a little.
+
+"Do you believe these statements?"
+
+The other scowled again, but didn't have the courage to say that he
+did--or, perhaps to lie. He knew why he had been told what he had. To
+unite with the Reverend in his getting even with Baptiste, Glavis had
+been told that Baptiste had "run him down."
+
+"Well, Glavis, the fact that my wife is at your home--under your
+roof--I, her husband, am therefore placed at a disadvantage thereby. You
+cannot help being indirectly implicated in whatever may happen."
+
+"Now, now, Baptiste," the other cried quickly. "I do not want to have
+anything to do with you and Orlean's troubles. I--"
+
+"It is _not_ Orlean and my troubles, Glavis. It is her father's and my
+troubles."
+
+Glavis shifted uncomfortably. Presently he said hesitatingly:
+
+"The old man just left town this morning. Wished you and he could have
+had your outs together."
+
+"Yes, it is too bad we did not. As I see it, I have no business with
+him. In him I am not interested, and never have been. Because I have
+held aloof from becoming so is the cause of the trouble. I was told
+before I married Orlean, and by her herself, that I should praise her
+father; that I should make him think that he was a king, if I would get
+along with him. Indeed, I did not, I confess, at the time consider it to
+be as grave as that, that I _had_ this to do in order to live with
+Orlean."
+
+It was positively uncomfortable to Glavis. He could find no words to
+disagree with the other because he knew that he spoke the truth. He knew
+that he had catered to the Reverend's vanity to be allowed to pay court
+to Ethel before he was married to her; he knew that he had done so
+since; and he knew--and did not always like it--that he was still doing
+so, and boarding the Reverend's wife into the bargain, and Orlean now
+was added thereto. He did not relish the task. He earned only a small
+salary that was insufficient for his own and his wife's needs. Up to a
+certain point his wife defied her father; but since she was so like him
+in disposition, and had been instrumental in assisting to separate
+Orlean and her husband, she had not the courage to rebel and compel--at
+least insist--that the Reverend take care of his wife and the daughter
+he had parted from her husband.
+
+So it was all thrown onto Glavis. He made a few dollars extra each week
+by various means, and this helped him a little. In truth, he wished that
+Orlean was with her husband, and knowing very well that there was where
+she wanted to be, he was inclined for the moment to try to help
+Baptiste. Besides, he rather admired the man. Few people could be
+oblivious to the personality of Baptiste and be honest with themselves.
+Even the Elder had always found it expedient to be disagreeable in
+order to dispel the effect of his son-in-law's frank personality.
+
+"The way we are lined up, Glavis, you must appreciate that you cannot
+keep out of it. You are aware that I have no wish to hang around your
+abode; but I didn't come all the way from the West to fail to see
+Orlean. You know full well that Ethel would never let her meet me
+elsewhere, that her father has left orders to that effect. Now, what am
+I to do? If I call, your wife will make it so disagreeable that nothing
+can be accomplished."
+
+"Dammit!" exclaimed Glavis suddenly. "It _isn't_ all my fault or the old
+man's or my wife's! It's Orlean's!"
+
+"Well," agreed Baptiste, thoughtfully, "on the whole, that is so."
+
+"Of course it is! If Orlean was a woman she would be right out there
+with you now where she belongs!"
+
+"And I agree with you again, Glavis. But Orlean isn't a woman, and that
+is what I have been trying to make her. She has never been a
+woman--wasn't reared so to be. By nature she is like her mother, and she
+has grown up according to her training."
+
+"She cannot be two things at the same time," Glavis argued, "and that is
+a daughter to her father and a wife to you!"
+
+"No, that is where the difficulty lay," said Baptiste. "But her father's
+influence over her is great, you will admit. She has been taught to
+agree with him, and that--I can never, nor will I try to do."
+
+"It certainly beats hell!"
+
+"It's the most awkward situation I have ever been placed in. But here's
+the idea: I took that girl for better or for worse. Now, what am I to
+do? Throw up my hands and quit, or try to see Orlean and get her around
+to reason? It isn't Orlean. It's her father. So I have concluded to
+make some sort of a fight. Life and marriage are too serious just to let
+matters go like this."
+
+"Yes, it is," agreed Glavis. "It certainly worries me. And it annoys me
+because it is so unnecessary." He was thoughtful and then suddenly he
+said:
+
+"I'm sorry you let the old man--er--ah--get you mixed up like this." He
+appeared as if he wished to say more. To say that: "For when you let him
+get into it, the devil would be to pay! Keep him out of your affairs if
+you would live in peace."
+
+"Well," said Baptiste, rising, "your time here belongs to the company
+you are working for, and not to me or my troubles. So I'm going to
+'beat' it now out to Thirty-first Street."
+
+"Well," returned Glavis, "believe me, Baptiste, I'm sorry for you, and
+for Orlean. It's rotten." It was remarkable how he saw what was causing
+it; but how he cleverly kept from directly accusing his father-in-law.
+"And I'll meet you at Thirty-first Street after supper. At the Keystone,
+remember." With that he grasped the other's hand warmly, and as Jean
+Baptiste went down the stairway from where Glavis worked, he knew that
+he had a friend who at least wanted to help right a most flagrant wrong.
+The only question was, would E.M. Glavis have the courage to go through
+with it?
+
+Well, Glavis might have the courage--_but Ethel was his wife. And Jean
+Baptiste realized that of all things in the world, a woman's influence
+is the most subtle._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE GAMBLER'S STORY
+
+
+The keystone was the oldest and most elite hostelry for Negroes in
+Chicago and the West for many years. It is located near Thirty-first and
+State Street, in the heart of the black belt of the southside of the
+city. It was built previous to the World's Fair and still maintains its
+prestige as the most popular hangout for Negroes of the more
+ostentatious set. And it was here that Jean Baptiste went, following his
+departure with Glavis.
+
+When Chicago was a "wide open" town, gambling had been carried on
+upstairs as a business. Porters, waiters, barbers and politicians who
+held the best jobs had always found their way eventually to the
+Keystone. Likewise did the Negroes in business and the professions and
+workers in all the trades, as well as mail carriers, mail clerks, and
+the men of the army and actors. In short the Keystone was the meeting
+place for men in nearly all the walks of life.
+
+Always the freest city in the world for the black man, Chicago has the
+most Negroes in the mail service and the civil service; more Negroes
+carry clubs as policemen; more can be found in all the departments of
+the municipal courts, county commissioners, aldermen, corporation
+counsels, game warden assistants, and so on down. Indeed, a Negro feels
+freer and more hopeful in Chicago than anywhere else in the United
+States.
+
+So it was such a crowd that Jean Baptiste encountered at the Keystone
+that day. There were two real estate men who had once run on the road
+with him and who had since succeeded in business; also there was another
+who was a county commissioner; and still another one, an army officer.
+So, upon seeing him they did all cry:
+
+"Baptiste! Well, well, of all things! And how do you happen to be down
+here in the spring?"
+
+"Oh, a little business," he returned, and joined with the crowd, bought
+a drink for them all, and was apparently jolly.
+
+Among the number was a gambler by the name of Speed. He shook the
+visitor's hand heartily, and when the visit with the others was over, he
+went to a table and, sitting down, beckoned for Baptiste. When the other
+responded, he begged him to be seated, and then said:
+
+"Now, I know what you are down here about--heard about it the day he
+brought her home." Baptiste regarded him wonderingly. "Yes, I
+understand," he said, making himself comfortable as if to tell a long
+story. "You are wondering how _I_ come to understand about your
+father-in-law, and if you are not in a hurry, I'll tell you a little
+story."
+
+"Well," said the other, "let's have a drink before you start."
+
+"I don't care," and he beckoned to the bartender.
+
+"Small bottle, a Schlitz," he said, and turned to Baptiste.
+
+"Make it two," said the other, and turned to hear the story the other
+had to tell.
+
+"It happened fifteen years ago," began Speed when their beer had been
+served. "I was a preacher then.--Hold on," he broke off at the
+expression on Baptiste's face.
+
+"Yes, of course you can hardly believe it; but I was then a preacher. I
+was the pastor of the church in a little town, and I won't tell the name
+of the town; but it's all the same, I was a preacher and pastor of this
+church. I had not been long ordained, and was ambitious to succeed as a
+minister. The charge had not been long created, and was, of course, not
+much of a place for money. But it so happened that a quarry was opened
+about the time I was sent there and it brought some hundred and fifty
+Negro families to live in the town, and in almost a twinkling, my charge
+became from among the poorest, to one of the best from a financial point
+of view. The men worked steadily and were paid well, and their families
+found quite a bit of work to do among the wealthy whites of the town.
+
+"There were two young ladies living a few doors from where I preached,
+girls who made their own living, honestly, nice, clean girls, and I was
+much impressed with them. I sought, and finally succeeded in getting
+them interested in the church, and later began keeping company with one.
+Now here is where your folks come in. The Reverend McCarthy--old Mac, I
+called him, was filling the same line he now is, Presiding Elder, and
+this church was in his itinerary. I was therefore under his
+recommendation. He had been visiting the church regularly, holding his
+quarterly conference every three months, and getting his little bit. It
+was shortly after I had started going with this young lady that McCarthy
+got awful nice and treated me so good until I became suspicious. Then
+one day it came out.
+
+"'By the way, Speed,' he said. 'Who're those girls living near the
+church?' I knew who he was referring to because I had seen him trying to
+smile on them the day before which had been a Sunday. But I pretends I
+don't know what or who he's talking about.
+
+"'Who?' I inquired as innocent as a lamb.
+
+"'Oh, those two girls living near the church,' and he called their
+names.
+
+"'Why, they are two young ladies who came here not long ago,' I said,
+and waited.
+
+"'Is _that_ all?' he asked then, and I looked at him. He grinned, and
+said:
+
+"'Aw, come on, Speed! Be a good fellow. Now, _are those girls_
+straight?' and he specified the one I had begun going with.
+
+"'Why,' said I, 'Reverend McCarthy, I am surprised at you to ask such a
+question, or to offer such an insinuation. Besides,' I went on, 'Why?'
+
+"'Aw, now, Speed,' he laughed easily, his big fat round face shaking.
+'Be a _good_ sport and put me onto these girls. Now, I'll tell you what
+I want you to do,' he said, drawing his chair close to mine. 'I'll make
+it my business to get back over here next Sunday night, and I want you
+to "_fix_" it for me with that one, and--' he winked in a way I did not
+at the time understand--but I did later--'I'll make it _right_ with you.
+You understand,' he said, rising, '_I'll make it right with you_.'
+
+"I was never so put out in my life. Here was this man, a minister of the
+Gospel, and a Presiding Elder, who had just deliberately delegated me to
+make a _previous_ engagement for him without regard to morals--and with
+the girl I loved. I don't think he knew I was paying her court, but the
+moral was the same.
+
+"I was outdone! But true to his words, the next Sunday night he was
+back!
+
+"'Well, Speed,' he said when the services were over. 'What's the rip?
+Everything O.K.?' He was very anxious, and I'll never forget his face.
+But, I was afraid of the old rascal, still I hadn't lost my manhood at
+that. So I says:
+
+"'Now, Reverend, you place me in a very awkward predicament. To begin
+with, I have the highest respect for those young ladies. And, again,
+even if I did not, I could not be expected to cohort as you suggested.'
+
+"'Aw, Speed,' he cut in. 'You're no good. Pshaw! I just know the older
+of those two girls is not straight--am positive of it. And you could
+fix things if you would,' and I detected a touch of angry
+disappointment in his tone.
+
+"Well, to get out of it, I told the old rascal what I thought of his
+suggestion and left him. I never saw him again until near conference,
+and then not to speak with him. I was confident that I had satisfied the
+people, and that I would be sent back without any argument.
+
+"So imagine when I went to conference and when the charges were being
+read off and I heard the Secretary call 'Reverend Speed to Mitchfield!'
+instead of the town from which I had gone.
+
+"I was just sick, man; so sick until I almost dropped dead on the floor!
+Oh, the agony it gave me! I finally got outside some way, and stood
+leaning against the church. How long I stood thus, I never knew; but the
+church let out by and by, while I still stood there--and let me explain.
+Mitchfield was a charge that contained exactly a dozen members--the
+Reverend McCarthy came out and I looked up straight into his eyes.... I
+knew then why I had been sent to Mitchfield instead of back to the
+charge I had been at.
+
+"Well, I went to Mitchfield, and by working around town by the day, in
+connection with the charge, I managed to make it. Some months later, I
+married the girl I have spoken of, and we began to keep house in
+Mitchfield.
+
+"It was pretty hard, and sometimes I don't wonder at what later
+happened. But to make a long story short, I was compelled to get work in
+a near-by town to make a living for me and my wife, and was gone all
+the week until Saturday night. At the end of six months, Reverend
+McCarthy had taken my wife, and she had left me and was living in St.
+Louis!"
+
+Baptiste was regarding him strangely.
+
+"Have you heard the rest of it?" the other paused to ask. "Well,
+Reverend McCarthy became the father of her two sons. One was killed some
+years ago, the other lives in St. Louis."
+
+"But what--what became of their mother?" Baptiste inquired curiously.
+
+"Her? What becomes of women who are deceived? If you visited St. Louis
+and the _district_, you might find her. She was there the last I heard
+of her."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Me?" the other repeated in a strangely hollow voice. "You know what _I_
+am. A gambler, and with an old score to settle with that man if I ever
+get the chance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE PREACHER'S EVIL INFLUENCE
+
+
+With all Ethel's excited ways, she was not to be reckoned a fool when
+she had in mind to accomplish some purpose. She understood full well,
+that it would be up to her at this time to keep Orlean from returning
+West with her husband, unless she recalled her father. This she did not
+wish to resort to, until she had exhausted all her force without avail.
+She appreciated the fact that Jean Baptiste could and would influence
+her husband as well as her mother, while as to Orlean, she would only
+need a half a chance to fall away from her influence and go back to her
+husband.
+
+So with this in mind, Ethel, who had inherited from her father, much
+evil and the faculty of making people miserable began, as soon as
+Baptiste had left the house, to formulate plans to counter any effort on
+his part to see Orlean.
+
+Her first move, therefore, was to recall Orlean who was visiting near, a
+fact which her mother had feared to tell Baptiste. She convinced her
+forthwith that she was sick, in danger, and sent her to bed, not telling
+her that Baptiste was even in town. She followed this by sending her
+mother to the kitchen, and keeping her there.
+
+"Now what I must do--succeed in doing," she muttered to herself, "is to
+keep Orlean from seeing or meeting him in private and even in public for
+as much as an hour." She realized that keeping a man and wife apart was
+a grave task, and that she could not trust to the sympathy of any
+friends. But one person could she trust to be an ally in the task she
+was trying to accomplish, and that was her father. She rather feared her
+husband at this time, for, while she held him under her control at most
+all times, he was by disposition inclined to be kind and good. And,
+although he was jealous of Baptiste in a measure, this did not reach
+proportions where he was likely to be a very ready accomplice with the
+plan in hand. Indeed, if it was left to him, Orlean would sleep in her
+husband's arms that very night!
+
+"I wish papa had stayed just another day," she grumbled as she walked
+the floor and tried to formulate some effective plan of action. "To
+think that he left only this morning and that man came this afternoon!"
+She was provoked at such a coincidence. She did not like to think too
+deeply, or to scheme too long, for it hurt her. So she was compelled to
+take a chair for a time and rest her mind. She was not positive how long
+Baptiste would stay, and she would have difficulty in keeping her sister
+in bed for any length of time. But she decided to keep her in the house
+if she had to sit on guard at the front door.
+
+And it was while she was yet undecided upon her plan of action, that
+Glavis came home. Once in a great while, when she wanted a change, a
+diversion, she would have his supper waiting. Other times it was left to
+her mother. He loved her in spite of all her evil, and was always
+pleased when she had his supper ready. So when she heard his footsteps
+outside, she was suddenly struck with an inspiration. She rushed toward
+the rear, and began hurriedly to set the table. Her mother had the meal
+ready, so she affected to be very cheerful when Glavis came into the
+room, and even kissed him fondly. He was so surprised, that the instance
+made him temporarily forget what was on his mind, which was just what
+she wished him to do.
+
+"Where is Orlean?" he inquired after a time, whereupon his wife's face
+darkened.
+
+"Oh, she's sick, and in bed," replied Ethel guardedly.
+
+Glavis grunted. He was thinking. For a time he forgot all that was
+around him; his wife, the supper, his work, all but Jean Baptiste and
+the wife that was being harbored under the roof that he kept up. He
+suddenly got up. He walked quickly out of the room and hurried upstairs
+while his wife's back was turned, and knocked at the door of the room
+wherein Orlean was supposed to lay sick.
+
+"Come in," called the other.
+
+"Oh, it's you, Glavis," she cried, dropping back into bed when he
+entered the door.
+
+"A--ah--Orlean," he said in his stammering sort of way. "A--ah--how are
+you?"
+
+"Why, I feel well, Glavis," she replied wonderingly. She had never felt
+just right mentally since before she left the West. And when she allowed
+herself to think, she found that it hurt her. She had always been
+obedient--her father had told her that time and again, and gave her
+great credit for being so. "Think of it, my dear," he had so often said,
+"in all your life you have never 'sassed' your father, or contraried
+him," whereupon he would look greatly relieved. So her father had laid
+down the rule she was following--trying to follow. Her husband must
+certainly have been in grave error--not that she had observed it, or
+that she had been badly treated by him, for she had not. However,
+whenever she tried to see and understand what it all meant, it hurt her.
+She was again the victim of those nervous little spells that had
+harassed her before she married, but which had strangely left her during
+that time. But to do her father's will--for he never bid--always his
+was an influence that seemed to need no words--she was trying. So she
+looked up at Glavis, and observed something unusual in his face.
+
+"What is the matter, Glavis?" she inquired, sitting up in bed again.
+Glavis shifted about uneasily before replying.
+
+"Ah--why--Orlean, it's Baptiste, your husband."
+
+"Jean!" she cried, forgetting everything but her husband--forgetting
+that she had allowed herself to be parted from him. "What--what is the
+matter with him, Glavis? With Jean? Has something happened? Oh, I'm
+always so afraid something will happen to Jean!"
+
+"No, no," exclaimed Glavis, pushing her gently back upon the pillow.
+"Nothing has happened. Ah--er--ah--"
+
+"Oh, I'm so relieved," she sighed, as she fell over in the bed.
+
+"He's here--in the city," she heard then from Glavis.
+
+"He is!" she cried, sitting suddenly erect again. For a moment she
+hesitated, and then, raising her hand to her forehead as if in great
+pain, she groaned perceptibly. The next moment she had again sunk back
+upon the pillow, and her breath came hard. Perspiration stood upon her
+brow, and he saw it.
+
+"Orlean, oh, Orlean," he cried then upon impulse. "Great God, this is a
+shame, a shame before God!" he lamented with great emotion.
+
+Suddenly he rushed to the door and then halted as he heard his wife
+calling him from below. He turned to where Orlean lay in the bed, sick
+now for true.
+
+"Aren't you coming down to supper, Orlean?" he called.
+
+"No, Glavis. I am not hungry."
+
+"But you should eat something, Orlean."
+
+"No, Glavis," she repeated in a tired voice, a voice in which he
+detected a sigh. "I couldn't eat anything--now." He looked at her a
+moment with great tenderness, let escape a sigh, and then as if resigned
+to the inevitable, he turned and passed down the stairway to where his
+wife waited below.
+
+She regarded him keenly, and during the meal, she kept casting furtive
+glances in his direction. "I wonder what he's been saying to Orlean?"
+she kept muttering to herself. She concluded then, that she would have
+to watch him closely. He had never been in accord with her and her
+father's plan, and they had borne false witness to influence him against
+Baptiste. But he had seen Baptiste she knew, and was also aware of the
+fact that Glavis liked both her sister and brother-in-law, and it was
+going to be a task to keep him from following his natural inclination.
+
+She thought about her father again, and wished that he was in Chicago.
+
+She had never been delegated to handle such a task alone, and she
+disliked the immense responsibility that was now upon her, and no one to
+stand with her in the conflict.
+
+"Well, Ethel," Glavis said, arising from the table when the meal was
+over, "I'm going to walk out for a while."
+
+She started up quickly. Her lips parted to say that he was going to meet
+Baptiste and conspire with him against her father, but she realized that
+this would not be expedient. He might revolt. She rather feared this at
+times, notwithstanding her influence over him, therefore she decided to
+exercise a little diplomacy. Accordingly she sank back into the chair,
+and replied:
+
+"Very well, dear."
+
+He regarded her keenly, but she appeared to be innocently completing her
+meal. He sighed to think that she did not make herself disagreeable, the
+anticipation of which had made him fear and dread the task that was
+before him. But now he was compelled to feel a little grateful because
+she was apparently very prudent in the matter.
+
+He hurried quickly to the hall tree, slipped into a light overcoat, and
+left the house. As he walked down the street, he was in deep thought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MORE OF THE PREACHER'S WORK
+
+
+Jean Baptiste was thoughtful for a long time after the other had left
+him. He had heard before he married Orlean that the Reverend was the
+father of two illegitimate children, but from Speed's story he had met
+the whole of it. Not only was he the father of two illegitimate
+children, but he had taken another man's wife to become so--and all this
+while he was one of the most influential men in the church!
+
+This fact, however, did not cause Baptiste any wonderment. It was
+something he had become accustomed to. It seemed that the church
+contained so many of the same kind--from reports,--until it was a common
+expectation that a preacher was permitted to do the very worst
+things--things that nobody else would have the conscience to do. He
+arose presently and going to the bar, ordered another bottle of beer. He
+looked around the large room while he drank at the usual class who
+frequented the place. He knew that here and there among them were
+crooks, thieves, "con" men, gunmen, and gamblers. Many of these men had
+perhaps even committed murder--and that for money. Yet there was not one
+he was positive, that would deliberately separate a man and his wife for
+spite. And that was the crime this preacher father-in-law of his had
+committed.
+
+Always in the mind of this man of the prairie this played. It followed
+him everywhere; it slept with him, arose with him, and retired with him.
+And all through long sleepless nights it flitted about in his dreams
+like an eternal spectre, it gave him no peace. Gradually it had brought
+him to a feeling that the only justifiable action would be to follow the
+beast to his lair and kill him upon sight. Often this occurred to him,
+and at such times he allowed his mind to recall murder cases of various
+phases, and wondered if such a feeling as he was experiencing, was the
+kind men had before committing murder. Then if so, what a relief it must
+be to the mind to kill. He had a vision of this arch hypocrite writhing
+at his feet, with death in his sinful eyes, and his tongue protruding
+from his mouth.
+
+He drank the beer and then ordered liquor. Somehow he wanted to still
+that mania that was growing within him. He had struggled for happiness
+in the world, for success and contentment, and he did not wish his mind
+to dwell on the subject of murder. But he was glad that this man had
+left the city. A man might be able to accept a great deal of rebuke, and
+endure much; but sometimes the sight of one who has wronged him might
+cause him for a moment to forget all his good intentions and manly
+resolutions. Yes, he was glad that Reverend McCarthy had left the city,
+and he shuddered a little when he recalled with a grimace that he had
+traveled these many miles to see and reckon with his wife.
+
+"Well, you are here," he heard then, and turned to greet Glavis.
+
+"Oh, hello, Glavis," he returned with a tired expression about his eyes
+from the effect of the strain under which he had been laboring. "Have a
+drink."
+
+"An old-time cocktail," Glavis said to the bartender. He then turned to
+Baptiste.
+
+"Well, how's everything over home?" said Baptiste, coming directly to
+the point.
+
+"Your wife's sick," said Glavis a little awkwardly.
+
+"And I, her husband, cannot call and see her. I'm compelled to hear it
+from others and say nothing." He paused and the expression on his face
+was unpleasant to behold. Glavis saw it and looked away. He could not
+make any answer, and then he heard the other again.
+
+"This is certainly the limit. I married that girl in good faith, and
+I'll bet that she has not told you or anybody else that I mistreated
+her. But here we are, compelled to be apart, and by whom?" His face was
+still unpleasant, and Glavis only mumbled.
+
+"That damn preacher!"
+
+"Oh, Baptiste," cried Glavis, frowningly.
+
+"Yes, I know--I understand your situation, Glavis. But you must
+appreciate what it is to be thrown into a mess like this. To have your
+home and happiness sacrificed to somebody's vanity. I'm compelled to
+stand for all this for the simple crime of not lauding the old man. All
+because I didn't tickle his vanity and become the hypocrite he is, for
+should I have said what he wanted me to say, then I would have surely
+lied. And I hate a liar!"
+
+"But come, Baptiste," argued Glavis, "we want to figure out some way
+that you and your wife can get together without all this. Now let's have
+another drink and sit down."
+
+"Well, alright," said the other disconsolately, "I feel as if it would
+do me good to get drunk tonight and kill somebody,--no, no, Glavis," he
+added quickly, "I'm not going to kill anybody. So you needn't think I am
+planning anything like that. I'm too busy to go to jail."
+
+"Now, I'm willing to help you in any way I can, Baptiste," began Glavis,
+"as long as I can keep my wife out of it. I've got the darndest woman
+you ever saw. But she's my wife, and you know a man must try to live
+with the one he's married to, and that's why I am willing to help you."
+
+They discussed plans at some length, and finally decided to settle
+matters on the morrow.
+
+But when the morrow came, Ethel blocked all the plans. She refused to be
+sent away across town and let Baptiste come into the house and see his
+wife. She knew what that would mean, so she stood intrenched like the
+rock of Gibraltar. Other plans were resorted to, but with the same
+result. The days passed and Baptiste became obsessed with worry. He knew
+he should be back in the West and to his work; he began to lose patience
+with his wife for being so weak. If he could only see her he was certain
+that they would come to some agreement. Sunday came and went, and still
+he saw her not. Ethel took confidence; she smiled at the success with
+which she had blocked all efforts of communication. Baptiste wrote his
+wife notes, but these she intercepted and learned his plans. She
+convinced her sister that she was sick and should be under the care of a
+physician. This reached Baptiste, and he secured one, a brilliant young
+man who was making a reputation. He had known him while the other was
+attending the Northwestern Medical College, and admired him; but this
+too was blocked. For when he knocked at the door with the doctor at his
+side, they were forbade admittance. Thereupon Baptiste was embarrassed
+and greatly humiliated at the same time.
+
+Ethel had a good laugh over it when they had left and cried: "He had his
+nerve, anyhow. Walking up here with a nigger doctor, the idea! I wish
+papa had been home, he'd have fixed him proper! Papa has never had one
+of those in his house, indeed not. No nigger doctor has ever attended
+any of us, and never will as long as papa has anything to do with it!"
+
+Glavis finally succeeded in getting a hearing. By pleading and begging,
+he finally secured Ethel's consent to allow him to bring Baptiste to the
+house and sit near his wife for just thirty minutes--but no more. He did
+not apprise Baptiste of this fact nor of the time limit, but caught him
+by the arm and led him to the house as though he were a privileged
+character. He took notice of the clock when he entered, because he knew
+that Ethel, who was upstairs had done so. And he was very careful during
+the time to keep his eyes upon the clock. He knew that Ethel would
+appear at the expiration of thirty minutes and start her
+disagreeableness, so at the end of that time he quietly led Baptiste
+away after he had been allowed only to look at his wife, who was like a
+Sphinx from the careful dressing down she had had before and preparatory
+to his coming.
+
+So, having carried out what he considered a bit of diplomacy, Glavis was
+relieved. Baptiste could expect no more of him, and so it ended.
+
+Ethel wrote her father a cheerful letter and stated that that
+"hardheaded rascal" had been there from the West; but that Orlean had
+declined to see him but once, and had refused to go back at all,
+whereupon her father smiled satisfactorily.
+
+Jean Baptiste returned to the West, defeated and downcast. He had for
+the first time in his life, failed in an undertaking. He had never known
+such before, he could not understand. But he was defeated, that was
+sure. Perhaps it was because he was not trained to engage in that
+particular kind of combat. He had been accustomed to dealing with men in
+the open, and was not prepared to counter the cunning and finesse of his
+newly acquired adversaries.
+
+Over him it cast a gloom; it cast great, dark shadows, and in the days
+that followed the real Jean Baptiste died and another came to live in
+his place. And that one was a hollow-cheeked, unhappy, nervous,
+apprehensive creature. He regarded life and all that went with it
+dubiously; he looked into the elements above him, and said that the
+world had reached a time whence it would change. The air would change,
+the earth would become hot, and rain would not fall and that drought
+would cover all the land, and the settlers would suffer. And so feeling,
+it did so become, and in the following chapter our story will deal with
+the elements, and with how the world did change, and how drought came,
+and what followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A GREAT ASTRONOMER
+
+
+Not long ago a man died who had made astronomy a specific study for
+sixty years. He knew the planets, Mars and Jupiter, and Saturn and all
+the others. He knew the constellations and the zodiac--in fact he was
+familiar with the solar system and all the workings of the universe.
+This man had predicted with considerable accuracy what seasons would be
+wet, and what seasons would be dry. He also foretold the seasons of
+warmth and those of cold. And he had said that about every twenty years,
+the world over would be gripped with drought. This drought would begin
+in the far north, and would cover the extreme northern portion of the
+country the first year. The second year it would reach further south,
+and extend over the great central valleys and be most severe near the
+northern tier of states. Following, it would go a bit further south the
+next year, and so on until it would finally disappear altogether.
+
+So according to this man's prediction, the country of our story would
+experience a severe drought soon, preceded by a slight one as a
+forerunner. For two years the crops would be inferior but the following
+year would see it normal again.
+
+So be it.
+
+It had been dry the year before, and had been just a little bit so the
+year before that. We know by the shortage of crops Jean Baptiste had
+raised that such had been so. So, with hundreds of acres, and the sun
+shining hot, and the wind blowing from the south, it was no surprise
+when he became now, an altogether different person. (For you see the
+life--that life that makes men strong and fearless and cheerful had gone
+from the body of Jean Baptiste.) Then he began to grow uneasy. It is,
+perhaps, somewhat difficult to portray a drought and its subsequent
+disasters. We beg of you, however, that you go back to the early years
+in the peaceful, hopeful, vigorous country of our story: In the years
+that had been before when everything had pointed to success. Rainfall
+had been abundant; frost had waited until October before it showed his
+white coat upon the window sill. Land values had climbed and climbed,
+and had gone so high until only the moneyed could even reckon to own
+land. And Jean Baptiste controlled a thousand acres.
+
+Over all the country, the pounding of steam and gasoline tractors filled
+the air with an incessant drumming; the black streaks everywhere told
+the story of conquest. The prairie was giving place to the inevitable
+settler, and hope was high in the hearts of all. So the wind had blown
+hot many days before the settlers became apprehensive of anything really
+serious.
+
+Never since they had come to this country had they experienced such
+intense heat; such regular heat; such continued heat. A week passed and
+the heat continued. It blew a gale, and then a blast; but always it was
+hot, hot, hot!
+
+Two weeks passed, and still it blew. Before this it had at least
+subsided at night, although it did begin afresh in the morning. But now
+it blew all night and all day, and each day it became hotter, the soil
+became dryer, and presently the crops began to fire.
+
+"Oh, for a rain!" every settler cried. "For a rain, a rain, a rain!" But
+no rain came.
+
+So every day there was the continual firing of the crops.
+
+The corn had been too small in the beginning to require much moisture,
+and the dry weather had enabled the farmer to kill the weeds, so it
+stood the gaft quite well, for a time, and grew like gourd vines in the
+meantime. It was the wheat, the oats, the rye and the barley that were
+first to suffer. These were at their most critical stage, the time when
+tiny little heads must dare seek the light. And as they did so, the
+cruel heat met and burned them until thereupon they cried and died from
+grief. And still the drought continued.
+
+No showers fell. The crops needed water. After the third week of such
+intense heat, the people groaned and said "'93" had returned with all
+its attendant disaster. And still the wind kept blowing. The air grew
+hot, hotter; almost to stifling with the odor of the burning plants. The
+aroma mixed with the intense heat was suffocating. The grass upon the
+prairie gave up, turned its tiny blades to the sun and died to the
+roots, while all the grain of the land, slowly became shorter. It
+struggled, it bent, and at last turned what had pointed upward,
+downward, and also died of thirst.
+
+And then the people awakened to the emergency. They began to take note
+of the fact that many had gone into debt so deeply until there were many
+who could never get out unless they sold their land! This had been so
+with poor managers, speculators, and others before. When they found that
+they were unable to make it, there had always remained the alternative
+of selling out. And this had been so easy, because the people at large
+wanted the land. So instead, heretofore, of retiring in defeat, the
+weakest had retired in apparent victory. "For my homestead, I received
+$8,000," or maybe it had been $10,000. So it had been. Great prices to
+all who wanted to sell. Only a small portion of them, however, had
+wanted to sell up to date.
+
+But when the crops were surely a failure for the most part, hundreds and
+thousands and even more quarters were offered for sale. Then came the
+shock--the jolt that brought the people to a stern realization of what
+was before them. The buyers! There were no buyers! No, the buyers now
+when many wished to sell, stayed in Iowa, and Illinois and wherever they
+lived, and refused to come hither!
+
+So, for the first time the people in the new country were face to face
+with a real problem. And this continued to be augmented by the intense
+heat. Hotter it had grown, and at last came a day when all the small
+grain was beyond redemption, only the corn and the flaxseed were yet a
+possibility. So to Jean Baptiste we now return.
+
+He had written to his wife, and she had replied to his letter. He read
+them where he lived, on the homestead she had left, and longed simply
+for her to return. He lived with his mind in a dull quandary. It was
+useless to try to find consolation hating the cause of his troubles, so
+him, he tried much to forget. It would all come right some day, he still
+hoped, and worried between times over his debts. He had borrowed more
+money to develop his land; was behind in the interest, now, and also the
+taxes, and his wife wrote for money.
+
+This was what Glavis had advised him to do--Send her money and all would
+be right. Yes, that was what Ethel and her mother and her father had all
+thought right. Send her money. But the day of plenty of money for Jean
+Baptiste was slipping. The burning, dried crop that lay in the field,
+would bring no money. But this he dared not write. If he wrote and told
+the woman he had married--for a wife she surely was no more--that would
+be to tell the family. And that Prince of Evil, the Reverend, would say
+with his wonted braggadocio: "Um-m. Didn't I tell you right! That is a
+wild country out there for wild people, only." So Baptiste kept what was
+ruining the crops to himself.
+
+He sent her five dollars, and this brought the most pleasant letter he
+had yet received. It also brought one from Glavis, who followed the same
+with another, which was more to the point. It was this he wrote:
+
+     "CHICAGO, ILL., June, 30th, 191--
+
+     "_Dear friend Baptiste_:
+
+     "I have your recent letter, and it gives me a great pleasure to
+     reply to it. You would have had my last letter sooner; but I left
+     it to Ethel to mail, and this she did not do, so that explains the
+     delay.
+
+     "Now we are getting along very well in Chicago, and hope the same
+     prevails in the West. By the papers I read where considerable dry
+     weather is prevailing over a part of the West, but hope it hasn't
+     struck your part of the country. Appreciating, however, your
+     disposition to come directly to a point, I will now turn to a
+     subject that I am sure will be of greater interest to you than
+     anything else, and which is Orlean, your wife.
+
+     "It gives me a pleasure to state that she appears more relieved of
+     recent than she has since returning home. But I will not hesitate
+     to tell you why. It is because of you, and you only. Always she
+     talks of you--to me--and it pleases me to talk with her concerning
+     you, for it is with you her mind is at all times. I fear that you
+     cannot appreciate her now as you were once inclined to do; but
+     really think you would be justified, fully so, if you did.
+
+     "Now, for instance, when you sent the money not long ago, it gave
+     her great delight. That you haven't forgotten that she is your wife
+     and have some regards, in spite of all, meant to her very much.
+     She took it and bought her a pair of shoes, with a part; the other
+     she spent to have pictures made so that she might send you one. And
+     I speak truly that to send you one was the sole object in her
+     having them made.
+
+     "The poor girl has suffered much--agonies. It is not her
+     disposition to be as she has somehow been compelled to be. I can't
+     quite explain it, but if it was left to Orlean's dictates, things
+     would not be as they are. Yet, you might not appreciate this,
+     either. But to make it plainer: Orlean has her mother's
+     disposition, and that is not to assert her rights. Too bad.
+
+     "Well, there was a little incident that touched me the other day,
+     and which I will tell you of. A certain lady was over and seeing
+     her with the new shoes, she asked who had bought them. Poor Orlean!
+     It is certainly to be regretted that a girl of her temperament, and
+     kind disposition must be placed forever in a false light. Frankly
+     it worries me. I trust you will understand that the true state of
+     affairs has not been given to the public, and here I will draw a
+     long line instead of saying what will be best left unsaid----But
+     Orlean replied to the lady in these words: 'My husband bought them
+     for me.'
+
+     "I wish you could understand that it is all one great mistake. I
+     wish you knew the truth and the suffering this poor girl has been
+     put to; for if you did you would know that she is a good girl, and
+     loves the man she has married with all her soul--but Orlean is not
+     like other women. She's weak and--oh, well, I must close here
+     because it hurts me to tell more.
+
+     "I will, however, in conclusion say: Do not despair, or grow bitter
+     toward her. This is a strange world, and strange things happen in
+     it. Of but one thing I can assure you, and that is: The right must
+     come and rule in the end. Yes, nothing but right can stand, all
+     else passes. Therefore, hoping that you will be patient, and trust
+     to that I speak of, believe me to be,
+
+     "Always your friend,
+
+     "E.M. GLAVIS."
+
+Now it so happened that when Glavis had completed this letter, he was
+called to the phone, and later into the street. He was gone a half hour
+or more, and in the meantime, Ethel came upon it, and read it. Her evil
+little eyes narrowed to mere slits when she had finished. She had noted
+what had been going on--Orlean and her husband always finding each
+other's company so congenial.
+
+"Well," she muttered after a time. "The time to strike iron is while
+it's hot. I'll have to get that man of mine straightened out." Whereupon
+she went to her room, and here is the letter she wrote:
+
+     CHICAGO, ILL., June 30TH, 191--
+
+     "_THE REVEREND N.J. MCCARTHY, CAIRO, ILL._
+
+     "DEAR FATHER: We received your letter and were glad to hear you say
+     that you expected to come to Chicago soon. I was just thinking
+     awhile ago, that if you could come soon, real soon, it might be
+     best. Certain matters need your attention. I will not state which,
+     but I, you know, am aware of how you have been slandered and
+     vilified by a certain person that you know. Well, that person is
+     again finding a way to influence those who are near to us. So
+     knowing how equal you are to the most arduous task, I take this
+     means of communicating that which is most expedient.
+
+     "Hoping that your health is the best, and that we may see you real
+     soon, believe me to be, as ever,
+
+     "Your loving daughter,
+
+     "ETHEL."
+
+So it happened that out in the West where the most terrific and
+protracted drought the country had ever experienced was burning crops
+and hopes of the people included, Jean Baptiste was made joyful.
+
+He understood Glavis' letter; he understood what he had said and what he
+had not said. He had suffered. He saw disaster creeping upon him from
+the drought rent fields. Is it, therefore, but natural that in his
+moments of agony and unhappiness, shattered hopes and mortal anguish,
+that he should turn to the woman who had been his mate. To have her to
+talk to; her to tell the truth to and share what little happiness there
+was to be had in life, he became overly anxious? Thereupon he wrote her,
+sending another check for five dollars.
+
+
+     July 5th, 191--
+
+     "_My dear wife_:
+
+     "I am writing and sending you a little more money, and since you
+     must be well by now, and realize how much I need you, I am
+     enclosing a signed but not filled-in-amount check, with the request
+     that you come home right away. You will start, say the 10th, that
+     will place you in Winner on the night of the eleventh, on Saturday,
+     where I will meet you.
+
+     "I will expect you, dear; and please don't disappoint me. I have
+     not seen you for three months now, and that has not been my
+     preference. The amount will be sufficient for your fare, and
+     expenses please, and I will write no more; but should anything
+     happen that you can not start on that date, then write or wire me
+     that I may know.
+
+     "With love to you, I am,
+
+     "As ever, your husband,
+
+     "JEAN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+N. JUSTINE MC CARTHY PREACHES A SERMON
+
+
+The text of Reverend N.J. McCarthy's sermon to be delivered on Mothers'
+Day, was one of the most inexhaustible. Most of his sermons he did not
+prepare. But because this was one of the greatest days in the annual of
+the church, he spent a half a day in the preparation thereof. The title
+he selected for it suited him fully, and he called it: "The Claim of the
+Wicked."
+
+Into it he put all the emotion that was in him. He drew a picture in
+illustrious words, of the wicked, the vicious man, and the weak, the
+undefended woman, and made many in his dark congregation burst into
+emotional discordance thereby. He ridiculed the vain; he denounced,
+scathingly, the hypocrite; he made scores in his audience turn with
+perspiration at the end of their noses with conscious guilt. Oh, never
+before in the years since he had mounted to the pulpit and begun what he
+chose to call, "an effort for the salvation of souls," had he preached
+such a soul stirring sermon.
+
+"Live right, live right, I say!" he screamed at the top of his voice.
+"How many of you are there as you sit here before me, that have done
+evil unto thy neighbor; have made some one unhappy; have cast a soul
+into grief and eternal anguish? Think of it! Think of what it means
+before God to do evil, spite; vent your rotten deceit upon others! I
+stand before you in God's glory to beseech you to desist; to pray with
+you to live according to your consciences; to dispense with that evil
+spirit that in the end you may face your God in peace! Go forth
+hereafter in this world of sin; go to those whom you have wronged and
+made thereby to suffer, and ask forgiveness; ask there and repent
+forthwith! Oh, I'll tell you it is a glorious feeling to know you have
+lived right," and he turned his eyes dramatically heavenward, and
+affected his audience by the aspect. "To feel that unto others you have
+been just; that you have been kind; that you have not caused them to
+suffer, but to feel happy! Think of the thrill, the sensation such must
+give you, and then let your conscience be henceforth your guide in all
+things!"
+
+When the services were over, and he had shaken hands with all the
+sisters, and bowed to the brothers, a boy, the son of the lady where he
+stayed, approached and handed him a letter. He looked at it with his
+spectacles pinched upon his nose, and then read it. It was from Ethel,
+and we know the contents.
+
+"So," he said easily as he read it. "The evil seeks to influence my
+household in subtle matters, eh! Oh, that man has the brain of a Caesar,
+but the purpose of Satan! Drat him, and his infernal scheming! Ever
+since the day I first knew him in the country four miles from this town,
+he has been wont to annoy, to aggravate me--and after all my daughter,
+my poor daughter, and myself have done for him!"
+
+He began preparation to go to Chicago at the earliest convenience. As
+his work was so urgent, he wrote Ethel in reply that same day:
+
+     "_My dear daughter_:
+
+     "I am in receipt of your letter and make haste to reply. To begin
+     with, I am not surprised to hear what you wrote in your letter. I
+     am not surprised to hear anything these days. Ever since your
+     mother committed the unpardonable blunder of letting my poor child
+     go straggling off into the West, that wild West, where only the
+     rough and the uncivilized live, I have not been surprised with what
+     each day might bring. It is certainly to be regretted that when one
+     has sacrificed as much as I have to raise two of the nicest girls
+     that ever saw the light of day, a fortune hunter should come along
+     and bring misery into a peaceful home as that man has done. God be
+     merciful! But it is to be hoped that we will see fit to adjust
+     rightly the evil that we are threatened with.
+
+     "I cannot come to Chicago until a week from next Thursday or
+     Friday. I am so behind with God's work, caused by the trip we made
+     to that land of wilderness last spring, that I am almost compelled
+     to be at Cairo next Sunday. But should anything transpire that will
+     necessitate my presence before that time, wire or write me right
+     quick and I will be there.
+
+     "From yours in Christ,
+
+     "N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY."
+
+
+In the West Jean Baptiste got ready for the homecoming of his wife. The
+small grain crop was gone. While the drought was now burning the corn to
+bits, his large crop of flax, which had been the most hopeful possible a
+few days before, was showing the effect of the drought now as well.
+
+But with Jean Baptiste, he could almost forego anything and be happy
+with the prospects. In his mind this became so much so, until he looked
+forward to the day he had set for her coming as if all the world must
+become righted when she was once again near him.
+
+Now during these months he had only his grandmother for company, and her
+he wanted to send home. But she would not leave him, always willing to
+wait until Orlean came back. During these long lonesome days he found a
+strange solace in talking to his horses. There, for instance, was John
+and Humpy, the mules that Orlean had driven her father out to their home
+with when he had come on his first visit. He told them that she was
+coming back now, and to him they appeared to answer. They had become
+round and plump since work had closed, and having fully shed their
+winter's hair, and not yet become sunburned their dapple gray coating
+made them very attractive.
+
+He rearranged the house, bought a few pieces of much needed furniture,
+and made elaborate preparations for the homecoming. At last the day
+arrived.
+
+It was Saturday morning. The wind had died down, and gave threats of
+rain for the first time in six long, hot dry weeks. He hitched John and
+Humpy to the spring wagon, and with a touch of his old enthusiasm, left
+his grandmother cheerfully--but for reasons of his own, did not tell her
+that he was going for Orlean. Perhaps he wished to surprise her, at
+least he did not tell her.
+
+He drove to Winner more filled with hope than he had been for months.
+
+The town was filled that day, and because there was an appearance of
+rain in the air, which could yet save much of the corn, there was an air
+of hope and cheer abroad. Jean thought to board a train and ride a few
+miles, and return on the evening train on which she would be. Then he
+decided he would wait for her and be ready to drive directly home. As
+the train was due shortly after nine p.m., he estimated that he could
+drive the distance in two hours; thereby getting to her claim before
+midnight and they could spend Sunday together celebrating their happy
+reunion.
+
+He had longed to talk with her--and grieve with her over their loss in
+the fine little boy who never knew his parents. He thought of all this
+and of the happy days they had spent together the summer before. He felt
+the love and the devotion she had given him then. He wondered sometimes
+whether he had ever loved her as he had dreamed he would love his wife;
+but this thought had ever been replaced by his sense of duty. Marriage
+was sacred; it was the institution of good; he always disliked to see
+people part. He felt then, as he had ever felt before, that nothing but
+infidelity could ever make him leave a woman that he had married. He was
+still an enemy of divorce. He recalled how they had gone to the Catholic
+church once in Gregory, and had heard a learned priest discourse on
+divorce and its attendant evils. Never before had anything so impressed
+him. How plain the priest had made his audience understand why the
+church did not tolerate divorce. How decidedly he had shown that divorce
+could and would be avoided if the people could be raised to feel that
+"until death do us part." And Baptiste and the woman he had married had
+discussed it afterward. They had found books and stories in the
+magazines to which they subscribed, and had read deeper into it, and had
+been united in their opinion on the subject. Divorce was bad; it was
+evil; it was avoidable in almost every case. Then why should it be?
+
+They had agreed that duty toward each other was the first essential
+toward combating it; that selfishness was a thing that so often
+precipitated it. In all its phases he had discussed it with her, and in
+the end, she had agreed with him. And down in their hearts they had felt
+that such would never be necessitated in the union they had formed.
+
+So he lived again through the life that had been his, he did not allow
+his mind to dwell on the evil that had come into and made his life
+unhappy; made his days and nights and very existence a misery. He did
+not, as he lingered on the platform of that little western station,
+think or dwell on the things that were best forgotten. For a time he
+became Jean Baptiste of old. Return to him then did all that old
+buoyancy, all that vigor and great hope, all that was his when he had
+longed for the love that should be every man's.
+
+And she had been away on a visit, to recover from the illness that the
+delivery had given her. He was sorry for their loss, and he would talk
+with her this night as they drove along the trail. They would talk of
+that and all they had lost, and they would talk of that which was to
+come. Oh, it would be beautiful! Just to have a wife, the wife that
+gives all her love and thought to making her husband happy. And he would
+try to give her all that was in him. And his wife would soon be with
+him--in his arms, and they would be happy as they had once been!
+
+There it was! From down the track the train whistled. It was coming, and
+his wait was to an end. Near he saw John and Humpy whom she had been
+delighted to drive. They were groomed for the occasion, and were anxious
+to go home. Tonight they would haul her and hear her voice. He rose
+suddenly to his feet when at last the light fell upon the rails and he
+could see the engine. The roar of the small locomotive was approaching.
+Around him were others whose wives had been away. They, too, were come
+to meet their loved ones. Some were alone while around the others were
+children--all waiting to meet those dear to their hearts.
+
+The train came to a stop at last, and the people emerged from the
+coaches. There was the usual caressing as loved ones greeted loved ones.
+Little cries of "mama" and "papa" were heard, and for a moment there was
+quite a hubbub of exclamations. "Oh, John," and "Jim" with the
+attendant kiss. In the meantime he looked expectantly down the line to
+where the car doors opened, and not seeing the one for whom he was
+looking, he presently jumped aboard the first car, and passed through
+it. It was empty and he estimated that she would be in the rear car. It
+was the chair car, and the one in which he naturally would expect her to
+ride. He passed into it bravely, with his lips ready to greet her. The
+last of the passengers were filing out. The car was empty, and his wife
+had not come.
+
+Slowly he passed out of the car as the brakeman rushed in to change his
+apparel for the street. Across the street was the team waiting. They
+seemed to know him before he came in sight and they greeted him as
+though they thought that she had come, too.
+
+He got slowly into the wagon, and soon they were hurrying homeward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WHAT THE PEOPLE WERE SAYING
+
+
+N.J. McCarthy arrived in the city late on Friday afternoon and was met
+by both his daughters. Ethel had, of course, read the letters Jean
+Baptiste had written his wife requesting her to return home, and so she
+took Orlean with her to meet her father, instead of permitting her to go
+to the station to return to the husband who had asked for her. The Elder
+was due in about the same time the train that would have taken Orlean
+West was due out.
+
+"Ah-ha," he cried as he stepped from the car. "And both my babies have
+come to meet their father! That is the way my children act. Always
+obedient to their father. Yes, yes. Never have contraried or disobeyed
+him," a compliment he meant for Orlean, but Ethel could share it this
+once, although the times she had contraried or sauced him would have
+been hard to recount.
+
+Upon arriving home, they met Glavis just returning from work, and he was
+also greeted in the same effusive manner by the Reverend.
+
+"And how is everything about the home, my son?" asked the Elder in a big
+voice. At the same time he eyed Glavis critically. He had come to the
+city with and for a purpose, and that purpose was to put down early the
+intimacy that had been reported as growing up between Glavis and
+Baptiste. So he had planned to attend to it diplomatically.
+
+"Why everything is alright, father," glabbed Glavis, grinning broadly
+and showing his teeth. He was ever affected by the other's lordlyism,
+and he had never tried matching his wits with those of the other's in an
+extraordinary manner. The Elder was aware of this, and it made him
+rather grateful. However, he regarded the other closely as Glavis
+stepped about in quick attention to his possible needs or desires. That
+was as he had hoped to have both his sons-in-law, wherefore his team
+would have been complete. It made him sigh now regretfully when he
+recalled how he had failed in the one case. He gave up momentarily to a
+siege of self pity. How different it would have been had Jean Baptiste
+chosen to admire him as Glavis apparently did. But--and he straightened
+up perceptibly when it occurred to him, instead of being as Glavis was,
+the other had chosen to be independent, to call him "Judge," "Colonel,"
+"Reverend," and "Elder" and any other vulgar title he happened to think
+of on the moment. Moreover, he had also chosen to ask him a thousand
+questions about things he did not understand--that was the trouble,
+though the Elder had not seen it that way--asking him questions about
+things he did not understand. The Elder saw it as "impudent." He saw and
+regarded that persistency which had been the making of the man in Jean
+Baptiste as "hardheadedness." He regarded that tenacity to stick to
+anything in the other, sufficient to characterize "a bulldog."
+
+"M-m, my boy," he said now to Glavis. "You are certainly a fine young
+man, just fine, fine, fine!" He paused briefly while Glavis could
+swallow the flattery, and then went on: "Never in the thirty years I
+have been a minister of the gospel and been compelled to be away from
+home in God's work, has it ever been like it has since you married
+Ethel. I simply do not have to worry at all now; whereas, I used to
+have to worry all the time." Whereupon he paused again, affected a
+lordly sigh, and permitted Glavis to become inflated with vanity before
+going on.
+
+"Now, before you married Ethel, I was a little dubious." He always said
+this for a purpose. "I am so well informed and understand men so well,
+and the ways of men, until I was hesitant to risk trusting you with my
+daughter's love. You will understand how it is when you have raised
+children with the care I have exercised in the training of my precious
+darlings. A man cannot be too careful, and for that reason, I was
+dubious regarding her marrying you. Besides, we, I think you understand,
+are among the best colored people of the city of Chicago, and the State
+of Illinois, so it behooved me to exercise discretion."
+
+"Yes, father," Glavis swallowed. He felt then the dignity of his
+position as a member of such a distinguished family.
+
+"Well," went on the other, "you know how much grief I must be enduring
+when I see this poor baby," pointing to Orlean, "as she is. The finest
+girl that ever trod the earth, and my heart always, and then to see her
+dragged down to this, and all this attendant gossip, grieves my old
+heart," whereupon big tears rolled down his dark face. All those about
+sighed in sympathy and were silent.
+
+"Oh, it's a shame, a shame, my father, it is a shame!" he cried between
+sobs. "Oh, his immortal soul! Come in here like a thief in the night,
+and with his dirty tongue just deliberately stole her from her good
+home--her an innocent child to go out into that wilderness and sacrifice
+her poor soul to make him rich!" He ended with the eloquence that his
+years of preaching had given him. He shed more tears of mortification,
+and resumed:
+
+"And my wife, her own mother, was a party to it!" He was killing two
+birds with one stone now. Nothing was more gratifying to him than to
+seize every possible opportunity to place all his failures, all his
+shortcomings, all his blunders, and last, but not least, all the results
+of his evil nature, on the shoulders of his little helpless wife. For
+years--aye, since he had taken her as wife, had it been so. Never had
+she shared even in reflected light the honors that had come to him. She
+did as he requested, and endeavored to please him in every way. The love
+he had given her was an affected love. It was not from his heart. He had
+given her little that was due her as his wife.
+
+"I went out there," he went on, "to find this child lying there in the
+bed with only his sister and grandmother to look after her. The doctor
+was coming twice a day, but that man asked him, when she could but open
+her eyes, whether such was necessary; and that when it wasn't, then to
+come but once. I sat there by her bed, I, her poor old father, and
+nursed her back to life from the brink of death, the death that surely
+would have come had it not been for me. And when she was well enough, I
+went to all the expense of bringing her out of that wilderness back to
+her home and health.
+
+"And for that, for all that I have sacrificed, what am I given? Credit?
+Well, I guess not! I am being slandered; I'm being vilified by evil
+people--and right in my own church! Think of it! For thirty years I have
+preached the law of the gospel and saved so many souls from hell, and
+now, now when my poor old head is white and my soul is grieved with the
+evil that has come into my home, I am vilified!
+
+"No longer than last week, I was approached by a woman, a woman
+purporting to be a child of God, but who ups to me and said: 'Reverend
+Mac., what is the matter with your daughter and the man she married? I
+hear they are parted?' I was so put out that I did not attempt to
+answer, but just regarded her coldly. But did that stop her mouth? Well,
+I guess not! She went right on as flip as she could be: 'Well, you know,
+Reverend, there is all kinds of reports about to various effects. One is
+that you didn't like him because of his independent ways, and because he
+was successful, and he didn't take much stock in you because he didn't
+like the way you had lived. And then there's other reports that he made
+an enemy of you because he didn't praise and flatter you, and that you
+did it to "get even." They say that you had your daughter to sign her
+husband's name to a check for a large sum of money and used it to slip
+away from him and so on. But the one thing that everybody seems to be
+agreed upon is, that there was nothing whatever wrong between the
+couple, and that they had never quarreled and never had thought of
+parting. That all the trouble is between you and your son-in-law.'
+
+"I had stood her gab about as long as I could, I was so angry. So all I
+could say was: 'Woman, in the name of heaven, get you away from me
+before I forget I am a minister of the gospel and you a woman!' But
+before she had even observed how angry I was, she ups and says: 'Why,
+now, Elder, as much as you love the ladies, and then you'd abuse a poor
+woman like me,' and right there, after such a tonguing as she had let
+out, fell to crying!
+
+"Those are some of the things I must endure, my son, in this work. I
+must endure slander, vilification, misunderstanding, and all that. It's
+terrible."
+
+"People are certainly ungrateful," cried Ethel at this point. "And they
+don't try to learn the truth about anything before they start their
+rotten gossip. More, they have nerve with it! A certain woman stopped me
+on the street downtown the other day, a woman who claims to have been my
+friend and a friend of our family for years. And what do you think she
+had the nerve to say to me? Well, here's what it was, and I _hope_ she
+said it: 'Why, Ethel, how is Orlean?' I replied that she was getting
+better. She says: 'Is she sick physically, or mentally?' I said: 'I
+don't understand you?' She looked at me kind of funny as she replied,
+'Why, don't _you_ know, Ethel Glavis, that it's the talk around
+Chicago--everybody is saying it, that you and your father went out West
+there, and made her forge his name to a check for a large sum of money
+and for spite and spite only, took poor Orlean away from her husband and
+came back here and spread all this gossip about her being sick and
+neglected when the doctor had come to see her every day? I know Jean
+Baptiste and I have not lived in this world for thirty-five years and
+not able yet to understand people. And Jesus Christ couldn't make me
+believe that Jean Baptiste would mistreat Orlean. Besides, all this talk
+comes from you and your father. Orlean has said nothing about it. She is
+just simple and easy like her mother and will take anything off you and
+your father. Now, it's none of my business; but I am a friend of
+humanity, and I want to say this, that anybody that is doing what you
+and your father are doing will suffer and burn in hell some day for it!'
+And she flies away from me and about her business."
+
+"It's outrageous," the Reverend cried. "We hardly dare show our heads on
+the street; to greet old friends for fear we are going to be ridiculed
+and abused for what we have done."
+
+"It's certainly an ungrateful world, that's all," agreed Ethel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"UNTIL THEN"
+
+
+It did not rain the night Jean Baptiste went to Winner to meet the wife
+who failed to come, but the protracted drought continued on into July.
+For three weeks into this month it burned everything in its path. From
+Canada to Kansas, the crops were almost burned to a crisp, while in the
+country of our story proper, only the winter wheat, and rye, and some of
+the oats matured. And this was confined principally to the county where
+Jean Baptiste had homesteaded. Here a part of a crop of small grain was
+raised, but everything else was a failure.
+
+His flaxseed crop in Tripp County which had given some promise if rain
+should come in time, had now fallen along with all else, and when he saw
+it next, after his trip to Winner, it was a scattered mass of sickly
+stems, with army worms everywhere cutting the stems off at the ground.
+The whole country as a result, was facing a financial panic. Interest
+would be hard to raise--and this, in view of the fact that the year
+before had seen less than half a crop produced, was not a cheerful
+prospect. With Baptiste, and others who had gone in heavily, disaster
+became a possibility; and, unless a radical change intervened, disaster
+appeared as an immediate probability.
+
+During these days there was little to do. He had harvested what little
+crop he had raised, and having no hauling or anything, to engage him he
+found going fishing his only diversion. And it was at about this time
+that he received a letter. It bore the postmark of the town where he
+had met his wife in the beginning, and read:
+
+     "_My dear Jean_:
+
+     "I thought I would be bold this once and write you, since it is a
+     fact that you are on my mind a great deal. You will, of course,
+     remember me when I mention that it was in my home that you met your
+     wife. Rather, the woman you married, whom, I suppose, from what I
+     hear, has not proven very faithful. I daresay that your trip to my
+     home that day was the beginning of this episode. But it is of him,
+     the Reverend, her father, of whom I wish to speak.
+
+     "He used to speak of you. You see this town is in his itinerary,
+     and I therefore, see him quite often. In fact, he is quite well
+     known to me, and visits my home, and has been here recently. He was
+     here just a week ago yesterday before going into Chicago, and I
+     asked about you. He ups with his head when I did so, and I
+     estimated that the trouble that is supposed to be between you and
+     Orlean, is possibly between him and yourself.
+
+     "Well, you see, it is like this. After you married Orlean, we could
+     hear nothing from him but you. You were the most wonderful, the
+     most vigorous, the wealthiest--in fact you were everything
+     according to his point of view. He preached of you in the pulpit;
+     he set you up as the standard and model for other young men to
+     follow. Therefore, you must imagine our surprise when almost over
+     night you had changed so perceptibly. From everything a man should
+     be--or try to be, as a young man, you became the embodiment of all
+     a man should not be. Now it is rather singular. Apparently the
+     Elder must have been possessed with very poor judgment to begin
+     with, or you must have become in a few weeks an awfully bad man.
+
+     "Well, I don't know what to say; but in as much as I have known you
+     some little time--before you met Orlean in the house where I write
+     this, I cannot conceive or realize how you could change so quickly.
+     But what is more to the point--I have known the august Elder even
+     longer than I have you--know him since I have been large enough to
+     know anybody, and I have known him always to be as he is yet. One
+     wonders how such men can have the conscience to preach and tell
+     people to live right, to do right, so they may be prepared to die
+     right. But somehow we take the Elder's subtle conduct down this way
+     as a matter of course. We think no more--I daresay not as much--of
+     what he does in that way than we would the most common man in town.
+     But it is too bad that his daughter must suffer for his evil.
+     Orlean is a good girl, but she has been raised to regard that old
+     father as a criterion of righteousness, regardless of the life he
+     does, and always has lived. But withal, honestly, I do feel so
+     sorry for you. I am aware that this letter and the nature of its
+     contents is unsolicited, but it is and has been in my heart to say
+     it. I really feel that it is no more than honest to protest against
+     in some manner, the wrong that man is practicing. But to the point.
+
+     "The last time he was here, and mama asked him about you, and he
+     was made angry because of it, he remarked among the discredits he
+     endeavored to pay the country and you, that there was no church for
+     her to attend. I remarked that you had said you attended the white
+     churches. Thereupon he became very demonstrative. He said you did
+     attend the white churches, and had taken her, but that you went to
+     the Catholic church where there was, of course, no religion in the
+     sense to which she had been raised. I hardly knew how to reply to
+     or counter this, but I thought that if you had, and she had
+     belonged to the Catholic church, how easy it would be now for you
+     to lay your cause before the priest and have it considered. But if
+     you did such before the ministers of his church--oh, well, I am
+     saying too much.
+
+     "And only now have I arrived at the event I choose to relate. It is
+     always so when one chooses to gossip, to forget the things that may
+     be of real interest. Well, word has come that the Elder was taken
+     violently ill in Chicago the other day, and grave fears are held of
+     his recovery. I hear that he is very low, and perhaps the Lord
+     might see fit to remove a stumbling block....
+
+     "I must close. I am sure I have bored you with such a long letter
+     and so much gossip; but I have at least satisfied my own
+     conscience. So hoping that all comes out well with you in the end,
+     believe me to be,
+
+     "Your dear friend,
+
+     "JESSIE MANSFIELD."
+
+It so happened that the exhausted Jean Baptiste turned to the hope that
+illness might claim his enemy, and he exchanged letters with Jessie
+Mansfield, regularly, and after a time, found her correspondence a great
+diversion.
+
+And so the summer passed. Near the last days of July the severe drought
+was broken, but too late to benefit the crops which had been so badly
+burned by the drought. He managed to get considerable land into winter
+wheat, and the fall came on with only a crop of debts and overdue bills
+that made him regard the mail box dubiously.
+
+Winter followed, one of the coldest ever known, and spring was
+approaching when Jean Baptiste decided to make his last attempt for a
+reunion with his wife.
+
+In all the months that had followed his previous trip he had planned
+that if he could only see her, could only see her and be alone with her
+for a day, they would abridge the chasm that had been forced because of
+the Reverend. That one had not obliged him by dying by any means, but
+had regained his health in a measure, so Baptiste read in the letters he
+received from Jessie. However, she wrote, it seemed that something had
+come over him, for he was not the same. He had lost much of his great
+flesh, wore a haggard expression, and seemed to be weighted down with
+some strange burden.
+
+It was April again when at last he took the train for Chicago, for the
+last time, he decided, on the same mission that had taken him there
+twice before. He planned now, to exercise more discretion. Inasmuch as
+the Reverend was as a rule, always out of the city, he trusted to fate
+that he would be out this time. The bitterness that had grown up in his
+heart toward the Elder, he feared, might make him forget to observe the
+law of the land if he chanced to encounter that adversary. So when he
+arrived in the great city, he went about the task of seeing his wife
+under cover.
+
+He first visited a barber shop. He happened into one near Van Buren on
+State Street, where lady barbers did the trimming. He did not find them
+efficient, and was glad when he left the chair. He decided that he would
+act through Mrs. Pruitt, who he had heard from the fall before, and who
+was being charged along with Mrs. McCarthy, as being the cause of all
+the trouble.
+
+He had not written her that he was coming, calculating that it would be
+best for her not to have too long to think it over. Upon leaving the
+barber shop, he ventured up State Street, through the notorious section
+of the "old tenderloin" to Taylor Street, and presently turned and
+discovered himself in the Polk and Dearborn Street station. He found
+that slipping about the street under cover like a sneak thief was much
+against his grain, and he was nervous. In all the months he had
+contemplated the trip, he had taken great care not to let Ethel or any
+of the family know in advance of his coming. He wanted his wife. The
+agony of living alone, the dreaded suspense, the long journey and the
+gradual breaking down of what he had built up, played havoc with his
+nerves, and he was trembling perceptibly when he took a seat in the
+station. He encountered a man upon arrival there, whom he had known
+years before, and because he had been so intent on keeping out of sight,
+the recognition by the other frightened him. He managed to control
+himself with an effort, and greeted the other casually. However, he was
+relieved when he recalled that the other knew nothing of his
+relations--not even that he had ever married.
+
+After he felt his nerves sufficiently calm, he ventured to the telephone
+booth, and secured Mrs. Pruitt's number. He paused briefly before
+calling her to steady his nerves, and then got her in due time.
+
+"Hello, Mrs. Pruitt," He called.
+
+"Hello," came back, and he caught the surprise in her voice. "Is it
+_you_?" she asked, and he noted that her voice was trembling.
+
+"Yes," he called back nervously. "Do you recognize my voice?"
+
+"Yes," he heard, and the uneasiness with which she answered discouraged
+him. He had great faith in Mrs. Pruitt. Notwithstanding the gossip that
+connected her name with the Elder's she was regarded as a woman of
+unusual ability and mental force. She was speaking again in a very low
+tone of voice. Almost in a whisper.
+
+"Listen," said she. "_Call this same number in about ten minutes,
+understand?_ Yes. Do that. I'll explain later."
+
+He sat before the clock now, in the station, and watched the minutes
+pass. They seemed like hours. He was now aware that the strain of these
+months of grief and eternal mortification, had completely unnerved him.
+His composure was like that of an escaped convict with the guards near.
+His heart beat so loud until he looked around in cold fear wondering
+whether those near heard it. And all the while he sat in this nervous
+quandary, he kept repeating over, and over again: "_Mrs. Pruitt, Mrs.
+Pruitt--surely even you have not gone back on me, too. Oh, Mrs. Pruitt,
+you can't understand what it means to me, what I have suffered,--the
+agony, the disgrace--the hell!_" He regarded the telephone booth before
+him and his eyes were like glass. All the busy station was a hubbub.
+After what seemed to him an eternal waiting, he was slightly relieved to
+see that fifteen minutes had passed, and he got up and slipped back into
+the booth and called Mrs. Pruitt.
+
+"Yes, I'm here, Jean", she called, "and the reason I told you to call
+later was that _your_ people--_your father-in-law is right here in the
+house at this moment_. He was sitting right here by the 'phone when you
+called awhile ago, so now you understand."
+
+"Oh," he cried, his head swimming, and everything grew dark around him.
+After one long year of agony, of eternal damnation, one long year of
+waiting and suspense, he had banked his chances, and encountered his
+enemy the first thing. Right under the telephone he had been! Jean
+Baptiste who had once been a strong, brave and fearless man, was now
+trembling from head to foot.
+
+"Now, Jean," he heard Mrs. Pruitt. "I understand _everything_. You are
+here to see and get Orlean if you can; but you want to do so without
+them knowing anything about it, and I agree with you. You wish me to
+help you, and I will. I'll do anything to right this terrible wrong, but
+give me time to plan, to think! In the meantime, he is so near that it
+is not safe for me to talk with you any longer. So you go somewhere, and
+come back, say: in about an hour. If he is still here, I will say: 'this
+is the wrong number,' Get it?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Pruitt," he replied, controlling the storm of weakness that
+was passing over him. "I _get_ you."
+
+"Very well, until then."
+
+"Until then," he called, and hung up the receiver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"IT'S THE WRONG NUMBER"
+
+
+Jean Baptiste had come eight hundred miles after one terrible year, to
+the feet of his father-in-law, and when he realized that such was the
+case upon hanging up the receiver, his composure was gone. Bitter agony
+beyond description overwhelmed him when he came from the booth at the
+end of his brief conversation with Mrs. Pruitt. Never in his life had he
+been as miserable as he now was. It seemed to him that in the next hour
+he must surely die of agony. He found a place in the station where he
+was very much alone, and for a time gave up to the grief and misery that
+had come over him.
+
+"Unless I find some diversion, I will be unfit for anything but
+suicide!" he declared, trying to see before him. Out in the West all was
+wrong. He was now loaded down with debt. His interest was unpaid, also
+his taxes. His creditors for smaller amounts he had not even called upon
+to say that he was unable to meet his financial obligations. He had
+tried being blind to everything but the instance of his wife. He had
+just deliberately cast everything aside until he could have her. That
+was it. He had made himself believe that only was it necessary to see
+her alone, and together they would fly back to the West. He had not
+reckoned that his arch enemy would be lying like a great dog right at
+the door he was to enter.
+
+And now, before he was hardly in the city, he was all but confronted
+with his hypocritical bulk.
+
+"Oh, I can stand it no longer, no, no, no!" he cried in agonizing
+tones. The world to him was lost. The strong shall be the weakest when
+it becomes so, it is said; and surely Jean Baptiste had come to it in
+this hour. He had no courage, he had no hope, he had no plans.
+
+After minutes in which he reached nowhere; minutes when all the manhood
+in him crept out, and went away to hide, he staggered to his feet. He
+straightened his body, and also his face; he became an automaton. He had
+decided to seek artificial stimulation. Thereupon he made his way into
+the main waiting room. He looked about him as one in a daze, and finally
+turned his face toward the entrance of the station. When there he had
+arrived, he hesitated, and looked from right to left. As he did so, his
+mind went back to some years before when he first saw the city, and had
+gone about its streets in search of work. A block or two away he
+recalled Clark Street, that part of it which had been notorious. He
+recalled where one could go and see almost _anything_ he wished.
+
+Now, he was a man, was Jean Baptiste, a man who had loved a wife as men
+should; a man who had found a wife and a wife's comfort all he had
+longed for in life. But that one he had taken as wife had fled. She had
+left him to the world, and all that was worldly. He was breaking down
+under the strain, and his manhood was for the time gone. He became as
+men are, as men have been, and he was at a place where he did not care.
+He was alone in the world, the prairies had not been good to him, and he
+felt he must have rest, oh, rest.
+
+He stepped from the station, and held himself erect with an effort. He
+turned to his left, and walked or rather ambled along. He did not know
+in particular where he was going, but going somewhere he was. He kept
+his face turned to the west, and after many steps, he came to a side
+street. It was a narrow street, and he recalled it vaguely. It was
+called Custom House Place, and its reputation for the worst, was
+equalled by none. Even from where he stood the sound of ragtime music
+came to his ears from a gorgeous saloon across its narrow way.
+
+He listened to it without feeling, no thrill or inspiration did it give
+him. He turned into this street after some minutes, and ambled along its
+narrow walkway. As he went along, from force of habit, he studied the
+various forms of vice about. In and out of its many ways, he saw the
+familiar women, the painted faces and the gorgeous eyes. He came
+presently to where Negroes stood before a saloon. They, too, were of the
+type he understood. Characters with soft hands, and soft skin, and he
+knew they never worked. He turned into it. A bar was before him, and
+although for liquor he had never cared especially, he could drink. He
+went forward to the bar and ordered a cocktail. He drank it slowly, as
+he observed himself, all haggard and worn in the bar mirror, and as he
+did so, he could see what was passing behind him. A man sat in a small
+ante room near a door, and he observed that men would pass by this man
+to a door opening obviously to a stairway beyond. He wondered what _was_
+beyond. He ordered another cocktail, and drank it slowly, studying those
+who passed back and forth through the door that the man opened with a
+spring. He decided to venture thereforth.
+
+When he had drank his cocktail he wandered toward the door also, as if
+he had been accustomed to entering it. The door opened before him and he
+entered. He found himself in a hallway, with a flight of stairs before
+him, and a closed and locked door on the stairway. He stood regarding
+it, and espied a bell presently. This he approached and touched.
+
+The door was opened straightway and the flight of stairs continued to
+the landing above. He looked up and beheld a woman standing at the top
+of the stairs, who had seemingly opened the door by pressing a button.
+He entered and approached her. As he did so, she turned and led him into
+a small room, then into a larger room, where sat many other women. He
+was directed to a chair, and became seated. He regarded all the women
+about wonderingly; for to him, none had said a word. He might as well
+have been in a house of tombstones, for they said naught to him, and did
+not even look at him.
+
+He sat where he was for perhaps two minutes. Then he arose and walked to
+the door which he had entered, and turned to look back into the room. It
+was empty, every woman had disappeared without a sound in a twinkling,
+all except the woman who had admitted him. She stood behind, regarding
+him noncommittally.
+
+"What is this place?" he inquired of her. She looked up at him, and he
+thought he caught something queer in her eyes. But she replied in a
+pleasant tone:
+
+"Why, it is _anything_."
+
+"Oh," he echoed. She continued to stand, not urging him to go, nor to
+stay. He looked at her closely, and saw that she was a white woman,
+perhaps under thirty.
+
+"A sort of cabaret?" he suggested.
+
+"Yes," she replied, in the same pleasant tone of voice. "A _sort_ of
+cabaret."
+
+"So you serve drinks here, then?"
+
+"Yes, we _serve_ drinks here."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Well," and she turned and he followed her to another room apparently
+the abode of some one. Included in the furniture there was a table and
+two chairs, and while he became seated in one, she took the other and
+her eyes asked what he wished.
+
+"A cocktail," he said.
+
+She went to a tube and called the order.
+
+"And something for yourself," he said.
+
+She did as he directed, and duplicated his order. She came back to where
+he sat by the table and sat before him, without words, but a pleasant
+demeanor.
+
+"Here's luck," he said, when the drinks had been brought up.
+
+"Same to you," she responded, and both drank.
+
+He told her then to bring some beer, and when the order had been given,
+he bethought himself of his errand. Instantly he became oblivious of all
+about him, and the old agony again returned. He stretched across the
+table, and was not aware that he groaned. He did not hear the woman who
+stood over him when she returned with the beer. He was living the life
+of a few minutes before,--misery.
+
+"Here is your beer," she said, but he made no move. Presently she
+touched him lightly upon the shoulder, whereupon he sat erect, and
+looked around him bewilderingly.
+
+"Your beer," she said, and he regarded her oddly.
+
+"What is the matter?" she said now, and regarded him inquiringly.
+
+"I was thinking," he replied.
+
+"Of something unusual," she ventured.
+
+"Yes," he answered, wearily. "Of something _unusual_."
+
+She observed him more closely. She saw his haggard face; his tired, worn
+expression, and beneath it all she caught that sad distraction that had
+robbed him of his composure. In some way she really wished to help him.
+Here was an unusual case. She,--this woman who was for sale, became
+seated again, and regarding him kindly she said:
+
+"You are in trouble."
+
+He sighed but said no word.
+
+"In great trouble."
+
+He sighed again, and handed her the money for the beer.
+
+"I wish I could help you," she said thoughtfully and her eyes fell upon
+the table. His hat lay there, and she saw therein the name of the town
+where it had been purchased.
+
+"You don't live here?" she suggested then.
+
+"No," he mumbled, trying to dispel the heaviness that was over him. If
+he could just forget. That was it. If he _could_ forget and be normal;
+be as he had been until that evil genius had come back again into his
+life. "No," he repeated, "I don't live here."
+
+"And--you--you--have just come?" she said. Her voice was kind. "Is
+it--it--a _woman_?"
+
+He nodded slowly.
+
+"Oh," she echoed. "Your wife, perhaps?"
+
+He nodded again.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+They were both silent then for some moments; he struggling to forget,
+she wondering at the strange circumstances.
+
+"Has some one come between you?" she inquired after a time.
+
+"Yes," he whispered.
+
+"Oh, that's bad," she uttered sympathetically. "It is bad to come
+between a man and his wife. And you--" she paused briefly then bit her
+lip in slight vexation, then observed him with head bent before her. It
+was rather unusual, and that was what had vexed her. Could it mean
+anything what a woman like her thought of or sympathized. Yet, she was
+moved by the condition of the stranger before her. She felt she had to
+say something. "And you--you don't look like a bad fellow at all." He
+looked up at her with expressionless eyes. She returned the look and
+then went on:
+
+"You have such honest, frank and truthful eyes. Honestly, I feel sorry
+for you."
+
+"Oh, thank you," he said gratefully then. To have some one--even _such a
+woman_ look at him so kindly, to say words of condolence was like water
+to the thirsty. He thought then again of that other, and the father that
+was hers, who at that moment sat in the company of another man's wife.
+He recalled that Mrs. Pruitt said that he had been in town for several
+days and every day since he had been there. Naturally. This man courted
+another man's wife openly, yet was ready with all the force in him, the
+moment Jean Baptiste sought his God-given mate, to rise up in pious
+dignity to oppose him. Wrath became his now, and his eyes narrowed. In
+the moment he wanted to go forth and slay the beast who was making this.
+He rose slightly. She saw it, and her eyes widened. She reached out and
+touched his hand where it gripped the table.
+
+"Please don't do _that_," she said, and in her voice there was a slight
+appeal.
+
+He regarded her oddly, and then understood. He sank back listlessly in
+the seat, and sighed.
+
+"Poor boy," she said. "Some one has done you a terrible wrong. It is
+strange how the world is formed, and the ill fortune it brings to some.
+I can just see that some one has done you a terrible wrong, and that
+when you rose now you would have gone forth and killed him."
+
+He regarded her with gratitude in his eyes, and the expression upon his
+face told her that she had spoken truly.
+
+"But try to refrain from that desire. Oh, it's justifiable it seems. But
+then when we stop to think that we will never feel the same afterward
+about it, it's best to try to forget our grief. You are young, and there
+are worlds of nice girls who would love and make for you happiness. Some
+day that will be yours in spite of all. So please, just think and--don't
+kill the one who has done this."
+
+"You are awfully kind," he whispered. He felt rather odd. Of all places,
+this was not where men came to be _consoled_, indeed. But herein he had
+gotten what he could not get on Vernon Avenue where church members were
+supposed to dwell. He arose now.... He reached out his hand and she took
+it. "I don't quite understand what has happened, but you have helped
+me." He reached into his pocket and withdrew some coins, and this he
+handed her. She drew back her hand, but he insisted.
+
+"Yes, take it. _I_ understand your life here. But you have helped me
+more than you can think. I was awfully discouraged when I came. Almost
+was I to something rash. Take it and try to remember that you have
+helped some one." He squeezed her hand, and she cast her eyes down, and
+as she did so, he saw a tear fall to the floor. He turned quickly then
+and left.
+
+He retraced his steps toward the Polk Street station, and to the booth
+he had been inside of an hour before. He called Mrs. Pruitt, and after a
+time came back over the wire, in a low, meaning voice:
+
+"_It's the wrong number._"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+MRS. PRUITT EFFECTS A PLAN
+
+
+He had some friends who lived on Federal Street and to their home he
+decided to go. He thought of the day when he had married. The man ran on
+the road. His wife he had known long, her name being Mildred, Mildred
+Merrill. She had been invited to his wedding but had not attended. When
+he had seen her a year later, and had asked her why she had not
+attended, she replied that she had been unable to purchase a suitable
+wedding gift.
+
+Her parents had been lifelong friends of his parents, and he had been
+provoked because she stayed away. She and her husband had been quietly
+married in the court house and had since lived happily together.
+
+"Oh, Jean," Mildred cried, when the door opened and she saw his face.
+"We have just been talking of you," as she swung the door wide for him
+to enter.
+
+"Mama," she called, "here is Jean Baptiste!" Her mother came hurriedly
+forward, grasped his hand, and exchanged a meaning look with Mildred.
+
+"And you are back _again_," she said as all three became seated.
+
+"Yes," he said, and sighed.
+
+"It's awful," commented her mother.
+
+"Isn't it the truth, oh, my God, how can those people be so mean?" cried
+Mildred.
+
+"He's in Chicago," said her mother.
+
+"Yes," said Mildred, "and I'll bet right over at Mrs. Pruitt's every
+day."
+
+"He wouldn't be _likely_ to be home," commented her mother.
+
+"He returns as a rule along about midnight." The two laughed then, and
+regarded the man.
+
+"You ought to give her up, Jean," said Mildred. "A woman that has no
+more will power than she has, isn't fit--isn't worth the grief you are
+spending."
+
+"Yes, Mildred, it does seem so, but she is my wife, and somehow I feel
+that I should give her every chance."
+
+"The case _is_ unusual," commented her mother again. "The man has a
+reputation for such actions--rather, he has been known to persecute, and
+does persecute the preachers that are under his dictation in the church.
+But that such would extend to the possible happiness of his own
+children! Indeed, it hardly seems credible."
+
+"Vanity, mama. Reverend McCarthy is regarded as the most vain man in the
+church. Jean here has never flattered him--tickled his vanity, and this
+is the price he's paying."
+
+"Well," said her mother. "Such as this _can't_ keep up. Some day he's
+going to be called on to pay--and the debt will be large."
+
+"Understand that he aspires for the bishopric in the convention next
+month," said Mildred.
+
+"Shucks!" exclaimed her mother. "That's all bluff. He seeks to grab off
+a little cheap notoriety around Chicago before he goes to conference.
+There is as much chance of his being even entered as a candidate for the
+office as there is of me."
+
+"That's what I think," from Mildred.
+
+"What are your plans, Jean?" her mother now inquired of Baptiste who sat
+in a sort of stupor listening to their talk.
+
+"I am trying to get to see her without the old man's knowledge." And he
+told them of his conversation with Mrs. Pruitt.
+
+"Isn't that a wife, now!" exclaimed Mildred. "Afraid to meet the man she
+has married."
+
+"Orlean and old lady McCarthy have no voice in that house," said her
+mother. "First it's the Reverend, and then follows Ethel."
+
+"And it hardly seems credible when one knows how he has always flirted
+with other women," said Mildred.
+
+"I asked Orlean the last time I saw her," said Mildred again, "what was
+the matter; was Jean mean to her, or had he neglected her. She said: No,
+that he was just as good to her as he could be, but that she could not
+stay out in that wild country; that it would impair her health, and she
+just couldn't stay out there, and that was all."
+
+"Reverend McCarthy," said her mother.
+
+"Of course. But that is one thing I have observed. They have never got
+her to lie as they have done, and say that he mistreated her." From
+Mildred.
+
+"It's to be regretted that she has not more will to stand up for what
+she knows to be right," said her mother.
+
+"You have taken it up with the right person, Jean," said Mildred. "If
+any one can help you in such a delicate undertaking, it is Mrs. Pruitt.
+She has more influence with that old rascal than his wife. In fact, his
+wife, from what I hear, has no influence at all."
+
+"Well, Jean," said Mildred's mother, "you are to be admired for the
+patience you have exercised with Orlean. The average man would have
+knocked that old white headed rascal stiff and let Orlean go, and I
+don't wonder that if I was a man that I wouldn't have done so myself."
+
+"If I were that weak, and could see things as I do now, I would want my
+husband to shoot me. I'm getting out of patience with Orlean's
+weakness," Mildred added.
+
+"Well," said Baptiste at this point, "it is now eleven, and I will call
+up Mrs. Pruitt to go ahead with certain plans that I have in view. Have
+you a 'phone?"
+
+"Just outside," said Mildred, and opened the door.
+
+He got Mrs. Pruitt directly, and again came back over the wire:
+
+"It's the wrong number!" But during the recent conversation he had
+forgotten for the moment the "counter sign," and continued calling back.
+Frantically he heard again and again, "_The wrong number! You have the
+wrong number!_" Suddenly he caught on, and as suddenly hung up the
+receiver with a jerk.
+
+He didn't go to the Keystone that night. He felt as though he wanted to
+be near some friends. Accordingly he went to Miss Rankin's. She was glad
+to see him, and, like all his friends, knew his troubles, and welcomed
+him.
+
+"You will awaken me early tomorrow--say, six o'clock?" he asked, and
+upon being assured she would, he went to bed.
+
+All the night through his sleep was fitful. He saw gorgeous processions
+that frightened him, and then again he was thrilled; but never did he
+seem to feel just right. Then he saw his enemy. He dreamed that he came
+to him and kissed him; he heard him saying kind words, and saw his wife
+by his side. They were back in the West and his wife was returning from
+a visit. He was aroused, and jumped to his feet. He looked at the clock,
+and the time was half past five. All the agony of the day before came
+back with a rush, and he was overwhelmed. Thereupon he got him up, and,
+dressing quickly, hurried out of the house and caught a car to where
+Mrs. Pruitt lived on the west side, in the basement of an apartment
+building, of which her husband was janitor.
+
+He estimated that the other would go home during the night, and early
+morning would be the time to form some plan of action. It seemed a long
+way to the west side, and it was after seven when he arrived there.
+
+He was greeted by Mrs. Pruitt, and the expression upon her face did not
+disappoint him.
+
+"Now, Jean," she said, "I have prepared you some breakfast, and you must
+eat first, for I'll wager that not a bite have you eaten since you
+talked with me yesterday."
+
+"It is so, Mrs. Pruitt," said he, recalling then that eating had not
+occurred to him for the last eighteen hours or more.
+
+"Well," said she, becoming seated, "_he_ left here at almost midnight,
+and I have been planning just what to do, that you may see Orlean. I
+certainly should have little patience with a girl that has no more
+gumption than Orlean; but since I know that she gets it from her mother,
+who has not as much as a chicken, I have accepted the inevitable.
+
+"Now, to begin with. If I called up and had her come over here, he would
+come with her, of course, and also maybe Ethel. And you know what that
+would mean. It is so unusual that such a thing could be, but that is
+Reverend McCarthy. He has always been this way, and I could not change
+him. You erred when you didn't flatter him. But that you did not have to
+do, and I don't blame you. He has done you dirty, and some day he's
+going to pay for it. I wouldn't be surprised if he did not soon, either.
+He is a disturbed man, he is. Never has he been happy as he was before
+he brought that girl home. The crime he has committed is weighing on
+him, and I wouldn't wonder if he wouldn't be glad to have Orlean go back
+with you. The only thing is, that he has been associated with a hard
+headed lot of Negro preachers so long, until his disposition is
+ingrained. He actually _couldn't_ be as he should. He would let Orlean
+go back to you, but he would determine on a lot of ceremony, and
+something else that you are ill fitted to forego. So the best way, as I
+can see, is for you to meet Orlean somewhere, and there reason it out
+with her." She paused briefly then, and was thoughtful.
+
+"She loves you as her mother loves, in a simple, weak way; but what is a
+love like that worth! In truth, while I admire your courage, and desire
+to uphold the sacredness of the marriage vow, you ought to get a divorce
+and marry a girl with some will and force."
+
+"I realize so, Mrs. Pruitt, but I am determined to live with Orlean and
+protect her if it is within my power."
+
+"I understand your convictions and sentiments, Jean, and admire you for
+it. If the world contained more men like you, the evil of divorce would
+lessen; but on the other hand, as long as it contains men like the
+Reverend, and women like Orlean, there will always be ground for
+divorce."
+
+"But every man should exhaust all that is in him for what he feels is
+right, shouldn't he, Mrs. Pruitt?" spoke Baptiste.
+
+"Of course," she said somewhat absently. She looked quickly at him then,
+and her eyes brightened with an inspiration.
+
+"By the way, Jean," she said. "You remember Mrs. Merley?"
+
+"Who? Blanche's mother?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"Most sure. Why?"
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Pruitt. "I have been thinking. She's a friend of
+yours, a good friend, although you might not have known it."
+
+"It is news to me--that is, directly."
+
+"Well, she is, and has been very much wrought up over the Reverend's
+treatment of you."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, it is so. You see, moreover, she is a distant relation of Mrs.
+McCarthy's, and is fairly well-to-do."
+
+"So I have understood."
+
+"Yes, they are, and McCarthys sort of look up to them."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Mrs. Merley is independent, and hasn't much patience with the Elder."
+
+"So."
+
+"No, and for that reason he admires her."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes, and she was over there and sort a 'bawled' them out over what they
+were doing. Understand that she just spat it in the Elder's face and he
+had to take it."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Yes. You see Blanche got married this last summer, and didn't quite
+please her mother."
+
+"Oh, is that so?"
+
+"Yes, Mary Merley is a friend of mine, and frankly she almost told me
+that she wished Blanche had married some one on your order.
+
+"Oh!...."
+
+"Yes, she did. And meant it! She admired your type, and I know she would
+have been more fully pleased in such an event."
+
+He was silent.
+
+"Anyhow, I have planned that it will be through her that you and Orlean
+may be brought together."
+
+He was attentive.
+
+"But before you go into it, my request is that my name shall be left
+out."
+
+His eyes asked a question that she answered.
+
+"It is so. While Mary is a friend of mine, she has certain habits that I
+don't like."
+
+He regarded her more questioningly.
+
+"I will say no more."
+
+His face blanched, and then his mind went back two years. Orlean had
+made just such a remark. He was sorry.
+
+"So I don't want you to mention me, since it would do no good."
+
+"I understand."
+
+"I want her to have the credit for whatever success might come of this."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And my plans are that you go over there, and see her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Jolly her a little, and don't let on that you are aware that she
+admires you."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"Get her to call Orlean up, and suggest a show."
+
+"I get you."
+
+"And there you are."
+
+"Your plan is simple, but practical," and he smiled upon her thankfully.
+
+He was standing now. He held out his hand. She grasped it, and bending
+forward, kissed him.
+
+"Be careful, Jean," she said. "And don't do anything rash."
+
+When he went his way, he understood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MRS. MERLEY
+
+
+The April morn shone beautifully over Chicago, when Jean Baptiste came
+from the basement of the apartment where Mrs. Pruitt lived, and had bade
+Godspeed to him. It was election day over all the state, a preferential
+primary for the purpose of choosing delegates to the G.O.P. convention
+to be held two months later. And when Jean Baptiste thought of it, he
+understood what had brought the Reverend to the city.
+
+Baptiste arrived at Mrs. Merley's an hour after he left Mrs. Pruitt,
+went directly to the number and pulled the bell. It was responded to by
+a young woman he did not know, but she assured him that the one he
+sought was in, and after seating him in the parlor, hurried to tell Mrs.
+Merley.
+
+She came at once all joy and gladness, and greeted him with a shake of
+both hands, and kissed him into the bargain.
+
+"Sit right down, sit right down," she said profusely. "And, oh, my, how
+glad I am to see you!" she smiled upon him happily, proving how glad she
+really was, and he was moved.
+
+"And you came to see me," she continued. "You could have called on no
+one who would have been more delighted to see you!"
+
+"You do me too much honor, Mrs. Merley," said he gratefully.
+
+"Indeed," she returned. "I could not do you enough."
+
+"I hadn't hoped for so much kindness, I am sure."
+
+"But, Jean, you don't know how much I have thought about you in the last
+two years, and I have longed to talk with you!"
+
+"Oh, really! But I thought I was forgotten by everybody in Chicago."
+
+"You have never been forgotten by us. And especially have we talked of
+you in this last year...."
+
+He was silent, though he felt he understood her reference.
+
+"Some dirty sinner ought to be in torment!"
+
+And still he did not speak.
+
+"Oh, I know all that has been done to you, Jean," she went on tenderly.
+
+"Your words give me much relief, Mrs. Merley."
+
+"I wish they could give you more. It is my wish that an opportunity
+could be given me to help you."
+
+He straightened. Now was the time to state his mission. But she was
+speaking again:
+
+"I spoke my sentiments to his face, the rascal! All his dirty life has
+been given to making people miserable, wherever he could."
+
+Jean said nothing, but was listening nevertheless.
+
+"He has been a rascal for thirty-five years, and has made that simple
+cousin of mine he married, the goat." She paused to get her breath. "I
+saw Orlean not long ago, and asked her where her will was, or if she had
+any."
+
+He was attentive. Always he liked to hear her.
+
+"She, of course, tried to stand up for that arch hypocrite. But I waived
+that aside. Said I to her: 'Orlean, I could never believe you if you
+said Jean Baptiste abused, mistreated or neglected you.' She looked down
+when I had spoken and then said evenly. 'No, Jean did not do any of
+those things,' 'Then,' said I. 'Why do you live apart from him, the man
+you married? Where is your sense of duty?' 'But, Mrs. Merley,' she tried
+to protest. 'I just couldn't live out there in that wilderness, it was
+too lonesome,' 'Oh, Orlean,' I said disgustingly, 'do you expect me to
+believe that? And if even I believed you, how could I respect you?'
+
+"But that is it, Jean. Here is this family posing as among the best
+Negro families in Chicago, but with no more regard for what is morally
+right than the worst thief. Indeed, no thief would do what that man is
+doing."
+
+He mumbled something inaudible. She was out to talk, so he heard her on:
+
+"I understand the whole line up, and their vain shielding of that old
+rascal, just because you didn't lie to him and become a hypocrite like
+he himself is. Everybody near him must bow to him and tell him he is
+great, else he will use what influence is his to 'get even.' So that's
+the whole output. He took her away from you because he raised her as he
+has willed my cousin, his wife, to subserve to him. And now he goes
+around here with all that dirty affected piety and wants people to
+sympathize with him in his evil." She paused again for breath, and then
+he spoke:
+
+"I am glad to know you have taken the view of this you have, Mrs.
+Merley," he said slowly, "And I am wondering therefore, whether you
+would be willing to help me in a certain Christian cause."
+
+"Why, Jean! Why ask me? You must know that I would help you in any way I
+could."
+
+He then told her just what he had planned. She interrupted him at times
+with little bursts of enthusiasm, and there was no hesitancy on her
+part.
+
+"Anything, Jean, anything! You don't know how anxious I am, and how
+glad I am to have the opportunity! The only thing I regret is that you
+ever married such a weakling. You might have heard that Blanche is
+married?"
+
+"I have," he replied. "I trust she is happy."
+
+"Well," said the other slowly, "she appears to be, withal. And for that
+reason I suppose I should be thankful. But she did not quite please me
+in her selection."
+
+"Oh," he echoed.
+
+"No," she said slowly, and as if she felt the disappointment keenly.
+"She did not. Her husband, it is true, is good to her, but he did not
+come up to my hope. Yet, and it is singular," she said thoughtfully, "to
+think that a man with all you possess financially, and mentally, should
+get 'in' as you have." She paused again a little embarrassed, and then
+pursued:
+
+"I wish Blanche had a husband of your disposition and attainments."
+
+"Blanche, I thought, was a sweet girl," he said reflectively.
+
+"And a good girl," said Mrs. Merley. "I would have given anything to
+have had her marry a promising young farmer of your order, and be now
+living in the West."
+
+"I love the West, and had hoped others would be loving it too," he said
+ruefully.
+
+"He came back here after his first visit, and sitting right where you
+are now, said that you was one of the race's most progressive young men.
+He added to this everywhere he had half a chance and eulogized you to
+the highest. It happened that the minister who married you, was here,
+and he, too, very much admired you, and voiced the same to the Reverend.
+That old devil just swelled up like a big frog with vanity. Three months
+later he comes back here, and, to seek to justify his action, he
+spreads the town with lies that nobody believes."
+
+The other shifted his position.
+
+"Well, Jean," she said now more soberly, "just what shall I do?"
+
+"If you would not mind--"
+
+"Oh, don't say that!"
+
+"Very well, Mrs. Merley. I would like you to call her up and suggest a
+matinee."
+
+"Why not just go to one?"
+
+"That would please me if you would condescend?"
+
+"I'd be glad to go, and in view of the circumstances, I think it would
+be a suggestive idea. Let her get used to your presence again, without
+coming directly to the point at once."
+
+"A capital idea, I agree!"
+
+"Call her up and ask her to come over and go with you to the matinee."
+
+"That is the plan, and I understand."
+
+"I will appreciate your kindness," said he heartily. She arose then and
+advancing toward him, embraced him impulsively.
+
+Thereupon she went to the telephone, and succeeded in getting his wife
+on the wire. He heard her answer the call, and laugh over something
+humorous Mrs. Merley said. His heart beat faster, and he was conscious
+that he was more hopeful than he had been for a long time.
+
+"Yes...." Mrs. Merley was saying. "I want you to go with me to a
+matinee.... Be here at one forty-five.... Yes, I have the tickets....
+And you'll not be late."
+
+She was standing before him again, and her face was lighted up with the
+joy of what she had accomplished. He was grateful, and rose to thank
+her, whereupon she embraced him again. The next moment she went quickly
+up the stairs to prepare for the occasion.
+
+"You may come upstairs, too, Jean," she invited, "and from the front
+room there, you can watch for yours."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Merley, you make me happier than I have been for a long time,"
+he said, and almost was he emotional.
+
+"And I have a nice spare bedroom for you and _her_, tonight. And
+tomorrow, she is _yours_."
+
+Jean Baptiste waited and watched, and then suddenly he heard a voice. It
+was that of the girl who had admitted him, who was also watching.
+
+"Here she comes," she cried, excitedly. Jean Baptiste looked quickly out
+of the window and up the street, and saw his wife coming leisurely
+toward the house wherein he was sitting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+OH, MERCIFUL GOD, CLOSE THOU MINE EYES!
+
+
+Reverend Newton Justine McCarthy had once lived in Peoria, Illinois, and
+was well acquainted with the late Robert Ingersoll. Moreover, he had
+admired the noted orator, and although he had not the courage, in truth,
+he believed as Ingersoll believed. And because he did, and was forced to
+keep his true convictions a secret, while he preached the gospel he did
+not believe, he had grown to hate almost all people. But N.J. McCarthy
+was not aware of this fact himself.
+
+Ever since he brought his daughter home, and had thereby parted her from
+the man she married, he had never been the same. Always he was troubled
+with something he could not understand. His dreams were bad. The awful
+sensations he very often experienced while in slumber, grew so annoying
+that at times he found that he was almost afraid to sleep. Then, a
+persistent illness continually knocked at his door. The truth of it was,
+that he was battling with a conscience he had for years crucified. But
+it would persist. So deep had he sowed the habits he followed, and so
+intrenched were the roots of these habits, until it was no easy task to
+uproot them.
+
+He had left Mrs. Pruitt near midnight of the day when Jean Baptiste had
+arrived on his trip in a last effort to secure his wife. The family had
+retired before he arrived home, and having some business in the rear of
+the house, he passed through the room which contained the bed wherein
+his daughter, Orlean, lay in peaceful slumber. When he was returning he
+paused briefly to observe the face of the sleeping girl in the
+moonlight. Peacefully she slept, and for the first time in his life he
+saw therein something he had never seen before. He felt his flesh and
+wondered at the feeling that was come over him. It seemed that he was
+asleep, but positively he was awake. He _was_ awake, and looking into
+the sleeping face of his daughter. But if he _was awake, what was it he
+saw_?
+
+Surely not. But as he stood over her, he thought he could see her eyes
+open, and look at him strangely, regard him in a way she had never done
+before. And as she looked at him, he thought she raised her hand that
+lay under the cover, and with her forefinger leveled, she pointed at
+him. In the trance he imagined he could hear her voice. She called him:
+
+"Father?" And betimes he answered.
+
+"Yes, daughter."
+
+"Where is my husband?" He gave a start. He thought he caught at
+something, and then he heard her again:
+
+"You have sent him away, out of my life, and the day is coming when you
+will be called upon to answer for your sins!"
+
+He thought he was trembling. All about him was turmoil. He saw the
+people, the friends of the family, and all the people he had preached to
+in thirty years, and all were pointing an accusing finger at him. And
+out of the chaos he heard them crying: "_Shame, oh shame! That you
+should be so evil, so vile, such a hypocrite, and let your evil fall
+upon your own daughter!_" He saw then the wife he had taken from Speed.
+He saw that one in his misery, he saw him sink, and renounce from
+weakness the sentiments he had started in the world to teach. He saw him
+struggle vainly, and then saw him fall, low, lower, until at last the
+flames of hell had swallowed him up. "Merciful God," he cried, and he
+was sure he staggered. "Was it _I_ who brought all this?" But before he
+could recover, the procession kept passing.
+
+Behind Speed came the wife he had robbed him of. She carried in her arms
+a baby that he had given her. By the hand she led the other illegitimate
+offspring. There they were, the innocents that had no name. He saw the
+bent head of the woman, and saw the grief and anguish in her face. He
+saw her suddenly stop and fall, and while she lay upon the earth, her
+children were taken, and grew up surrounded with all that was bad and
+evil. He saw one suddenly dead, while still a boy, murdered by the
+companions he kept. He saw his young body in the morgue. And before all
+this had passed, he saw this one's mother again, the woman he had
+fooled, in the depth of the "tenderloin." He saw her a solicitor, and he
+could hear himself groan in agony.
+
+The years passed, and while he grew older, other things came and went; a
+train of evil deeds he had committed, and at last came his own daughter.
+He saw her passing and when he saw her face, the agony therein
+frightened him. Was it so! Had _he_, done that, too? Was _he_ the cause
+of what he saw in this girl's face? Suddenly he saw her change, and in
+the distance he saw Jean Baptiste, and all he had suffered. "_Oh,
+merciful God, close thou mine eyes_," he thought he could hear himself
+call. But his eyes would not close, and the one to whom he appealed
+appeared to be deaf, and the procession continued.
+
+He saw Orlean stretch her hands out to Baptiste, and he came toward her
+with arms outstretched, and he thought he heard a voice, the voice of
+the man Jean Baptiste. And the words he cried rang in his ears: "My
+wife, oh, Orlean, my wife! Come unto me!"--But lo! When the two had came
+close, and the man would have held her to him, a shadow suddenly rose
+between them, and shut them out from each other's sight. He thought he
+raised his voice to call out to the one of the shadow. And when he
+called to him, and the one of the shadow turned, and behold! It was
+himself! He suddenly came out of the trance, to see Orlean sitting up in
+bed. He caught his breath and held his hand over his heart, as he heard
+her voice:
+
+"Papa, is that you? My, how you frightened me! I--" and then she quickly
+stopped. She had started to say, "I thought it was Jean," for in truth
+she had dreamed of him, and that he had come for her, and she was glad,
+and when she arose to go she had awakened to find her father standing
+over her.
+
+"Yes, yes, my dear," he said rather awkwardly. "It is I. I stopped to
+look at you and seemed to forget myself." He hurried away then, and up
+the stairs to his room and went to bed, but it was near morning when he
+fell asleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It so happened when Jean Baptiste had gone upstairs to call on Mildred
+and her mother, he had knocked at the door below. A man lived there whom
+he had known in the years gone by and who had educated himself to be a
+lawyer. His name was Towles, Joseph Towles. Always before when he was in
+the city, he had called on Towles and his family, and when their door
+rose before him, on the impulse he had forgotten all else but to greet
+them. He pushed the bell, and no sooner had he done so than he recalled
+his mission, and that he was avoiding his acquaintances. He quickly
+passed upstairs but not before Mrs. Towles had opened the door and
+caught a glimpse of him passing.
+
+She was aware of his difficulty, and had pretended to sympathize with
+him. But Mrs. Towles was a gossipy, penurious woman, and did not get
+along with her neighbors overhead. So when she saw Jean Baptiste passing
+up the stairs, and hurrying from her without speaking, she at once
+became angry, and with it apprehensive. She went back to where she had
+been working over some sewing. She was thoughtful, and then regarded the
+clock.
+
+"I wonder what he is doing here?" she mused to herself. And then she
+suddenly brightened with an inspiration. "_His wife_, of course," she
+cried, and fell to thinking further.
+
+She happened to be a close friend of a certain lady who lived next door
+to the McCarthys on Vernon Avenue, and it was to her that she decided to
+pay a visit on the morrow. And, of course she would discuss the fact
+that she had gotten a glimpse of Jean Baptiste, and would try to find
+out what she could.
+
+It was the following afternoon that she found the time to visit her
+friend in Vernon Avenue. She passed by the house wherein lived the
+McCarthys, and made up her mind to call there later in company with her
+friend to hear the news.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Towles!" cried her friend when she saw her face upon opening
+the door. "How nice it was of you to call, when I was not expecting you!
+Such a pleasant surprise," whereupon they kissed in womanly fashion. She
+took a seat by the window, for she wished to look into the street. The
+other took a chair just facing her, and together they fell to talking.
+As they sat there, Orlean suddenly came out of the house next door,
+down the steps, and passed before Mrs. Towles' gaze as she went up the
+street to Wabash Avenue to fill the engagement with Mrs. Merley.
+
+"Oh, look," cried Mrs. Towles, pointing to the figure of the other.
+"There goes Orlean!"
+
+The other strained her neck, and said:
+
+"M-m."
+
+"And I saw her husband last night."
+
+"You did!" exclaimed the other in great surprise. She had a grown
+daughter who was very much accomplished, but unmarried. So she took a
+delight in such cases as Jean Baptiste's....
+
+"I did," replied the other, making herself comfortable and getting ready
+to relate his strange actions.
+
+"Well, well, now!" echoed the other, all attention.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Towles, and then related all that had passed which was
+not anything but catching a glimpse of Baptiste as he had disappeared up
+the steps.
+
+"I don't think they know next door, that he is in town," suggested the
+other.
+
+"Don't they?"
+
+"Why, not likely. You know the last time he was here they wouldn't admit
+him!" They eyed each other jubilantly, and then went on.
+
+"Then we ought to go right over and inform them at once!" said Mrs.
+Towles.
+
+"Just what we should do," agreed the other.
+
+And so it happened that the Reverend learned that Jean Baptiste was in
+the city; but for once he was not excited. Somehow, he hoped that Jean
+would meet Orlean, and he knew then that she had gone out for that
+purpose. He knew that she was supposed to go to a matinee, and he
+realized from previous statements, that Mrs. Merley was the "go
+between."
+
+So he took no part in the gossip that followed, nor did he for once sigh
+in self pity.
+
+Perhaps after all he had decided not to interfere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"LOVE YOU--GOD, I HATE YOU!"
+
+
+The play they witnessed that afternoon was an emotional play, and in a
+degree it sufficed to arouse the emotion in all three. The meeting
+between Orlean and her husband had been without excitement. As if she
+had been expecting him, she welcomed him, and they had proceeded
+directly to a play at the Studebaker Theater downtown.
+
+When they were again in the street, they went to another theater where
+they purchased tickets to witness Robert Mantell in Richelieu. And,
+later, taking a surface car on State Street, proceeded to a restaurant
+near Thirty-first Street where they had supper, after which they retired
+to the home of Mrs. Merley.
+
+Of course that one left them to themselves in due time, and in a few
+minutes they were engaged in congenial conversation. After a time Jean
+caught her hand, and despite the slight protest she made, he succeeded
+in drawing her up on his knee.
+
+"I ought not to sit here," she said.
+
+"Why not, Orlean?" he said kindly, placing his arm about her waist
+fondly.
+
+"Because."
+
+"Because what, dear?"
+
+She looked at him quickly. He met her eyes appealingly. She looked away,
+and then down at her toes.
+
+"How you have fleshened," he commented.
+
+"Do you think so?" she returned, inclined to be sociable.
+
+"It is quite noticeable. And you are better looking when you are so."
+
+"Oh, you flatter me," she chimed.
+
+"I would like to flatter my wife."
+
+She did not reply to this. She appeared to be comfortable, and he went
+on.
+
+"Don't you know that I have longed to see you, and that it has not been
+just right that I could not?"
+
+And still she made no answer.
+
+"I never want to live so again. I want you always, Orlean."
+
+"When did you leave home?" she asked now.
+
+"A couple of days ago."
+
+"And how long have you been here?"
+
+"I came yesterday afternoon."
+
+"And when to Mrs. Merley's?"
+
+"This morning."
+
+She was thoughtful then. Indeed they were getting along better than he
+had hoped. There remained but one thing more. If he could persuade her
+to stay the night at Mrs. Merley's and not insist on going home. If he
+could keep her out of her father's sight until morning, he would have no
+more worry. That, indeed, was his one point of uneasiness. Keeping her
+out of her father's sight. He recalled how he had refrained from buying
+a revolver when he left home. It would not have been safe after all that
+had passed between himself and her father for him to have anything of
+the kind about, and he was glad now that he had been sensible.
+
+He drew his wife's head down, turned her face to his, and kissed her
+lips. He caught the sigh that passed her lips. He saw her eyebrows
+begin to contract. What was passing in her mind? Duty? Then, to whom?
+
+He kissed her again, and caressed her fondly. This meant much to him. He
+told her so then, too.
+
+"It has been very hard on me, wife, for you to have stayed away a whole
+year. Awfully hard. It was never my plans or intention for such to be."
+He was full up now. He wanted to talk a long time with her. If they
+could just retire and talk far into the night as they had done in the
+eleven months that had been theirs.
+
+His confidence was growing. All that was expedient now, he felt sure,
+was to keep the Reverend out of it until morning. By that time no
+further effort on his part would be necessary.
+
+"Do you love me, Orlean?" he said now, drawing her face close to his
+again.
+
+She made no reply audibly, but she seemed to be struggling with
+something within herself. In truth she did not want to say that she did,
+and she _would not_ tell him she did not. She let her arm unconsciously
+encircle his neck. Her hand found his head and stroked his hair, while
+she was mentally meditative.
+
+In the meantime, his head rested against her breast, and he could hear
+the beating of her heart.
+
+"Oh, my wife," he cried, intended for himself but she heard it. It
+aroused her, her emotion began to assert itself. How long would it take
+for her to be his mate again at this rate?
+
+"How is everything back home?" she asked, as if seeking a change. He
+hesitated. She looked down into his face to see why he did not answer
+directly. He caught her eyes, and she could see that he was not wishing
+to tell her something.
+
+"What is the matter, Jean?" she asked now, slightly excited and anxious.
+
+"Oh, nothing," he replied. He wanted to tell her the truth, all the
+truth, but it was not yet time he feared. Until she had given up to him,
+he decided to withhold anything serious.
+
+"There is _something_, Jean, of that I am sure," she insisted, shifting
+where she could see his face more clearly.
+
+"If there is anything, wife, I would discuss it later. Now,--I can think
+of but one thing, and that is you," whereupon he caressed her again
+fondly. She sighed then and her emotion was becoming more perceptible.
+
+"You are going back home with me tomorrow, dear?" he dared to say
+presently.
+
+For answer she shifted uneasily, and then her eyes espied the clock on
+the wall. It was five-thirty.
+
+"I think I should call up home," she said thoughtfully. He caught his
+breath, and trembled perceptibly. She regarded him inquiringly.
+
+And here again we must remark about Jean Baptiste. In the year of
+misery, of agony and suffering in general he had endured, he had settled
+upon one theory. And that was that if he and his wife were to ever live
+together again and be happy, the family were to be kept out of it.
+Perhaps if this could have been forgotten by him in this moment, we
+would not have had this story to tell; but when she mentioned her folks,
+all that he had wished to avoid--all that he felt he _must_ avoid, came
+before him. As he saw it now, if she called her father, they would
+_never_ live together again. He was nervous when he anticipated the
+fact. He started, and took on unconsciously a fearsome expression.
+
+"Please don't, Orlean," he said, beseechingly.
+
+"Don't what?" she asked, apprehensive of something she did not like.
+
+"Call your father," he said. He wanted to tell her that if she called
+her father, it would mean the end of everything for them, but he
+withheld this.
+
+"Now, I wish him to know where I am," she said, protestingly, and arose
+from his knee. She stood away from where he sat hesitatingly. In that
+moment, she was not aware that she stood between duty and subservience.
+As she saw it, she forgot from her training that there _was_ a duty, she
+only remembered that she was obedient. Obedient to the father who had
+reared her so to be.
+
+It was the psychological moment in their union. Near her the husband
+that she had taken, regarded her uneasily. He had come to her to do the
+duty that was his to do. They were estranged because of one thing, and
+one thing only, and that was her father, the man her husband would never
+yield to. And as she hesitated between obedience to one and duty toward
+the other, her life, her love and future was in the balance.
+
+Which?
+
+"Orlean," she heard now, from the lips of her husband. "Listen, _before
+you go to the phone_." He became suddenly calm as he said this. "I
+married you two years gone now, for better or for worse, and 'until
+death do us part.' That was the vow that I took and also you. I've done
+my best by you under the circumstances. I gave you a home and bed that
+you left. I gave you my love, and am willing to give you my life if that
+be necessary. But, Orlean, I didn't contract to observe the ideas and be
+subservient to the opinion of others. To force me to regard this is to
+do me a grave injustice. You cannot imagine, appreciate, maybe, how
+humiliating it is to be placed in such a position. I cannot explain it
+with you standing impatiently before me as you are. I have come here to
+try and have you discuss this matter with me from a practical point of
+view. Surely, having taken me as your God-given mate, you owe me that.
+You force me to honor and respect certain persons--"
+
+"Don't you," she cried. "Don't you insinuate my father!" She advanced
+toward him threateningly in her excitement, and all sense of duty was
+gone. Only obedience to the one who had made it so remained. That she
+should rally to the support of his adversary, displaced his composure.
+He had hoped to have her reason it out with him, and he had prayed that
+he be given a little time, and then all would be well. He was aware that
+she was unequal to a woman's task. Not one woman in a thousand he knew
+would place a father before a husband; but his wife was different. She
+had been trained to be devoutly subservient to her father. For that
+reason he was willing to be patient--he had been patient. But at the
+same time he had suffered much, and her love and obedience to his worst
+enemy--even if it was her father, unfitted him for that with which he
+was now confronted. He was fast losing his composure, likewise his
+patience. Nothing in the world should stand between him and his wife. He
+became excited now, but calmed long enough to say:
+
+"Go ahead, or come to me. There are two things a woman cannot be at the
+same time," and he waved his hand toward her resolutely. "A wife to the
+man she has married, and a daughter to her father." With this statement
+he sank back into the chair from which he had partly risen. He had said
+the last statement with such forceful logic, that it made her stop,
+pause uneasily, and then suddenly she straightened and turning, went to
+the telephone. But when she called over the wire to her father, all the
+composure that Jean Baptiste ever had left him. All the suffering and
+agony that he had experienced from the hand of the other asserted
+itself. He arose from the chair and came toward her. His eyes were
+bloodshot, his attitude was threatening. She called to her father, and
+the words she said were:
+
+"Yes, papa.... Is this you.... Yes.... I am at Mrs. Merley's....
+And--ah--papa," she hesitated and her voice broke from fear.
+"Ah--papa--a--Jean is here, papa.... Yes, Jean. He is here." She was
+trembling now, and the man standing behind her saw it. He saw her
+passing out of his life forever, and desperation overtook him. In that
+moment something within him seemed to snap.
+
+He reached over her shoulder and grasped the receiver and pushed her
+roughly aside. The next instant she was protesting wildly, while Mrs.
+Merley was brought to the front by his loud voice screaming over the
+'phone.
+
+"_Hell, hello, you!_" he cried savagely. "_Hello, I say!... How am I! My
+God, how could I be after what you have done to me, my life.... Why
+didn't I come to the house?... Why should I come to your house, when the
+last time I was there I was kicked out, virtually kicked out, do you
+hear?_"
+
+"You get away from here!" he heard in his ear, and turned to see his
+wife gone wild with excitement. Her eyes were distraught, her attitude
+was menacing, as she struggled at his arm to try and wrest the receiver
+from his hand. He heard the other saying something in his ear. He did
+not understand it, he was too excited. Everything was in a whirl around
+him. He became conscious that he had dropped the receiver after a time.
+He felt himself in contact with some one, and saw the face of his wife.
+In her excitement she was striking him; she was trying to do him
+injury.
+
+He became alive to what was going on, then. The receiver hung suspended;
+he was in a grapple with his excited wife.
+
+"You--you!" she screamed. "You abuse my father, my poor father! You have
+abused him ever since I knew you. You will not respect him, and then
+come to ask me to live with you. You abuser! you devil! Do I love you?
+God, _I hate you_!"
+
+He made no effort to protect himself. He allowed her to strike him at
+will and with a strength, born of excitement, she struck him in his
+face, in his eyes, she scratched him, she abused him so furiously until
+gradually he began to sink. He reached out and caught her around the
+waist as he lost his footing and fell to his knees. As he lingered in
+this position his face was upturned. She struck him then with all the
+force in her body. He groaned, as he gradually loosened his hold upon
+her, and slowly sank to the floor. And all the while she fought him, she
+punctuated her blows with words, some abusing him, others in defense of
+her father.
+
+At last he lay upon the floor, while around her, Mrs. Merley and the
+other girl begged and beseeched. But she was as if gone insane. As he
+lay with eyes closed and a slight groan escaping from his lips at her
+feet, she suddenly raised her foot and kicked him viciously full in the
+face. This seemed, then, to make her more vicious, and thereupon she
+started to jump upon him with her feet, but Mrs. Merley suddenly caught
+her about the waist and drew her away.
+
+How long he lay there he did not know, but he opened his eyes when from
+the outside he heard hurried footsteps. He continued to lay as he was,
+and then somebody pulled the bell vigorously. Mrs. Merley went to it,
+opened it, and let some one in. He looked up through half closed eyes to
+see the Reverend standing over him. In that instant he saw his wife dash
+past him and fall into the other's arms. He heard her saying words of
+love, while he was aware that the other pacified her with soft words.
+They took no notice of the man at their feet.
+
+And then he saw them open the door, while the others stood about in awe.
+While the door was open he caught a glimpse of the street outside--and
+of Glavis on the sidewalk below.
+
+The next instant the door closed softly behind them, and she went out of
+his life as a wife forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A STRANGE DREAM
+
+
+When the others had gone, Jean Baptiste rolled over again upon the
+floor, and was conscious that one eye was closed and swollen, filled
+with blood from a wound inflicted by his wife just below it. He rose to
+a sitting posture presently, and looked around him. He was in the hall,
+and when he looked through the open door into the parlor, he saw Mrs.
+Merley stretched on the settee before him weeping. He staggered to his
+feet, and went toward her.
+
+She looked up when he approached, and dried her eyes. "You spoiled
+things, Jean," she accused, and he noted the disappointment in her
+voice, and also detected a note of impatience.
+
+"Yes, I admit I did, Mrs. Merley, and I'm sorry--for you."
+
+"For me?" she repeated, not understanding his import.
+
+"Yes," he replied wearily. "For _you_."
+
+"But--but--why--for _me_?"
+
+"Well," he said, with a sigh, "It _had_ to be as it was. I wanted her.
+But it would have been disaster in the end on his account, because I
+could never have brought myself to honor him, and to have lived with her
+I should have been forced to--at least pretended to do so, and that
+would have been worse still."
+
+She was thoughtfully silent then for some time, then she regarded him
+closely, and said as if to herself:
+
+"Well, I fear you are right. Yes, I _know_ you are when I recall how she
+abused you a while ago. Gracious! I did not know that it was in
+Orlean."
+
+"Nor did I," he said, his face covered with his hands.
+
+"_He_ made her that way through the influence he has exerted over her.
+Evil influence. I have a feeling that there will come a day when that
+influence will work the other way," she said musingly, "_he_ will be the
+victim, and the punishment will be severe."
+
+Both were silent for a time, and nothing but the ticking of the clock on
+the mantel disturbed the quiet. He presently raised his head, and in so
+doing uncovered his face. It was dark and distorted, swollen a great
+deal, and one of his eyes was closed. She saw it then for the first
+time.
+
+"My God, Jean!" she exclaimed, arising and hurrying to him. "Your face
+is swollen almost beyond recognition. Why, my dear, you are in a
+dreadful fix!" She stood over him scarcely knowing just what to do. Then
+she regained her composure. She caught at his arm, as she cried:
+
+"Come with me, quick!" He arose and followed her upstairs and into the
+bedroom she had prepared for him and Orlean. In a corner there was a
+little basin, and to this she led him. She then had him hold his face
+over the basin while she carefully bathed it. This done, she asked him
+to go to bed while she went downstairs, returning presently with
+liniments and towels, and bathed his wounds again and bandaged his face
+carefully.
+
+"Now, Jean," she said kindly, "I will leave you. But you will do this
+favor which I ask of you?"
+
+He turned his face toward her.
+
+"Don't advise Mr. Merley about what has occurred here tonight," she
+said.
+
+"I understand," he replied quietly. Thereupon she left him to himself.
+
+At the Vernon Avenue home of the McCarthys, the house was in an orgy of
+excitement. When the Reverend had been advised regarding his
+son-in-law's presence in the city, he recalled the seance he had
+experienced the night before. When the women came, he was preparing to
+go to the west side for his daily visit with Mrs. Pruitt. But upon this
+advice, he desisted, and decided to remain home.
+
+When the mongers had taken their gossip from his presence, he fell into
+deep thought. For the first time since he had precipitated the trouble,
+he saw the situation clearly. He was aware that his act by this time,
+had helped nobody, had made no one happy or satisfied--not even himself.
+Almost he agreed with himself then, that he had miscalculated; Jean
+Baptiste was willing apparently, to forego his wife's loss and the loss
+of her homestead, before he would do as the Elder had planned and
+estimated he would. His conscience was disturbed. He recalled the
+unpleasant nights he had endured in the last few months. He recalled
+that while Orlean always pretended to him that she was satisfied, for
+the first time in his life, he saw that it was due to the training, the
+subservience to his will, and not to her own convictions.
+
+He arose from his seat and walked the floor in meditation. Habit,
+however, had become such a force with him, that he could hardly resist
+the impulse to commit some action; to rush to Mrs. Merley's and make
+himself conspicuous. He struggled between impulse and conscience, and
+neither won fully. After an hour, however, he reached this decision: He
+would not go to or call up Mrs. Merley. He would just leave it to them
+to solve, and if they should finally reach some agreement between
+themselves, he would not stand in the way. When he had reached this
+conclusion, he went into the street, and was surprised at the relief he
+felt. Not for months had he enjoyed a walk as much as he did that one.
+
+But while Newton Justine McCarthy had struggled with his conscience, and
+at last found solace in admitting at this late hour to what he should
+have done two years before, he had failed to reckon with other features
+that asserted themselves later. He had not estimated that if Jean
+Baptiste sought his wife secretly, it must have been because he wished
+to avoid him. He failed to see that this man had suffered bitterly
+through his evil machinations. He failed, moreover, to appreciate that
+his training of Orlean to the subservient attitude, would prevent her
+from returning to her husband or reaching any agreement with him until
+she had first ascertained that such would be agreeable to her father.
+Had he so reckoned the scene just related might not have occurred.
+
+It was while they were sitting at supper that the telephone rang. When
+the conversation ensued, the Reverend sought not only to promulgate good
+will by leaving it to Jean Baptiste, but he thought also to encourage
+him by inviting him to the house, and in this he meant well. But behind
+him stood Ethel. She caught the gist of excitement and instantly began
+to scream.
+
+"Get Orlean, go get my sister! Don't let that man have her, owee!" at
+the top of her voice, she yelled, and Glavis and her mother had to hold
+her. Some friends were having dinner with them, and they now stood
+toward the rear uncertain whether to leave or remain, and heard all that
+passed. The Reverend was laboring frantically to get an answer over the
+'phone, and it was at this moment that Orlean had gone frantic and was
+abusing her husband.
+
+In the excitement, Ethel kept up her tirade at the top of her voice, and
+in the end, the Reverend, followed by Glavis, had gone to Mrs.
+Merley's.
+
+They had now returned, and Ethel was pacified. The visitors had departed
+to spread the gossip, and all but Ethel was downcast. Orlean, in
+unspoken remorse, had retired; while the Reverend, fully conscious at
+last of what his interposition had brought, was regretful, but not
+openly. And the others, not knowing that he had that day repented, sat
+at their distance and tried to form no conclusion.
+
+"It is over--all over," cried Orlean now in the bed. "And as I have done
+all my life, I have failed at the most crucial moment. Oh, merciful God,
+what can you do with a weak woman like I! It has been I all along who
+has made misery for myself, for _him_, and for all those near me! I! I!
+_I!_ That I could have cultivated the strength of my conviction; that I
+could have been the woman he wanted me to be. Out there he _tried_ to
+make me one; he sought in every way he knew how. But a weakling I would
+remain! And because I have sought to please others and abuse him in
+doing so, I have brought everybody to the ditch of misery and despair."
+She cried for a long time, but her mind was afire. All that her weakness
+and subservience had caused, continued, and at last the event of the
+night.
+
+"And what did I do to him?" she said now, rising in the bed. "I recall
+that he came to the telephone. He stood listening to what I was saying,
+and I recall that when I turned slightly and saw his face, it was
+terrible! Then I saw him suddenly snatch the receiver from my hand, and
+I heard him talking to papa. He was terribly excited, and I shall never
+forget the expression on his face. I cannot clearly remember what
+followed. I recall, however, that I struggled with him; that I struck
+him everywhere I could; that I scratched his face.... And, oh, my God, I
+recall what passed then!" She suddenly sank back upon the pillow and
+gave up to bitter anguish, when she recalled what had followed. But the
+excitement was too great for her to lay inert. She rose again upon her
+elbow, and looked before her into the darkness of the room as she slowly
+repeated half aloud what had followed.
+
+"Yes, I _recall_. _He made no resistance. He did not defend himself, but
+allowed me to strike him at will. And under the fusillade of blows, I
+recall that he sank slowly to his knees--sank there with his arms about
+me, and I striking him with all the strength in my body. Upon his knees
+then, he lingered, while I rained blow after blow upon his upturned
+face. And now I can recall that his eyes closed, and from his lips I
+caught a sigh, and then he rolled to the floor. And, here, oh, Lord, I
+added what will follow me throughout my life and never again give me
+peace._
+
+"_While he lay there upon the floor, with his eyes closed before me, I
+kicked him viciously full in the face! But even then he did not resist,
+but only groaned wearily. Merciful Jesus! Nor did I stop there! I jumped
+on his face with my feet, and then I recall that some one caught me and
+saved me from further madness!_" She was exhausted then, and lay without
+words for a long time. Almost in a state of coma, she bordered, and
+while so, she fell into a strange sleep. The night wore on, and the
+clock downstairs was striking the hour of two when she suddenly
+awakened. She sat straight up in bed, and jerked her hands to her head,
+and screamed long and terribly. The household was awakened, and came
+hurrying to where she lay. But in the meantime she continued to scream
+loudly, at the top of her voice. And all the while, perspiration flowed
+from her body. It was nigh onto four o'clock before they succeeded in
+quieting her, and when they had done so she lay back again upon the
+pillow with a groan, and the family went back to their beds to wonder
+what had come over her. All felt strangely as if something evil had
+crept into their lives, and their excitement was great. All but Ethel,
+who, in her evil way, was delighted, and laughed gleefully when she had
+returned to bed.
+
+"Laugh on, Ethel, you evil woman!" said Glavis at her side. "Evil has
+this night come into our lives. It _wasn't_ right in the beginning; it
+_isn't_ right now, nor was last night. Oh, I have never wanted to see
+this go along as it has. Because your father has trained Orlean to obey
+and subserve to his will, he has done something to her, and she has
+become a demon instead of a weakling. Last night I saw Jean Baptiste
+lying prone upon the floor, and knew that she had beaten him down to it,
+and he had not resisted. She told me as we came home what she had done,
+but was not aware that she was telling me. Nothing good can come of
+evil, and it is evil that we have practiced toward that man. He is
+through now, and never again will he make effort to get her to live with
+him. But just so sure as she has abused him, just so sure will _she_ do
+injury to those who have brought this about." And with this he turned on
+his side and feigned sleep.
+
+Alone Orlean lay trying vainly to forget something--something that stood
+like a spectre before her eyes. But she could not forget it, nor did she
+_ever_ forget it. It had come, and it was inevitable. She had seen _it_
+in her sleep. _It_ had all been so clear, and when she had awakened and
+screamed so long, she knew, then that it must in time be so. She would
+never forget it; but realizing its gravity, she decided thereupon never
+to tell it--the dream--to anybody.
+
+The sun shone and the birds sang, and the day was beautiful without when
+she at last fell asleep again.
+
+
+
+
+EPOCH THE FOURTH
+
+
+
+
+EPOCH THE FOURTH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE DROUGHT
+
+
+Jean Baptiste jumped from the bed and went quickly to where his trousers
+hung on a chair, and went through the pockets hurriedly. He laid them
+down when through, and got his breath slowly when he had done so, and
+the perspiration stood out on his forehead as he concluded that he had
+been robbed.
+
+After a time he raised his hand to his forehead, and appeared puzzled.
+He was positive he had seen some one enter the room, go to the chair,
+and take the money from his pockets. It was rather singular, however, he
+now thought; for if such had happened, and he had seen it, then why had
+he not stopped the robber? He was deeply puzzled. He had seen the act
+committed, he felt sure but had made no effort whatever to stop the
+thief. He scratched his head in vexation, sat down, and as he did so,
+saw that his coat hung also upon the chair. Absently his hands wandered
+through the pockets, and found his purse and the money in an outside
+pocket.
+
+He was awake then, and went to the basin, removed the bandages, and
+bathed his face. The swelling had gone down considerably, but the
+injured eye was dark. He realized then, that nobody had entered the
+room, for the door was locked with the key inside; but he couldn't
+recall having his money in his coat pocket. He was awake at last to the
+fact that it had been a dream.
+
+When he had bathed and dressed, he slipped quietly down the stairs, and
+into the street, and found his way to the Thirty-fifth Street "L."
+station. He had no plans. He considered that his relations with his wife
+were at an end, and from his mind he dismissed this in so far as it was
+possible--and as far as future plans were concerned. But since he had
+made no plans, whatever in the event of failure, and since failure had
+come, he was undecided where he was going or what he would do at once.
+
+He decided not to return home directly; he wanted to go somewhere, but
+did not care to stay in Chicago. He took the train that was going
+down-town, and when he reached the Twelfth Street station, suddenly
+decided to go to Southern Illinois, and visit the girl Jessie, with whom
+he had been corresponding.
+
+While walking toward the Illinois Central Station, he purchased a paper,
+and was cheered to see that his candidate had carried the state in the
+preferential primary by an overwhelming majority. The train he was to
+take left at nine-forty, and he was able to forget his grief in the hour
+and a half he waited, by reading all the details of the election.
+
+The journey three hundred miles south was uneventful, but when he
+arrived at Carbondale, the train that would have taken him to where he
+was going had left, and he was compelled to spend the night there. The
+next morning he caught an early train and reached the town in which she
+lived, his first visit there since he met the one he had married.
+
+He found Jessie, and her kind sympathy, served to revive in a measure
+his usual composure, and when he left a few days later, he was much
+stronger emotionally than he had been for a year, and on his return
+West, determined to try to regain his fortunes that had been gradually
+slipping from him in the past two years.
+
+When he had digested the state of his affairs at home he had a new
+problem to face. Decidedly he was almost "in bad." For a time his
+interest had been paid by his bankers; but they had left him to the
+mercy of the insurance companies who held the first mortgages. And these
+had been protesting and had lately threatened foreclosure. Even so, and
+if the crops be good, he was confident he could make it. But before he
+could even sow that year's crop, he would have to see a certain banker
+who lived in Nebraska. This man was represented by a son who conducted
+the bank he controlled at Gregory, and the son had issued an ultimatum,
+and if Baptiste would keep his stock that was mortgaged to the bank as
+security, he realized that it was best to see the boy's father, since
+the son had made plain his stand.
+
+The banker was out of town when he arrived, and to save time, Baptiste
+judged that it would be best to go to Sioux City, where he could meet
+the banker on his way home, and on the way from Sioux City to the little
+town where the banker made his home, he could consult with him, and get
+an extension. In this he was successful, and returned home with an
+assurance that he would be given until fall to make good--but in truth,
+until fall to get ready.
+
+To work he went with a sort of fleeting hope. The spring had been good.
+But he was apprehensive that the summer would be dry as the last, and it
+was with misgivings that he lived through the days and weeks that
+followed. Seed wheat and oats had been furnished to the settlers in
+Tripp County that spring by the county commissioners, and he had sowed a
+portion of his land with it.
+
+Conditions in the new country had gone from bad to worse, and if the
+season should experience another drought, the worst was come. Already
+there were a few foreclosures in process, and excitement ran high. The
+country was financially embarrassed. To secure money now was almost
+impossible. Any number of farms were for sale, but buyers there were
+none.
+
+A local shower fell over part of the country in the last days of May,
+wetting the ground perhaps an inch deep, and then hot winds began with
+the first day of June. For thirty days following, not a drop of rain
+fell on the earth. The heat became so intense that breathing was made
+difficult, and when the fourth of July arrived, not a kernel of corn
+that had been planted that spring, had sprouted. The small grain crops
+had been burned to a crisp, and disaster hung over the land. Everywhere
+there was a panic. From the West, people who had gone there three and
+four years before were returning panic stricken; the stock they were
+driving--when they drove--were hollow and gaunt and thin. Going hither
+the years before they had presented the type of aggressive pioneers. But
+now they were returning a tired, gaunt, defeated army. All hopes, all
+courage, all manhood gone, they presented a discouraging aspect.
+
+From Canada on the north, to Texas on the south, the hot winds had laid
+the land seemingly bare. Everywhere cattle were being sold for a trifle,
+as there was no grass upon which they could feed.
+
+To the north and the south, the east and the west in the country of our
+story, ruin was in the wake. Foreclosures became the order, and suits
+were minute affairs. From early morn to early morn again, the hot winds
+continued, and the air was surcharged with the smell of burning plants.
+
+And with the hero of our story, he saw his hopes sink with the disaster
+that was around him; he saw his holdings gradually slipping from him,
+and after some time became resigned to the inevitable.
+
+So it came to pass that another change came into his life, hence another
+epoch in the unusual life was his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE FORECLOSURE
+
+
+Early in July when the drought had burned the crops to a crisp, and
+plant life was beyond redemption, the Banks, Trust and Insurance
+Companies holding notes secured by mortgages against the land and stock
+of Jean Baptiste began proceedings for a foreclosure. He read with the
+cold perspiration upon his forehead the notices that appeared in the
+papers. Attachments were filed against all he personally possessed in
+Gregory County, as well as in Tripp County. The fact that he had not had
+his sister's homestead transferred to him, and that she had just made
+proof that summer, was a relief to him now, and with a sigh he laid down
+the newspapers containing the notices.
+
+It was no surprise since he had been threatened with such for many
+months, he regarded it therefore as unavoidable. But when the grim
+reality of the situation dawned upon him, it weakened him. Never had he
+dreamed that it would come to this. He took mental inventory of his
+possessions and what he could lay claim to, and he happened to think
+about his wife's homestead. On this he had made his home since her
+departure, and no trouble had been given him. While the local land
+office had rendered a decision in her favor; the contestee had taken an
+appeal to the general land office and the commissioner and upon being
+represented by an attorney, the local land office's decision had been
+reversed. It had been up to him then to go further, which he had done,
+by appealing the case to the highest office in the land department, the
+Secretary of the Interior, and here it rested. To do this, he had agreed
+to pay the attorney $300 to win, and one hundred dollars in the event he
+should not, the latter amount he had paid, and so the case stood. He had
+formulated no plans regarding it beyond this as to how he would continue
+to hold it, since now it was a settled fact in his mind that he and the
+woman he had married were parted forever.
+
+But poverty accompanied by crop failures for three years was a general
+and accepted thing now. And the fact that he was being foreclosed,
+occasioned no comment, and at least he could continue on without
+intensely feeling the attendant disgrace.
+
+It was at this juncture in life that a new thought came to Jean
+Baptiste. In all his life he had been a thinker, a practical thinker--a
+prolific thinker. Moreover, a great reader into the bargain. So the
+thought that struck him now, was writing. Perhaps he could write. If so
+then what would he write? So in the days that followed, gradually a plot
+formed in his mind, and when he had decided, he chose that he could
+write his own story--his life of hell, the work of an evil power!
+
+Of writing he knew little and the art of composition appeared very
+difficult. But of thought, this he had a plenty. Well, after all that
+was the most essential. If one has thoughts to express, it is possible
+to learn very soon some method of construction. So after some weeks of
+speculation, he bought himself a tablet, some pencils and took up the
+art of writing.
+
+He found no difficulty in saying something. The first day he wrote ten
+thousand words. The next day he reversed the tablet and wrote ten
+thousand more. In the next two days he re-wrote the twenty thousand,
+and on the fifth day he tore it into shreds and threw it to the winds.
+
+He had raised a little wheat and when the foreclosures had been
+completed and the wheat had been threshed he sowed a large portion of
+the seed back into the ground on three hundred acres of ground upon
+which the crop that year had failed. According to the law of the state,
+when a foreclosure is completed, the party of the first part may redeem
+the land within one year from the date of the foreclosure. Or, better
+still, he may pay the interest, and taxes at the end of one year from
+the date of the foreclosure, and have still another year in which to
+redeem the land. So it is to be seen that if Jean Baptiste could pay his
+interest and taxes one year from this time, he would have two years in
+all to redeem his lost fortunes. Hence, in seeding a large acreage of
+wheat, he hoped for the best. The years, however, had been too adverse
+to now expect any returns when a crop was sown and it had been merely
+good fortune that he happened to secure the means with which to sow
+another, for credit there was for few any more.
+
+When this was done, there was nothing to do but listen to the wind that
+blew dry still, although the protracted drought had been broken by light
+autumn rains. So took he up his pencil and fell to the task of writing
+again. Through the beautiful, windy autumn days, he labored at his
+difficult task, the task of telling a story. The greatest difficulty he
+encountered was that he thought faster than he could write. Therefore he
+often broke off right in the middle of a sentence to relate an incident
+that would occur to him to tell of something else. But at last he had
+written something that could be termed a story. He took what appeared to
+him to be quite sufficient for a book to a friend who had voiced an
+interest in his undertaking. In fact, although he had said nothing
+about it, the news had spread that he was writing a story of the country
+and everybody became curious.
+
+Of course they were not aware of his limited knowledge of the art of
+composition. To them, a patriotic, boosting people--despite the ravages
+of drought which had swept the country, this was a new kind of boost,--a
+subtle method of advertising the country. So everybody began looking for
+the appearance of his story in all the leading magazines. The fact
+helped the newsdealers considerably. But to return to Jean Baptiste and
+the story he was writing.
+
+The friend was baffled when he saw so many tablets and such writing. He
+pretended to be too busy, at the time to consider it, and sent him to
+another. But it was a long time before he found any one who was willing
+to attempt to rearrange his scribbled thoughts. But a lawyer who needed
+the wherewithal finally condescended to risk the task, and into it he
+plunged. He staggered along with much difficulty and managed to complete
+half of it by Christmas. The remainder was corrected by a woman who
+proved even more efficient than the lawyer, notwithstanding the fact
+that she was not as well trained. Besides, Jean Baptiste was of quick
+wit, and he soon saw where he was most largely in error, so he was very
+helpful in reconstructing the plot, and early in the next year, he had
+some sort of story to send the rounds of the publishers.
+
+And here was the next great problem. He had, while writing, and before,
+read of the difficulties in getting a manuscript accepted for
+publication. But, like most writers in putting forth their first
+literary efforts, he was of the opinion that what he had written was so
+different from the usual line of literature offered the publishers, that
+it must therefore receive preference over all.
+
+So with its completion, he wrapped it carefully, and sent it to a
+Chicago publisher, while he sighed with relief.
+
+It seemed a long time before he heard from it, but in a few days he
+received a letter, stating that his manuscript had been received, and
+would be carefully examined, and also thanking him for sending it to
+them.
+
+Well, that sounded very encouraging, he thought, so he took hope anew
+that it would be accepted.
+
+In the meantime he was questioned daily as to when and where it would
+appear. He was mentioned in the local newspapers, and much speculation
+was the issue. Many inquired if he had featured them in the story, and
+were cheered if he said that he had, while others showed their
+disappointment when advised that they had not been mentioned. But with
+one and all, there was shown him deep appreciation of his literary
+effort.
+
+So anxious did he become to receive their "decision" that as the days
+passed and he waited patiently, he finally went to town to board until
+he could receive a reply. And as time passed, he became more and more
+nervous. At last his anxiety reached a point where he was positive that
+if he received an adverse decision, it would surely kill him. Therefore
+he would entertain no possibility of a rejection. It _must_ be accepted,
+and that was final. Added to this, he took note of all the publicity he
+had been accorded with regard to the same. How would he be able to face
+these friends if they failed to accept the book? Tell them that it had
+been rejected as unavailable? This fact worried him considerably, and
+made him persist in his own mind that the company would accept it.
+
+Some of his less practical creditors extended his obligation
+anticipating that his work would net him the necessary funds for
+settlement--the question of acceptance they did not know enough about
+to consider. So it went, the time passed, and he could scarcely wait
+until the stage reached the little town where he now received his mail.
+He was never later than the second at the postoffice window. He had read
+in Jack London's _Martin Eden_ that an acceptance meant a long thin
+envelope. Well, that was the kind he watched for--but of course, he
+estimated, it was possible for it to come in another form of envelope,
+so he wouldn't take that too seriously. Still, if such an envelope
+should be handed him, he would breathe easier until it was opened.
+
+And then one day the letter came. The Postmaster, who knew everybody's
+business, regarded the publishers' name in the upper left hand corner,
+and said:
+
+"There she is! Now read it aloud!"
+
+Baptiste muttered something about that not being the one, and got out of
+the office. His heart was pounding like a trip hammer; for, while he had
+concluded that a long thin envelope would not necessarily mean an
+acceptance, his was a short one, and he was greatly excited.
+
+He went blindly down the street, turned at the corner and sought a quiet
+place, a livery barn. Herein he found an empty stall that was dark
+enough not to be seen, and still afforded sufficient light to read in.
+He nervously held the letter for some minutes afraid to open and read
+the contents, and tried to stop the violent beating of his heart. At
+last, with forced courage, he broke the seal, drew the letter forth and
+read:
+
+     "_Mr. Jean Baptiste_,
+
+     "DEAR SIR:
+
+     "As per our statement of some time ago, regarding the manuscript
+     you were so kind as to send us, beg to advise that the same has
+     been carefully examined, and we regret to state has been found
+     unavailable for our needs. We are therefore returning the same to
+     you today by express.
+
+     "Regretting that we cannot write you more favorably, but thanking
+     you for bringing this to our attention, believe us to be,
+
+     "Cordially and sincerely yours,
+
+     "A.C. MCGRAW & CO."
+
+He gazed before him at nothing for some minutes. He was trying to
+believe he had read awrong. So he read it again. No, it read just the
+same as it had before. It was done; his last opportunity for redemption
+seemed to be gone. He turned and staggered from the barn and went
+blindly up the street. At the corner he met the deputy sheriff, who
+approached him jovially, and then gave him another shock when he said:
+
+"I've got a writ here, Baptiste, and will be glad to have you tell me
+where this stuff of yours is so I can go and get it."
+
+He raised his hand to his forehead then, and began thinking. He _had_ to
+do something, for although all his land had been foreclosed on, he had
+two years to redeem the same. But this writ--well, the man was there to
+take the stock, then!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+IRENE GREY
+
+
+Men of the type of Jean Baptiste don't waver and despair regardless as
+to how discouraged they may at times, under adverse circumstances,
+become. When he was confronted with the law with the papers to take from
+him the stock with which to seed his crop, his mental faculties became
+busy, and in the course of two hours he had been granted an extension on
+the note and the deputy sheriff had returned to Winner as he had come,
+empty handed.
+
+But _what was he to do_! He had no money and no credit. He had the land
+in Tripp County that was broken into winter wheat, while that in the
+next county east was rented. He could, of course, rent some more land
+and put it to crop; but he was for the present through with any more
+large crops until the seasons became more normal. So he was at a loss
+how to engage himself for the months that were coming. He still lived on
+his wife's homestead, and had no plans and nowhere else to live. In
+these days he found reading a great diversion. He simply devoured books,
+studying every detail of construction, and learning a great deal as to
+style and effect.
+
+Then he tried writing short stories, but like the book manuscript, they
+always came back. He concluded after a time that it was a waste of
+postage to send them around; that in truth they were not read--and
+again, that there was no fortune in writers' royalties always, anyhow.
+
+He was possessed with a business turn of mind, and one day he met a man
+who told him that it was possible for him to have his book printed and
+be his own publisher. That sounded very good--anything sounded good in
+these dark days in the life of Jean Baptiste. This was a splendid idea.
+But it was some time before he was able to find the proper persons with
+whom to take this up. But, he finally secured the address of a company
+who would manufacture a book to exceed 300 pages for fifty cents per
+book. Although this was the most encouraging thing he had encountered in
+his literary effort, the price seemed very high in view of what he had
+been told. He had planned that it could be made for much less. However
+he decided to consider it.
+
+Now Jean Baptiste had less means at hand than he had ever had in his
+life. Not a dollar did he possess--not even did he have a suit of
+clothes any more, and wore every day his corduroys. He owed the
+promoters of the old townsite of Dallas more than he was likely to pay
+very soon, but they still were his friends. But to get to Dallas, fifty
+miles away, was still another problem. He went to a bank in the little
+town where he had other friends from whom he had never asked credit.
+They loaned him what he asked for, $5.00. With this he went to Dallas.
+The senior member of the firm was in town--that is, senior in age but
+not in position. Jean Baptiste possessed great personality, and to be
+near one was to effect that one with it.
+
+"I believe you could do alright with that book, Baptiste," this one said
+when Baptiste had told him regarding the company who would put it out
+for him.
+
+"Yes, I am confident I can, too, Graydon," replied Baptiste. "But I am
+clean, dead broke. I can't go down there."
+
+The other was silent for a moment as he stood wrapped in thought.
+Presently he said:
+
+"How much do you have to have to go down there?"
+
+"Oh, thirty-five or forty dollars."
+
+"I'll let you have fifty."
+
+"I'm ready at any minute," so saying, he went to a store across the
+street where he had friends, and there was dressed from head to foot,
+charging the clothes to his account. Two days later he walked into the
+office of the printing firm with which he had been in correspondence.
+They were rather surprised when they saw that he was an Ethiopian, but
+he soon put them at ease.
+
+After several days' of negotiating they finally reached an agreement
+whereby they would manufacture one thousand copies at seventy-five cents
+per copy. He was to pay one third of the amount before the book went to
+press, the balance he was to pay within a reasonable time. An outrageous
+price, he knew--at least felt. But he was to have all subsequent
+editions for one half the amount of the original edition, which was some
+consolation to look forward to.
+
+Another fence: who would furnish that two hundred and fifty dollars and
+secure him for the remainder? Besides, what would he do with the books
+when he had them? Publishing meant distribution. But what did he know of
+such? He thought these things over carefully and finally decided that he
+would sell them himself. He communicated this fact to the firm. It was
+rather unusual for an author, perhaps, to sell his own works. Jean
+Baptiste had never sold anything by solicitation since he had grown up,
+but when he was young he had been a great peddler of garden vegetables.
+He would sell his book, and he seemed to convince them that he could.
+
+They prepared some prospectuses for him, and back home he returned. He
+told, in answer to the volumes of inquiries that everything was all
+right, and that the book would appear soon. He said nothing, however, to
+the friends he had in view to put up the money and that necessary
+security. He believed in proving a thing, and all else would necessarily
+follow. He would go out and secure orders there at home among his
+friends and acquaintances. But the day he planned to start was very
+cold--the mercury stood twenty-seven below zero.
+
+Starting in Dallas he received orders for one hundred forty-two copies
+the first day. Very good for a starter. He went to Winner the next day.
+Despite the fact that the drought had done no good to the people of that
+community and town, they all were acquainted with and admired Jean
+Baptiste. Besides, they would not see Dallas beat them. And one hundred
+fifty-three copies were ordered by them.
+
+Jean Baptiste could prove anything in a fair fight if given a chance. He
+secured orders for fifteen hundred copies of his book in two weeks. The
+promoters went his security and put up the cash into the bargain, and he
+went back to the publishing house victorious.
+
+The printers had evidenced their confidence in him, for they had been so
+impressed with his personality that they had begun work upon the copy
+when he returned. In thirty days it was ready, and in sixty days from
+the time he was penniless, he had deposited twenty-five hundred dollars
+to the credit of the book in the banks.
+
+As he was winding up his business preparatory to interviewing his
+printers, establishing an office and going into the book business for a
+livelihood, he was the recipient of a telegram from Washington advising
+that the Honorable Secretary of the Interior had reversed the
+commissioner's decision, which had been adverse to his wife, with regard
+to the claim. He had won, but as to how he would ever prove up he
+didn't know, nor did he let it worry him. He was too flushed with
+success in his new field. He could still hold the claim, but it would be
+his wife who must offer proof on the same, and his wife he had not heard
+from for over a year.
+
+He did not find his new field of endeavor so profitable when he began to
+work among strangers. Indeed, while he did business the money didn't
+seem to come in as it should. He conceived an idea of securing agents
+among the colored people, and in that way effect a good sale. To begin
+with, this was difficult, for the reason the black man's environment has
+not been conducive to the art of selling anything except those things
+that require little or no wide knowledge. They deal largely in hair
+goods to make their curls grow or hang straighter,--or in complexion
+creams to clarify and whiten the skin. Yet he succeeded in getting many
+to take the agency and these received orders and sent for the books. He
+had learned that it was a custom with subscription book companies to
+allow agents to have the books and give them thirty days in which to
+remit the money. This proved agreeable to his agents. However, the
+greater number of them took not only thirty days--but life, and did not
+send in the money when they died.
+
+He was confronted then with the task of learning how he could get the
+books to them and be assured of his money. To learn this, he went on the
+road himself appointing agents and selling to bookstores. And it was
+upon this journey that he met one who had played a little part in his
+life some years before, at a time when conditions had been entirely
+different with him.
+
+In Kansas City she occurred to him. He recalled that it was only twelve
+miles from the city where her father owned and lived upon one of the
+greatest farms in the country. He thought of the last letter he had
+received from her, the letter that had come too late. And then he
+thought of what had passed since. Girls in her circumstances would not
+be likely to waste their sympathies with grasswidowers; but he wished
+that he might see her and look just once into the eyes that might have
+been his. But his courage failed him. He still had spirit and pride, so
+he gave it up for the time.
+
+Late in the afternoon of that day, he was engaged with some
+acquaintances in the bar-room of a club. They became quite jolly as
+cocktails and red liquor flowed and tingled their veins. He thought
+again of Irene Grey, and the memory was exhilarating. And the cocktails
+gave him the necessary courage. He was bold at last and to the telephone
+he went and called her over long distance.
+
+"Is this the Greys home?" he called.
+
+"Yes," came back the answer, and he was thrilled at the mellowness of
+the voice at the other end.
+
+"Is Miss Irene at home?" he called now.
+
+"Yes," it said. "This is she."
+
+He was sobered. All the effect of the cocktails went out of him on the
+instant. He choked blindly, groped for words, and finally said:
+
+"Why--er--ah--this is a friend of yours. An old friend. Mayhap you have
+forgotten me."
+
+"I don't know," she called back. "Who are you?"
+
+He still didn't have the courage to tell her, but sought to make himself
+known by explaining. He then mentioned the state from whence he came,
+but no further did he get. It so happened that she had heard all about
+his troubles following his marriage, and, womanlike, feeling that she
+had been in a way displaced by the other, she had always been anxious to
+meet and know him.
+
+"Oh," she cried, and the echo of her voice rang in his ears over the
+wire for some moments. "Is this you?" she cried now, her voice
+evidencing the excitement she was laboring under.
+
+"Yes," he admitted somewhat awkwardly, not knowing whether the fact had
+thrilled and joyed her, or, whether he was in for a rebuke for calling
+her up. But he was speedily reassured.
+
+"Then why don't you come on out here?" she cried.
+
+"I--I didn't know whether I would be welcome," he replied, happy in a
+new way.
+
+"Oh, pshaw! Why _wouldn't_ you be welcome? But now," her tone changed.
+"Where are you?"
+
+"In Kansas City."
+
+"Let me see," she said, and he knew she was thinking. "It is now four
+thirty, and a train leaves there that passes through here in forty
+minutes. It doesn't stop here; but you catch it and go to the station
+above here, do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, yes," he replied eagerly.
+
+"Well, now, listen! The station I refer to is only four miles above
+this, and when you get off there, catch another train that comes in a
+few minutes back this way, see?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Well, that train stops at this station, and there I will meet you."
+
+"Oh, fine," he cried. "I'll be there."
+
+"Now you will be sure to catch it," she cautioned.
+
+"Most assuredly!"
+
+"I will depend on it."
+
+"Count me there!"
+
+"I want to talk to you, I'm going to talk all night."
+
+"Good-by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
+
+
+Jean Baptiste was so elated over being invited to call early to see Miss
+Irene Grey, that he went back to the bar where his acquaintances
+lingered, ordered drinks for all, and imbibed so freely that when he
+reached the depot, he found the train had left him. His disappointment
+was keen, and he was provoked with himself. However, since it was so, he
+went to a booth, called her up, and advised her of the fact.
+
+"Now wasn't that careless of you," she complained. "I am sure you are
+_very_ careless."
+
+"I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the _world_," he told her.
+"Indeed, I was so delighted over the prospects of seeing you, after
+these many years, and I indulged so freely that I lost the sense of
+time."
+
+"How is that--did you say that you _drank_?"
+
+"Well, yes, I do," he admitted frankly; "but not in a dangerous sense. I
+do not recall having been drunk but once in my life, and trust that I
+will never have occasion to recall a second occurrence."
+
+"Oh," she echoed. "I am relieved. I don't trust a drinker, and the fact
+that you were left made me suspect you."
+
+"At least I can reassure you on that score. I am proud to say that I
+have the strength of my convictions."
+
+"I am pleased to hear that. A man has a poor chance to succeed in the
+world otherwise."
+
+"I agree with you."
+
+"Well, now, let me see when you can get out here," she said
+meditatively. After a time he heard her voice again. He had never seen
+her, not even a photograph of her. He could only estimate her appearance
+from recalling her brother, and from what he had been told. But however
+she may appear, her voice, to say the least, was the most beautiful he
+thought that he had ever heard. He listened to every word she said, and
+thought the tone like sweet music.
+
+"You will have to stay in K.C. all night now," she said regretfully.
+"And I must repeat that I am so disappointed. It had been my dream that
+I would talk with you all the night through," whereupon she laughed and
+this was even more beautiful than her voice when speaking. "But, now,"
+she began again, admonishingly, "you will arise at eight--no, seven, do
+you understand, and catch a train that leaves the city at eight. I will
+be at the station to meet you again."
+
+"I cross my heart that I will catch it."
+
+"And if you do not--so help you God!"
+
+"I hope to die if I miss it."
+
+"Well, if you do, don't die--but catch the train, that's all. Now
+good-by, and you are forgiven this once."
+
+"Good-by."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whatever happened it is irrelevant to relate, but Jean Baptiste missed
+the morning train, and so disgusted was he with himself that he boarded
+a train for Topeka where he went and appointed some agents, intending to
+get the train back that afternoon. But his "Jonah" still clung to him,
+and when he had it estimated that the train went at five-thirty, it had
+gone at four fifty-two and he was left again.
+
+"I'll catch the morning train if I must sit here all the night through,"
+he swore, so put out with himself that he could say no more.
+
+He ascertained the exact minute the morning train left, and this train
+found him on time. It was Sunday in early June, and the day was
+beautiful. The air was rich, and the growing crops gave forth a sweet
+aroma. He reached the little town near where she lived, and even from
+the depot the splendid home in which they lived could be seen reposing
+vaingloriously upon a hillside. In the community her father was the
+wealthiest man, having made his fortune in the growing of potatoes and
+fruit.
+
+She was not at the depot to meet him, and he had not expected her. It
+was perhaps two miles to the big residence on the hill, and to this he
+set out to walk. When he arrived, the house seemed to be deserted, and,
+as it was Sunday, he surmised that the family were at services. He went
+up to the front door and knocked loudly. He was conscious at once of
+whisperings from the inside. Presently the door was opened slowly an
+inch, and he saw an eye peeping out at him.
+
+"Who are you?" a voice whispered.
+
+He told the eye.
+
+"Oh, yes," cried the voice and it happened to be a boy, and the cause of
+the whispering and quietness from the inside was due to certain pranks
+going on inside. "And you're that fellow from up in the Northwest," said
+the youngster, opening the door wide and stepping away to look at him
+curiously.
+
+"Yes, I guess that's whom you refer to."
+
+"We are certainly glad to see you around here," said the other. "Irene's
+been down to the train to meet you three times and she's sure fighting
+mad by this time."
+
+"Oh, say, I really don't blame her a bit--to be put to so much trouble
+and be disappointed in the end. But, on the square, I had not
+anticipated being so highly honored."
+
+"Aw, we've been anxious to know you for years. We boys had sort of
+planned when you was writing to Irene two or three years ago to come up
+there and get in on some of that land."
+
+"That would have been a capital move."
+
+"Yes, but you quit writing and got married, so we heard, and had bad
+luck in the end," whereupon he laughed. Baptiste looked embarrassed.
+
+"Where is the family and how many are there of you?"
+
+"Aw, say! We are so many around here that you'll have to get paper and
+pencil and mark us down to keep track of how many. My father is in
+Colorado on business, while Irene, mama and another sister are at the
+next town up the line attending a funeral."
+
+"And the boys--"
+
+"Just gettin' ready to go swimmin'. Wanta go long?"
+
+"Say, there hasn't enough water fallen where I've lived for the last
+three years at the right time to fill a pond deep enough to go swimming
+in, so I'll just take you up," he cried, full of the idea.
+
+It was in the early afternoon when they got back, to find that the folks
+had returned from the funeral. Following the boys, Baptiste entered by
+the kitchen door to encounter the mother and three daughters preparing
+the meal. Hereupon he was caused much embarrassment and discomfiture,
+for of the three girls, he knew not which one was Irene. Quickly seeing
+his confusion, they laughed long and heartily among themselves. Finally,
+his predicament became so awkward that an expression of distress crept
+into his face. At this point the most attractive one of the three girls
+walked forward, extended her hand, and he saw by the expression she now
+wore, that she was sorry for him, as she said:
+
+"I'm Irene, and you are Mr. Jean Baptiste." She paused then, and looked
+away to hide the color that had rushed to her face, while he clutched
+the outstretched hand just a bit dubiously. She looked up then again,
+and seeing that he was still confused and perhaps in doubt, she
+reassured him:
+
+"The joke is over now, thanks. I'm the one you called up and once wrote
+to. I'm Irene," and with this she led him to the front and showed him
+her picture, whereupon he was at last satisfied.
+
+"And you came at last," she said later, when the two were seated in the
+parlor.
+
+"At last," he laughed and observed her keenly. She noted it, and
+conjectured that it was from a curiosity that was some years old. It was
+true, and he was seeing her and perhaps thinking of what might have
+been.
+
+She was beautiful, he could see. A mixed type of the present day Negro,
+she was slightly tall, and somewhat slender, with a figure straight and
+graceful. Her hair was of the silken wavy sort not uncommon among the
+Negro of this type. Such hair seems to have had its beginning with the
+cross between the Negro and the Indian--a result that has always been
+striking when it comes to the hair. Her face, like her figure was
+straight and slender; while her eyes were black, quick and small. Her
+nose was high bridged, and straight to a point while the mouth below was
+small and tempting. But what he observed most of all now, and admired
+forthwith was the chin. A wonderful chin, long and straight. A strong,
+firm chin, and as he regarded it he could seem to read the owner.
+Whatever she was or may be, he was confident then that she was possessed
+of a strong will and in that moment Orlean recurred to him. Orlean was
+regarded as a fairly attractive woman; but her chin, unlike that of the
+one before him, was inclined to retreat. And, of course, he knew only
+too well, that her will had been the weakest.
+
+"You are very successful in missing trains," she ventured.
+
+He laughed, and she joined him. He looked up then and caught her
+regarding him keenly out of her half closed eyes, and as she did so, she
+reminded him of an Indian princess such as he had seen in pictures and
+read about. There was more about her than he had at first observed, and
+which was made plain in the look she gave him. For in it there was
+passion--love to her meant much!
+
+"Oh, I was so disappointed," she said.
+
+"It was not you?"
+
+"But how could you have missed the train so often?"
+
+"I cannot account for it. I am not in the habit of doing so. Indeed, I
+think it was because I was overly anxious."
+
+She laughed then, to herself, elfin like.
+
+"I have been curious to see you for a long time."
+
+He was silent, and his eyes did not return the look she had given him.
+
+"Ever since I received _that_ letter...."
+
+And still he did not reply. The subject was too suggestive, not to say
+embarrassing; but she was bold. He couldn't know now whether she was
+serious or merely joking; but notwithstanding it sounded pleasant to his
+ears. He could hear her voice for a long time, he was sure, and not grow
+weary.... We should pause at this point to make known--perhaps explain,
+that the persons of our story are the unconventional. And with the
+unconventional what was in their minds was most likely to be discussed.
+The woman, therefore, was the most curious. She was a woman, and in
+truth she would have married the man beside her had he have come hither
+when he had gone to Chicago.
+
+"What did you do with your little wife?"
+
+He raised his eyes then, not to look at her, but because of something he
+did not himself understand. Perhaps it just happened so? She regarded
+him again; looked him full in the eyes, and his eyes spoke more than
+words. Strangely she understood all, almost in a flash, and was sorry.
+She regretted that she had spoken so directly. She admired him now. When
+he had looked up, and like that, she had seemed to see and understand at
+last the man he was.
+
+"Pardon me, please," she said, and rising quickly, took a chair nearer
+his. She reached and touched him on the arm. "I didn't--I--well, I
+didn't intend to be bold." She paused in confusion, and then went on:
+
+"I hope you will pardon me. I am sure I didn't intend to embarrass you."
+
+"It is all right," he said. "And since you have asked me, may I
+explain?"
+
+It was she who was now embarrassed. She looked away in great confusion.
+She was bolder than the conventional girl as a rule; but the subject was
+delicate. Yet she wanted to hear the story that she knew he would never
+tell. If he did, he was not the type of man she had estimated.
+
+"Of course you would think me a cad, a--well, I have my opinion of a man
+that would tell _his_ side of such a story to a _woman_."
+
+She looked at him then without any embarrassment in her eyes. She was
+able to read the man and all that was him clearly. She smiled a smile
+after this that was one of satisfaction, and at that moment her sisters
+called that the meal was ready.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"TELL ME WHY YOU DIDN'T ANSWER THE LAST LETTER I WROTE YOU"
+
+
+"Now I wish you would tell me all about yourself, that is, all you
+_care_ to tell," said Irene Grey to the man who sat beside her on the
+veranda of their beautiful home, some time after luncheon had been
+served. "I have always been peculiarly interested in you and your life
+alone off there in the Northwest," whereupon she made herself
+comfortable and prepared to listen.
+
+"Oh," he said hesitatingly, thinking of the series of dry years and
+their attendant disaster, and hoping that he could find some way of
+avoiding a conversation in which that was involved. "I really don't
+consider there is much to relate. My life has been rather--well, in a
+measure uneventful."
+
+"Oh, but it hasn't, I know," she protested. "All alone you were for so
+many years, and you have been, so I have been told, an untiring worker."
+She was anxious, he could see, but withal sincere, and in the course of
+the afternoon, she told him of how her father had came to Kansas a poor
+man, bought the land now a part of what they owned on payments, found
+that raising potatoes was profitable--especially when they were ready
+for the early market, and later after his marriage to her mother, and
+with her mother's assistance, had succeeded. From where they sat, their
+property stretched before them in the valley of the Kaw, and comprised
+several hundred acres of the richest soil in the state. Indeed, his
+success was widely known, and Jean Baptiste had been rather curious to
+know the family intimately.
+
+After some time he walked with her through three hundred acres of
+potatoes that lay in the valley before the house, and he had for the
+first time in his life, the opportunity to study potato raising on a
+large scale.
+
+"From your conversation it seems that you raise potatoes on the same
+ground every year. I am curious to know how this is done, for even on
+the blackest soil in the country I live, this is regarded as quite
+impossible with any success."
+
+"Well, it is generally so; but we have found that to plow the land after
+the potatoes have been dug, and then seed the same in turnips is
+practical. When the turnips, with their wealth of green leaves are at
+their best, then, we plow them under and the freezing does the rest."
+
+"A wonderful mulch!"
+
+"It is very simple when one looks into it." They were walking through
+the fields, and without her knowing it, he studied her. The kind of girl
+and the kind of family his race needed, he could see. In his observation
+of the clan to which he had been born, practicability was the greatest
+need. Indeed he was sometimes surprised that his race could be so
+impracticable. Further west in this State, his uncles, who, like all
+Negroes previous to the emancipation, had been born slaves, had gone
+West in the latter seventies and early eighties, and settled on land.
+With time this land had mounted to great values and the holders had been
+made well-to-do thereby. A case of evolution, on all sides. Over all the
+Central West, this had been so. At the price land now brought it would
+have been impossible for any to own land. There happened, then as had
+recently, a series of dry years--seemingly about every twenty years. To
+pull through such a siege, the old settlers usually did much better
+than the new. To begin with, they were financially better able; but on
+the other hand, they did not, as a rule, take the chances new settlers
+were inclined to take. Because two or three years were seasonable, and
+crops were good, they did not become overly enthusiastic and plunge
+deeply into debt as he had done. He could see his error now, and the
+chances new settlers were inclined to take. Because moreover, he had
+been so much alone--his wedded life had been so brief, and even during
+it, he was confused so much with disadvantages, that he had never
+attempted to subsidize his farming with stock raising. Perhaps this had
+been his most serious mistake; to have had a hundred head of cattle
+during such a period as had just passed, would have been to have gone
+through it without disaster.
+
+He felt rather guilty as he strolled beside this girl whose father had
+succeeded. But one thing he would not do, and that was make excuses. He
+had ever been opposed to excusing away his failures. If he had failed,
+he had failed, no excuses should be resorted to. But as they strolled
+through the fields of potatoes he could not help observe the contrast
+between the woman he had married, and the one now beside him that he
+might have had for wife. Here was one, and he did not know her so well
+as to conclude what kind of girl in all things she was, but it was a
+self evident fact that she was practical. Whereas, he had only to recall
+that not only had his wife been impractical, but that her father before
+her had been so. He recalled that awful night before he had taken her
+away, at Colome, when that worthy when he chanced to use the word
+practical, had exclaimed: "I'm so tired of hearing that word I do not
+know what to do!" and it was seconded by his cohort in evil, Ethel.
+
+His race was filled with such as N.J. McCarthy, he knew; but not only
+were they hypocrites, and in a measure enemies to success but enemies to
+society as well. How many were there in his race who purported to be
+sacrificing their very soul for the cause of Ethiopia but when so little
+as medical aid was required in their families, called in a white
+physician to administer the same. This had been the case of his august
+father-in-law all his evil life.
+
+"Would you like to walk down by the river?" she said now, and looked up
+into his face. She had been silent while he was so deeply engrossed in
+thought, and upon hearing her voice he started abruptly.
+
+"What--why--what's the matter?" she inquired anxiously.
+
+"Nothing," he said quickly, coloring guiltily. "I was just thinking."
+
+"Of what?" she asked artfully.
+
+"Of you," he said evasively.
+
+"No, you weren't," she said easily. "On the contrary, I venture to
+suggest that you were thinking of yourself, your life and what it has
+been."
+
+"You are psychological."
+
+"But I have guessed correctly, haven't I?"
+
+"I'm compelled to agree that you have."
+
+They had reached the river now, and took a seat where they could look
+out over its swiftly moving waters.
+
+"Frankly I wish you would tell me of your life," she said seriously. "My
+brother who, as you know is now dead, told me so much of you. Indeed, he
+was so very much impressed with you and your ways. He used to tell me of
+what an extraordinary character you were, and I was so anxious to meet
+you."
+
+He was silent, but she was an unconventionally bold person. She was
+curious, and the more he was silent on such topics, the more anxious she
+became to know the secret that he held.
+
+"I appreciate your silence," she said, and gave him the spell of her
+wonderful eyes. Stretched there under a walnut she was the picture of
+enchantment. Almost he wanted to forget the years and what had passed
+with them since she wrote him that letter that he had received too late.
+
+"I want to ask you one question--have wanted to ask it for years," she
+pursued. "I want to ask it because, somehow, I am not able to regard you
+as a flirt." She paused then, and regarded him with her quick eyes,
+expectantly. But he made no answer, so she went on. "From what _I_ have
+heard, I think I may be free to discuss this," and she paused again,
+with her eyes asking that she may.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"Well, of course," she resumed, as if glad that she might tell what was
+in her mind. "It is not--should not be the woman to ask it, either; but
+won't you tell me why you didn't answer the last letter I wrote
+you--tell me why you _didn't_ come on the visit you suggested?"
+
+He caught his breath sharply, whereat, she looked up and into his eyes.
+His lips had parted, but merely to exclaim, but upon quick thought he
+had hesitated.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I heard you."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I hardly know how to answer you."
+
+"Please."
+
+"Don't insist on a reply."
+
+"I don't want to, but--"
+
+"I'd rather not tell."
+
+"Well, I don't know as I ought to have asked you. It was perhaps
+unladylike in me so to do; but honestly I _would_ like to know the
+truth."
+
+He permitted his eyes to rest on the other bank, and as a pastime he
+picked up small pebbles and cast them into the river, and watched the
+ripples they made subside. He thought long and deeply. He had almost
+forgotten the circumstances that led up to the unfortunate climax. She,
+by his side, he estimated, was merely curious. Should he confess? Would
+it be worth while? Of course it would not; but at this moment he felt
+her hand on his arm.
+
+"We'll go now."
+
+They arose then, and went between the rows of potatoes back to the
+house. When they arrived there was some excitement, and she was greeted
+anxiously.
+
+"Papa has returned," said one of the boys, coming to meet them.
+
+"Oh, he has," whereupon she caught his hand and led him hurriedly into
+the presence of the man who was widely known as Junius N. Grey, the
+Negro Potato King.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE STORY
+
+
+Junius Grey inquired at length concerning the land whence he had come,
+of the prospects, of the climate, and at last relieved Baptiste by
+inquiring as to whether the drought had swept over that section as well
+as other westerly parts.
+
+"I have had the same result with twenty-two hundred acres I own in the
+western part of the State. But such will come--have come every once in a
+while since I have been here," he assured him. "If you have been caught
+with considerable debt to annoy you, and succeed in pulling through, it
+will be a lesson to you as it has been to others."
+
+"It _has_ been a lesson, I admit," said Baptiste a little awkwardly.
+Irene, who seemed to be her father's favorite, sat near, and regarded
+him kindly while he related how the drought had swept over the land, and
+the disaster that followed. He did not tell them _all_; that he had been
+foreclosed, but that, he felt, was not necessary.
+
+Withal, he had met those in his race whom he had longed to meet. Of
+business they could discourse with intelligence, and that was not
+common. Grey's holdings were much, and Baptiste was cheered to see that
+he was possessed with the sagacity and understanding to manage the same
+with profit to himself. Besides, the family about him, while not as
+conventional as he had found among the more intelligent classes of his
+race, had grown into the business ways and assisted him.
+
+"Would you like to attend services at the church this evening," said
+Irene after a time, and when they were again alone.
+
+"Why, I suppose I might as well."
+
+"Then I'll get ready." She disappeared then, to return shortly, dressed
+in a striking black dress covered with fine lace; while on her head she
+wore a wide, drooping hat that set off her appearance with much artistic
+effect.
+
+"What is your denomination," she asked when they went down the walkway
+to the road. The church was not far distant, and, in fact was at the
+corner of his property, and was largely kept up by her father he had
+been told.
+
+"The _big_ church, I guess," he said amusedly.
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed, feigning surprise.
+
+"And yours?"
+
+"Oh, Baptist, of course," she replied easily.
+
+When she held his arm like she now did, it made him feel peculiar.
+Never, three years before, would he have thought that he would be
+company again for another woman--at least, under such circumstances.
+
+"What do you think of protestantism?"
+
+"Well," he replied thoughtfully, "it has not been until lately that I
+have considered it seriously."
+
+"So?"
+
+"And sometimes I am not inclined to think it has been for the best."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Well, it appears to me that organization is lacking in so many of the
+protestant churches."
+
+"But is that the fault of protestantism?"
+
+"I hardly know how to reply to you. It seems, however, that inasmuch as
+catholicism requires more effort, more concentration of will force on
+the part of their members to come up and live up to their standard of
+religion; and that since it is obviously easier to be some kind of a
+protestant, then protestantism has afforded a less organized
+appreciation of the Christ."
+
+"You make it very plain. And especially is it so in the church to which
+I belong. But I am sure, however, if the standard of requirement was
+raised within the Negro Baptists, it would be better for all."
+
+"You mean--"
+
+"If it was compulsory for the ministers to possess a college education
+and attendance for at least three years at a theological seminary, the
+standard would be raised in the churches conducted by Negroes."
+
+"I agree with you; and do you know, that since I have been in the book
+business only these few short months, it has been my experience that
+ours is a race of notoriously poor readers."
+
+"Isn't it so! Oh, it is dreadful when we come to consider how much needy
+knowledge we lose thereby."
+
+"It is staggering."
+
+"Why is it so?"
+
+"Well, to begin with. There is little encouragement to become a reader
+among Negroes themselves. Take, for instance, the preacher. By all
+circumstances a minister--at least should be a reader. Is it not so?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, are they as a whole?"
+
+"Lord, no!"
+
+"Then, how can you expect their followers to be?"
+
+"We cannot."
+
+"Another disadvantage, is separate schools."
+
+"I don't quite understand?"
+
+"Well, mix the Negro children daily with the whites, and they are sure
+to become enamored of their ways."
+
+"I gather your trend."
+
+"The most helpful thing on earth. Negro children thereby are able, in a
+measure, to eradicate the little evils that come from poor homes; homes
+wherein the parents, ignorant often, are compelled to be away at work."
+
+"Evil environment, bad influence!"
+
+"That is it. There is no encouragement to read, therefore no opportunity
+to develop thought, and the habit of observation."
+
+"How plain you make everything."
+
+"And now we have come unto the church, and must end our conversation."
+
+"I'm sorry."
+
+He was, too, but they filed into the little church.
+
+In and around where they now sat, there was quite a settlement of
+Negroes, mostly small farmers. Perhaps it was due to the inspiration of
+the successful Grey. She had, earlier in the evening, pointed out here
+and there where a Negro family owned five acres; where somewhere else
+they lived on and farmed ten acres and fifteen acres and so on. After
+slavery there had been a tendency on the part of the Negro to continue
+in the industrious ways he had been left in by his former master. The
+cultivation was strong; but strangely there had come a desire to go into
+town to see, and to loaf. Perhaps it was because he had not been given
+such a privilege during the days of bondage. But here in this little
+valley of the Kaw, he was cheered to see his race on a practical and
+sensible basis. Only in the pursuit of agriculture can the black man not
+complain that he is discriminated against on account of his color.
+
+When the service was over, they walked leisurely homeward, and their
+conversation became more intimate. The feeling of a woman by his side
+thrilled Jean Baptiste. In his life on the prairies, this had never
+been afforded, so to him it was something new, and something gloriously
+sweet. Or was it her presence? At least he was moved. He decided that he
+would go his way soon, because it was dangerous for him to linger in her
+radiating presence without regretting what fate had willed.
+
+"Isn't it warm tonight?" she said, when they reached the porch.
+
+"Dreadfully so down here in your valley."
+
+"Perhaps you will not care to retire, and would rather sit out where the
+air is best," she suggested.
+
+"I would be glad to."
+
+"Very well, then," and she found a seat where they were hidden by vines
+and the shade of the big house. "I'll return presently, when I have put
+my hat away."
+
+When she returned, her curiosity to know why he had not visited her was,
+he could see again, her chief anxiety. She tried to have him divulge why
+in subtle ways. Late into the night they lingered on the veranda, and he
+found himself on the verge of confessing all to her.
+
+He succeeded in keeping it from her that night, but she was resourceful.
+Moreover, her curiosity had reached a point bordering on desperation.
+Accordingly, she had the boys to hitch a team to a buggy and took him
+driving over the great estate. For hours during the cool of the morning,
+she drove him through orchards, and over wheat-fields where the wheat
+now reposed in shocks. She chatted freely, discoursed on almost every
+topic, and during it all he saw what a wonderfully courageous woman she
+was.
+
+He loved the study of human nature, and wit. Here, he could see, was a
+rare woman, but withal there was about her something that disturbed him.
+What was it? He kept trying to understand. He never quite succeeded
+until that night.
+
+A heavy rain had fallen in the afternoon, and he lingered in her company
+at her invitation and encouragement. That night the sky was overcast,
+the air was sultry, and the night was very dark. She took him to their
+favorite seat within the vines, and where nothing but the darkness was
+their company. And there she resumed her artful efforts to have him tell
+her all.
+
+Never in his life had Jean Baptiste the opportunity to be perfectly
+free. He had once loved dearly, and he had sought to forget the one he
+had so loved because of the _Custom of the Country_ and its law. Out of
+his life she had apparently gone, and we know the fate of the other.
+There is nothing in the world so sweet as to love a woman. But, on the
+other hand, mayhap all that is considered love is not so; it may be
+merely passion, and it was passion he discovered that was guiding Irene
+Grey. He saw when this occurred to him, that in such a respect she was
+unusual. Well, his life had been an unhappy life; love free and openly
+he had never tasted but once, but a law higher than the law of the land
+had willed against that love, and he had subserved to custom. So he
+decided to tell her all, and leave on the morrow.
+
+"Please, Jean," she begged, calling him by his first name. "Won't you
+tell it to _me_?"
+
+He regarded her in the darkness beside him. She was very close, and he
+could feel the warmth of her body against his. He reached him out then,
+and boldly placed his arm about her. She yielded to the embrace without
+objection. He could feel the soft down of her hair against his face, and
+it served to intoxicate him; aroused the passion and desire in his
+hungry soul.
+
+"_Yes_, Irene," he said then. "I will tell _you_ the story, and tomorrow
+I will go away."
+
+"No," she said, and drew closer to him. On the impulse he embraced her,
+and in the darkness found her lips, and the kiss was like a soul touch.
+He sighed when he turned away, but she caught his face and drew his lips
+where she could hear him closely.
+
+"Tell me," she repeated. "For so long I have wanted to hear."
+
+"Well, it was like this. You know--rather, perhaps you recall the
+circumstances under which we met."
+
+"I remember _everything_, Jean."
+
+"I was in love with no one, I can say, but I _had_ loved outside of our
+race."
+
+"Our race?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You mean," she said, straightening curiously, "that you loved an Indian
+up there? That, I recall is the home of the Sioux?"
+
+"No, I have _never_ loved an Indian."
+
+"Then _what_?"
+
+"A white girl."
+
+"_Oh, Jean_," she said, and drew slightly away. He drew her back to him,
+and she yielded and settled closely in the curve of his arm, and he told
+her the story.
+
+"Honestly, that was too bad. You sacrificed much. And to think that you
+_loved_ a white girl!"
+
+"It was so."
+
+"So it came that you sacrificed the real love to be loyal to the race we
+belong to?"
+
+"I guess you may call it that."
+
+"It was manly, though. I admire your strength."
+
+"It was then I wrote you."
+
+"Yes. And--"
+
+"Others."
+
+"I understand. You loved none of us, perhaps, and it was because you had
+not had the opportunity, maybe?"
+
+"Perhaps it was so."
+
+"And now I will hear how it happened."
+
+"I must first confess something that pains me."
+
+"Oh, that confession! But maybe I am entitled to hear it?"
+
+"Well, yes, I think so. There were three."
+
+"Oh...."
+
+"And you were the first choice."
+
+"_Me?_"
+
+"But I waited for your letter. There was a _time_ limit."
+
+"And I was away."
+
+"Therefore never received it in time."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"At Omaha I hesitated, and then decided that you did not favor it."
+
+"O-oh!"
+
+"So I went to Chicago, to meet the second choice."
+
+"Such an unusual proceeding, but interesting, oh, _so_ much so. Please
+go on."
+
+"_She_ lived in New York."
+
+"In New York?"
+
+"Was a maid on the Twentieth Century Limited."
+
+"O-oh!"
+
+"But sickness overtook her. She didn't get into Chicago when she was
+due."
+
+"Such fate."
+
+"I wonder at it."
+
+"And then you got the _last_ choice."
+
+"That is it."
+
+Not knowing what else to do, she was so carried away with the story, she
+stared before her into the darkness.
+
+"And when _did_ you receive my letter? I understand about the claim
+business."
+
+"When I returned with her to Gregory."
+
+She was silent. He was too. Both were in deep thought and what was in
+the mind of both was:
+
+_What might have been._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HER BIRTHRIGHT "FOR A MESS OF POTTAGE"
+
+
+The people of Winner and vicinity had no opportunity to rush to the
+Farmers' State Bank, of which Eugene Crook, mentioned earlier in our
+story was president, and draw any portion of their money before the bank
+examiner's notice greeted them one morning.
+
+The bank was closed by order of the public examiner, so that was
+settled. The causes became apparent the day before, although those
+directly interested did not understand. It was in the shape of drafts
+they had bought and sent away, which came back to them indirectly,
+marked by the bank upon which they were drawn: "No funds."
+
+Not much excitement followed the closing, although in some manner Crook
+had worked into the confidence of the people since moving the bank to
+Winner, and was leading the four banks in the town in point of deposits.
+Of course it hit many needy ones quite hard, but the people of the
+country had become so accustomed to adversities, that even bank failures
+included did not excite them.
+
+But there happened a few days after the failure an incident that has
+some connection with our story. Crook went upon a journey. He was gone
+several days and when he returned, the unexpected happened. It caused
+about as much excitement as had the failure of the bank because of its
+cunningness.
+
+When Jean Baptiste had ended his visit with Irene Grey, he returned to
+his office at the publishing house to find considerable mail awaiting
+him. One letter was from his attorney in Washington, and since he had
+won the claim for Baptiste's wife in the contest, Baptiste naturally
+took it for granted that it was a request for the balance of his fee. So
+he laid the letter aside until he had attended to all other business,
+and later opened and read it.
+
+     "WASHINGTON, D.C., July, 191--
+
+     "_Mr. Jean Baptiste_,
+
+     "MY DEAR SIR: I am informed through your attorney at Gregory, that
+     your wife has sold her relinquishment on the homestead I was
+     successful in getting the Secretary of the Interior to reverse the
+     land commissioners decision on. I am not informed further; but
+     inasmuch as you are living on the place, my advice is that you stick
+     right there, and hold it. You may write and advance me the details
+     concerning the matter, and I will assist you in a legal way in
+     pressing your right to hold the same.
+
+     "In the meantime, kindly send me a remittance on the fee that is
+     past due at your earliest convenience, and oblige.
+
+     "Very truly,
+
+     "PATRICK H. LOUGHRAN."
+
+He reread the letter to be positive that he had understood it correctly.
+He was thoughtful as he allowed the substance to become clear. His wife
+had sold her relinquishment on the claim that he had spent thirty-five
+hundred dollars cash for. And in so doing she had sacrificed his
+confidence; _had sold her birthright for a mess of pottage_. And she had
+not received, he was sure, perhaps one tenth part of the amount he had
+expended for it. He thought a little longer, and as he did so, a vision
+of his arch enemy rose before him. His mind went back to a day when N.J.
+McCarthy in all his lordliness had with much vituperation, denounced and
+condemned Eugene Crook for having contested his poor daughter's place,
+and all the white race with him.
+
+"And Newton Justine McCarthy," muttered Baptiste, "this is _more_ of
+your work."
+
+He was very calm over it, was Jean Baptiste; but the _turning point_ in
+his life had come. At last his manhood had returned, _and he was ready
+to fight_.
+
+He wrote his attorney at once at Gregory, and the reply that came back
+in due time was:
+
+     "GREGORY, S.D., July -- 191--
+
+     "_Mr. Jean Baptiste_,
+
+     "FRIEND JEAN: Replying to yours regarding the claim, it was Eugene
+     Crook who got it. He went to Chicago and bought it from your wife,
+     through her father. I understand that your wife refused to sell,
+     whereupon, Crook sent for the Reverend who was at Cairo, sending him
+     the railroad fare to Chicago at the same time. I do not, of course,
+     know just what followed, but it is the report here, that the
+     Reverend had his daughter to execute the relinquishment, and Crook
+     returned and filed on the claim.
+
+     "I understand, further, that Crook got the idea from reading your
+     book, wherein you told of the preacher and what he had done,
+     although anonymously. It is also reported that Crook paid the Elder
+     $300 for the claim.
+
+     "Very truly yours,
+
+     "WM. MCCONNELL."
+
+Jean Baptiste laughed when he had completed the letter, picked up one of
+his books and looking through it, found the place. "Well, old boy, I
+guess you lost me more than I'll make out of you; but you've given me
+what I ought to have had three years ago!" He was silent then, but his
+face took on a cold, hard expression, whereupon he laughed again.
+
+"N.J. McCarthy, we vied twenty-five years ago, and we encountered three
+years since. On both occasions you had me at a disadvantage.... We are
+_going_ to _vie_ again, now; _but it will be upon an equal basis_." So
+saying, he looked before him at nothing; his eyes narrowed to mere
+slits.
+
+An hour later his grip was packed. He went that afternoon back to Tripp
+County. His three hundred acres of wheat had failed, so he was
+unencumbered. He returned to Winner, and the next morning he boarded a
+train for Chicago.
+
+And of the battle that he fought with his august contemporary, will be
+the continuance of our story.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ACTION
+
+
+Jean Baptiste went directly to an attorney, a Negro attorney with
+offices in the loop district, upon his arrival in Chicago, and did not
+lurk around the depots to keep from being seen this time. He was well
+acquainted with the one upon whom he called and they greeted each other
+cordially when he walked into the office.
+
+"Well, White," he said. "I think I have a little work for you."
+
+"That's what I'm here to look after," said the other aimiably.
+
+"A suit--want to obtain a judgment?"
+
+"We obtain judgments in this old town every day. The question is--"
+
+"Are they worth anything?" laughed his prospective client.
+
+After indulging in a bit of humor the which he was at times given to,
+his face cleared, his eye-brows contracted and he related the business
+upon which he was bent, and questioned the attorney concerning the law
+covering such cases or instances.
+
+"Yes," said the other, after looking it up in the Illinois Statutes, "it
+can be done."
+
+"Then we will begin at once," said Baptiste decidedly.
+
+"I'll have the papers drawn up, and have the same ready for service
+tomorrow afternoon."
+
+"Very well," said the other, handing him a check for twenty-five
+dollars as a retainer, and straightway left the office.
+
+He caught the State Street car and went to visit his friends on Federal
+Street. They were delighted and surprised to see him looking so well,
+and so carefree.
+
+"Why--what has happened to you," said Mildred's mother, looking him over
+carefully from head to foot.
+
+"You infer that I have forgotten my troubles?"
+
+"Of course," and she laughed.
+
+"You'll know in a few days," he returned. Soon he bade them good-by and
+went over to the Keystone where he encountered Speed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, I have everything ready now," said the attorney when Jean called
+at his office the following afternoon.
+
+"So the next is to get service on my friend," said Baptiste.
+
+"That's it. Where shall we find him?" inquired the lawyer.
+
+"I don't know. I suppose you might call up his wife on Vernon Avenue and
+find out. Of course, she need not know what our business is with her old
+man...."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+In a few minutes he was talking to her over the telephone. "The Elder is
+in the southern part of the State," Baptiste could hear.
+
+"Yes, madam; but what place.... I see.... He will be there over Sunday
+you say?... I understand.... What do I want with him? Why, I have a
+little _personal_ matter with him.... Yes ... that is all."
+
+The attorney turned and advised him where the Elder was, and would be
+there until after Sunday, and as that day was Wednesday, Baptiste
+breathed a sigh of relief.
+
+"That's the town near where I first knew him. I was born within four
+miles of it."
+
+"Indeed! Something of a coincidence."
+
+"Indeed so."
+
+"I'll get these papers off to the sheriff down there on the evening
+train. He'll get them tomorrow morning, and should get service on him
+tomorrow afternoon."
+
+"Then I'll see you about Saturday."
+
+"All right," and Jean was gone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The little town near where Jean Baptiste was born, and where he had met
+the man who was now his acknowledged enemy, had not changed much.
+Perched on the banks of the Ohio, it still lingered in a state of dull
+lethargy; loafers held to the corners, and arguments were the usual
+daily routine. When he had left the town, the Odd Fellows' hall, an old
+frame building, three stories high, had stood conspicuously on a corner,
+and had been the rendezvous for loafers for years untold. This had been
+torn down and replaced since by a more commanding brick structure, at
+the front of which a shed spread over the walk and made welcome shade in
+the afternoon. And under it on benches the usual crowd gathered reposing
+comfortably thereunder from day to day. Under it the preachers sometimes
+paused on their return from the postoffice where they received their
+mail every afternoon. And it was the afternoon train that brought the
+papers for N. Justine McCarthy. The sheriff who happened at the
+postoffice at the same time the Elder did, received them, and upon his
+return to his office in the court house, laid the mail on his desk and
+went at once to serve the papers.
+
+He knew that Odd Fellows' hall was where Negroes might be easily found;
+at least the information as to the whereabouts of any particular one
+might be obtained. So to that spot he went directly.
+
+It so happened that a large crowd of Negroes were gathered there this
+particular afternoon, and that the Reverend had paused there on his way
+from the postoffice to listen to the heated argument that was a daily
+diversion. At that moment the sheriff came up, listened a moment to the
+usual harangue, and then inquired aloud for Rev. N.J. McCarthy. When the
+crowd saw who he was the argument desisted forthwith, the crowd became
+quiet and respectful, moreover expectant.
+
+"You refer to me?" said the Elder, and wondered what the sheriff could
+possibly want with him.
+
+"N.J. McCarthy?" the other repeated.
+
+"That's me," replied the Elder. The crowd looked on with curious
+interest.
+
+"Some papers," and handed him the same, turned on his heel and went his
+way.
+
+The Reverend went down the street later reading the papers. He had never
+had any experience in legal proceedings, and knew little of such, but he
+understood the papers and was thoroughly angry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well," greeted the attorney, "got service right off on your friend."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Yes, got my return, and now we may as well draw up the complaint."
+
+This they did, but in the meantime, while passing downtown, Glavis had
+espied Baptiste. Thinking that he was on another mission of trying to
+persuade his wife to return, and having been loyal to the Reverend in
+his fight on Baptiste, he went at once to advise her of the fact.
+
+Orlean had secured a position in a ladies' tailoring establishment at
+five dollars and fifty cents a week, and there he went. She was out so
+he did not get to tell her that her husband was in town. Since the
+selling of her homestead the entire family had been apprehensive of him.
+They appreciated by now that he was not the kind to give up without a
+fight, therefore they were on the lookout.
+
+In some way the Negro papers got hold of enough of it to give the Elder
+a great deal of free advertising; but since McCarthys did not get the
+papers, they knew nothing of it until the next morning which was Sunday.
+That morning they espied a copy of the paper in their mail box. They
+never knew how it got there, but thinking it was by mistake, Glavis took
+it into the house and spread it out.
+
+Pandemonium reigned when they had read the account, and in the same hour
+they received a special from the Elder announcing that he was leaving
+for Chicago that night. That would place him in the city the following
+morning, and they were anxious all that day.
+
+It was the talk of Dark Chicago that day, and for days and weeks
+following. Moreover, it circulated over all the state where the Elder
+was well known, and gave the gossips great food for delight.
+
+The Elder arrived the next morning, and after being greeted by the
+family, with Glavis, went at once to a white attorney. They laid the
+case before him.
+
+"And so you are sued for ten thousand dollars," said the attorney, "and
+by your son-in-law?"
+
+"It seems that way," replied the Elder. "And to me it looks like a
+joke."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Did you ever know a Negro preacher that was worth such an amount?"
+
+The attorney shared the obvious joke with his prospective client and
+Glavis, and then took on a rather serious expression.
+
+"And you are not worth ten thousand?"
+
+"Lord, no!"
+
+The other bit the cigar he held between his teeth, got up and brought a
+statute from among his many volumes, glanced through it, and stopped at
+a page and read it.
+
+He returned the book to its place and came back and sat down.
+
+"What do you think of it?" inquired the Elder, still seeming to take it
+as a joke.
+
+"Have you ever considered the outcome in case he should get a judgment
+against you? He accuses you of having alienated the affections of his
+wife, your daughter."
+
+"Granting that he secured a judgment?"
+
+"And you could not pay it?"
+
+"Certainly, I could not."
+
+"Then he could remand you to jail for six months by paying your keep."
+
+When the Elder, accompanied by Glavis, returned home, both understood
+Jean Baptiste a little better than they had ever before....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+GOSSIP
+
+
+"I've been over to the McCarthys today," cried Mildred Merrill, greeting
+her mother, as she returned home the Sunday following the filing of the
+suit. "And, oh, mama, they are certainly excited over there!"
+
+"Mm! Guess they'll understand that Jean Baptiste better now. Because he
+had wished to settle their difficulties--if there were any--like a man,
+they thought he was afraid of the Reverend."
+
+"That was it--positively!"
+
+"What was the conversation?"
+
+"Of course it was Ethel who was making the most of the noise."
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"And she _made some_ noise!"
+
+"I'd wager."
+
+"To begin with, they didn't know Jean had sued the Reverend until they
+read it in the paper."
+
+"Is that so!"
+
+"Yes! You see, it was like this. Orlean sold her farm."
+
+"Gave it away."
+
+"Quite likely."
+
+"It was so. Why I understand that Baptiste had paid over thirty-five
+hundred dollars into it, and that the place was supposed to be worth
+about forty dollars an acre, with one hundred sixty acres bringing the
+sum of sixty-four hundred dollars. That insurance companies would lend
+two thousand five hundred dollars on the place if she had proved up on
+the same as other people were doing and had done, and secured a patent."
+
+"Isn't that a shame!"
+
+"Nigga's!"
+
+"Negroes proper!"
+
+"Well, what did they say?"
+
+"Oh, yes! Orlean sold her farm some time ago."
+
+"For three hundred dollars."
+
+"Is that all she received?"
+
+"Every cent."
+
+"Well, what do you think of that!"
+
+"It was the Reverend's work, of course."
+
+"That dirty old rascal."
+
+"Ignorant into the bargain."
+
+"If I were Baptiste I'd kill him."
+
+"That would do no good."
+
+"No, I guess not."
+
+"Would make him appear a martyr, also."
+
+"Well, ever since Orlean sold her place, you see, they have been
+uneasy."
+
+"I guess so."
+
+"So they had been sort of looking to hear from him."
+
+"And they have."
+
+Mildred laughed.
+
+"And they'll hear from him some more!"
+
+Both laughed.
+
+"Now, Orlean heard that Jean was in town before the rest of the family
+did, and told me so."
+
+"She's waited a long time to tell other people things she hasn't told
+the folks first...."
+
+"Yes," thoughtfully. "Anyhow, Glavis met Baptiste on the streets
+downtown, and, of course, Glavis, not knowing Baptiste's mission,
+thought he was here after Orlean again."
+
+"Just like him."
+
+"The truth."
+
+"He was by here awhile ago."
+
+"He was?"
+
+"Yes; but I'll tell you about that later. Go on."
+
+"When he met Jean on the street--rather, after, he goes around to where
+Orlean worked to warn her."
+
+"Sneak!"
+
+"But Orlean was out."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"So when she returned, and was told that a colored man had called and
+inquired for her, she--"
+
+"Thought it had been Baptiste."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'll try to quit interrupting you."
+
+"Well, Orlean told me that she was provoked. She wished that Jean would
+not be calling at where she worked to bother her."
+
+"She got fooled--excuse me!"
+
+"But she didn't say anything to the folks about it, and they knew
+nothing of his presence in town--Glavis didn't tell it seems,
+either--until Sunday morning."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"No, none of them had gone out Saturday night, so they hadn't heard any
+of the talk that was going the rounds."
+
+"Well, Glavis went outside Sunday morning and found the _Defender_ in
+the mail box."
+
+"So?"
+
+"You see, they do not subscribe for it, but the people next door get
+it--"
+
+"And knowing they were not subscribers, they take the paper and place it
+where they could get it."
+
+Mildred laughed.
+
+"So," resumed Mildred, "when they saw the paper, all was excitement."
+
+"Goody!"
+
+"So Glavis (he is the Reverend's faithful lieutenant, you know), went
+out to look up Baptiste and have a talk with him."
+
+"Ump!"
+
+"He didn't find him."
+
+"That was how he happened by here."
+
+"But the funny part about it is, that they don't know what Baptiste is
+up to. They don't know that if he secures a judgment, he can remand the
+Elder to jail for six months."
+
+"Now won't there be some excitement when they learn!"
+
+Mildred laughed again, her mother joined her.
+
+"But getting back to Ethel."
+
+"Tell me about her."
+
+"Oh, she was on the war path. 'You see,' she cried, standing over
+Orlean. 'You see what you've done by your hard-headedness. I told you
+all the time not to marry that man!'"
+
+"Wouldn't that disgust you!"
+
+"'But you _would_ go ahead and marry him! You _would_ go ahead and marry
+him, after all papa and _I_ tried to persuade you not to! And now! You
+are going to _kill_ your father; going to _kill your poor old father_.'
+Orlean just hung her head like a silly and took it. 'Yes,' went on
+Ethel, turning her little slender body around and twisting her jaws as
+if to grind it out. 'You got him all mixed up with that nigga', and
+here he comes in here and sues him. Think of it! _Sues him!_ And now all
+the nigga's in Chicago have the laugh on us--we daren't show our faces
+in the street!
+
+"'And what has he done it for?' 'But, Ethel,' Orlean protested, 'Papa
+isn't worth anything. He _can't_ do anything with papa if he gets a
+judgment.' 'What do you know about judgments,' Ethel flew up. 'Well,'
+said Orlean, 'I recall hearing Jean say that if a man was worth nothing,
+then a judgment was of little or no good.' 'You heard _Jean_ say it!'
+screamed Ethel, looking at Orlean severely. And then she turned to me.
+'Do you know, Mildred,' she rang out, '_This_ fool woman loves that man
+yet. Yes. Y-e-s! _Loves_ him yet and would go back to him tomorrow if it
+wasn't for us!'"
+
+"Doesn't it beat anything you ever saw!"
+
+Mildred laughed again as she paused for breath.
+
+"Well, Ethel went on: 'And don't you think that nigga' is a fool. No,
+no! _Never!_ That's a scheming nigga'. He's the schemingest nigga' in
+the world! _He_ knows what he's about. Believe me! He knows papa isn't
+worth anything. And, besides, he isn't _after_ money, he's after papa.
+He don't _want_ no money. A scheming nigga' like him can make all the
+money he wants. Oh, yes! He's up to _something_ else.'"
+
+"Seems they are willing to admit very readily now that which they were
+not as long as he tried to deal with them like a man."
+
+"I should think so," returned Mildred. "Well, Ethel was so excited that
+she walked up and down the floor in a rage. Every little while she would
+stop before me, and glare into my face: 'But what can he do, what can he
+do!' 'I have nothing to do with it, Ethel,' I replied. 'Yes, you have,
+yes, _you_ have! You know! I know you and I know Jean Baptiste! He never
+comes to Chicago without coming to see you all. He's told you what he's
+_up_ to, and I know it! _Oh, that nigga'!_'
+
+"I looked at Orlean, and she sat by looking like the man who has
+murdered his wife and regrets it. When she met my eyes she sighed, and
+then said: 'Do you think he can hurt papa, Mildred? I'm worried. You
+see, I know Jean some. He's shrewd, Jean is very shrewd.' I confess that
+I was rather uncomfortable, knowing what I did. So hoping to find some
+way to get out of it, I suggested that they walk out. 'No,' exclaimed
+Ethel. 'I'm afraid I'll run into that nigga'.'"
+
+"When do they look for the Reverend in?"
+
+"In the morning. They are afraid to go out until he comes."
+
+"I'd like to be around there when they found out what Jean is up to."
+
+Mildred laughed again, and then cried: "And oh, yes, I forgot to tell
+you that Orlean asked me whether Jean came direct from the farm here."
+
+"What did you tell her?"
+
+"Why, I said I thought he was visiting down in Kansas before coming
+here."
+
+"Hump."
+
+"She said: 'I guess he was calling on Miss Irene Grey.'"
+
+Her mother giggled.
+
+"I said I thought he remarked something about having visited there,
+whereupon Orlean said: 'He ought to have married her.'"
+
+"Jealousy."
+
+"Yes, that was it."
+
+"Look! There is Glavis," cried Mildred's mother, pointing to his figure
+crossing the street.
+
+"Now for some fun," said Mildred, whereupon, both feigned sleepiness,
+and prepared for some good interesting gossip.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Glavis," exclaimed Mildred, answering the rap on the door and
+admitting him.
+
+"And how is everybody?" asked Glavis, coming in with his head bared, and
+smiling in his usual way.
+
+"Fine, Mr. Glavis," replied Mildred's mother, arising to greet him for
+the second time that day.
+
+"And where is my friend, Baptiste?" said Glavis. "I've just come from
+the Keystone, and while he stops there, I can never catch him in."
+
+"He has not been here today, Glavis," replied Mildred.
+
+"That's funny. I'd certainly like to see him."
+
+"Why would _you_ want to see him?" inquired Mildred's mother.
+
+"Oh, I want to see him, of course, about all this scandal that's in the
+air."
+
+"Hump! This appears to be the first time that you have wanted to see him
+since your father-in-law brought Orlean home."
+
+"Well, of course," said Glavis, a little embarrassed. "It has always
+been a bad affair. A bad affair, and I certainly have wished Orlean
+would have kept us out of all the mess."
+
+"Why not say you _wished the Reverend_ had kept you out of all the
+mess," ventured Mildred's mother, who was out of patience with their
+conduct.
+
+"Well, it's rather awkward. Baptiste is a little in fault himself."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"Oh, he sorter had it in for father before he even married Orlean. He
+didn't come into the family like _I_ did."
+
+Mildred and her mother regarded each other as Glavis went on
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, Baptiste is a good fellow, and I have always rather liked him. But
+he has always had it in for father; has never treated him as I have....
+If he would have, I'm sure we would not be the bone of this scandal."
+
+"It seems that this enmity between your 'father' and Baptiste, begun way
+back in the southern part of this state, when Baptiste was a small
+boy...."
+
+"I've heard something concerning that, but of course he oughtn't hold
+such things against a man when he has grown up."
+
+"You seem to hold Baptiste in fault for everything, when it's common
+knowledge, from what I can hear, Glavis," argued Mildred's mother, "that
+the Elder went up there and just broke Orlean and Baptiste up; made her
+sign his name to a check for a big sum of money--and a whole lot of
+other things. How do you account for or explain that?"
+
+"Well, Baptiste could have settled this without all that. If he'd come
+and seen me before starting this suit," Glavis was evasive, "I would
+have had him and Orlean meet and reason their differences out together."
+
+"Why have _you_ waited so long to take such action, Glavis? You had
+years almost to have gotten them together--to have been at least fair to
+Baptiste. As it is, you have treated--all of you--Baptiste like a dog,
+like a dog. And because he tried to settle an affair like it ought to
+have been settled, you just ground him--pride and all--right into the
+ditch."
+
+Glavis winced under the fusillade with which the elder lady of the house
+bombarded him.
+
+"And now after you do him all the injury you can, you cry about him
+making a scandal! Just because he didn't come around again a whining
+like the dog you have tried to make him, you profess to be shocked at
+his conduct. Moreover, you had Orlean to give away the farm he gave her,
+and from what I can hear, to the man that tried every way known to law
+to beat her out of it and failed. And at Baptiste's expense!"
+
+Glavis was very uncomfortable. He shifted uneasily, while his
+handkerchief was kept busy mopping the perspiration from his brow.
+
+"I heard that the Reverend just scored the man about trying to beat poor
+Orlean out of her place: Preached a great sermon on the evil and
+intriguing of the white race, and just gave that man, a banker, the
+devil. Then upon top of that he comes down here to Chicago and sends
+your 'father' the money to come here from Cairo to sell him the place
+that Baptiste was man enough to trust her with for nothing. I can't
+figure out where any of you have any cry coming."
+
+"Well," said Glavis, rising, "I want to see Baptiste anyhow. If you see
+him, tell him to come over to the house."
+
+"No, Glavis, I have nothing to do with it, and I oughtn't to be
+gossiping as I have been; but I have known Baptiste since he was a
+little boy, and I just can't help protesting--as I have always
+heretofore protested, about the way you people have treated him."
+
+"Well, I guess Baptiste hates all of us enough to make up."
+
+"Baptiste has nothing against any one in that house over there but your
+'father.' But there would be no use in my telling him to call over
+there. No use at all, for let me tell you," she said, following him to
+the door; "The day of Baptiste beholding unto you for his wife is past.
+I don't think he wants Orlean any more, and don't blame him after what
+she has allowed to happen to him through her lack of womanhood.
+Nawsiree, Baptiste didn't come into Chicago this time crying, he came
+here like _a man_, and it's the _man_ in him with which you'll have to
+fight now."
+
+"Oh, well, I don't know," said Glavis, taking a little courage, "I don't
+think he is so wise after all. Any man that will sue a man like father
+for ten thousand dollars, wouldn't seem so wise."
+
+"Well," returned the elder lady, "Perhaps you had _better_ wait until
+you see a lawyer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A DISCOVERY--AND A SURPRISE
+
+
+Jean Baptiste called by to see the Merrills before leaving the city, and
+took Mildred and her mother one afternoon to a matinee at the Colonial
+theatre. It was a musical repertoire, and a delightful entertainment.
+Before one of the numbers was to appear, the director of the orchestra
+came upon the stage and announced:
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen: If I may have your kind attention, I wish to
+announce that the next number is an extraordinary specialty. Miss Inez
+Maryland, the young prima donna who has made considerable of a
+reputation by her beautiful singing in the last year, will this
+afternoon sing in an introduction, a song that is destined by the
+critics to be one of the most popular of recent production." Whereat, he
+stepped to one side, and led upon the stage, a charming blonde who was
+greeted profusely.
+
+"I am glad to have you meet Miss Maryland, who will now sing the
+discovery of the season, _O, My Homesteader_, by Miss Agnes Stewart."
+
+In the moment Jean Baptiste did not quite recall the name, or rather, he
+did not connect it with an instance in his life; but as the sweet mezzo
+soprano voice, combined with the strains of the orchestra, floated out
+over the audience, the years gone by, to him were recalled. He listened
+to it with a peculiar and growing enchantment, and the night he had lain
+upon the ground and would have frozen, but for the now composer, came
+fresh again into his mind.
+
+"Beautiful."
+
+"Wonderful."
+
+"Grand!" came to his ears from over all the theatre and then followed
+the storm of applause. Again and again did the singer have to return to
+satisfy the audience before her, and when the crowds poured into the
+street at the close of the performance, every one seemed to be humming
+the tune that had that afternoon began its initial success.
+
+As it would take nine months or a year for the suit to come to trial,
+Jean resumed his efforts in the book business, and was able by borrowing
+a little, to meet the interest and taxes on the foreclosed property, and
+was given the customary year's extension.
+
+He traveled now from town to town, from city to city, and found agents
+for his book, and was able in a small way to recuperate his finances. He
+hired an engine to plow all his land that was not prepared, besides
+renting a little more, and also took a flier in wheat. The war abroad
+had been going on a year, and he conceived that if it "happened" to rain
+at the right time he _might_ get a crop and redeem his land. At least,
+he could lose only what he put into it by risking the same, so he took
+the chance. So with all he could get hold of until the last days of
+October of that year, he put it into winter wheat on his land, and
+succeeded in getting over 700 acres seeded.
+
+And everywhere he went, the people were playing and singing _O, My
+Homesteader_. Never, whether it was fifty times a day, or one, could he
+seem to tire of hearing it. At the stores he saw hundreds of copies of
+it, and in every home it was. And always it took him back to his
+youthful days in the land where he had gone with the great hope. And
+then one day he saw a picture of her. It was in a musical review. It
+spoke at length of her, and of the simple life she had lived. That she
+was a product of the prairies and a wonderful future was in store for
+her because of the fact that her work was original.
+
+So the winter passed and springtime came again with all its beauty, and
+he continued in his book business. He made a trip to Gregory and Winner
+to see what the prospects were again in the Northwest. The winter for
+the wheat, he was cheered to learn, had been ideal; but the spring was
+dry, and that was not to the wheat's advantage. However, he had the best
+prospects he had had for years, and he returned to the book business
+with renewed hope.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now we are compelled by the course of events to return to certain
+characters who were conspicuous in the early part of our story.
+
+When Jack Stewart left the farm he had rented near the property of Jean
+Baptiste and went West and took a homestead and had George and Bill and
+Agnes to do likewise, he was obsessed with a dream that riches had come
+to him at last. Agnes was delighted with the prospects, also, and so
+they looked forward to a great future in the new land.
+
+But there was something that troubled Jack Stewart, and for days when
+alone he would shake his head and cry: "Dang it. Dang it! I oughtn't to
+have let it go that far, dang it!" But he had kept what was now the
+cause of his worry to himself so long that he would not bring himself to
+confess it even to Agnes after what had occurred. But never did he
+forget Jean Baptiste, and to Agnes he would mention him quite often.
+
+"By the way, my girl," he said one day when they were settled on their
+claims, staying mostly on his, of course, for the prospects were
+hopeful. "Do you know that I never did learn who saved me from that
+foreclosure. No, sir, I never did! I paid the note and was so glad that
+it was paid, that I tore it up and forgot the whole matter.
+
+"Now _who_ do you reckon it was that interceded for me?"
+
+She paused and looked up from her sewing, and then bent over it again,
+as she said:
+
+"Jean Baptiste."
+
+"Jean Baptiste!" he exclaimed incredibly.
+
+"It was him."
+
+"Why the stinkin' rascal, he never told me!"
+
+She was silent.
+
+"And it was him that came to my assistance," the other mused
+reflectively. "Well, now since I come to recall him, it was just like
+him to do something like that and keep it to himself. Well, well, I do
+say!" He paused then, and looked down at the toe of his boot. Suddenly
+he looked up, and concentrated his gaze on Agnes.
+
+"And _you knew_ it all the time. He told you."
+
+"He didn't tell me."
+
+"Didn't tell you!"
+
+"I knew it when you returned home that morning."
+
+"Well, well...."
+
+"I was positive the administrator hadn't granted you an extension, nor
+wouldn't have, so it must have been some one near. So who else could it
+have been but Jean Baptiste."
+
+"Of course not, now that I recall it; but did you tell him about it?"
+
+Her eyes had business in her lap at the moment, _very_ much business.
+She saw the sewing and she didn't see it. What she was seeing again was
+_what had happened one day when she had gone to carry his and her
+brother's luncheon_.... It passed before her, as it had done many times
+since. _Never_, she knew, would she be able to forget _that day, that
+day_ when the harvest was on, and he had said sweet words to her.... It
+was all past now, forever, but it was as fresh as the day it was done.
+
+She understood why he had gone away, and when he returned and she had
+seen his face she understood then his sacrifice. She knew that the man's
+honor, his respect for his race and their struggle had brought him to
+commit the sacrifice. And strangely, she loved him the more for it. It
+had been an evidence of his great courage, the great strength with which
+he was possessed. It was strange that the only man she, a white girl,
+had ever loved was a Negro, and now when that was history, it seemed to
+relieve her when she could recall that he had been a _man_.
+
+"Did you hear me, Aggie?" her father called now again. She started.
+
+"Why--yes, father--I heard you," she said, straightening up. "And--of
+course--I told him about it...."
+
+"Now I'm glad to hear that you did. It seems that you ought to have told
+me at the time--at least before we left there, so that I could have
+thanked him." He was silent for a time then and reflective.
+
+"I wonder what sort of woman he married," he mused after a time.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"I am sometimes a little afraid that he didn't get the right kind of
+woman.
+
+"He was such a prince of a good fellow, that it would most likely have
+been his luck to have gotten a woman who would betray him in some way.
+It is all rather strange, for I don't think he loved any woman but
+_you_, Aggie."
+
+He darted his eyes quickly in her direction, recalling a time before
+when he had intimated something of the kind. This time, however, she did
+not cry out, but continued at her sewing as though he had not spoken.
+
+As he slowly walked out, what was in his mind was the thing that had
+worried him before.
+
+She looked after him and sighed. It was her effort then to forget the
+past, and in so doing, the inspiration with regard to music came again,
+and developed in her mind. But her efforts had brought so little
+encouragement from those to whom she had submitted her compositions that
+she for a long time despaired of making another effort.
+
+So it was not until the great drought swept over the land and drove
+almost all the settlers from their claims in a search for food, that
+made her again resort to the effort.
+
+The drought was even worse in the part of the country they now called
+home than it had been in Tripp County and other parts farther East. Corn
+that was planted under the sod one spring had actually not sprouted for
+two years, for the moisture that fell had never wet the earth that deep.
+So, after two years in which they came nearer to starvation than they
+had ever before, she secured a position in a hotel in a town farther
+West, and the money earned thereby, she gave to her father and brothers
+to live on.
+
+It was then she had returned to compositions in a desperate effort and
+hope to save them from disaster. For a long time she met with the usual
+rejections, and it was a year or more before anything she composed
+received any notice.
+
+But _O, My Homesteader_ was an instantaneous success. While she still
+worked in the kitchen of the little hotel in the western village, the
+royalties came pouring in upon her so fast until she could hardly
+believe it. And coincident with the same, she became the recipient of
+numerous offers from almost everywhere. Most were for compositions;
+while many were offers to go on the stage, at which she was compelled to
+laugh. The very thought of her, a dishwasher in a country hotel, going
+on the stage! But she resigned her position and went back to her father
+and brothers on the farm. She used her money to pay off their debts and
+started them to farming, and made herself contented with staying on as
+she had done before, and keeping house for her father and the boys. She
+refused to submit any more manuscripts until the success of her first
+song was growing old, and then she released others which followed with a
+measure of success.
+
+The offers from the East persisted; and with them, drought in the West
+continued and they saw that trying to farm so far west was, for the
+present time, at least, impractical. So they returned to Gregory where
+she purchased the place they had lived on. Owing to the fact that the
+drought had been severe there, also, she secured the place at a fair
+bargain, and they returned to farming the summer following the
+publication of Baptiste's book.
+
+When she read it, she hardly knew what to think; but it was rather
+unusual she thought, because he had told a true story in every detail;
+but had chosen to leave his experiences with her out of it. She heard of
+him, and the disaster that had overcome him, and was sorry. She felt
+that if she could only help him in some way, it would give her relief.
+And so the time passed, and he came again into her life in a strange and
+mysterious manner.
+
+She was surprised one day to receive a visit in person from the
+publisher of her works. She was, to say the least, also flattered. He
+had come direct from Chicago to persuade her to come to the city, and
+while she was flattered and was really anxious to see the city, she
+refrained from going, but promised to write more music.
+
+In the months that followed, he wrote to her, and the experience was
+new. Then his letters grew serious, and later she received the surprise.
+He came again to see her and proposed. She hardly knew how to accept it,
+but he was so persistent. To be offered the love of a man of such a
+type, carried her off her feet, and she made him promise to wait.
+
+He was very patient about it, and at last she concluded that while she
+did not feel that she really loved him yet, she was a woman, and growing
+no younger, and, besides, he was a successful publisher and the match
+seemed logical. So after some months in which she tried to make herself
+appear like the woman she knew he wished her to be, she accepted, but
+left the date for their wedding indefinite.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE BISHOP'S INQUISITION
+
+
+The reverend McCarthy was commonly regarded as a good politician in
+church affairs, meaning, that he was successful with the Bishop in being
+able to hold the office of Presiding Elder over such a long period. At
+every conference other aspirants attempted to oust him. But he had
+always held with the Bishop and had succeeded himself annually until the
+five-year limit had expired. At the end of this time he had usually
+succeeded in manipulating matters in such a manner that he had
+invariably been successful in securing the same appointment over another
+district in the state. Over this he presided another five years, and was
+then automatically transferred back to the district over which he had
+formerly presided. For twenty years he had been successful in keeping
+this up, but in the conference that was to convene after he had been
+sued by his son-in-law, it became known and talked about that he would
+not be re-appointed to the Presiding Eldership, and would necessarily be
+sent to a charge for a year or more.
+
+Accordingly, he began early to seek a charge which he was in position to
+know would be lucrative, since there were few outside the large churches
+in Chicago that would pay as well as the Presiding Eldership.
+
+The fact was, however, he regretted going back to a charge, for his
+former experience in such work, in gaining and retaining the confidence
+of the members of his church had not been ideal, to say the least. And
+again, it was expedient that he should have his family, especially his
+wife, living in the town with him where he held the charge. Perhaps that
+made it awkward for him, as he was not accustomed to having his wife in
+such close proximity with him daily. His regard for her was such that he
+could not bear the thought of that close association. For his experience
+had been that it was impossible for him to be in the house with her a
+matter of two days without losing his patience and speaking harshly to
+her. To avoid this unpleasant domestic state of affairs it had been
+agreed that Orlean should be his housekeeper, and this was settled on
+before conference--and before he had been sued.
+
+This pending suit, however, brought added complications. Ever since he
+had brought Orlean home, he had been embarrassed by gossips. Nowhere had
+he been able to turn unless some busy-body must stop him and inquire
+with regard to his daughter; what was the matter, etc., and so on. It
+kept him explaining and re-explaining, a subject that was to say the
+least, delicate. He had, however, succeeded in explaining and conveying
+the impression that the man she married had mistreated and neglected
+her, and that he had been compelled to go and get her in order to save
+her life. This was not satisfactory to him in view of the fact that he
+decided once to let her return, but Jean Baptiste not knowing that he
+had reached such a decision, had felt that his only chance to secure her
+again was to keep away from her father--well, we know the result of that
+effort.
+
+But inasmuch as that Jean Baptiste had refused to argue with him over
+her, he had used this as an excuse to become his old self again, which,
+after all, was so much easier. So when 'Gene Crook had approached him
+with an offer, and convinced him that Baptiste was what the Elder knew
+he was not (because the Elder was easily to be convinced of anything
+toward the detriment of his adversary) he easily secured the place and
+the Elder had felt himself ahead. Three hundred dollars was a great deal
+of money to him, and went a long way in taking up the payments in which
+they were in arrears on the home they were buying in Chicago. True, it
+twitched his conscience, but N.J. McCarthy had a practice--long in
+effect--of crucifying conscience. So when he had closed the deal--and
+had been reimbursed for his traveling expenses--he went directly back to
+his work, and had not been in the city since until called in on the
+suit.
+
+When he left the lawyer's office and returned home, he discussed the
+matter with Glavis, who in turn discussed the matter with white friends
+who advised him how to answer to the charge. Returning to the lawyer's
+office they engaged counsel. It was very annoying--more than ever--to
+the Elder when he was required to put up twenty-five dollars in cash as
+a retainer. He had become so accustomed to posing his way through in so
+many matters--letting some one else put up the money, that when he was
+forced to part with that amount of money he straightway appreciated the
+seriousness of the situation. It was no pleasant anticipation in looking
+forward to the trial, for there he would be compelled to counter the
+other on equal terms.
+
+He was very disagreeable about the house when he returned home, and his
+wife adroitly kept out of his sight. He sought the street to walk off
+his anger and perturbation, only to run into a Mrs. Jones, teacher in
+the Sunday school of one of the large Negro churches, and with whom he
+had been long acquainted. It was, in a measure, because his
+acquaintances were of long standing that gave them, they felt, the right
+to question him regarding such delicate affairs. So when he met Mrs.
+Jones, he doffed his hat in his usual lordly manner, and paused when she
+came to a stop.
+
+"Good evening, Reverend Mac.," she exclaimed, and extended her long,
+lean hand. He grasped it, and bowing with accustomed dignity, replied:
+
+"Good evening, Sister Jones. I trust that your health is the best."
+
+"My health is good, Reverend Mac. But, say, Reverend Mac., you don't
+look so well."
+
+"Indeed so, my dear madame, I have not been in the best of health for
+some months."
+
+"Well, well, that is too bad, indeed. I hear that you have not been,
+Reverend Mac. And say, Brother McCarthy, what is this I read in the
+paper about your son-in-law coming in here and suing you for breaking up
+Orlean and he?"
+
+His Majesty's head went up, while he colored unseen, and would have
+passed on, but Mrs. Jones was standing in such a manner that he was
+unable to do so without some difficulty.
+
+"The man is crazy," he retorted shortly, and stiffened. But it took more
+than stiffness to satisfy this gossip.
+
+"Well, I thought something was the matter, Reverend. For you see, I've
+heard that you went out there and brought her home to save him from
+killing her, so you see it is rather strange. That fellow, as a boy--and
+even yet, when he is in Chicago--attends Sunday school and sits in my
+class, and I was rather surprised that he should treat Orlean as it is
+said you said he did."
+
+Reverend McCarthy would liked very well to have moved on. But Mrs. Jones
+was very much interested.
+
+"There's all kind of talk around town about it. They say that if he gets
+a judgment against you, Elder, he will put you in jail, and all that;
+but of course that couldn't be. You stand too well in the church. But
+you know, Reverend, the only thing that looks kind a bad for you is,
+they say that he wouldn't dare start such a suit unless he had good
+ground for action. They say--"
+
+The Elder had extricated himself at last, and now sailed down the street
+with high head. "May the God crush that hard-headed bulldog into the
+earth," he muttered between compressed lips, so angry that he could not
+see clearly. "How long am I to be aggravated with this rotten gossip!"
+
+He changed his mind about walking far, and at a convenient corner, he
+turned back toward home. But when he arrived there, he was confronted
+with another, and more serious problem. It had been his intention before
+arriving there, to arraign his wife again for having let Orlean go West
+in the beginning. But now he was confronted with his august honorary,
+the Bishop.
+
+"And, now, Reverend," said the Bishop, after they had gone through the
+usual formalities, "I am forced to come around to something that
+embarrasses me very much, in view of our long and intimate relations,"
+and he paused to look grave. The Reverend tried to still his thumping
+heart. All his life he had been a coward, he had bluffed himself into
+believing, and having his family believe, that he was a brave man, but
+Orlean had told Baptiste on several occasions that her father might have
+risen higher in the church, but for his lack of confidence.
+
+"It pertains to all this gossip and notoriety that is going the rounds.
+I suppose you are aware of what I refer to." The other swallowed, and
+nodded.
+
+"You can appreciate that it is very embarrassing to me, and to the
+church, more, because I have struggled to raise the standard in this
+church. We have in the years gone by been subjected to unfair gossip,
+and some fair because of the subtle practices of some of our ministers.
+And now, with conference convening in two weeks, it is very awkward that
+we should be confronted with such a predicament with regard to you, one
+of our oldest ministers. The subject is made more embarrassing because
+of its--er, rather personal nature. I would regard it as very
+enlightening if you would give me an explanation--but, of course, in the
+name of the church."
+
+The Reverend swallowed again, struggled to keep his eyes dry, for the
+rush of self pity almost overcame him. It was, however, no time or place
+for self pity. The Bishop was _not_ an emotional man; he was _not_ given
+to patience with those who pitied themselves--in short, the Bishop was
+_very much_ of a cold hearted business man, notwithstanding his
+position. He was waiting in calm austerity for the other's reply.
+
+"Ah-m ahem!" began the Reverend with a great effort at self composure.
+"It is, to say the least, my dear Bishop, with much regret that I am
+compelled to explain a matter that has caused me no end of grief. To
+begin with: It was not with my consent that my daughter was allowed to
+go off into the West and file on a homestead."
+
+The other's face was like a tomb upon hearing this. Indeed, the Elder
+would have to put forth a more logical excuse. It has been said that the
+Bishop was a practical man which in truth he was, and the fact is, he
+regarded it as far more timely if a larger number of the members of his
+race in the city would have taken up homesteads in the West, than for
+them to have been frequenting State Street and aping the rich. Also, the
+Bishop had read Baptiste's book--although the Reverend was not aware of
+it,--and was constrained to feel that a man could not conscientiously
+write that which was absolutely false.
+
+"But I came into the city here after a conference to find that my
+daughter had been herded off out West in a wild country to take a
+homestead."
+
+"Now, just a minute, Reverend," interposed the Bishop astutely.
+"Regarding this claim your daughter filed on. What was the nature of the
+land? You have been over it, I dare say."
+
+"Of course, of course, my dear Bishop! It was a piece of wild,
+undeveloped land. At the time she took it, it was fifty miles or such a
+matter from the railroad. She gave birth to a child--"
+
+"But," interposed the Bishop again, "you say the land was a considerable
+distance from the railroad at the time your daughter filed on the place?
+Very well. Now, Reverend, isn't it a fact that in the history of this
+country, all new countries when opened to the settler may have been some
+distance from the railroad in the beginning? For instance, somebody
+started Chicago, which was certainly not the convenient place then that
+it is now in which to live."
+
+"Of course, my dear Bishop, of course."
+
+"So the fact that the railroad was, as you say, fifty miles away, could
+not be held as an argument against it. Besides, is it not a fact that
+there were other people, men and women, who were as far from the
+railroad and therefore placed at an equal disadvantage?"
+
+"Of course, of course."
+
+"Then, my dear Reverend, it does not appear to me that that should be a
+fact to be condemned."
+
+"I have not condemned it, my dear Bishop. No."
+
+"Very well, then, my dear Reverend, please proceed."
+
+Now the interposition of the Bishop, had rather disconcerted the Elder.
+Had he been allowed to proceed in the manner he had planned and started
+to, he might have made the case from his standpoint, and under the
+circumstances very clear to the Bishop. But the latter's questions threw
+him off his line, and he started again with some embarrassment, and with
+the perspiration beginning to appear around the point of his nose.
+Appreciating, however that he was expected to explain, he went
+resolutely back to the task.
+
+"Well, my wife allowed my daughter to be taken out there and file on
+this land that this man had secured on his representation that he wished
+to marry her, and when I came into the city it was all settled."
+
+"Pardon me for interrupting you again, my dear Elder. But is it not a
+fact that Mrs. Pruitt, with whom you are well acquainted, accompanied
+your daughter on this trip?"
+
+"It is so, Bishop."
+
+"And is it not a fact that Mrs. Pruitt as well as your daughter,
+explained it all at the time with satisfaction to you?"
+
+"Well, ah--yes, she did."
+
+"You admit to this, then, my dear Reverend?"
+
+"Under the circumstances at the time, I was rather compelled to, my dear
+Bishop."
+
+"Meaning that since she had gone and taken the land, you were morally
+bound to look into and consider the matter favorably?"
+
+"Yes, I think that explains it."
+
+"Now, Reverend. Is it not a fact that a considerable write-up appeared
+in the Chicago _Defender_ shortly after this visit, detailing
+considerable, and with much illustration regarding the trip; that, in
+short, your daughter had come into considerable land and was regarded
+as having been very fortunate?"
+
+"I think so, my dear Bishop."
+
+"Very well, Reverend. Now--a--who solicited that write-up? Did the
+editor not have a conversation with you before the article appeared?"
+
+"I believe he did, yes, sir. I think he did."
+
+"Well, now, Reverend, if I remember correctly, this young man visited
+the city the Christmas following, and I was introduced to him by you in
+this same room?"
+
+"I think so. Yes, Bishop, I remember having introduced him to you
+myself."
+
+"And do I quote correctly when I say that you called me up the following
+spring to perform the ceremony that made your daughter and this Jean
+Baptiste man and wife?"
+
+"I think you quote correctly, my dear Bishop."
+
+"M-m. Yes, I recall that I was indisposed at the time and was very sorry
+I could not perform the ceremony," said the Bishop thoughtfully, but
+more to himself than to the other.
+
+"Well, now. After they had been married some months, my wife visited
+your wife, and the latter seemed to be greatly impressed with the union.
+I think if I am correctly informed that you went on a visit to them
+yourself that fall."
+
+"I did, my dear Bishop. Yes, I did."
+
+"And at the conference on your return, you, if I am not mistaken, called
+on me at my home and discussed the young man at considerable length."
+
+"Yes, my dear Bishop. I did that."
+
+"Yes," mused the Bishop again thoughtfully and as if to himself. "And
+you appeared greatly delighted with their union. You seemed to regard
+him as an extraordinary young man, and, from what I have heard, I have
+been inclined to feel so myself. Now it seems that a few months after
+you were speaking in high praise of him, you made a trip West and on
+your return brought your girl home with you, and she has not since
+returned to her husband. Of course," he added slowly, "that is your
+personal affair, but since it has reached the public, the church is
+concerned, so I am ready to listen to further explanation."
+
+"I went out there and found my girl in dire circumstances," defended the
+Elder. "I found her in neglect; I found her without proper medical
+attention--no nurse was there to administer her needs. In short, I was
+prevailed upon by my love and regard for my daughter's health, to
+expedite the step I took."
+
+"Nobly said, Reverend, nobly said," said the Bishop, and for the first
+time during his explanation, the Elder felt encouraged.
+
+"The man did not marry her for love," the Elder went on now somewhat
+more confident. "He did not marry her to make her happy and comfortable.
+He married her to secure more land. It is true that I was impressed with
+him in a way, because the man was rather--er, inspiring, and I
+entertained hopes. Our race does not possess successful men in such a
+number that we can be oblivious to apparent success as on a young man's
+part. This man seemed to be such a man--in fact, I grant him that. The
+man was popular with those who knew him; he was a pusher; but he _was so
+ambitious to get rich_ that he was in the act of killing my child to
+accomplish his ends." The Reverend finished this with a touch of emotion
+that made the other nod thoughtfully. And while he paused to gather
+force and words for further justification of his interposition, the
+Bishop said:
+
+"I note by the reports in the newspaper that you are accused of having
+coerced the girl; that you had her write her husband's name on a check
+with which you secured the money to bring her from the West."
+
+"He gave my daughter the privilege of securing money by such a method
+for her needs, and it was not I that had her do any such a thing."
+
+"But it was--er, rather--a little irregular, was it not? It does not
+seem reasonable to suppose that he granted her the privilege to sign his
+name to checks to secure money with which to leave him?" The question
+was put rather testily and caused the other to shift uncomfortably
+before making answer.
+
+"Well, under the circumstances, methods _had_ to be resorted to--er,
+rather to fit the occasion." The Elder's defence was artful.
+
+The Bishop, not pretending to take his question seriously, pursued:
+
+"I note, further, that he accuses you of disposing of some property...."
+
+"My daughter sold her place. It was hers, in her name, and the
+transaction did not require his consent."
+
+"M-m--I see. It seems that the property, so he claims, represented an
+outlay of some thirty-five hundred dollars in cash, and he purports the
+same as being worth something like sixty-four hundred dollars. What is
+your opinion, having been on the property, of its actual worth?"
+
+"Well, I have some sense of values, since I am buying this home, and I
+do not regard the property as being worth such a sum."
+
+"I see," said the other, stroking his beard which was thick and flowing.
+
+"A piece of wild, raw land such as that I could not estimate it as being
+so valuable."
+
+"M-m. Have you any knowledge of what land has brought in that
+neighborhood, Reverend. You see, value is a very delicate thing to
+estimate. We cannot always be the judge in such matters. The usual
+estimate of what anything is worth is what some one is willing to pay.
+Do you recall of having ever heard your daughter or any one say what
+deeded land in that section sold for?"
+
+"Well, I have heard my daughter say that a place near there had brought
+five thousand dollars."
+
+"Which would not compare with the value you put on the place your
+daughter held."
+
+"It would not seem to."
+
+"M-m. You say this was your daughter's place entirely?"
+
+"It was," returned the Reverend promptly.
+
+"And she paid for it out of her own money?"
+
+"Well, no. She did not."
+
+"I see. M-m. Then who purchased it for her, Reverend?"
+
+"I think he did that. Yes, I think he did."
+
+"I see. Do you recall the consideration. I understand that he purchased
+what is called a relinquishment. I understand such transactions
+slightly. I have read of such deals in Oklahoma. Seems to be a sort of
+recognized custom in securing land in new countries, notwithstanding the
+subtlety of the transaction."
+
+"I think he claimed to have paid two thousand dollars for the
+relinquishment, which I would consider too much, considerably too much."
+
+"But, inasmuch as your knowledge of new countries has been brief,
+perhaps, you would not set your judgment up as a standard for values
+there," suggested the Bishop, pointedly. "You will grant that the
+individual in the controversy would likely be able to judge more
+correctly with regard to values?"
+
+"It is obvious."
+
+"Yes, yes. Quite likely." The Reverend was very uncomfortable. If the
+Bishop would only stop where he was it wouldn't be so bad, but if he
+kept on with such questions. That was what he had disliked about Jean
+Baptiste.... He had a habit of asking questions--too many questions, he
+had thought; but this man before him was the Bishop, a law unto himself.
+And he must answer. The Bishop knew a great deal more about the West
+than he had thought he did, however.
+
+"Who bought your daughter's place, my dear Elder? A white man or a
+Negro? Which of course, doesn't matter, but if I understand all the
+details, it would be more clear, you understand."
+
+"Of course, my dear Bishop. Naturally. A white man bought the place."
+
+"I understand now. A _white_ man," he repeated thoughtfully. During all
+the questioning, the Bishop had looked into the Reverend's eyes only
+occasionally. Most of the time he had kept his eyes upon the carpet
+before him, as if he were studying a spot thereon.
+
+"It seems by the paper that the man, according to the accusations set
+forth in the complaint, had once contested the claim."
+
+"Yes, he had done so, Doctor, he had."
+
+"I see. Why did he contest the place, my dear Reverend?"
+
+"Why, I do not understand clearly, but such methods appear to be a
+recognized custom in those parts," countered the Elder evasively.
+
+"But isn't it a fact that he tried to contest her out of the place, and
+if he had been successful, he would have had the place for nothing in so
+far as she was concerned?"
+
+"It is quite likely." The Elder had nothing but evasive answers now. He
+tried counters no more.
+
+"But he failed, it seems, to get the place through contest, regardless
+of the fact that your daughter was here in Chicago instead of being on
+her claim."
+
+"It seems that way."
+
+"And then, forsooth, it must have been your daughter's husband who was
+instrumental in saving the place for her?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And after this, your daughter sold the place to the man who had
+struggled to beat her out of it and failed through the instrumentalities
+of her husband, and without consulting her husband with regard to the
+bargain."
+
+"I counciled her, my dear Bishop."
+
+"Ah, _you_ counciled her," and for the first time he turned his sharp,
+searching eyes on the Elder and seemingly looked directly through him.
+The next moment they were back on the carpet before him, and he resumed
+his questions. He was thinking then, thinking of what he had read in the
+book by Jean Baptiste, and what had recently appeared in all the papers.
+It seemed to him that the Elder's defence was not quite clear; but he
+would see it through.
+
+"It was reported that this man, a banker, whose bank had failed ... sent
+you the money for your railroad fare from Cairo to this city, and also
+reimbursed for the return. Is that quite true?"
+
+"That was--the railroad fare--a part of the transaction."
+
+"Ah-ha. A _part_ of the transaction. You never, I suppose, informed her
+husband regarding the _transaction_ after the deal was closed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What was the consideration, Reverend, for this piece of land that your
+daughter's husband bought, for which he paid $2000, placing a house and
+barn thereon, digging a well, and making other improvements, fighting
+off a three years' contest--placed there by the man who tried to beat
+her out of it? What did he pay for the place?"
+
+"Three hundred dollars." Such an awful moment! The Elder's head dropped
+as he said this. But the Bishop's eyes were still upon the spot in the
+carpet.
+
+"And so this young man comes hither and accuses and sues you, accusing
+you of breaking up he and his wife. He published all that you have told
+me and if he should secure a judgment it is known that he can remand you
+to jail for six months."
+
+He paused again, regarded the spot in the carpet before him very keenly
+and then arose. The Elder arose also, but he was unable to find his
+voice. In the meantime the Bishop was moving toward the door, his hand
+was upon the knob, and when the door was open, he turned, and looking at
+the one behind him, said:
+
+"Well, see you at the conference, Newt," and was gone.
+
+The other stood regarding the closed door. His brain was in a whirl and
+he could not quite understand what had happened. But _something_ in that
+hour had transpired, and while he could not seem to realize what it was
+just then, he knew he would learn it in due time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE BISHOP ACTS
+
+
+The conference that followed was one of grave apprehensions for the
+Reverend McCarthy. Before, he had always looked forward to this occasion
+with considerable anxiety. He had usually prepared himself for the
+battle that was a rule on such occasions. For thirty-five years he had
+not missed a conference; he had never come away in defeat. True, he had
+not risen very high, but he had, at least, always been able to hold his
+own.
+
+But, for the first time in his long experience, he went to meet this
+conference with a feeling in his heart that he would come away defeated.
+That he was not to be reappointed Presiding Elder, was a foregone
+conclusion, but he entertained doubts about getting the appointment he
+had hoped to secure. Ever since the Bishop had paid him the visit, he
+had been uncomfortable. When the prelate bade him good-by that day, he
+had never been able to get out of his mind the idea that the other had
+convicted him in his own heart, and had purposely avoided his company.
+It worried him, and he had been losing flesh for two years, therefore he
+did not present now the same robust, striking figure as when he had met
+the conference heretofore year after year.
+
+And then, moreover, he had been hounded almost to insanity by gossips.
+From over all his circuit it was the talk, they brought it to conference
+and discussed it freely and did not take the trouble to get out of his
+hearing to do so. Nowhere was there, as he well knew, a body that would
+have delighted more in his downfall than those brother preachers who met
+the conference that year. Always had they been ready to oppose him, but
+always before the Bishop had been with him. He had been able by subtle
+methods to place himself in the Bishop's favor, but this time that
+august individual artfully kept from meeting him directly. Besides, he
+had not the conscience to seek him, and he had not been able to meet the
+Bishop in the free atmosphere as before.
+
+The charge that he had picked out was very good, and it was convenient
+for his needs for many reasons. Of course there were scores of others
+after the same charge, but with his old influence he need not have
+worried. However, he had not and could not see the Bishop privately long
+enough to secure from him a promise. And so he met the conference for
+the first time, unsettled as to where he was to preach the ensuing year.
+
+Never had a conference seemed so long as that session. The week wore
+slowly away, and he was forced to be aware of the fact that on all sides
+they were discussing him, and the fact that he had been sued, and was
+likely to be remanded to jail as a result, since no one credited him
+with so large a sum as ten thousand dollars. He could see the
+unconcealed delight, and the malice that had always been, but which
+before he had been able to ignore. Affairs reached such a point until it
+was almost a conclusion that it mattered little as to where he was sent,
+for he would be unable to fill the pulpit because of the fact that he
+would have to go to jail shortly. It nettled him; it broke down his
+habitual composure, and it was a relief to him when the conference came
+to a close.
+
+And not until the secretary arose to call the various charges and who
+had been sent thither, did he know where he was to go. So it was with a
+sinking of the heart when his name was reached:
+
+"Reverend McCarthy to Mitchfield!"
+
+"_Reverend McCarthy to Mitchfield!_" was the echo all through the
+audience. Impossible! _Reverend McCarthy_, one of the oldest, and
+regarded as one of the strongest, one of the ablest ministers to such a
+forsaken charge. Indeed they could hardly have sent him to a poorer
+charge, to a less dignified place. It seemed incredible, and the rest of
+the calls were almost drowned out in the consternation that followed.
+
+Well, it was done. He had been all but silenced, and lowered as much as
+the Bishop dared to lower him. That was settled, and he returned to
+Chicago without telegraphing the fact to his family.
+
+With resignation he made the necessary preparations for the trip, and
+taking Orlean with him, went to the small town. They rented a house, for
+the place didn't afford a parsonage, and began the long dreary year that
+was to follow. It was his good fortune, however, when the school board
+met and decided to separate the Negro children from the whites in the
+public schools, that they employed his daughter to teach the colored
+pupils for the year. In this way they were able to get along in very
+good comfort in the months that followed. So the autumn passed, and also
+the winter. Spring came and went, and summer had set in when his
+attorney wrote him that the case had been called, to come into Chicago,
+and prepare to stand trial in the case of Jean Baptiste, plaintiff,
+versus Newton Justine McCarthy, defendant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WHERE THE WEAK MUST BE STRONG
+
+
+The trial was called for early June, and Baptiste reached the city a
+week or ten days before the time set. He had become very friendly with
+the Negro lawyer who was conducting his case. He also secured a Gregory
+lawyer, the one who had conducted the contest case. When he arrived in
+the city, the lawyer advised that, inasmuch as they had a spare bedroom
+at his home, and that it would be imperative for them to be close to
+discuss various phases of the prosecution, he could have the room if he
+liked. So he accepted it.
+
+It so happened that the lawyer's home was located in the same block on
+Vernon Avenue as was the McCarthys, and on the same side of the street.
+Moreover, it had been built at the same time as had that of the
+McCarthys, and was very much like in appearance the one in which they
+were living.
+
+One afternoon a few days before the trial, while lingering at the bar of
+the Keystone Hotel, Baptiste was approached by Glavis, who invited him
+to a table nearby, where they were very much alone. He ordered the
+drinks, and when they were served he began:
+
+"Now, Baptiste, it seems we ought to be able to get together on this
+case without going into court."
+
+"Yes?" replied Baptiste, regarding the other noncommittally.
+
+"Yes, I think we could, and should. I think you and Orlean ought to be
+able to console your differences without such an extreme."
+
+"You _think_ so?"
+
+"Why, I do. Orlean has always--ah--rather loved you, Baptiste, and I
+think you two could make up."
+
+"But this is not between Orlean and me, Glavis. You seem to
+misunderstand. It is between N. Justine McCarthy and me."
+
+"Of course, but it is over Orlean. You have sued father for this sum, a
+sum you know he cannot pay in the event you should secure judgment. So
+there would be nothing left for you but to remand him to jail, which
+seems to be your desire."
+
+"Possibly so." The other was still noncommittal.
+
+"Then why not you and I get together on this proposition before the
+trial is called?"
+
+"I don't see as I can oblige you, Glavis. There comes a time when
+compromise is impossible, only vindication can suffice. And it's
+vindication that I want now and, regret to advise, am determined to
+have."
+
+"That seems rather severe, Baptiste."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Well, you see, I understand that the old man kinda--er, gave you the
+worst of it, but you ought to forget some things. Look at it from a
+broad viewpoint. See how expensive it is going to be, and all that."
+
+"I considered all that before I went into it, Glavis," replied Baptiste
+calmly.
+
+"Well, now, Baptiste, I want to stop this thing before it goes to court.
+If you had of kinda flattered the old man a little in the beginning as I
+did, all would have been well."
+
+"Why should I have done so when I didn't feel to?"
+
+"Oh, Baptiste, you are _so_ severe!"
+
+"When a man has suffered as I have, it is time to be severe, my friend.
+For your own benefit, I will say that I do not trust your father-in-law.
+I do not love him and never have. If it wasn't because I wish to observe
+and subserve to the law of the land, I would have killed him long ago.
+_Even when I think of it now_, my bitterness is so great at times that I
+must repel the inclination to strike him down for the coward he is. So
+if that's all, we will call the meeting to an end," so saying he arose,
+strode toward the bar and ordered drinks for both. He drank his with a
+gulp when served, and turned and left the saloon.
+
+Glavis proceeded to his lawyer, and advised him of his inability to
+dissuade the plaintiff.
+
+"Couldn't dissuade him, eh?"
+
+"Couldn't do a thing!"
+
+"That's too bad. It might be to your advantage if you could settle this
+case out of court. When will your father-in-law be in?"
+
+"I'm looking for him here in a day or so, now."
+
+"M-m." The attorney was thoughtful. "This is rather an unusual case," he
+resumed, "and I have been studying the complaint of the plaintiff. The
+old man, it seems to me, committed some very grave blunders."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"Quite obvious. And while it will be difficult for the plaintiff to
+secure a judgment in such a case; it is, however, apparent that the
+sympathy of the court will be against your father-in-law in the
+proceedings."
+
+Glavis was uncomfortable.
+
+"Now I take notice here that the plaintiff states that his wife drew a
+check for two hundred dollars unknown to her husband, and that the
+Reverend had it cashed. That may be regular, but it will not help her
+father's case. Again, he complains that her father influenced the girl
+to sell a quarter section of land for less than one-tenth what it cost
+the plaintiff. Of course these are technicalities that while they cannot
+justify a judgment will win the sympathy of the jury. What the plaintiff
+must show, however, is that his father-in-law actually was the direct
+cause of and did alienate the affections of his wife. Such a case is not
+without parallel, but it is uncommon. A father alienating the affections
+of his daughter.
+
+"Now where is your sister-in-law?"
+
+"At home."
+
+"Wish you'd bring her down. This is a complicated case, and we've got to
+conduct it with directness. She can be of great assistance in
+extricating her father from this predicament."
+
+"All right, sir. When shall I bring her?"
+
+"Oh, any time that is convenient. Tomorrow morning at nine will perhaps
+be the best. And, now, say! Have you any idea who the plaintiff is going
+to use as witnesses?"
+
+"Why, I think he plans to bring his grandmother from what I can hear,
+for one."
+
+"His grandmother? What does she know about it?"
+
+"Well, she was in the house when my father-in-law went on the visit and
+the girl came away with him."
+
+"I see. I'd like to know just what passed and what she heard and will
+testify to. I wonder whether she will testify that she overheard your
+father-in-law abusing this Baptiste to his wife?"
+
+"I really don't know."
+
+"Who else?"
+
+"I heard something about him going to bring a doctor down, and also a
+lawyer."
+
+"The doctor, eh?" He shook his head then a little dubiously. "This
+physician attended the girl while she was confined?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"M-m. I see here where we have recorded that your father-in-law claims
+that the girl was neglected; didn't have proper medical attention. What
+about this? Have you any knowledge as to how many visits this doctor
+made to the bedside of this girl when she was sick? Any knowledge of
+what kind of bill was rendered by him?"
+
+"I hear that his bill amounted to something like two hundred dollars."
+
+"Two hundred! Great Scott! And for a dead baby! Gee! We'll have to keep
+away from neglect as an excuse. That's a fact. No jury will believe such
+a statement if that fellow shows where he's paid such a bill as that!"
+
+Glavis shifted uneasily. He was seeing another side of the controversy.
+Before he had only seen one side of it, and that side was as the
+Reverend had had him see it.
+
+"You send or bring the girl down here tomorrow. It will be up to _her_
+to keep her father out of jail, that's all. It will be up to _her_ to
+convince the court that she never loved this man, that all he did for
+her was by persuasion, and that her father only followed her
+instructions. In short, it's almost directly up to her; for the
+plaintiff has certainly got the goods on her dad if he can prove that
+she ever loved him."
+
+Glavis was much disturbed when he went home. For the first time he was
+able to appreciate the full circumstances. It would be up to Orlean to
+save her father, and that he could see. He would take her to the lawyer,
+and have her carefully drilled. The success for them depended on her; on
+her falsifying to the court, for it could not be otherwise. For her to
+testify that she did not love--and had never loved Jean Baptiste, he
+knew would be a deliberate falsehood. It worried him, but he had to go
+through with it.
+
+He accompanied her to the lawyer's office as agreed, and there she was
+made to understand the gravity of the situation, that everything
+depended on her statements, _and her statements only_.
+
+Her father arrived the following day, and at the attorney's office in
+company with Orlean and Glavis, he was impressed with the nature of the
+defense. All were finally drilled in their course of action.
+
+That night Orlean faced the most serious period in her life. She was a
+weak woman and her weakness had been the cause of it all. The trial was
+approaching--and the result was _up to her_. Her father's freedom, his
+continuance in the pulpit, his vindication of the action he had taken
+depended upon _her_, and _her strength_.
+
+And that strength--for on that day she would _have_ to be
+strong,--_depended upon a lie_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE TRIAL--THE LIE--"AS GUILTY AS HELL!"
+
+
+"_Not guilty, your honor!_"
+
+The court room was silent for a time before any one stirred. It had been
+apparent that the decision would be so; because there were several
+reasons why the jury was constrained to render such a verdict.
+
+Among the reasons, chiefly, was the fact that the plaintiff had failed
+to produce sufficient evidence to justify a verdict in his favor. His
+grandmother, his corroborating witness, had answered her last call just
+before she was to start for Chicago to give hers, the most incriminating
+testimony. The doctor who had attended his wife during her confinement
+was indisposed, and was represented only by an affidavit. But what had
+gone harder than anything against the plaintiff was his wife's
+testimony. Under the most severe examination, and cross examinations,
+she had stood on her statements. She had never loved her husband, and
+had not been, therefore, actuated by her father's influence into leaving
+him. She had instructed her father in all he had done, and that he was
+in no wise guilty as accused.
+
+No jury could have rendered a verdict to the contrary under such
+circumstances, and no one--not even the plaintiff, had expected or even
+hoped that they would.
+
+But in the minds of every man and woman in the crowded court room, N.J.
+McCarthy stood a guilty man. Not even the faintest semblance of doubt as
+to this lingered in their minds. It was merely a case of insufficient
+evidence to convict. And while the people filed out into the air at the
+conclusion, every one had a vision of that arch hypocrite in his evil
+perpetuation. In their ears would always ring the story Jean Baptiste
+had told. Told without a tremor, he had recited the evils from the day
+he had married her up until the day she had sold her birthright for a
+mess of pottage. So vivid did he make it all that the court was held in
+a thraldom. For an hour and a half he detailed the evil of his enemy,
+his sinister purpose and action, his lordly deceit, and his artful
+cunningness, and brought women to tears by the sorrow in his face, his
+apparent grief and external mortification.
+
+Never had the black population of the city listened to or witnessed a
+more eloquent appeal. But justice had been unable to interfere. The
+trial was over, and Newton Justine McCarthy left the court room a free
+man, with head held high, and walking with sure step.
+
+Jean Baptiste left it calmly in company with his lawyers. They had
+anticipated losing the case before going into court, for it had been
+apparent to them that the outcome rested entirely with Baptiste's wife.
+If they failed to shake her testimony; that she had never loved him,
+then they knew it was hopeless. It had all depended on her--_and she had
+stood by her father_.
+
+"Well, I'm satisfied," said Baptiste as they went through the street.
+
+"I suppose so, in a way."
+
+"I wanted vindication. I wanted the people to know the truth."
+
+"And they know it now. He goes free, but the people know he is a guilty
+man, and that your wife _lied_ to save him."
+
+"Yes," said Baptiste a little wearily.
+
+Somehow he felt relieved. It seemed that a great burden had been lifted
+from his mind, and he closed his eyes as if shutting out the past now
+forever. He was free. Never would the instance that had brought turmoil
+and strife into his life trouble him again. Always before there had
+seemed to be a peculiar bond between him and the woman he had taken as
+wife. Always he seemed to have a claim upon her in spite of all and she
+upon him. But, by the decision of the court, all this had been swept
+away, and he sighed as if in peace.
+
+They found their way to the "L" station that was nearest, and there took
+a train for the south side. At Thirty-first Street Baptiste left his
+lawyer and slowly betook himself toward the familiar scenes on State
+Street.
+
+While he lost himself in the traffic of State Street, the Reverend, in
+company with Glavis, Ethel, and Orlean, boarded an Indiana Avenue
+surface car. The Reverend was cheery for a great fear had passed. A
+coward by nature, he had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown before
+the trial, thinking of what might happen. But now that was over. He was
+free. That meant everything. The fact that he was guilty in the minds of
+everybody who heard the trial, did not worry him now. He was free and
+could claim by the verdict that he was vindicated in the action he had
+taken. That was the great question. Always before he had been sensitive
+of the fingers of accusation that were upon him, and the worry had
+greatly impaired his usual appearance.
+
+And while he was relieved, Glavis, sitting proudly by him, was also. He
+talked cheerfully of the trial, of the decision, and of the future that
+was before them. He smiled at all times, and the Reverend's large face
+was also lighted up with a peculiar delight. But there was another who,
+in spite of the fact that the testimony from her lips had saved the day
+for the Reverend, was not happy, not cheerful, not in a mood to discuss
+the case.
+
+This one was Orlean. Few knew--in fact maybe only one other, and that
+was her husband--or appreciated how much that false testimony had cost
+her. She had lied; lied freely; lied stoutly; lied at every point of the
+case--_and this for the man who had brought her to it_. And _now_ when
+it was over she felt not at ease. While Jean Baptiste was conscious that
+a burden had been lifted from his mind, and Glavis and her father
+chatted freely, she sat silently by without even a clear thought. She
+was only conscious that she had lied, that after a life of weakness, a
+life that had made no one happy or cheerful or gay, she had for the
+first time in her life, deliberately lied. And as she became more
+conscious of what had passed, she felt a burden upon her. Never since
+the day she had abused her husband; never since the suffering her
+actions had brought him; never since as a climax to all this, when he
+lay upon the floor and she had kicked him viciously in the face, had she
+experienced a happy or a cheerful day.
+
+But today--after that terrible ordeal, she felt as if life held little
+for her, that she was now unfit to perform any womanly duty. She found
+no consolation in the fact that she had been encouraged to do as she had
+done by those who claimed to love her. That seemed to annoy her if
+anything. She could now, for the first time in her life, realize clearly
+what duty meant. Duty could not be side-tracked, regardless of what
+might have passed. Her husband had been good to her. He had given her
+the love that was his. Never had he abused her in any way, never had he
+used a cross word in her presence. But she had done everything to him.
+And as a climax to it all, she had _lied_.
+
+Oh, that lie would haunt her forever!
+
+They arrived at the street where they must leave the car for home. She
+arose along with the rest. When they stood upon the walkway and had
+started toward home, her father paused.
+
+"By the way, children," he said cheerfully. "I think I should call at
+the lawyer's office and thank him." He turned his eyes to Glavis, his
+worthy counsellor at all times, and read agreement in his face before
+the other opened his lips to give sanction.
+
+"I think that you should, too, father," he said, whereupon he turned to
+accompany him.
+
+"Well, I'll drop by his office. You may go on home with the girls,
+Glavis," he said. So saying he turned toward the attorney's office to
+settle his account and talk over the case.
+
+As he walked along his way, he became reflective. He allowed his mind to
+wander back into the past--back many years to the time when he had gone
+into the country to take a meal. He recalled that day at the dinner
+table where he had sat near a certain school teacher. She had been an
+attractive teacher, a rare woman in those days. And he admired her. It
+was a privilege to sit so close to her at the table, to wait on her, and
+be the recipient of her charming smiles. He saw himself now more clearly
+in retrospection. He saw a little boy standing hungrily at a distance.
+He saw again now, that same small boy approach the teacher; saw the
+teacher's motherly face and her arms reached out and caught that youth
+and then smother his face with kisses. He felt again the anger that
+little boy's action had aroused in him. He heard again the cries from
+the summer kitchen as the mother administered punishment for the same.
+He recalled briefly the years that followed. He recounted the testimony
+at the trial. For many, many months he had endeavored to make Baptiste
+suffer, and this day he had succeeded. But still he was not satisfied.
+The joy that had come of being freed of the accusation after his unhappy
+and nervous state of fear, had shut all else out of his mind for a time.
+After all freedom is so much. But was freedom all? He could not account
+for the feeling that was suddenly come over him. He recalled then again
+the severe chastisement he had caused Jean Baptiste to receive when he
+was a mere child. He recalled also how he had been instrumental in
+separating him from his daughter. He recalled now the lies, oh, the lies
+she had resorted to that had kept him out of jail, the tears he had shed
+from self pity, while Baptiste stood stoically by.
+
+And thinking thusly, he reached his destination.
+
+He found the attorney alone, busy over some papers. He approached him
+courteously, bowed, and thrusting his hand in his pocket, said:
+
+"Yes, sir. I thought I would drop in and pay you the balance of the fee
+that is now due, and thank you for your services." He smiled pleasantly
+as he spoke, and never appeared more impressive. The other regarded him
+a moment, held out his hand, accepted his fee, and said:
+
+"Well, it's over, and you are free."
+
+"Yes," said the Elder, but now found it rather hard to smile. "I am glad
+it is over for it was a very awkward affair, I must confess." He paused
+then, perforce. The lawyer was regarding him, and the Elder wondered at
+his expression. He had never seen that look in his face before. What did
+it mean? He was not kept long in suspense, for soon the other spoke.
+
+"Yes, you are free and fortunate."
+
+"Fortunate," the Reverend repeated, thoughtfully, and looking up found
+the lawyer's eyes upon him. They were looking straight into his with the
+same expression of a moment before.
+
+"Yes," said the lawyer then coldly, "you are _free_ and _fortunate_,
+because _you were as guilty as hell_!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+GRIM JUSTICE
+
+
+Agnes decided to visit Chicago and planned to be married there. Besides,
+since she was now engaged, the legacy in the bank at Rensselaer must be
+secured, and, according to her mother's will, consulted before she was
+married. She was curious to know what it was all about. Indeed, she was
+almost as anxious, if not more so to learn the contents of the legacy
+than she was to become the wife of the man she had consented to marry.
+
+Accordingly, before the train reached Chicago, she became very anxious.
+It gave her a peculiar and new thrill to recline in the luxurious
+Pullman, to have her needs answered and attended to by servants, and to
+be pointed out by curious people as the writer and composer of a song
+that had delighted the whole country. She was experiencing how very
+convenient life is when one has sufficient means to satisfy one's needs.
+This had been her privilege only a short time. A newsboy boarded the
+train and passed hurriedly through the cars with the morning papers. She
+purchased one, and glanced through the headlines. In the index she saw
+an account of the suit of Jean Baptiste, versus his father-in-law.
+Curiously and anxiously she turned to the account and read the
+proceedings of the trial. She laid the paper aside when through and
+reviewed her acquaintance with him in retrospection. How strange it all
+seemed at this late date. Beside her, a long, narrow mirror fit between
+the double windows. In this she studied her face a moment. Some years
+had passed since that day--and the other day, too, at the sod house. She
+thought of the man that was to be her mate and of what he would think
+should he ever know that the only man who had ever touched her lips
+before him, was a Negro. She found herself comparing the two men, and
+she was rather surprised at the difference she could distinguish. She
+tried to estimate what true love was. The life she had so recently
+entered was the life she had aspired to. She had hopes for it. The life
+that could now be hers was the goal of her ambition--and she had
+attained it! She should be satisfied. But was she?
+
+As the train with its luxurious appointments sped along, she felt after
+all that she was going out of the life that she really loved. Was it
+because she had always been so poor and unable to have the things she
+could now partake of at will, that such had become a habit, and
+indispensable to her happiness? For indeed she had a longing for the old
+life, the dash and open it afforded. She had a vision of Jean Baptiste
+and his honor. He had sacrificed her to be loyal to the race in which he
+belonged. Had it not been for this, she knew she would not be journeying
+to the great city to become the wife of another. But amid all these
+thoughts and introspectives and otherwise, there constantly recurred to
+her mind the man she was to marry and what he would think if he knew
+that she had once loved and would have married--_and even kissed a
+Negro_.
+
+She was glad when at last the train drew into the outskirts of the city,
+and the excitement about drove such reminiscences out of her mind. She
+had wired him, and of course, she expected him to meet her.
+
+"Oh, here you are," he cried as she stood upon the platform a half hour
+later. On hearing him her eyes wandered toward where he stood, and
+regarded him keenly for a moment. A really handsome man, immaculately
+attired in the finest tailored clothes and in the fashion of the day. He
+caught her in his arms and she did not resist the hot kisses he planted
+upon her cheeks. Still, she was greatly confused, and feared that she
+would create a scene before she had become accustomed to the ways and
+dash of the city.
+
+He had her arm--held it close, as they passed through the station and
+crossed the walkway to where an inclosed auto stood. Into this he
+ushered her, attended to her luggage, and a moment later followed her
+inside. Through the city with all its bustle and excitement they sped.
+
+"I'm going to take you to my aunt's," he said, when they had gotten
+started.
+
+"Oh," she chimed. At that moment she could think of nothing to say. It
+was all so confusing to her. She was so unaccustomed to any kind of a
+city that she was actually in a fear. She did not realize because of the
+distinction to which she had attained, that any awkwardness on her part
+would be looked upon as the eccentricity of a genius. She decided,
+however, to say as little as possible, to speak only when spoken to. In
+that way she would try not to cause him any embarrassment or
+mortification.
+
+"You have certainly been a hard one to pull off the farm, dear," she
+heard now.
+
+"Oh, do you think so?" she said coyly.
+
+"Do I think so?" he laughed. "Well, say, now, there isn't one person in
+a thousand who, after writing the hit you have composed, wouldn't have
+been over all this old land by this time, letting people see them."
+
+"Oh, I could never wish that," she said quickly.
+
+"Oh, come, now! Get into the limelight." He eyed her artfully, winked
+playfully, and continued: "You'll like it when you get the modesty out
+of yourself."
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+He regarded her quickly out of the corner of his eye, and then looked
+ahead.
+
+"Ever heard of State Street?" he inquired.
+
+"Oh, yes. Is this it?"
+
+"This is State Street," he said, and she looked out and started. She
+didn't know just what she had expected to see, but what met her gaze and
+made her start was the sight of so many Negroes.
+
+"What's the matter, dear?" he said, glancing at her quickly.
+
+"Why--ah--oh, nothing."
+
+"I wondered why you started," and he again looked ahead. They were
+across it now, and approaching Wabash Avenue. He turned into this, to
+where his aunt lived some distance out in the most exclusive part of its
+residence section.
+
+Agnes, sitting by his side, despite the excitement, the great buildings
+and fine streets, was thinking of the past, and of what she had just
+seen. Negroes, Negroes, and _that_ would have been her life had she
+married Jean Baptiste. All such was foreign to her, but she could
+estimate what it would have meant. She was sure she could never have
+become accustomed to such an association, it wouldn't have seemed
+natural. And then she thought of Jean Baptiste, the man. Oh, of him, it
+was always so different. In her mind he was like no other person in the
+world. How strange, and singularly sweet had been her acquaintance with
+him. Never had she understood any one as she understood him. She tried
+to shut him out of her life, for the time had come, and she must. But
+_could_ she? When she dared close her eyes she seemed to see him more
+clearly.
+
+The car had stopped now, and he was lifting her out before a large house
+that stood back from the street some distance in sumptuous splendor. As
+they went up the walkway, the large front doors parted, and a handsome
+elderly woman came forth. Upon her face was written refinement and
+culture.
+
+"Oh, aunt, here we are."
+
+"I saw you coming because I was watching," said his aunt, coming
+forward, the personification of dignity. She held out her arms, and
+Agnes felt herself being embraced and kissed. Her head was in a whirl.
+How could _she_ readily become accustomed to such without displaying
+awkwardness.
+
+Arm in arm they mounted the steps, were met by the butler, who took her
+bags, and a moment later she found herself in a large, richly furnished
+room.
+
+"Come now, dear," he said, and led her to a couch. She heard his aunt
+going upstairs to prepare her room, and the next moment she felt him
+draw her to him, and whatever difference there was in this convenient
+life, all men loved alike.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jean Baptiste lingered late at the Keystone bar. He was alone in the
+world, he felt, so company of the kind about seemed the best, and was,
+at least, diverting. It was twelve o'clock and after when he left. He
+still retained his room at the attorney's residence, and to this he
+strolled slowly. He attempted to formulate some plans in his mind, and
+after a time it occurred to him that he should go back West to Gregory.
+He had hired more than seven hundred fifty acres put into wheat. He
+hadn't heard how it was, or whether there was any wheat there or not.
+But he had seen in the papers that a drought had affected much of the
+crop in Kansas and Nebraska. He half heartedly assumed that it would
+naturally hit his country also. If so, there was nothing left for him to
+do but leave that section. But he would depart from the city on the
+morrow and see what there was up there, and with this settled in his
+mind, he quickened his step, and hurried to his room.
+
+He turned into the right number, as he thought, but upon trying to
+insert the key in the lock he found that he had made a mistake. He
+glanced up in confusion and almost uttered a cry. It was not the
+attorney's home, but that of the Reverend McCarthy.
+
+"Chump!" he said to himself as he turned and started back down the
+steps. "I'll never sleep inside that house again," and laughed.
+
+Upon the walk he heard steps, and when he had reached the street, looked
+up to meet Glavis and a strange Negro just turning in. Glavis glared at
+him as if to say, "Well, what business have you here, now?" But Baptiste
+mumbled some word of apology about having turned in at the wrong number,
+went directly to his room, retired and forgot the incident.
+
+He had no idea how long he had been asleep or what time it was when he
+was awakened suddenly by a drumming on his door, and the attorney's
+voice, saying:
+
+"Heh! Heh! Baptiste, wake up, wake up, you're wanted!"
+
+He turned on his side and drew his hand to his forehead to assure
+himself that he was awake. Then, realizing that he was, he jumped from
+the bed and going forward, opened the door.
+
+Two officers, the attorney in a bath robe, and Glavis stood at the
+door. He regarded them curiously. "What is this?" he managed to say, as
+they came into the room.
+
+"Seems that they want you," said the attorney.
+
+"Me?" he chimed.
+
+"Yep," said one of the officers. "Will you go along peacefully or shall
+we have to put the bracelets on. You're arrested for murder."
+
+"For murder! _Me_, for murder?"
+
+"Just go with the officers, Baptiste. If you'd been a little earlier you
+might have gotten away; but it so happened that I met you coming out
+just as I was going in."
+
+"But I don't understand what you're talking about--all of you,"
+persisted Baptiste. "Who has been murdered, and why am I accused?"
+
+The lawyer had been observing him keenly, and now he interposed.
+
+"Why, your wife and her father have just been found murdered, and Glavis
+here and another assert they met you coming out of the house at midnight
+or a little after."
+
+The incident of the night came back to him then, "Well," he muttered,
+and began to get into his clothes. When he was fully dressed he turned
+to the attorney and said:
+
+"Glavis is right in part, White." He was very calm. "I'll call you up
+when I need you." And then he turned to the officers and said. "I'm
+ready. The cuffs will not be necessary."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A FRIEND
+
+
+Because she feared that rising as early as she had been accustomed to
+might serve to embarrass her fiance and his aunt, Agnes took a magazine
+from her bag, returned to bed and tried to interest herself in a story
+the morning following her arrival in the city. About seven, some one
+knocked lightly at her door, and, upon opening it, she found the maid
+with the morning paper.
+
+"Would you care for it?" she asked courteously.
+
+"I would be glad to have it," she said as she took it, returned to the
+bed, and once again therein, turned to read the news. It was but a
+moment before she started up quickly as she read:
+
+     STRANGE MURDER CASE ON VERNON AVENUE
+
+     NEGRO MINISTER AND HIS DAUGHTER FOUND MURDERED ABOUT MIDNIGHT
+
+     JEAN BAPTISTE, WHO HAD LOST SUIT AGAINST PREACHER, ARRESTED AND
+     HELD WITHOUT BAIL AS SUSPECT. WAS MET LEAVING THE HOUSE JUST BEFORE
+     DISCOVERY OF THE MURDER.
+
+     Jean Baptiste, Negro author and rancher is under arrest at the
+     county jail this morning, accused of the murder of his wife and
+     father-in-law, the Reverend N.J. McCarthy, at 3---- Vernon Avenue.
+     The dead bodies of the preacher and his daughter were discovered
+     shortly after midnight last night by his daughter Ethel and her
+     husband, upon his return from State Street where he had seen
+     Baptiste leave the Keystone saloon a few minutes after twelve.
+
+     The murder appears to be the sequence of a long enmity between the
+     preacher and his son-in-law, Baptiste. Some years ago Baptiste had
+     the preacher's daughter take a homestead in the West, on which he
+     had purchased a relinquishment for her. Some months later they were
+     married and went to live on the claim he had secured. It seems that
+     bad blood existed between the preacher and Baptiste, and some time
+     after the marriage the preacher went on a trip West and when he
+     returned brought his daughter back with him. It is said that the
+     rancher visited Chicago several times following in an effort to
+     persuade her to return. About a year ago, the daughter sold a
+     relinquishment on the homestead and Baptiste accused the preacher
+     of having influenced her to do so. He also accused him of other
+     things that contributed to the separation, and finally sued the
+     minister in the circuit court of Cook County for ten thousand
+     dollars for alienating his wife's affections. The case was brought
+     up, tried, and, yesterday, the minister was adjudged not guilty by
+     the jury. The rancher and author made a strong case against the
+     minister, and it was the consensus of opinion in the court room
+     that the minister was guilty. But it was his daughter's alibi that
+     saved him: she testified that she did not and never had loved her
+     husband, and because the plaintiff was unable to prove conclusively
+     that she had, the jury's verdict was "not guilty."
+
+     E.M. Glavis, also a son-in-law of the dead man, testified and was
+     corroborated by another, a minister, that just as he turned into
+     his yard last night, he met Jean Baptiste coming out. He moreover
+     claims, that a few days before the trial, he tried to dissuade
+     Baptiste from going through with the case, and to settle it out of
+     court. But that Baptiste refused to consider it; that he showed his
+     bitterness toward the now dead man, by declaring that if he hadn't
+     wished to observe and subserve to the law, he would have killed the
+     preacher long ago.
+
+     It is therefore the consensus of opinion that Baptiste,
+     disappointed by losing the suit, entered the house and murdered his
+     wife and father-in-law while they slept. The circumstantial
+     evidence is strong, and it looks rather bad for the author. Only
+     one phase of the case seems to puzzle the police, however, and that
+     is that the preacher and his daughter were found dead in the same
+     room, the room which the minister occupied. Both had been stabbed
+     with a knife that had long been in that same room. The minister's
+     body lay in bed as if he had been murdered while he was sleeping,
+     while that of the daughter lay near the door. It is the opinion
+     also of those who feel Baptiste guilty, that he entered the house
+     and went to the preacher's room, and there killed him while he lay
+     sleeping; and that the daughter, who was sleeping downstairs near
+     her mother, was possibly aroused by the noise, went up to the room,
+     and was murdered as the intruder was about to leave.
+
+     Baptiste refused to make any comment further than that he was
+     innocent.
+
+"Accused of murder!" Agnes echoed, staring before her in much
+excitement. "_Jean Baptiste accused of murder!_" She read the account
+again. She arose and stood on the floor. "He _is_ innocent, _he is
+innocent_!" she cried to herself. "_Jean Baptiste would not commit
+murder, no, no, no! No, not even if he was justified in doing so._"
+Suddenly she seized her clothes, and in the next instant was getting
+hurriedly into them.
+
+She completed her toilet quickly, opened the door and slipped down the
+stairs. The maid was at work in the hall, and she approached her, and
+said:
+
+"Will you kindly advise the lady of the house that I have gone downtown
+on some very urgent business. That I shall return later in the day?"
+
+She stepped outside, crossed to State Street, inquired of an officer the
+way to the county jail, and a few minutes later boarded a car for the
+north side.
+
+She had no plans as to what she would or could do, but she was going to
+him. All that he had been to her in the past had arisen the instant she
+saw that he was in trouble. Especially did she recall his having saved
+them from foreclosure and disgrace years before. She was determined. She
+was _going_ to him, he was innocent, she was positive, and she would do
+all in her power to save him.
+
+It was rather awkward, going to a place she had never dreamed of going
+to, the county jail, but she shook this resolutely from her mind, and a
+few minutes following her arrival, there she stood before the bailiff.
+
+"I am a friend of a man who was arrested in connection with a murder
+last night," she explained to the officer. "And--ah, would it be
+possible for me to see and consult with him?"
+
+"You refer to that case on Vernon Avenue, madam?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And you would like to see this Jean Baptiste?"
+
+"That is the one."
+
+They regarded her closely, and was finally asked to follow the bailiff.
+
+They stopped presently before a cell, and when the light had been turned
+on, she saw Baptiste sitting on a cot. He looked up, and upon
+recognizing her, came forward.
+
+"Why, Agnes--Miss Stewart, _you_!" he cried in great surprise. He
+regarded her as if afraid to try to understand her presence there.
+
+"Yes, Jean," she answered quickly. "It is _I_." She hesitated in her
+excitement, and as she did so, he caught that same mystery in her eyes.
+They were blue, and again he could swear that they were brown. Despite
+his precarious position and predicament, he could not help regarding
+her, and marking the changes that had come in the years since he had
+seen her. She seemed to have grown a trifle stouter, while her hair
+appeared there in the light more beautiful. Her face was stronger, while
+her lips were as red as ever. Withal, she had grown more serious
+looking. She reminded him as she stood there then, of a serious young
+literary woman, and he was made hopeful by her visit.
+
+"Now, Jean, I've read all about it in the papers. I happened to be in
+the city, and so came right over. I know nothing about anything like
+this, and don't suppose you do either. But, Jean," she spoke excitedly,
+anxiously, and hurriedly, "I am willing to do anything you ask me to,
+just anything, Jean." And she regarded him tenderly. He was affected by
+it, he choked confusedly. It was all so sudden. She noted his confusion,
+and cried in a strained little voice,
+
+"You must just tell _me_, Jean."
+
+"Why, Agnes--I. Well, I don't know what to say. I don't feel that I
+ought to involve you in such a mess as this. I--"
+
+"Oh, you must not speak that way, Jean. No, no, no! I'm here to help
+you. You _didn't_ kill him, you _didn't_ kill _her_--_you didn't kill
+anybody, did you, Jean_?"
+
+"Of course I didn't kill anybody, Agnes."
+
+"Of course you didn't, Jean!" she cried with relief. "I _knew_ you were
+innocent. I said so, and I got out of bed and came at once, I did."
+
+"How brave, how noble, how kind," he murmured as if to himself, but she
+reached and placed her hand over his where it rested upon the bar.
+
+"Shall I hire a lawyer, Jean? A great lawyer--the best in the city. That
+would be the first thing to do, wouldn't it, Jean?"
+
+He looked at her, and could not believe it was so, but finally he
+murmured:
+
+"I have a lawyer--a friend of mine. You may call on him, Agnes. His
+number is 3---- Vernon Avenue. He will tell me what to do."
+
+"And _me_," she said quickly.
+
+"Yes--_you_," he repeated, and lowered his eyes.
+
+"Well, I'm going now, Jean," and she reached for his hand.
+
+He was almost overcome, and could not look at her directly.
+
+"Be strong, Jean. It will come out all right--it must come out all
+right--"
+
+"Oh, Agnes, this is too much. Forget it. You should not--"
+
+"Please hush, Jean," she said imploringly, and he glanced up to see
+tears in her eyes. She looked away to hide them. As she did so, she
+cried: "Oh, Jean, I know what _they_ have been doing to you--how you
+have been made to suffer. And--and--I--could _never_ stand to see it
+after all--" she broke away then, and rushed from him and out of the
+building. He watched her and when she was gone, he went back to the cot
+and sat him down, and murmured.
+
+"Agnes, oh, Agnes,--_and after all that has passed_!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE MYSTERY
+
+
+After Agnes had consulted with the lawyer, who was glad to go into the
+case, and agreed to engage a worthy assistant, she returned to Baptiste
+and said:
+
+"Now, Jean. Don't you think that if I secured a good detective to look
+into it--this case, it would be the proper thing?"
+
+"Why--yes, Agnes," he said. He could hardly accustom himself to her in
+such a situation.
+
+"I think that would be best," she resumed. "As I was coming downtown on
+the car I observed the Pinkerton Office on 5th Avenue and now, Jean, if
+you think that would be a practical move, I will go there at once and
+have them send a man to you. I'll bring him."
+
+"That would be practical, Agnes. Yes," he said thoughtfully, "since you
+insist--"
+
+"No more, please," and she affected a little smile. "Just let me work
+until we arrive somewhere," and she was gone, returning in due time with
+a man.
+
+"I represent the Pinkerton agency, Mr. Baptiste," he said, after
+greeting the prisoner, "and now if you will state just where you were;
+what time, as near as you can recall, that you reached home; also what
+time you turned into this place where the murder was committed, I shall
+be glad to get down to work on the case."
+
+Since Baptiste had observed the time by the clock in the Keystone before
+leaving there, he was quite accurate in fixing the time he reached his
+room. Since we have followed him to his room, we know this phase of the
+case.
+
+"Well, I'll hike over there and squint around a little. Hope I'll get
+there before the inquest is held." And so saying, he was gone.
+
+"I will go back to where I am staying, now, Jean," said Agnes, after the
+detective had departed, "and you may expect me at any time. I want to
+see you out of here as soon as possible, and I will do all in my power
+to get you out," and she dashed away.
+
+The detective went to the McCarthy home forthwith. The bodies had been
+removed and were then at the morgue. He looked into the room where the
+tragedy had been committed, and then sought Glavis.
+
+"Who discovered the murder, Mr. Glavis?" he inquired when they stood in
+the death room.
+
+"Why myself and another fellow returned home just after it had been
+committed."
+
+"How did _you_ know it had just been committed?"
+
+"Well--why, my wife was in the hall-way, and when we entered she had
+just discovered the bodies."
+
+"But that doesn't prove that they had just been murdered."
+
+"But my wife says she was awakened by her sister's scream."
+
+"I see. So it was your wife who first discovered the bodies, or that
+they had just been murdered."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where had you been, and what time did you return home?"
+
+"I had been around town, to the Keystone where Baptiste was until
+shortly after midnight."
+
+"You saw this Baptiste leave the hotel?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"How long after Baptiste left was it, before you followed?"
+
+"Perhaps fifteen minutes."
+
+"_Perhaps_ fifteen minutes; but you are not positive?"
+
+"No, but I am quite certain."
+
+"When you left the hotel, where did you go?"
+
+"I came here."
+
+"You came directly here. Didn't stop on the way anywhere?"
+
+"I did not."
+
+"And when you arrived, what happened? Did you meet anybody on the way?"
+
+"I passed people of whom I took no notice on the way here, of course.
+The only person I took notice of was Jean Baptiste."
+
+"Where did you meet him?"
+
+"Coming out of the house upon my arrival."
+
+"You met him coming out of the house upon your arrival?"
+
+"Well, out of the yard. I saw him come down the steps that leads up to
+the house."
+
+"But you _didn't_ see him come out of the house?"
+
+"Well, no, I didn't see that."
+
+"Did you exchange any words with him when you met him? Did you stop and
+talk?"
+
+"No. But I heard him mutter something."
+
+"Did you understand the words or any words he muttered?"
+
+"I thought he said something about having turned in at the wrong place."
+
+"How do you account for him having done so--if so?"
+
+"Well, the house where he stops is just a few doors--about a half
+dozen--up the street--"
+
+"On the same side or the opposite?"
+
+"The same side. And he was stopping there."
+
+"Did you have any conversation with Baptiste after the trial in which he
+sued your father-in-law?"
+
+"No; but I tried to have him settle the case before going to court."
+
+"What did he say to it?"
+
+"Refused to consider it."
+
+"Did he give reasons?"
+
+"Yes. He said he wanted vindication."
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"That he would have killed the Elder if it had not been that he was an
+observer of the law."
+
+"Where were they murdered?"
+
+"She lay near the door, while he lay in bed."
+
+"Any evidence of a struggle?"
+
+"No, not as I could see."
+
+"With what were they murdered?"
+
+"With a knife that has been in the room here for two or three years."
+
+"Was Baptiste aware that such a knife was in the room?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"When, to your knowledge, was Baptiste last in the house?"
+
+"He has not been in the house for more than three years."
+
+"Then he couldn't have known the knife was there."
+
+"Well, unless he discovered it when he entered the room."
+
+"Providing he _entered_ the room. Was he aware also that the preacher
+occupied this particular room? Is it not reasonable to suppose that he
+would not know where the preacher slept if he had not been in the house
+for three years?"
+
+"But he could have looked around."
+
+"Possibly. But how do you account for the girl's body being here in the
+room also. Where did she sleep?"
+
+"Downstairs near her mother. It is my theory that she was disturbed by
+the sound of some one walking, went upstairs, and was in time to see the
+tragedy of her father, and was in turn murdered by her husband."
+
+"That is your _theory_. But why was there no evidence of a struggle? It
+hardly seems reasonable that she would have allowed herself to be
+stabbed without some effort to save herself."
+
+"Well, that is beyond me. Jean Baptiste acted suspicious in my opinion,
+and it is certainly strange that he should have been in the position he
+was at such a crucial time."
+
+"May I consult with your wife?"
+
+Glavis looked around, uneasily. "She is very much torn up by the
+incident," he suggested.
+
+"But this is a very grave matter."
+
+"Well," and he turned and entered the room wherein Ethel had enclosed
+herself.
+
+"Ethel, an officer has called and wishes to consult with you."
+
+"No, no, no!" she yelled. "Send him away. Didn't I tell you I didn't
+want to see no police," and she fell to crying. The detective had
+entered the room in the meantime, and when she looked up, she saw him.
+
+"What are you doing in here?" she fairly screamed. He did not flinch
+under the glare she turned upon him. Indeed, the day was at last come
+when she could frighten no one. The one she had been able to drive to
+any lengths with such a propaganda, lay stiff at the morgue. The
+detective regarded her searchingly, and upon realizing he was not going
+to jump and run, she ceased that unseemly noise making and began crying,
+woefully.
+
+"You discovered this tragedy, madam?" he inquired calmly, but with a
+note of firmness in his tone.
+
+"Yes, yes!--oh, my poor sister! My poor father--and that low down man!"
+
+"When did you discover this, madam?"
+
+"Just as soon as it was done, oh me!"
+
+"How did you come to discover it, lady?"
+
+"By my sister's scream. She screamed so loud it seemed everybody must
+have heard it. Screamed when he stuck that knife into her breast!"
+
+"How long after you heard her scream was it before you came out of the
+room--your room?"
+
+"I came at once," she said sulkily, and tried to cry louder. The
+detective was thoughtful.
+
+"So you came at once! And what did _you see_ when you came out?"
+
+At this she seemed overcome, and it was some moments before he could get
+her answer, and that was after he had repeated.
+
+"My sister and father lying murdered in the room there."
+
+"Is _that all_ you saw?"
+
+She was sulky again. After a time she muttered. She wrinkled her face
+but the tears would not come. Presently she said, and the detective
+caught an effort on her part to say it.
+
+"Yes. But I think I heard a door slam downstairs."
+
+"You _think_ you heard a door slam? What happened next?"
+
+"My husband came."
+
+"How long after the door slammed was it before your husband came?"
+
+"Not long."
+
+"Is it not possible that when you heard the door slam, that it was your
+husband coming in?"
+
+"No. I heard the door slam behind him, too." Again he thought he
+detected something singular in her manner, as if she were not telling
+all she knew....
+
+The detective went downstairs and talked with Mrs. McCarthy a few
+minutes, and then took his leave. He called up Agnes, and made an
+appointment and met her some hours later.
+
+"What have you discovered?" she inquired anxiously, her eyes searching
+his face.
+
+"Well," said he, slowly, "a few things, I think."
+
+"And Jean--Mr. Baptiste?" He looked up sharply and searched her face.
+
+"He is innocent."
+
+"Thank God!" And she clasped her hands and looked down in great relief.
+Quickly, she looked up, however, and cried: "But the proof. Will
+you--can you _prove_ it?"
+
+He toyed idly with a pencil he held in his hands, and after a time,
+drawled: "I think so. _When the proper time comes._"
+
+"The _proper_ time? And--when will that be?" Her voice was controlled,
+but the anxiety was apparent.
+
+"Well, we'll say at the preliminary hearing tomorrow morning."
+
+"And--and--you have no more to report?"
+
+"Not today. I shall attend the inquest, of course. And where may I see
+you--say, tomorrow?"
+
+"At the hearing."
+
+"Very well, then. Good day."
+
+"Good day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+VENGEANCE IS MINE. I WILL REPAY
+
+
+"Jean," she cried joyfully. "The detective says that you are innocent;
+and that he feels he will be able to place the crime where it belongs!"
+
+"I'm glad," he said solemnly. She bestowed upon him a kind smile as she
+said:
+
+"So I thought I would just come over and cheer you up. There is
+something mysterious about it all, and the newspapers are devoting much
+space to it. Oh, I'm so glad to hope that it will be all over tomorrow,
+and you will be let out of this place, so you can go back home and cut
+your wheat."
+
+"My wheat?"
+
+"Yes, of course, Jean. You have a fine crop of wheat on all your land."
+
+"I have?"
+
+"Yes, it is so," she reassured him. And then she paused, as something
+seemed to occur to her. "Because of the fact that you have had several
+failures you cannot realize that you have actually raised a crop, a big
+crop, better than any crop since--since." She stopped short, and he
+understood and suppressed a sigh. When he looked up, she was moving down
+the hallway, her mind filled with something she had almost forgotten
+during the past two days.
+
+He knew of it. She had been given quite a write-up in the social columns
+of a Chicago paper and many lovers of her musical hit, were, unknown to
+her, curious with regard to her coming marriage.
+
+The detective Agnes had retained, called on Baptiste's lawyers and held
+a lengthy consultation. When he left them, an understanding had been
+reached with regard to the hearing, and silence was agreed upon.
+
+At the magistrate's office the following morning, the court room was
+crowded. Scores were turned away, and all the family had been
+subpoenaed.
+
+Glavis was first called, and related what he knew, which has already
+been related. Next came Mrs. McCarthy who knew even less. She was
+followed by Ethel, and the detective and two lawyers questioned her
+closely.
+
+"Now, you say you heard your sister scream," said the lawyer after the
+usual formalities had passed. "Will you kindly state to the court just
+what you overheard and know regarding this affair?"
+
+She glared at him, and then her eyes met those of Baptiste, and she
+glared again. She told a varied story of the case, and made it very
+brief.
+
+"You say, madame, that after you heard your sister scream you rushed
+from your room and to where she was?"
+
+"Yes," she answered, and those near noticed the sulkiness.
+
+"And when you arrived you found her dead near the door, while your
+father lay murdered in the bed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you recall, Mrs. Glavis, whether she screamed long, or whether it
+was brief?"
+
+She hesitated, somewhat confused. Presently, she stiffened and said: "It
+was long."
+
+"Did it last until after you had left your bed?"
+
+"It did."
+
+"Until you had left the room you were in?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In fact she was screaming still when you arrived at the door of the
+room, no doubt?" the lawyer's tone was very careless, just as though he
+were not in the least serious. Her reply was prompt.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Now Mrs. Glavis, do you recall having ever heard your sister scream
+before in a like manner?"
+
+She started perceptibly. Her eyes widened, as if she were recalling an
+incident. Suddenly she became oblivious of her present surroundings, and
+conscious of a night two years before.... When she resumed her
+testimony, she was seen to be weaker.
+
+"No," she said bravely.
+
+Now it so happened that the attorneys for the defense had consulted with
+a chemist, who was in the court room by request. At this juncture he was
+called to the stand. He was asked a number of questions, and then Ethel
+was again placed on the stand.
+
+"Now, madame, the court has decided to investigate this matter
+thoroughly. You are positive Jean Baptiste, here, killed your sister,
+also your father? You remember, of course, in giving your testimony,
+_that we are going to investigate the case and prosecute for perjury_!"
+She had been seen to raise her handkerchief to her eyes with the first
+announcement regarding the investigation. Now she uttered a loud cry as
+the tears flowed unchecked. Suddenly she dropped her handkerchief, and
+with her arms stretched forward, she screamed:
+
+"_No, no! Orlean, Orlean! Oh, my God, Orlean!_" And in the next instant
+she would have fallen in a dead faint had those near not caught her. For
+this is how it happened.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the family returned from the court house, Orlean had retired at
+once, complaining of a headache. Since she had very often since her
+father brought her home complained of such, no particular attention had
+been paid it. She stayed in bed until late in the afternoon. In the
+meantime her father went over to the west side, presumably to call on
+Mrs. Pruitt. It was late when he returned, about eleven o'clock, that
+night.
+
+Orlean retired again about ten, and had fallen into a troubled sleep.
+She felt the same as she did the night she had returned from Mrs.
+Merley's, and she could not account for the strange nausea that lingered
+over her.
+
+When N.J. McCarthy returned, he went to the kitchen for a drink of
+water, after which, he must return through the room in which his
+daughter, Orlean, lay sleeping. As he had done on that occasion two
+years before, he had paused at the foot of the bed to observe his
+sleeping daughter. How long he stood thus, he never knew, but after a
+time he became conscious of that strange sensation that had come over
+him on the memorable night before. He tried to throw off the uncanny
+feeling, but it seemed to hang on like grim death. And as he stood
+enmeshed in its sinister thraldom, he thought he again saw her rise and
+point an accusing finger at him. Out of it all he was sure he heard
+again her voice in all its agony as it had spoken that other night. But
+tonight the accusation was more severe.
+
+[Illustration: From a painting by W.M. Farrow.
+
+HE TRIED TO THROW OFF THE UNCANNY FEELING, BUT IT SEEMED TO HANG ON LIKE
+GRIM DEATH. AND AS HE STOOD ENMESHED IN ITS SINISTER THRALDOM, HE
+THOUGHT HE SAW HER RISE AND POINT AN ACCUSING FINGER AT HIM.]
+
+"_There you are again, my betrayer_," she said coldly. "_Today you
+completed your nefarious task; you completed the evil that began more
+than thirty years ago, oh, debaser of women! Where is Speed, and the
+wife of his you ruined? Where? In hell and its tortures did you say?
+Yes, and where are my brothers? Oh, don't tremble, for you should know!
+No, you made me pretend to feel that you had not committed that sin, and
+other sins, also. But I knew--yes, I knew! You never told me I had
+brothers. You said foolish things to deceive me and the mother of mine.
+You called me by a boy's name, Jim, and pretended, because you did not
+recognize your illegitimate off-spring, that there were none. And then
+came Jean. Oh, you had him at a disadvantage always! When he was a
+little boy, you started your evil, and twenty years later you renewed
+it. Why, oh, you vain sinner, you know! He married me--perhaps he didn't
+love me then as he might have--as he would have had I tried to be the
+woman he wished me to be. But you took advantage of the weakness that
+was in me by the heritage of my mother, and you made me subservient unto
+your evil will!_
+
+"_Well, it's all over now, and from this day henceforth you will never
+see peace. The evil and misery you have brought unto others, shall now
+be cast upon you. You are my father, and the creator of my weakness, but
+you have taken my husband and soul mate, and made a new generation
+impossible for me to lead. And now I say unto you, go forth and repent.
+Begone from me. For from this day evermore though in weak flesh I may
+pretend to love you, know that I must hate you!_"
+
+He shook himself, and succeeded in casting off the depression. When he
+looked again, Orlean was sitting up in bed, regarding him sleepily. He
+started, and wondered whether what had passed was real, but in the next
+moment he was relieved.
+
+"Papa," she said in her usual, but sleepy-like voice, "Is that you?"
+
+"Yes, daughter," he replied quickly, and as if to still the excitement
+in his heart, he passed quickly around to where she reposed, and planted
+a kiss upon her lips, and turning, hurried upstairs.
+
+She sat upright for some minutes after he had gone, and became conscious
+of that singular feeling that she had felt all the day, still lingering
+over her. As she sat there, she heard the little clock on the table
+beside her mother strike 11:30. She lay down again, and a few minutes
+later she was asleep.
+
+The Reverend retired quickly and wished he could sleep and forget what
+he thought he had seen and heard. He was successful, and soon he was
+snoring. He could not understand upon being awakened slowly how long he
+had slept, but he became conscious that the light was burning brightly.
+He turned on his back, and when he could see clearly, his eyes fell upon
+Orlean.
+
+She stood between him and the door, and he regarded her with a puzzled
+expression. Presently his eyes met hers, and he started up. _What was
+the matter with her?_ Her eyes were like coals of burning fire; her
+stiff, bushy hair, was unbraided and stood _away from her head giving
+her the appearance of a savage. But it was the expression of her eyes
+that disturbed him._ He was held in a thraldom of fear as she slowly
+advanced toward the bed.
+
+"Orlean," he at last managed to say. "What is the--"
+
+"_I have come at last to right a wrong_," she began in an uncanny voice.
+Never had he seen her appear like that before, nor heard her speak in
+such a voice. She paused when she was beside the bed, and stood looking
+down upon him in that demented fashion. The cold perspiration broke out
+all over him, and he trembled.
+
+"_Oh, you told me my husband did not love me. While he worked to make us
+comfortable and happy out there on the claim you sat beside my sick bed
+and told me lies. While he grieved over the loss of our little one, you
+conceived a vile plot to 'get even,' Oh, you--liar! You sunk his soul
+into hell for spite. And then today--yesterday you reached your climax
+by having me go on the stand and testify to a greater lie! To save your
+wretched soul from disgrace, I swore to the most miserable lie a woman
+could tell! And now that you have made him suffer unjustly, and spoiled
+all life held for me, the judgment of God is upon you. The God that you
+have lied to and made a laughing idol of seeks restitution! So you
+sinner of all the sins, vengeance is mine, I will repay!_"
+
+So saying, she reached quickly and grasped the knife he had found years
+before, a desperate looking instrument with a six-inch blade and bone
+handle. She raised it high, and for the first time he was fully
+awakened. He attempted to struggle upward, but with a strength borne of
+excitement, she pushed him and he felled backward upon the bed.
+
+"_Orlean, my child, Orlean! My God--oh, my heaven, what do you--_" he
+got no further. Quickly her poised arm descended, and the knife she held
+sank deeply into his heart.
+
+"_Oh, God--my beloved God--ah--oh--Christ! Christo...._" he struggled
+upward while she stood over him with that same white expression upon her
+face. As the blood clogged in the cut the knife had made, and all the
+pulsations concentrated, struggled before ceasing their functions for
+all time, he turned his dying eyes toward her. Regarded her blindly for
+a moment, and then, dropped limply back from where he had risen, dead.
+In that moment she regained her sanity.
+
+She regarded him a moment wildly, and then she closed her eyes to try to
+shut out the awful thing she had done and screamed long and wildly--just
+as she had done that night when she returned from Mrs. Merley's. Then,
+as the echo died away, the door was pushed open, and before her stood
+Ethel. One terrible look and the mad girl went quickly forward, halted,
+swayed, and then with a moan, raised the knife and sank it into her own
+breast. Drawing it forth she regarded Ethel wildly, and then, throwing
+the knife against the wall of the room, dropped dead at Ethel's feet,
+just as Glavis' steps were heard in the hall below.
+
+When he heard his wife scream, and had rushed upstairs, saw the dead
+father-in-law and her sister, he cried:
+
+"Jean Baptiste did this! I just met him coming out of the house as I
+entered," and catching his wife he quickly took her back to the room,
+and proceeded to spread the alarm.
+
+Even with the grief she was cast into, Ethel had quickly seen a chance
+to spite the man she hated, and instead of telling the truth, she had
+chosen to keep silent and let Jean Baptiste be convicted if possible for
+the crime he knew nothing of.
+
+The people were filing out of the court room. Ethel's confession, born
+out of the excitement when the lawyer had mentioned investigating the
+crime deeply, had cleared everything, and Jean Baptiste was free.
+
+In the court room during the hearing he had observed Agnes, but when the
+trial was over, she was nowhere to be seen. He looked around, but failed
+to find any trace of her. At last, with a sigh, he went with the lawyers
+and a few days later was home, to harvest the wheat she had told him was
+the best, and so he found it.
+
+He was saved thereby, and went into the harvest with Bill and George
+again shocking as they had done years before. But there was no Agnes to
+bring the luncheon now, and Jean Baptiste lived in the memory of what
+had once been.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WHEN THE TRUTH BECAME KNOWN
+
+
+"I have hardly seen you for two days, my dear," he complained when Agnes
+had returned from the hearing.
+
+"I have been consumed with some very delicate business," she said, and
+notwithstanding the excitement she was laboring under, allowed him to
+caress her. At the same time he was regarding her strangely. For the
+first time he seemed to be aware of the fact that she was a rather
+strange person. He was trying to understand her eyes as everybody else
+had done, even herself.
+
+"Will Agnes tell me what has kept her so busy and away, I know not
+where?" he asked tenderly. "Or would she rather not--now."
+
+"She'd _rather_ not--now," and she tried to be jolly, although she knew
+she must have failed miserably.
+
+"Very well, my dear. But, sweet one, when are you going to become my
+own?"
+
+She started. In the excitement she had so recently been through, the
+fact that she was engaged and expected to marry soon, had gone entirely
+out of her mind.
+
+"Why, really--when?" She paused in her confusion, and he said quickly:
+
+"Let's just get married--today!"
+
+"Oh, no, please don't ask me to so soon."
+
+He frowned. Then he was pleasant again. "Then, when, Agnes?"
+
+She was still confused, and in that moment thought of the legacy. She
+was more confused. He caught her hand then, and touched her cheek with
+his lips.
+
+After an hour she had told him of the legacy.
+
+"That place is less than a hundred miles from Chicago and we can just
+run down there today and back this evening!" he exclaimed, shifting in
+anxious excitement. "We can go there and back today, and be married
+tomorrow."
+
+"No," she said slowly. "I'll suggest that we have the legacy brought
+here, and attended to according to the will and all that has for a
+lifetime to me been a mystery, be cleared here in your and your aunt's
+presence. And the day after--I will marry you." She dropped her eyes
+then in peculiar solemnity. He didn't understand her but the thrill of
+what was to come overwhelmed him, and in the next instant he held her in
+his arms.
+
+They explained their plans to his aunt, who, because she disliked
+notoriety, readily agreed, and by special messenger the papers were
+brought to the city the following day and opened according to her
+mother's will.
+
+The night before, as they were returning from the theatre, he said to
+her:
+
+"Agnes, do you know--and I trust you will pardon me if it seems
+singular, but there is something about you I can never--somehow feel I
+never _will_, understand." He paused then and she could see he was
+embarrassed.
+
+"It is in your eyes. I see them in this hour and they are blue, but in
+the next they are brown. Has any one ever observed the fact before?" he
+ended.
+
+She nodded, affirmatively.
+
+"Why is it, dear?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"And you--you have noticed it yourself?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And--can't you understand it, either?"
+
+She acknowledged the fact with her eyes.
+
+"It is strange. I'll be glad when we understand this legacy."
+
+"I will, too."
+
+"It makes me feel that something's going to happen. Perhaps we--you are
+going to prove to be an heiress."
+
+She laughed cheerfully.
+
+"And then you will not want to marry me, maybe."
+
+She laughed again.
+
+"But nothing would keep me from loving you always, Agnes," he said with
+deep feeling.
+
+"Even if the papers would show me to be descended from some horrible
+pirate or worse."
+
+"Nothing in the world could make a difference. Indeed, should the papers
+connect you with something out of the ordinary, I think I would like you
+better--that is, it would add even more mystery to your already
+mysterious self."
+
+"Wonderful!"
+
+He kissed her impulsively, and in the next hour she went off to bed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What is this?" said her fiance's aunt, as the lawyer lifted a small
+package from the box of documents, and as he did so, an old photograph
+slipped and fell to the floor. It was yellow with age; but the
+reflection of the person was clearly discernible. All three looked at it
+in wonderment. Then her fiance and his aunt regarded her with
+apprehension. The package was untied, and all the papers gone through
+and much history was therein contained. But one fact stood above all
+others.
+
+"Is _this_ a fact?" said the aunt coldly. Never had she appeared more
+dignified. Her nephew stood away, regarding Agnes out of eyes in which
+she could see a growing fear.
+
+"Well, I hope everything is clear," said the lawyer astutely. "It seems
+that you have come into something, madam, and I trust it will prove of
+value." She mumbled something in reply, and stood gazing at the two
+pictures she now held. All that had been so strange to her in life was
+at last clear. She understood the changing color of her eyes, and her
+father's statements that he had never quite explained. _At last she knew
+who she was._
+
+She turned to find herself alone. She opened her lips and started to
+call the others, and then hesitated. _Why had they left her?_ She looked
+at the photographs she held--_and understood_.
+
+She gathered the documents and placed them in the box, went upstairs,
+slowly packed her belongings, and called a cab.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jean Baptiste came into the granary on the old claim, and looked out
+over the place. And as he did so, he regarded the spot where the sod
+house had once stood and wherein he had spent many happy days. As he
+thought of it, the past rose before him, and he lived through the
+sweetness again that a harvest had once brought him. That was years
+before, and in that moment he wished he could bring it back again. _The
+Custom of the Country and its law_ had forbid, and he had _paid the
+penalty_. He wondered whether he would do the same again and sacrifice
+all that had been dear and risk the misery that had followed.
+
+He shifted, and in so doing his back was toward the road. "Withal, it
+would have been awkward to have married a white woman," he muttered, and
+reached for the cold lunch he had brought for his meal. Bill and George
+were eating in the field where they worked.
+
+"Baching is hell," he muttered aloud, and picked up a sandwich.
+
+"How very bad you are, Jean," he heard, and almost strained his neck in
+turning so quickly.
+
+"_Agnes!_"
+
+"Well, _why_ not?"
+
+"But--but--oh, tell me," and then he became silent and looked away,
+raising the sandwich to his mouth mechanically.
+
+"Don't eat the cold lunch, Jean. I have brought some that is warm," so
+saying she uncovered the basket she carried, and he regarded it eagerly.
+
+"But, Agnes, how came you here? I--I--thought you--were _getting
+married_. Are you here on--on your _wedding trip_?"
+
+"Oh, Lord, no! No, Jean, I am not going to marry."
+
+"_Not going to marry!_"
+
+She shook her head and affected to be sad, but a little smile played
+around her lips that he saw but didn't understand.
+
+"But--Agnes, _why_?"
+
+"Because the one to whom I was engaged--well, he wouldn't marry me," and
+she laughed.
+
+"I wish you would make it all clear. At least tell me what it
+means--that it is so."
+
+"It _is_ so!" she said stoutly, and he believed her when he saw her
+eyes.
+
+"Well, I guess I'll understand by and by."
+
+"You _will_ understand, soon, Jean," she said kindly. "Papa will
+explain--_everything_." She turned her eyes away then, and in the moment
+he reached and grasped her hand. In the next instant he had dropped it,
+as a far away expression came into his eyes as if he had suddenly
+recalled something he would forget.
+
+"Jean," she cried, and came close to him. She looked up into his eyes
+and saw what was troubling him. She got beside him closely then. She
+placed an arm around him, and with her free hand she lifted his left
+hand over her shoulder and held his fingers as she looked away across
+the harvest fields, and sighed lightly as she said:
+
+"Something happened and I was strangely glad and came here
+because--because I--just _had_ to see you, Jean."
+
+"Please, Jean. You--will--forget that _now_." She paused and was not
+aware that her arm was around him, and that his hand rested over her
+shoulder. Her eyes were as they had been that day near this selfsame
+spot years before, kind and endearing. She did not resist as she saw his
+manly love and felt his body quiver.
+
+And almost were his lips touching hers when suddenly, she saw him
+hesitate, and despite the darkness of his face, she could see that in
+that moment the blood seemed to leave it. He dropped the arms that had
+embraced her, and almost groaned aloud. As she stood regarding him he
+turned and walked away with his eyes upon the earth.
+
+She turned then and retraced her steps, but as she went along the
+roadway she was thinking of him and herself and _who she was at last_.
+She sighed, strangely contented, and was positive--knew that in due time
+_he too_ must come to understand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING
+
+
+It was in the autumn time, after the wheat and the oats, the rye, the
+barley and the flaxseed had all been gathered, and threshed, and also
+after the corn had been husked. Wheat, he had raised, thousands and
+thousands of bushels. And because there was war over all the old world,
+and the great powers of the land were in the grim struggle of trying to
+crush each other from the face of the earth, the power under which he
+lived was struggling with the task of feeding a portion of those engaged
+in the struggle. And because Black Rust had impaired the spring wheat
+yield those thousands of bushels he raised, he had sold at a price so
+high that he had sufficient to redeem at last the land he was about to
+lose and money left for future development into the bargain.
+
+He sat alone at this moment in a stateroom aboard a great continental
+limited, just out of Omaha and speeding westward to the Pacific coast.
+As was his customary wont, his thoughts were prolific. But for once--and
+maybe for the first time, on the whole, he was satisfied,--he was
+contented--and last, but not least, he was happy.
+
+Being happy, however, is not quite possible alone. No, and Jean Baptiste
+was _not_ alone. And here is what had happened.
+
+Jack Stewart had told him the story. And in the story told, one great
+mystery was solved. He now understood why Agnes' eyes had been so
+baffling. Simple, too, in a measure. To begin with, her mother had
+possessed rare brown eyes, he had seen by her picture, because Agnes'
+mother had not been a white woman at all, but in truth was of Ethiopian
+extraction. This was a part of the story Jack Stewart had told him. He
+had met and married her mother on a trip from the West Indies where she
+had lived, to Glasgow; the marriage being decided upon quickly, for in
+truth the woman was fleeing. In London some years before, she had been
+the pupil of a learned minister, who had become an infidel, and also
+unscrupulous. But we know the story--at least a part of it--of Augustus
+M. Barr, alias, Isaac M. Barr; alias--but it does not matter. We are
+concerned with Agnes' mother. Her mother had inherited a small fortune
+from Agnes' grandma and this Barr had sought to secure. To do so, he had
+followed Jack Stewart and his wife, Agnes' mother to Jerusalem. There he
+had met Isaac Syfe, the Jew, whom he later brought to America. He did
+not find the woman he had followed there, but on his return to England
+he _did_ find Peter Kaden who was married to Christine. Kaden was
+involved in a murder case, was accused, and had been sentenced to
+Australia for the rest of his natural life. It was Barr who saved him,
+and the fee Kaden paid was Christine. Barr accommodated him by bringing
+him to America where he placed all three, including himself, on
+homesteads. Syfe settled with him in cash by taking a large loan on his
+homestead and giving Barr the proceeds.
+
+But Kaden was in the way. He had never been comfortable in the new
+country with Christine the wife of another and living so near, so Barr
+sent Christine away and drove Kaden to suicide. Later at Lincoln,
+Nebraska she left him and went out of his life forever. Barr had secured
+Kaden's homestead, and all this Jack Stewart knew, but had never
+disclosed. Barr lost track of Agnes' mother, but knew that somewhere in
+the world there was a treasure but not as great as he had thought it
+was--about ten thousand dollars in all.
+
+While Jean Baptiste was absorbed in these thoughts, the door was opened
+quietly, and closed. Some one had entered the stateroom and his ears
+caught the light rustle of a skirt. His eyes were upon the landscape,
+but suddenly they saw nothing, for his eyes had been covered by a pair
+of soft hands.
+
+"I knew it was you," he said, happily, as he drew her into the seat
+beside him, between himself and the window.
+
+"What are you thinking of, my Jean," she said then.
+
+"Of what I have been thinking ever since the day when we understood that
+you and I after all are of the same blood."
+
+"Oh, you have," she chimed, and drawing his face close with her hands,
+she kissed him ardently.
+
+"Isn't it beautiful, Agnes? Just grand!"
+
+"Oh, Jean, you make me so happy."
+
+"You are _honestly_ happy, dear?" he inquired for the hundredth time.
+
+"I _couldn't_ be happier," and she reposed in his arms.
+
+"Have truly forgotten that you are _an Ethiopian_, and _must share_ what
+is Ethiopia's?"
+
+"Will share what is _yours_, my Jean."
+
+"Always so beautifully have you said that."
+
+"Have I, now, really?"
+
+"Do you recall the day when I forgot, dear, _The Custom of the
+Country--and its law_?"
+
+"How could I forget it?"
+
+"And what followed?"
+
+"I cannot forget that, either. But Jean, do you want me to?"
+
+"Agnes, we must both forget what followed. Still, when we think how kind
+fate has been to us, after all, we must feel grateful."
+
+"Oh, how much I do. But, Jean--it was _such_ a sacrifice...."
+
+He was thoughtful for a time, and from the expression on his face, the
+present was far away.
+
+"Please, dear," she said, taking his hand and fondling it. "When you
+happen to think of it; will you try never to allow yourself to resume
+that expression--_that_ expression again?"
+
+He looked down at her.
+
+"Expression?"
+
+"Like you wore just then."
+
+"Oh."
+
+"You see, it seems to bring back events in your life that we want to
+forget."
+
+"You mean, I--"
+
+"Yes," she said slowly, "you--we understand each other and everything
+that has concerned each other, don't we, Jean?"
+
+"Of course we do, Agnes. We have always--but there, now!" and he
+smothered the rest of it in a fond caress.
+
+"Wasn't it strange," she mused after a time. "I could never understand
+it. I saw it in my eyes before we left Indiana. And then I had that
+strange dream and saw you." She paused and played with his fingers. "But
+I never felt the same afterwards. Somehow I felt that something strange,
+something unusual was going to happen in my life, and now when I look
+back upon it and am so happy," whereupon she grasped tightly the fingers
+she held--"I feel it just had to be."
+
+"Do you reckon your father understood the love that was between us?"
+
+"I think he did. And he started more than once about that time to tell
+me something. He went so far once as to say that if you liked me, and I
+cut him off. Afterwards I could see that it worried you and my heart
+went out to you more than ever. And then you reached your decision. I
+saw it, and it seems that I liked you more for the man you were."
+
+"Did you love the man you were engaged to?"
+
+"Jean!"
+
+He laughed sheepishly, and patted her shoulder. He was sorry, that he
+had asked her such a question, and he resolved thereupon never to do so
+again. Something dark passed before him--terrible years when he had
+suffered much. She was speaking again.
+
+"You know I never loved any one in the world but you."
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Obvious typos and printer errors have been corrected without comment.
+
+With the exception of obvious printer errors, the following changes have
+been made in this text:
+
+     1. Page 321: "truck" changed to "struck" in the phrase, "hope it
+     hasn't struck...."
+
+     2. Page 442: "We'll" changed to "He'll" in the phrase, "He'll get
+     them tomorrow morning...."
+
+Inconsistencies in the author's spelling, punctuation, and use of
+hyphens have been retained as in the original book.
+
+Unconventional spelling has been retained in words such as (but not
+limited to) the following:
+
+  weazened, page 44
+  uproarously, page 48
+  flustrated, page 64
+  glabbed, page 332
+  aimiably, page 440
+  counciled, page 477
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Homesteader, by Oscar Micheaux
+
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