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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39238-8.txt b/39238-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..faec0c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/39238-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17576 @@ +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 +rôles 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 fiancée 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 élite 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 Cæsar, +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 +matinée." + +"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 matinée." + +"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 +matinée.... 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 matinée, 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 séance 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 matinée 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 fiancé 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 fiancé'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 fiancé 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOMESTEADER *** + +***** This file should be named 39238-8.txt or 39238-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/3/39238/ + +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) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="icover" name="icover"></a> +<img src="images/icover.jpg" alt="" /> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>THE HOMESTEADER</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="im001" name="im001"></a> +<img src="images/im_001.jpg" alt="" /> +<p class="atext">From a painting by W.M. Farrow.</p> +<p class="ctext"> "SOMETHING HAPPENED AND I WAS STRANGELY GLAD +AND CAME HERE BECAUSE I—I—JUST <i>HAD</i> TO SEE YOU, +JEAN."</p> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class="center biggest" > +THE HOMESTEADER</p> + +<p class="center big pb"><i>A NOVEL</i></p> + +<p class="center small pt">BY</p> +<p class="center big">OSCAR MICHEAUX</p> +<p class="center small pb">Author of "The Forged Note"</p> + + +<p class="center pspace"><i>ILLUSTRATED BY W.M. FARROW</i></p> + + +<p class="center pt">SIOUX CITY, IOWA</p> +<p class="center big">WESTERN BOOK SUPPLY COMPANY</p> +<p class="center">PUBLISHERS</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class="center small pspace"> +COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY OSCAR MICHEAUX<br /> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center pt"> +BELOVED MOTHER</p> + +<p class="center pb"> +THIS<br /> +TO<br /> +YOU +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PUBLISHERS TO THE READER</h2> + + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table summary="contents" cellspacing="5"> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="center big"><a href="#EPOCH_THE_FIRST">EPOCH THE FIRST</a></td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdc">CHAPTER</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdr">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Agnes</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">13</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">The Homesteader</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">21</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">At the Sod House</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">28</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">She Could Never Be Anything to Him</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">37</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">When the Indians Shot the Town Up</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">43</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">The Infidel, A Jew and A German</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">49</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The Day Before</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">56</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">An Enterprising Young Man</a></span></td> + <td class="tdr">61</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">"Christine! Christine!"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">75</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">"You Have Never Been This Way Before"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">80</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">What Jean Baptiste Found in the Well</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">85</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Miss Stewart Receives a Caller</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">89</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">The Coming of the Railroad</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">97</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">The Administrating Angel</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">107</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">Oh, My Jean</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">115</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">"Bill" Prescott Proposes</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">123</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Harvest Time and What Came with It</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">131</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="center big"><a href="#EPOCH_THE_SECOND">EPOCH THE SECOND</a></td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I_second">Regarding the Intermarriage of Races</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">143</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II_second">Which?</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">153</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III_second">Memories—N. Justine McCarthy</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">159</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV_second">Orlean</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">174</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V_second">A Proposal: A Proposition; A Certain Mrs. Pruitt—And a Letter</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">186</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI_second">The Prairie Fire</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">190</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII_second">Vanity</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">196</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII_second">Married</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">207</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX_second">Orlean Receives a Letter and Advice</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">212</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X_second">Eugene Crook</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">221</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI_second">Reverend McCarthy Pays a Visit</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">227</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_second">Reverend McCarthy Decides to Set Baptiste Right, But—</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">234</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII_second">The Wolf</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">240</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV_second">The Contest</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">247</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV_second">Compromised</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">252</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI_second">The Evil Genius</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">259</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII_second">The Coward</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">267</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="center big"><a href="#EPOCH_THE_THIRD">EPOCH THE THIRD</a></td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I_third">Chicago—The Boomerang</a></span> </td> +<td class="tdr">279</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II_third">The Great Question</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">284</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III_third">Glavis Makes A Promise</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr"> 294</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV_third">The Gambler's Story</a></span> </td> +<td class="tdr">299</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V_third">The Preacher's Evil Influence</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">305</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI_third">More of the Preacher's Work</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">311</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII_third">A Great Astronomer</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">317</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII_third">N. Justine McCarthy Preaches a Sermon</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">325</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX_third">What the People Were Saying</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">332</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X_third">"Until Then"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">339</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI_third">"It's the Wrong Number"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">346</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_third">Mrs. Pruitt Effects a Plan</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">354</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII_third">Mrs. Merley</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">363</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV_third">"Oh, Merciful God! Close Thou Mine Eyes!"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">369</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV_third">"Love You—God, I Hate You!"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">376</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI_third">A Strange Dream</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">385</td> +</tr> + + + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="center big"><a href="#EPOCH_THE_FOURTH">EPOCH THE FOURTH</a></td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I_fourth">The Drought</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">395</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II_fourth">The Foreclosure</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">400</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III_fourth">Irene Grey</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">407</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV_fourth">What Might Have Been</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">414</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V_fourth">"Tell Me Why You Didn't Answer the Last Letter +I Wrote You"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">421</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI_fourth">The Story</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">427</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII_fourth">Her Birthright "for a Mess of Pottage"</a></span> </td> +<td class="tdr">436</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII_fourth">Action</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">440</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX_fourth">Gossip</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">446</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X_fourth">A Discovery—and a Surprise</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">456</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI_fourth">The Bishop's Inquisition</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">464</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII_fourth">The Bishop Acts</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">479</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII_fourth">Where the Weak Must Be Strong</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">482</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV_fourth">The Trial—the Lie—"As Guilty As Hell!"</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">488</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV_fourth">Grim Justice</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">495</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI_fourth">A Friend</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">502</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII_fourth">The Mystery</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">508</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII_fourth">"Vengeance is Mine. I Will Repay"</a></span></td> + <td class="tdr">515</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIX</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX_fourth">When the Truth Became Known</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">523</td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XX</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX_fourth">As it Was in the Beginning</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">529</td> +</tr> + +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<table summary="illustrations" cellspacing="10"> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">"Something happened and I was strangely glad and came here + because I—I just <i>had</i> to see you, Jean"</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#im001"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="tdr">FACING<br /> + PAGE</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">He was young, The Homesteader—just passed twenty-two—and +vigorous, strong, healthy and courageous</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#im002">22</a></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">He raised on an elbow and looked into her face while she staggered +forward in great surprise</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#im003">35</a></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">"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, <i>can't you understand</i>!"</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#im004">138</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">"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"</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#im005">159</a></td> +</tr> + + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">"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</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#im006">245</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">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</td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#im007">518</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LEADING CHARACTERS</h2> + + + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Agnes</span>, <i>Whose Eyes Were Baffling</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Jean Baptiste</span>, <i>The Homesteader</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Jack Stewart</span>, <i>Agnes' Father</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Augustus M. Barr</span>, <i>an Infidel</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Isaac Syfe</span>, <i>a Jew</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Peter Kaden</span>, <i>The Victim</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">N. Justine McCarthy</span>, <i>a Preacher</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Orlean</span>, <i>his Daughter, Without the Courage of Her Convictions</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Ethel</span>, <i>her Sister, Who Was Different</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Glavis</span>, <i>Ethel's Husband</i></p> + +<p class="pc ind"><span class="smcap">Eugene Crook</span>, <i>a Banker</i></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<p class="center biggest"><a name="EPOCH_THE_FIRST" id="EPOCH_THE_FIRST"></a>EPOCH THE FIRST</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center biggest">THE HOMESTEADER</p> + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class="center small">AGNES</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +wife. He had loved her, this wife, and had also feared +her as he now feared this daughter when her eyes flashed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Her chief accomplishments since their disastrous con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>quest +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!</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote><p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Later</span>—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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A month later</span>—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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There remains but one thing more. Yesterday I hap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>pened +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!</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE HOMESTEADER</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="im002" name="im002"></a> +<img src="images/im_002.jpg" alt="" /> +<p class="atext">From a painting by W.M. Farrow.</p> +<p class="ctext">HE WAS YOUNG, THE HOMESTEADER—JUST PASSED +TWENTY-TWO—AND VIGOROUS, STRONG, HEALTHY +AND COURAGEOUS.</p> +</div> + + + + + +<p>"Damn!" he cried as they passed down a slope to where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>would</i> this also be developed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>It was settled! He had gone far enough. He would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You had best not go to town today, my girl," cautioned +Jack Stewart, her father, as she made ready to ride to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +Gregory after ordering Bill to saddle Dolly, the gray mare +that was their best.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"I don't like the wind—and so much snow with it," he +muttered, looking out with a frown upon his face.</p> + +<p>"But the snow is not like it was," she argued, almost +ready. "It's letting up."</p> + +<p>"It's growing finer, which is evidence that it is growing +colder."</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"If you should be delayed, stay the night in town. Above +all things, don't let the darkness catch you upon the +prairie!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="center small">AT THE SOD HOUSE</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>Once there, after thawing the cold out of her face and +eyes, she proceeded to do her trading, filling the saddlebags +to their fullest.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Seven miles southeast," she replied.</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" he cried as if surprised. "But you didn't +come from there today—this afternoon? That would be +directly against this storm!"</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, who would have thought you could have +made it! 'Tis an awful day without," he cried as he regarded +her in wonder.</p> + +<p>"It <i>wasn't</i> warm, I admit," she agreed; "but I didn't +seem to mind it so much!"</p> + +<p>"You will not go back today—rather tonight?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes."</p> + +<p>"But it would be very risky. Look! It's grown dark +already!" She looked out and observed that it had really<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>was</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +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 <i>what was</i> 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!</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="im003" name="im003"></a> +<img src="images/im_003.jpg" alt="" /> +<p class="atext">From a painting by W.M. Farrow.</p> +<p class="ctext">HE RAISED ON AN ELBOW AND LOOKED INTO HER FACE +WHILE SHE STAGGERED IN GREAT SURPRISE.</p> +</div> + + + +<p>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 vigor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>ously, +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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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. <i>Who was this man</i> that he +should call her name and say that <i>he</i> had waited?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="center small">SHE COULD NEVER BE ANYTHING TO HIM</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>fore +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Good morning," she heard from his lips, and turned her +face to see him touch the cap he wore.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Good morning, sir," she returned, smiling with ease, +notwithstanding her confusion of a moment before.</p> + +<p>"I judge that you must have become lost, the why you +happened along," said he pleasantly, courteously.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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. "<i>It is you, Agnes. You have +come and, oh, I am glad, for I have waited for you so long.</i>" +"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +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—<i>where, +where!</i> She had never known an <i>Ethiopian</i>, she +full well recalled; but she was positive that she had seen this +man somewhere before. Then <i>where—where, where!</i></p> + +<p>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: <i>The +fact that between him and his dream girl was a chasm +so deep socially that bridging was impossible.</i> Because +she was white while he was black, according to <i>the custom +of the country and its law</i>, she could never be anything to +him....</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"It was sure fortunate for me that you lost your way,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I cannot seem to understand what came over me—that +I was in the act of freezing while I walked."</p> + +<p>"It was a terrible night," she commented. "I, too, +might have frozen, but for the good fortune of my horse +finding your house."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it strange," he muttered abstractedly.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't the least idea where I was," said she, musingly.</p> + +<p>"Such a coincidence."</p> + +<p>"Indeed it was——, but please, shall we forget it," and +she shuddered slightly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied readily. "Where do you live?"</p> + +<p>She pointed to where the smoke curled from the chimney +of their home, a mile and a half away.</p> + +<p>"The Watson place? I see. You are perhaps, then, +newcomers here?"</p> + +<p>"We are," and she smiled easily. He did also. He +handed her the bridle reins then, and said:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="center small">WHEN THE INDIANS SHOT THE TOWN UP</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.... <i>Perhaps</i> he forgot.... Jean +Baptiste could be depended upon to forget some things.... +Especially the things that were best forgotten.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hello, there, St. John the Baptist," cried that one in +beliquored delight. "Did you crawl through all that +storm?"</p> + +<p>"I'm here," laughed Baptiste. "How's Doc?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"T' hell, I didn't know that," he muttered. The crowd +laughed.</p> + +<p>"Play you a game of Casino?" suggested Doc.</p> + +<p>"You're on!" cried Baptiste.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Whiskey," they cried, shifting their spurred boots on +the barroom floor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Sorry, boys, but I can't serve you," advised the bartender +carelessly.</p> + +<p>"What!" they cried.</p> + +<p>"Can't serve you. It's agin' the law, yu' know."</p> + +<p>"T' hell with the law!" exclaimed one.</p> + +<p>"I didn't make it," muttered the bartender.</p> + +<p>"You've been playing hell enforcing it," retorted another.</p> + +<p>"Now, don't get rough, my worthy," cautioned the bartender.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>It was over in a few minutes and the breeds, true to their +statement, returned to the saloon, and stood before the +bar.</p> + +<p>"Whiskey," they cried, and couldn't repress a grin. +Ordinarily they were cowards, and their boldness had surprised +even themselves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Whiskey?" said the bartender, nodding toward the +speaker.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE INFIDEL, A JEW AND A GERMAN</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And while he will be concerned with our story, let us +not forget that two miles and more west of the little town<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And how about the coal," cried Barr to the lumberman +before he drew his team to a stop.</p> + +<p>"Coal a plenty," replied the lumberman cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Good, good, good!" exclaimed Barr, his distinguished +old face lighting up with great delight.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Jean Baptiste is the man who can bring it if anybody," +rejoined the other.</p> + +<p>At this moment a large, stout man came driving up in a +one horse rig.</p> + +<p>"Any coal?" he called lazily from his seat.</p> + +<p>"Plenty," cried Barr.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Thank Jean Baptiste," advised Barr. "He's the man +that brought it."</p> + +<p>"So?" said Stark thoughtfully. "When?"</p> + +<p>"Yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"That's what the lumberman said."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be blowed!"</p> + +<p>"You'll be warmed, I guess."</p> + +<p>"Well, I should say!"</p> + +<p>"That Baptiste is <i>some</i> fellow."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes. Although I sometimes think he is a fool."</p> + +<p>"Oh, not so rash!"</p> + +<p>"Any man's a fool that would have left Bonesteel with +loads yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Then I suppose we should be thankful to the fool. A +fool's errand will in this case mean many lazy men's comfort."</p> + +<p>"And last summer you recall how it rained?"</p> + +<p>"I sure do."</p> + +<p>"Well, you know that fellow would go out and work in +the rain."</p> + +<p>"And has a hundred and thirty acres ready and into crop +while I have but thirty."</p> + +<p>"I have but ten, but—"</p> + +<p>"You will be in the hole—at least behind at the end of +this summer."</p> + +<p>"But I'm advertised to prove up."</p> + +<p>"And leave the country when you have done so."</p> + +<p>"Well, of course. I have a house and lot and three acres +back in Iowa."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care."</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +Had they been as you appear to be, we would perhaps all +be in Jerusalem, or the jungle. Let's load the coal."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" inquired another, coming +up at this moment.</p> + +<p>"Jean Baptiste."</p> + +<p>"So?"</p> + +<p>"Barr and Stark have just had a set-to about him."</p> + +<p>"M-m?"</p> + +<p>"Stark says a man that would come from Bonesteel a +day like yesterday was a fool."</p> + +<p>"Why will he partake of the fuel he brought to keep +from freezing, then?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Stark is too lazy to care. He's advertised to +prove up, you know, and he always has something to say +about working."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +tore them to threads, and flung the bundle of paper to the +winds.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +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 <i>did</i> understand, and +which was that there was something between Augustus M. +Barr, Isaac Syfe, and Peter Kaden, <i>and something was +going to happen</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE DAY BEFORE</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>How did he come to utter her +name and say that he had waited?</i></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Well, it was so, and she could only sigh and be patient.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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—<i>the +custom of the country and its law</i>, 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:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">January 20th</span>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 "<i>Agnes, it is you. I'm glad you +have come for I've waited for you so long.</i>" 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +so ingrained with his liberal traditions—even tho' he be +poor,—I am at peace with all mankind.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">AN ENTERPRISING YOUNG MAN</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you are thinking about the big crop you will +seed in the springtime," ventured Barr.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I shall be glad to attest to the fact you refer +to."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," Said Barr, and rose to go.</p> + +<p>"No hurry."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Good day."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Good day, my friend," and he went over the hill.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Enterprise</i>. He glanced +quickly through the columns and then his eyes rested on a +legal notice. He smiled.</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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....</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +She was by disposition versatile. But she caught her breath +now with sudden equanimity, as she turned to Agnes and +cried:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +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 <i>the custom of the country and its law</i>.... +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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" Baptiste echoed with feigned ignorance, his +eyebrows dilating.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she went on with concern, "And you are neighbors."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad—honored," Baptiste essayed.</p> + +<p>"He is flattering," blushed Agnes, but she was pleased.</p> + +<p>"And you'll find Mr. Baptiste the finest kind of neighbor, +too," cried Mrs. Reynolds with equal delight.</p> + +<p>"I'm a bad neighbor, Miss Stewart," he disdained. "Our +friend here, Mrs. Reynolds, you see, is full of flattery."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe so, Mr. Baptiste," she defended, glad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Bless you, yes! Who could keep from liking you?" +whereupon she caught Agnes close and kissed her impulsively.</p> + +<p>"Oh, say, now," cried Baptiste, and then stopped.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>At this point she turned to Baptiste, and with a slight +hesitation, she said:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I must have a man," he acknowledged. "I have more +work than I can do alone."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Hoping to relieve the annoyance he could see, although +not understanding the cause of it, he spoke up quickly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"There is one little thing I should like to mention, Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"It will be nice, now, won't it?"</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"We are always after Jean that he should marry. Why,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="center small">"CHRISTINE, CHRISTINE!"</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The days passed slowly and things went on as usual.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>who rode the horse</i>? 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Kaden!" he cried, and fell into deep thought.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And all the way to the sod house that night he kept +repeating what he had heard. "<i>Christine, Christine! You +have her, is she not enough? Give her back and all is +yours!</i>"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="center small">"YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE"</p> + + +<p class="cap">WHEN AGNES STEWART found her father and +they were ready to return home, she inquired:</p> + +<p>"Did he see you?"</p> + +<p>"See who?"</p> + +<p>"You? You don't understand. I mean the colored +gentleman, Mr. Baptiste?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, my dear," her father replied wonderingly. +"I saw him, but I had no word with him. I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I am worried, because—you know, papa, when we +have paid for the seed and feed, we will have very little +left."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"See him and get Bill hired and I'll not worry any more."</p> + +<p>"I'll do so, I'll do so tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"You say you saw him going north of town?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>She was silent, while he was thoughtful. Presently he +inquired of what passed when she met him.</p> + +<p>She told him.</p> + +<p>"I never spoke of having met him before."</p> + +<p>"You didn't?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, papa. How could I? It would be hard to +explain."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, coming to think of it, it would, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It <i>shouldn't</i>," she said. She didn't relish the situation.</p> + +<p>"Did he?"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Speak of it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! He didn't...."</p> + +<p>"I wonder has he ever."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so."</p> + +<p>"That is very thoughtful of him."</p> + +<p>"It is. He is a real gentleman."</p> + +<p>"So everybody says."</p> + +<p>"And so pleasant to listen to."</p> + +<p>"Indeed."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Reynolds is carried away with him. Says he's +one of the most industrious and energetic young men of the +country."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that fine! But it seems rather odd, doesn't it? +Him out here alone."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is indeed singular. But he is just the kind of man a +new country needs."</p> + +<p>"If the country had a few hundred more like him we +wouldn't know it in five years."</p> + +<p>"In three years!" she said admiringly.</p> + +<p>"How shall we explain in regards to Bill?..."</p> + +<p>"I've explained."</p> + +<p>"You have!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't come out and say it in words, of course. I +didn't need to."</p> + +<p>"Then how? How did you make him understand?"</p> + +<p>"It was easy. It was easy because he is so quick witted. +He seems to readily understand anything."</p> + +<p>"I'll bet!"</p> + +<p>"He spoke of the fact that being a bachelor it was awkward +to keep hired men, and this fact seemed to worry him."</p> + +<p>"But why didn't you explain that Bill could stay home?"</p> + +<p>"I did."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"And he was so relieved."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he was. It is very inconvenient."</p> + +<p>"It is. And I feel rather sorry for him."</p> + +<p>"Needs a wife."</p> + +<p>She was silent.</p> + +<p>"Wonder why he doesn't marry?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"Will make some girl a fine husband."</p> + +<p>Silence.</p> + +<p>"I guess he has a girl, though, and will likely marry +soon."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well," she said slowly. She blushed unseen and went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +on: "Mrs. Reynolds joked him about it, and he denied it."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>He was silent now.</p> + +<p>"I have thought about it since I met him."</p> + +<p>"You have?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes. Certainly."</p> + +<p>Her father laughed.</p> + +<p>"Why are you laughing?" she asked, somewhat nettled.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking."</p> + +<p>"Thinking? Thinking of what?"</p> + +<p>"Of Jean Baptiste."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Why, there is a good chance for you."</p> + +<p>"Father!"</p> + +<p>"Why not!"</p> + +<p>"Father! How can you!"</p> + +<p>He laughed. She acted as if angry. He looked at her +mischievously. She did not grant him a smile.</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, Aggie! Can't you take a joke?"</p> + +<p>"But you should not joke like that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now. It pleased me to joke like that."</p> + +<p>"Why should it please you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I have a sense of humor."</p> + +<p>"A sense of humor?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"But I don't see the joke?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Aggie," he turned to her seriously. "Almost I +don't think it is a joke."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Father!"</p> + +<p>"Well, dear? You seem to be so interested in the man."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"You have never been this way before," she sobbed. +He caressed her more now.</p> + +<p>"Well, dearest. You see. Well, your mother—"</p> + +<p>"My mother!" she sat quickly up.</p> + +<p>"We are going to raise a great crop this year. I feel +sure of it."</p> + +<p>"But my mother!"</p> + +<p>"I think I know where I can get some good seed oats."</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="center small">WHAT JEAN BAPTISTE FOUND IN THE WELL</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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?"</p> + +<p>"I shall remember it, Mr. Barr," answered Baptiste. +"Have you rented your place yet?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"M-m."</p> + +<p>"How much do you plan seeding this season?"</p> + +<p>"All of both places anyhow."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," cried Baptiste disdainfully.</p> + +<p>"If I were young and strong like you, I would be doing +the same."</p> + +<p>"You expect to go away when you have completed your +proof...."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," whereupon A.M. Barr cast a +furtive glance in his direction. Baptiste pretended not to +see it.</p> + +<p>"What'll you do with your horses?" Another furtive +glance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>March the twenty-second came and went, and Augustus +offered proof on his homestead, and passed, Baptiste assisting +him as witness.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, Sunday morning after he had breakfasted, +and piled the dishes bachelor fashion (unwashed) he started +out.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 fur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>niture. +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:</p> + +<p>"Wonder where he is?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hell," he muttered, "this well is dry!" He took an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>other +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 +<i>the something</i> 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 <i>something</i> else ... and +the <i>something</i> else had features that were familiar. At +last realization was upon him, his fingers gripped the boards +they held as he gradually straightened up.</p> + +<p>"My God!" he cried at last, terror stricken.</p> + +<p>For below him, with white face turned upward as if +laughing, was the dead body of Peter Kaden.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="center small">MISS STEWART RECEIVES A CALLER</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>Until the coroner arrived there was no disposition made +of the remains, and when he did, the decision of suicide was +sustained.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Springtime is knocking at our door," he ventured.</p> + +<p>"And I am glad to see it, and suppose you are also," she +answered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who isn't! It has been a very severe winter."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I see. I hope they will always be so if we continue to +live here," and she laughed pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"How do you like it in our country?" he inquired now, +pleased to be in conversation with her.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I have been in Indiana myself."</p> + +<p>"You have?" She was cheered with the fact. He +nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, all over. What part of Indiana do you come +from?"</p> + +<p>"Rensselaer," she replied, shifting with comfort, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +delighted that by his having been in Indiana, he was making +their conversation easier.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," she heard him. "That is toward the northern +part of the state."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied in obvious delight.</p> + +<p>"I have never been to that town, but I have been all +around it."</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" She was at a loss in the moment how to +proceed and then presently she said:</p> + +<p>"You have traveled considerably, Mr. Baptiste, I understand."</p> + +<p>He felt somewhat flattered to know that she had discussed +him with others apparently.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, I have," he replied slowly.</p> + +<p>"That must be fine. I long so much to travel."</p> + +<p>"You have not traveled far?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And how do you like it, Mr. Baptiste?"</p> + +<p>"Out here, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, why, yes, of course," she added hastily.</p> + +<p>"Why, I like it fine. I'm thoroughly in love with the +country."</p> + +<p>"That's nice. And you own such nice land, I don't +wonder," she said thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," he replied, modestly, "I think I should +like it anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Of course; but when one has property—such nice +land as you own, they have everything to like it for."</p> + +<p>"I'm compelled to agree with you."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry we don't own any," she said regretfully.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +"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."</p> + +<p>He was silent but attentive.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't that too bad!" he cried sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't wonder," he commented tenderly.</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>He laughed, and she had to also when she thought of it.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"So that is how you came here?" he essayed. "I have +enjoyed listening to you. Your lives read like an interesting +book."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that isn't fair. You are joking with me!" Notwithstanding, +she blushed furiously.</p> + +<p>"No, no, indeed," he protested.</p> + +<p>She believed him. Strangely she reposed such confidence +in the man that she felt she could sit and talk with him +forever.</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Your mother is dead?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my mother is dead, Mr. Baptiste."</p> + +<p>"Oh."</p> + +<p>"Died when I was a baby."</p> + +<p>"Well, well...."</p> + +<p>"I never knew her."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And I venture to say that you have just about raised +yourself?"</p> + +<p>She blushed.</p> + +<p>"You must be a wonderful girl."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"You have my best wishes, believe me," he was at a loss +for the moment as to how to proceed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you, father! I'm glad you've come. Mr. Baptiste +is here to see you."</p> + +<p>"Ah-ha, Mr. Baptiste, I am honored," cried Jack Stewart, +her father, and he marched forward with outstretched hand +and much ado; Scotch propriety.</p> + +<p>"Glad to know you, Judge," Baptiste returned warmly, +grasping the proffered hand.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Now, Aggie, you must prepare supper for Mr. Baptiste +and myself," he said, taking hold of her arm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," disdained Baptiste. "Don't think of it!"</p> + +<p>"Now, now, my worthy friend," admonished Stewart, +and then stopped. "Why—you have met my daughter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we have met," they spoke in the same breath, exchanging +glances.</p> + +<p>"Then, while you fix us something good to eat, we will +discuss our business."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"This is an unexpected pleasure, even though it be an intrusion," +said Baptiste as he was gently urged into a seat.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"We haven't much, but what is here you are welcome to," +she said.</p> + +<p>"It's a feast," said he.</p> + +<p>"About as good as baching, anyhow," joined Stewart.</p> + +<p>"Hush!"</p> + +<p>"How do you like it?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"By the way," cried Baptiste near the end of the meal. +"Did you hear the news?"</p> + +<p>"What news," they asked in chorus.</p> + +<p>"The man dead in the well."</p> + +<p>"Is that so!" they exclaimed, shocked.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And neither of the three realized then that the self-same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The promoters of the town of Dallas argued that it would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 rôles 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was before something happened that turned the +whole country into an orgy of excitement.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is you—Mr. Baptiste," cried Agnes upon opening +the door in response to his knock. "Come right in."</p> + +<p>"Where's the governor?" he inquired when seated.</p> + +<p>"Search me," she laughed. "Papa's always out, rain or +shine."</p> + +<p>"Busy man."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Busy but never gets anything by it, apparently."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Lots of rain."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I suppose you are glad," she said interestedly.</p> + +<p>"Well, I should be."</p> + +<p>"We are, too. It looks as if, should this keep up, we will +really raise a crop."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it'll keep up," he said cheerfully, confidently. "It +always rains in this country."</p> + +<p>"How optimistic you are," she said, regarding him admiringly.</p> + +<p>"Thanks."</p> + +<p>She smiled then and bit her lip.</p> + +<p>"How's your neighbors across the road? I've never become +acquainted with them."</p> + +<p>"Their name is Prescott. I don't know much about them; +but papa has met them."</p> + +<p>"How many of them?"</p> + +<p>"Three. The man and wife and a son."</p> + +<p>"A son?"</p> + +<p>"M-m."</p> + +<p>"How old is he—a young man?"</p> + +<p>"M-m."</p> + +<p>He smiled mischievously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it will be great," and she laughed amusedly.</p> + +<p>"He farms with his parents?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. He has rented a few acres on the +place north of us. Don't seem to be much force."</p> + +<p>"You should wake him up."</p> + +<p>"Humph!"</p> + +<p>"My congratulations," irrelevantly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Please don't. He's too ugly, too lazy; loves nothing but +a stallion he owns, and is very uninteresting."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" Suddenly he jumped up. "I have forgotten +that I came to see your dad."</p> + +<p>"I can't say when papa will be home," she answered, +going toward the door and looking out.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to see him regarding a little business about +boarding. I wonder if he could board me?"</p> + +<p>"He'll be home about noon, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"That won't be so long, now," said he, regarding the +clock.</p> + +<p>"So you are tired of baching," she said with a little +twinkle of the eyes.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You did!"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes." He did not understand her exclamation.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>He was flattered, and didn't know how to reply.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It must be wonderful to be a young man and to be so +courageous; to be so forceful and to be admired."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you flatter me."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Her father's appearance at this moment served to break<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +the silent embarrassment between them, the embarrassment +that had come out of what she had said.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE ADMINISTRATING ANGEL</p> + + +<p class="cap">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!</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>When he dined late one afternoon and found himself +alone with Agnes, he spoke of being tired.</p> + +<p>"You work too hard, Jean," she said, kindly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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....</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I wonder why Jean is so late," said Agnes, going to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Bill," said she, "see what is the matter with your boss +when you go over, and tell him to come to breakfast."</p> + +<p>Bill had no difficulty ascertaining, and returned quickly +with the news.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When he had drunk deeply and lay back weakly upon +the pillow, he heard:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Jean," she repeated softly, tenderly. "How do you +feel? Does your head pain you much?"</p> + +<p>"Where am I?" he said, turning his face toward her. +She put her hand lightly over his bandaged head.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You're here, Jean. At Stewart's. You are hurt, do +you understand?"</p> + +<p>"Hurt?" he repeated abstractedly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, hurt, Jean. You were kicked on the temple by +one of your horses."</p> + +<p>"Is that so?" and he suddenly sat up in the bed.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Do you feel hurt badly, Jean?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"How did you come to get kicked, Jean?" she asked, +speaking in the same low tone.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You must be very careful and not start the bleeding +again," she advised. "You bled considerably."</p> + +<p>"And you say I am at your house. At where I board?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jean."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And you have me here and are caring for me?"</p> + +<p>"We brought you here and are caring for you, Jean," +she repeated.</p> + +<p>"It is singular," said he.</p> + +<p>"What is singular?"</p> + +<p>"That you have twice happened to be where you can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Has a doctor been here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What did he seem to think of it?"</p> + +<p>"He said your wound was serious, but not fatal."</p> + +<p>"Did he say I could get up soon?"</p> + +<p>"He didn't say, Jean; but I don't think it would be wise." +He groaned.</p> + +<p>"Now you must be patient and not fret yourself into a +fever," she said seriously.</p> + +<p>"But I have so much work to do."</p> + +<p>"That will have to wait. Your health is first," she said +firmly.</p> + +<p>"But the work should be done," he insisted.</p> + +<p>"But you must consider your health before you can even +think about the work."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'll speak to papa, and perhaps George can take your +place for a few days, a week or until you can get out."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Please hush—don't mention it." She arose and presently +returned with her father.</p> + +<p>"Ah-ha," he always greeted. "So you've come to. +Thought something would show up in that 'bargain.'"</p> + +<p>"Please don't, father," admonished Agnes, frowningly.</p> + +<p>"I'll look after everything while you are down, old man,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +said Stewart. "I'll start the horses you've been working +this afternoon. Aggie has explained everything. I understand."</p> + +<p>"I'm so thankful," he said, then closing his eyes, and +a few minutes later had fallen asleep.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="center small">OH, MY JEAN!</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>withal +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Have you tried elsewhere, father?" said Agnes when +they had gotten the notice giving them thirty days' grace.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"There must be some way to avoid this. Oh, that man, +why couldn't he be reasonable!"</p> + +<p>"It is always bad when one has to write. If I were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>"If we could have only just three months."</p> + +<p>"Two months," he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She was so near to crying when she heard this that she +had much difficulty keeping back the tears. But she managed +to say:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"By the way, Jean, where does that old Scotchman live +out this way? The old fellow who moved out here recently +from Indiana?"</p> + +<p>"That's the place there," and Baptiste pointed to the +top of the house that could just be seen from where they +stood.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I think you will see her grazing in the pasture," said +Baptiste curiously.</p> + +<p>"How—what kind of animal is it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, she's a hum-dinger," returned Baptiste more curiously. +His curiosity aroused the other, who, looking at +him said:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"T' hell you say!" exclaimed Baptiste.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Hadn't you heard about it?"</p> + +<p>"This is my first knowledge of it."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" Baptiste exclaimed, thinking of the worry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +he had observed in the faces of Agnes and her father, and +at last beginning to understand.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Say, Brookings," he opened, "what kind of deal is the +old Scotchman up against out there? You understand."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"That don't look just right to me," muttered Baptiste +when he had heard the circumstances.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, it <i>isn't</i> right. But what can be done?"</p> + +<p>"Can't you loan the old man the money?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, if I should go it," said Baptiste suggestively. +The other looked quickly up.</p> + +<p>"Why, you! Gee, I'd take care of him for ten times the +amount if you'd put your 'John Henry' on the note."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be in town early in the morning," said Baptiste, +turning to drive away.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"All right, Jean. Sure! I'll look for you."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now if you'll just sign this, Mr. Stewart," said Brookings, +"you can have until December first on that stuff."</p> + +<p>"You mean the note!" the old man exclaimed, afraid to +believe that he had heard aright.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"How did they come to extend the note, father?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Now I wonder <i>who</i> 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 break<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>fast +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="center small">BILL PRESCOTT PROPOSES</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>She turned her eyes slowly toward him, surveyed him +coldly, and continued at her sewing.</p> + +<p>Bill muttered something.</p> + +<p>She regarded him again with cold disdain.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Will you go!" she cried, as she quickly jumped to her +feet and swung open the door. She controlled herself with +considerable effort.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ho! So that's the way you treat a white man—and +honor a d—n nigger!" And with that he dashed out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +and passed to where the senior worked away over his harness. +Jack Stewart saw and heard Bill approaching without +looking up. He greeted:</p> + +<p>"Ah-ha, William. And how are you today?"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You want to do what?" he said, uncomprehendingly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Is that so!"</p> + +<p>"Is <i>it</i> 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!"</p> + +<p>"So I don't guess I have it?" retorted William, sneeringly.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>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 <i>did</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Father, father!" cried Agnes soothingly.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Father, father!" begged Agnes.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear what he said," insisted the infuriated +senior.</p> + +<p>"Yes, father," she confessed. "I heard him."</p> + +<p>"You did! 'N that's worse!" Whereupon he tore loose +and threw up his arms in an angered gesture.</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Please be quiet, papa. Forget Bill Prescott and what +he has tried to insinuate.... We understand <i>him</i> and +what he <i>is</i>, and we understand Mr. Baptiste—and what +<i>he is</i>, so let us just think of other things."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"You've agreed to forget it, father...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I agree again; but it's outrageous that he should say +what he did about Jean Baptiste, now isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It is, father," she admitted with downcast eyes.</p> + +<p>"Of course it is. Never was there more of a gentleman +in the world than Jean Baptiste."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Baptiste is a real gentleman," acknowledged Agnes +again.</p> + +<p>"There never was, and he knows it, the pup!"</p> + +<p>Agnes was strangely silent, which Jack, in his excitement +overlooked.</p> + +<p>"And even if he should like my girl—"</p> + +<p>"Father!"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, please hush!"</p> + +<p>"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....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p class="center small">HARVEST TIME AND WHAT CAME WITH IT</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>And harvest time was on in the country of our story.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It is things accomplished," he often said to himself.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My, how you frightened me!" he cried.</p> + +<p>She held in her hand a basket containing lunch for him +and her brothers. This she had brought every day, but he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, please, and rest yourself," he commanded. +She obeyed him modestly, with a smile still upon her +pleasant face.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Until then, my lord," she smiled, coquettishly.</p> + +<p>"Thanks!" he laughed, good humoredly. Suddenly +she cried:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It is."</p> + +<p>"Just lovely," she cried, her eyes sparkling.</p> + +<p>"And all safe, that's the best part about it," he said.</p> + +<p>"Grand. I'm so glad you have saved it," she said with +feeling.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Thank you."</p> + +<p>"You have earned it."</p> + +<p>"I hope so. Still I thank you."</p> + +<p>"It will bring you lots of money."</p> + +<p>"I am hoping it will."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it will."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of it before you came up."</p> + +<p>"I knew it."</p> + +<p>"You knew it!"</p> + +<p>"I saw you from a distance."</p> + +<p>"Oh...."</p> + +<p>"And I knew you were thinking."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now."</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't I? You're always thinking. The only +time when you are not is when you are sleeping."</p> + +<p>"You can say such wonderful things," he said, standing +before her, the sun shining on his tanned features.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Your other crops are fine, too," she said, sociably.</p> + +<p>"I'm going over to look at them this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"You should."</p> + +<p>"Where is your father today?"</p> + +<p>"Gone to town."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed. A hail storm might come up." He +glanced at her quickly. She was gazing across the field<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +to where her halfwitted brothers worked, while he was +thinking how thoughtful she was. Presently he heard her +again.</p> + +<p>"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?</p> + +<p>"Oh, why, Agnes," he stammered, "that would be asking +too much of you!"</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>"Done for what?" he said, catching up where she had +broken off, and eyeing her inquiringly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What did you mean by what you started to say, Agnes," +he repeated, evenly, but kindly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he laughed lowly, relievedly. "That was nothing." +And he laughed again as if to dismiss it.</p> + +<p>"But it <i>was</i> something," she cried, protestingly. "It +<i>was</i> something. It was <i>everything</i> to us." She ended with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +great emotion apparent in her shaking voice. He shifted. +It was awkward, and he was a trifle confused.</p> + +<p>"Please don't think of it, Agnes."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Brookings didn't tell. He didn't tell papa; but I +knew." She was looking down at the earth.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand," she heard him say wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +I felt—I felt that I owed it to you to tell you, but I +couldn't before."</p> + +<p>"Please let's forget it, Agnes," she heard him whisper.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Agnes, Agnes, if you don't hush, almost I will forget +myself...."</p> + +<p>"I had to tell you, I <i>had</i> to!" she sobbed.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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, <i>can't you understand</i>!" +He was silent.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="im004" name="im004"></a> +<img src="images/im_004.jpg" alt="" /> +<p class="atext">From a painting by W.M. Farrow.</p> +<p class="ctext">"BUT, JEAN, THE CASES ARE NOT PARALLEL. WHAT I +DID FOR YOU I WOULD HAVE DONE FOR ANY ONE; BUT +YOURS—OH, JEAN, <i>CAN'T</i> YOU UNDERSTAND!"</p> +</div> + + + +<p>And when she had concluded, the man beside her had +forgotten <i>the custom of the country, and its law</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>His voice was husky when he answered:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Jean, oh, Jean Baptiste, you have spoken and now at +last <i>I</i> understand. And do you know that before I left +back there from where I came, I <i>saw</i> 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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center biggest"><a name="EPOCH_THE_SECOND" id="EPOCH_THE_SECOND"></a>EPOCH THE SECOND</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>EPOCH THE SECOND</h2> + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I_second" id="CHAPTER_I_second"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class="center small">REGARDING THE INTERMARRIAGE OF RACES</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>He was going with an air of satisfaction apparently; +for, in truth, he had everything to make him feel so—that +is, <i>almost</i> 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?</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +to the harvest time; to his homestead and where he sat +with some one near, very near, and what followed.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't help it—I loved you; love you—have loved +you always!" he passionately told her.</p> + +<p>For answer she had yielded again her lips, and all the +love of her warm young heart went out to him.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>do</i> understand that +whatever it is it is something good—it couldn't be otherwise, +could it?"</p> + +<p>"No, Jean," she faltered.</p> + +<p>"And did you wonder at my calling your name that +night?"</p> + +<p>"I have never understood that fully until now," she replied.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it strange," she whispered.</p> + +<p>"But beautiful."</p> + +<p>"So beautiful."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +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....</p> + +<p>So it ruled.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He had considered it—he had considered it before he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Custom Of The Country</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The first named, Jean Baptiste never felt he could be +quite like. Even if he should disregard <i>The Custom Of +The Country, and its law</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>So Jean Baptiste was going. He would forget Agnes. +He would court one in his own race. So to Chicago he +now sped.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +she exclaimed with him inside, holding him at arms' length +and regarding him fondly. "How are you, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, fine," he replied, regarding her pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Well, how's Chicago?" he inquired irrelevantly.</p> + +<p>"Same old burg," she replied, drawing a chair up close.</p> + +<p>"And how's hubby?"</p> + +<p>"Fine!"</p> + +<p>"And the rest of the family?"</p> + +<p>"The same. Pearl, too."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Pearl.... How is Pearl?"</p> + +<p>"Still single...."</p> + +<p>"Thought she was engaged to be married when I was +here last year?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that fellow was no good!"</p> + +<p>"What was the matter?"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with lots of these nigga' men 'round +Chicago? They can't keep a wife a posing on State Street."</p> + +<p>"Humph!"</p> + +<p>"It's the truth!"</p> + +<p>"And how about the women? They seem to be fond of +passing along to be posed at...."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're mean," she pouted. Then: "Are you +married yet?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, lordy! How could I get married? Not thirty +minutes ago I saw the first colored girl I have seen in a +year!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're a liar!"</p> + +<p>"It's the truth!"</p> + +<p>"Is it so, Jean? Have you really not seen a colored girl +in a whole year?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have never lied to you, have I?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I've seen enough already to make up."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"You're shameful! Your sister wouldn't have me. I'm +a farmer."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes she would. Pearl's getting tired of getting +engaged to these Negroes around Chicago. She likes you, +anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut," he laughed depreciatingly. "Pearl would +run me ragged out there on that farm!" She laughed too.</p> + +<p>"No, she wouldn't, really. Pearl is good looking and is +tired of working."</p> + +<p>"She's good looking, all right, and perhaps tired of working; +but she wouldn't do out there on the farm."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you won't do. I'll bet you are married already."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. White!"</p> + +<p>"But you're engaged?"</p> + +<p>"Nope!"</p> + +<p>"Jean. I'll bet you'll marry a white girl out there and +have nothing more to do with nigga's."</p> + +<p>"Now you're worse."</p> + +<p>"And when you marry a white woman, I want to be +the first one to shoot you—in the leg."</p> + +<p>He laughed long and uproariously.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Come to what?"</p> + +<p>"Marrying a white woman."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't that be all right?"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"Why would you want to do that?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Why would I want to do that?</i> Humph! What you +want to ask me such a question for? The idea!"</p> + +<p>"But you haven't answered my question?"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>He was silent.</p> + +<p>"Ain't I done outlined it right?"</p> + +<p>"You've revealed some very delicate points with regard +to the matter," he acknowledged.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +to break her heart and get her head broken over. She marries +somebody like you with plenty of money and sense with +it, see!"</p> + +<p>He laughed amusedly.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"But a white woman might help a fellow to get up in +the world," he argued.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>"I hope you have, if you had it in your mind. Anything +else might be forgiven, but marrying a white woman—never!"</p> + +<p>They parted then. She to her sewing, and Jean Baptiste +to his thoughts....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II_second" id="CHAPTER_II_second"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="center small">WHICH?</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>His grandmother, who had raised a family in the days of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +slavery agreed and was anxious to file on one; one sister on +another, and the third place,—was to be his bride's.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So, resigned to the fact, he set himself to choose a wife.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Which?</p> + +<p>He borrowed ten thousand dollars, giving a mortgage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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....</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So it was to this number he now hurried.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I sent her a telegram that I was coming, and I trust she +will let me know...."</p> + +<p>"She is due in tomorrow," cried their little friend, and +her voice was like delicate music.</p> + +<p>"I expect a telegram," he said evenly. "I am somewhat +rushed."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ting-aling-aling!" went the bell on the street door, and +little Miss Rankin rushed forth to open it.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="im005" name="im005"></a> +<img src="images/im_005.jpg" alt="" /> +<p class="atext">From a painting by W.M. Farrow.</p> +<p class="ctext">"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."</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III_second" id="CHAPTER_III_second"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="center small">MEMORIES—N. JUSTINE MCCARTHY</p> + + +<p class="cap">"SHE will not be in tomorrow," said Baptiste, handing +the letter to Miss Rankin.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure sorry, so sorry," mused Miss Rankin abstractedly. +"And you cannot possibly wait until next +week?" she asked, anxiously.</p> + +<p>He shook his head sadly.</p> + +<p>"Impossible, absolutely impossible."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, by the way, Miss Rankin," he essayed, rising, ap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>parently +cheerful. "Do you happen to be acquainted with +a family here by the name of McCarthy?"</p> + +<p>"McCarthy?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Humph!"</p> + +<p>"Well...."</p> + +<p>"Who doesn't know that old rascal!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"The worst old rascal in the state of Illinois," she pursued +with equal contempt.</p> + +<p>"Oh, really!"</p> + +<p>"Really—yes, <i>positively</i>!"</p> + +<p>"I cannot understand?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"This is—er—rather unusual, don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Well, now what do you think of that," he kept repeating +to himself, as he went for the ice cream, "<i>what do you +think of that?</i>" 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!</p> + +<p>"N.J. McCarthy, <i>N.J. McCarthy</i>? Where did I <i>know +you</i>! Where, where, <i>where</i>!" 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 <i>didn't</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now, young man," his mother said to him the following +morning, "you will get into clean clothes and stay clean, do +you understand?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"M-um!" he had chimed.</p> + +<p>"And, why, mama, do the preachers have no time for +little boys? Were they not little boys once themselves?"</p> + +<p>"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 un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>derstand! +So be good." With that she went about her +dinner, cooking the rabbits and the quail that he had +brought home the day before.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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 un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>derstood. +As far as he could see, it appeared as if the +teacher had not wished it; but the flirtation had been kept +up.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"You're an impudent, ill mannered little boy, and you +need a spanking!"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"I ain't no impudent 'ittle boy, either! I went to hunt +with my brothers yistidy and I carried all the game, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +now you goin' eat it all and leave me none when I'm hungry. +You're mean man and make me mad!"</p> + +<p>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 <i>must</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +was not commonly emotional. But when he was angry he +was terrible, and he was angry now. His blue eyes shone +like fire.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And there they found him during the early hours of +the morning and took him and the dead catamount home.</p> + +<p>"Another beer, Cap'n?" he heard from the bartender. +He quickly stood erect and gazed about in some confusion.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>He was overcome with memories, was Jean Baptiste. He +had a task to accomplish. He was going to Vernon Avenue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +where Miss McCarthy lived to ask her to become his wife.</p> + +<p>And the preacher who had been the cause of his severe +punishment twenty years before was her father, the Rev. +N.J. McCarthy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV_second" id="CHAPTER_IV_second"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="center small">ORLEAN</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," replied her mother, affecting a serious expression, +"this is rather sudden. Have you sent him word +when he could?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And it is now past one," she replied. "You will have +to get ready to receive him," she advised ceremoniously.</p> + +<p>"All right, mama," said Orlean cheerfully, and suddenly +bending forward, kissed her mother impulsively upon the +cheek, and a moment later hurried upstairs.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>She was very tall, was Ethel, and because she was so +very thin she appeared really taller than she was. She did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I think you have met him, have you not?" her mother +inquired.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've met him," admitted Ethel. "Last winter +while teaching."</p> + +<p>"And what do you think of him, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"Well, he has some ways I don't like."</p> + +<p>"What ways, please?" She had started to say +"naturally" but thought better of it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he does not possess the dignity I like in a man. +Struck me as much too commonplace."</p> + +<p>"Oh," her mother grunted. She was acquainted with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +Ethel's disposition, which was extremely vain. She loved +pomp and ceremony, and admired very few people.</p> + +<p>"What's he calling to see Orlean for?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>She was a year older than the man who was coming to +see her, and had never had a beau.</p> + +<p>"Do I look all right, mama?" she asked, turning so that +she might be seen all around.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Now sit down, my daughter," she said judiciously, "and +before the young man comes to call on you, tell me all about +him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and leave out nothing," interposed Ethel.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now where did you meet Mr. Baptiste, my dear?" she +began.</p> + +<p>"Where I taught last winter, mother," she replied obediently.</p> + +<p>"And how did you come to meet him, daughter?"</p> + +<p>"Why, he was calling on a girl friend of mine, and I +happened along while he was there, and the girl introduced +us."</p> + +<p>"M-m. Was that the first time you had seen him?"</p> + +<p>"No, I had met him on the street when he was on the +way down there."</p> + +<p>"I see. Did he speak to you on the street?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, mother. He did not know me."</p> + +<p>"But he might have spoken anyhow...."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +dear, and understand that we have raised you to be a +lady, and exercise your usual dignity."</p> + +<p>"Yes, mama."</p> + +<p>On the hour the street door bell was pulled with a jerk, +and arising, Orlean went toward the door expectantly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Miss McCarthy," he cried, with her hand in one of his, +and his hat in the other, he entered the door.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>They exchanged the usual words about the weather, and +other conventional notes, and then she called her mother.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mama, I wish you to meet Mr. Baptiste. Mr. Baptiste, +this is my mother."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Baptiste," said her mother, giving him her hand, +"I am glad to know you."</p> + +<p>"The same here, madam," he returned cheerfully. +"Guess your health is good!"</p> + +<p>"Very good, I'm glad to say."</p> + +<p>They talked for a time, and all were cheered to find +themselves so agreeable.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I do say," he echoed non-commitally.</p> + +<p>"Do you recall it?" she asked.</p> + +<p>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...."</p> + +<p>"Your name—the name of your family has always remained +in my mind," said she then, reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Indeed. It is a rather peculiar name."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that explains it. Of course that is natural. M-m; +but it's a beautiful name, I must say."</p> + +<p>He smiled.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is an illustrious name, also," she commented further.</p> + +<p>"But the man who carries it in this instance, is much to +the contrary notwithstanding," he laughed depreciatingly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Where would you like to go?" she asked as they neared +the intersection.</p> + +<p>"For a car ride on the elevated," he replied promptly.</p> + +<p>"Then we will go right down this street. This is Thirty-third, +and there's an elevated station a few blocks from +here."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was growing dark when they returned, and she invited +him to dinner. He accepted and thereupon met Ethel and +her husband.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +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?"</p> + +<p>"Lord, no!" he exclaimed; "but I shall be glad to listen +to you."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Shortly she felt his hand upon her shoulder and she +turned to hear him say:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Won't you come back into the parlor? I—would like +to speak to you?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>what</i> +did he mean; what was he <i>going</i> to say.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +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?"</p> + +<p>He had paused, and her soul was afire. Was <i>this</i> 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 <i>ready to listen +to anything he had to say</i>.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I think so," she said a bit falteringly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V_second" id="CHAPTER_V_second"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="center small">A PROPOSAL; A PROPOSITION; A CERTAIN MRS. PRUITT—AND +A LETTER</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now, when the young man calls today, you will have +him take his business up with me," her mother instructed +judiciously the following morning.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But she found a way out along late that afternoon when +a caller was announced.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>His sister and grandmother had arrived during his absence, +and, after greeting them, he was handed a letter, +which read:</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>My dear Mr. Baptiste</i>:</p> + +<p>Your most delightful letter was received by me today, and +that you may see just how much I appreciate it, I am answering +at <i>once</i> and hope you will receive the same real +soon.</p> + +<p>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 <i>most</i> interesting letter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +had been here several days. Think of it, and I would have +given most <i>anything</i> to have had it sooner.</p> + +<p>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 <i>your earliest possible convenience</i>. +I am waiting with great anxiety your honored +appearance.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, trusting that you are healthy, hopeful +and happy, please believe me to be,</p> + +<p class="ind"> +Cordially, sincerely—and anxiously yours,</p> + +<p class="attr"><span class="smcap">Irene Grey</span>. +</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI_second" id="CHAPTER_VI_second"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE PRAIRIE FIRE</p> + + +<blockquote><p class="cap">"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.</p> + +<p>"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,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Your own,</p> + +<p class="attr1">"<span class="smcap">Orlean</span>." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 appreci<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>ative +manner, gave the promoter the big haw! haw! and +turned their backs to him.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>the</i> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"A prairie fire," he cried apprehensively, and urged his +teams forward toward Dallas. One glance had been sufficient +to <i>convince</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII_second" id="CHAPTER_VII_second"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="center small">VANITY</p> + + +<blockquote><p class="cap">"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +letter, and make it long. In the meantime remember me as +one who thinks a great deal of you,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"From your fond,</p> + +<p class="attr1">"<span class="smcap">Orlean</span>." +</p></blockquote> + +<p>Baptiste heard from his father-in-law-to-be in due time, +and read the letter carefully, replying to the same forthwith.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>So when Jean Baptiste returned West, he was conscious +of a great relief.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +fiancée 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.</p> + +<p>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 be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>fore +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +$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."</p> + +<p>So he started for the Windy City.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>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—<i>under any circumstances</i>. But she +would attend to that herself and did not need the assistance +of her brother-in-law....</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +lips protruding, and Mrs. McCarthy, whom he had termed, +"Little Mother Mary," stood nearby at a loss as to what +to say.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, hon'," he said gaily and laughed, at +the same time gathering her into his arms.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"No, Ethel," commanded Orlean, "This is <i>my</i> affair. +I—" she did not finish, because at that moment Jean Baptiste +had kissed her.</p> + +<p>"It beats anything I ever witnessed," cried Ethel, almost +bursting to get started.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Come, and I will get you told!"</p> + +<p>He followed meekly. When they reached the parlor she +was confronted with another proposition. Where would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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 for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>gotten +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 <i>was</i> a beautiful day, indeed! +And she had not observed it before.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She felt—was sensitive of a feeling of genuine +guilt.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +dollars, and long years of hard, hard work, are lying idle, +growing to wild weeds!"</p> + +<p>"But, Jean," she cried of a sudden. "It is not so?"</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately it is so, my love!"</p> + +<p>"Then—Jean—you must go—hurry, and sow your +crops, also!" she echoed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jean!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"You are so wonderful!"</p> + +<p>"Not wonderful, am I," quoth Baptiste. "Just a mite +practical."</p> + +<p>"But it is wonderful anyhow, all you say!"</p> + +<p>"And yet my Orlean does not love me yet!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't say that," she argued, thinking of what she had +written him.</p> + +<p>"Since therefore she has not said it, then methinks that +she does not."</p> + +<p>"I—I—oh, you—are awful!"</p> + +<p>"And she will not go to live alone with me and share my +life—and my love!"</p> + +<p>"I—oh, I didn't say I wouldn't do all that." She was +done for then. She had shot her last defense.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then you will?" he asked anxiously. "You will go +back with me, and be mine, all mine and love me forever?"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII_second" id="CHAPTER_VIII_second"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">MARRIED</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What would you expect us to do, Little Mother," he +said, turning a beaming face upon her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But—Orlean, I thought—I thought—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Why, why—what is the matter, Ethel!" he cried, rising +from his chair in some excitement.</p> + +<p>"Why, that Jean Baptiste is sitting down there on the +davenport with mama on one side of him and my sister +on the other!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, is that all!" he breathed with relief.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Is that all!" she echoed in derision, her narrow little +face screwed up.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Will you 'well' me when that man just comes in here +and takes the house and all that's in it!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ethel." he argued. "Will you use some sense!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I have," she shouted. "I am one who has +never changed their mind!"</p> + +<p>"I agree, and that is what's the matter with you," so +saying, he made his get-away to avoid what would have +followed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Jean Baptiste, you are a wonder!" cried Orlean, and, +encircling his neck with her arms, kissed him impulsively.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh-ho!" he laughed, whereat she was embarrassed. +"That's the 'bug,' eh!"</p> + +<p>"Well," she hesitated, awkwardly, "he <i>is</i> rather vain."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>Later, when convenient, Baptiste attempted and was ap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>parently +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:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX_second" id="CHAPTER_IX_second"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="center small">ORLEAN RECEIVES A LETTER AND ADVICE</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"But, Jean!" she started and then hesitated. He appeared +to understand.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>It was from Ethel, and ran:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p>"<i>My dear sister</i>:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum1"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hoping to hear from you soon, and that you are safe as +yet, believe me to be,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"As ever your sister,</p> + +<p class="attr1">"<span class="smcap">Ethel</span>." +</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p>"<i>My dear sister</i>:</p> + +<p>"Receipt of your recent letter is here acknowledged, and<span class="pagenum1"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +in reply, will say that I have read the same carefully, and +made a note of what you said.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"In the meantime, thanking you for your suggestions, +and begging you not to act foolish, I am,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Your affectionate sister,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">Orlean</span>." +</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What is it, dear?" she inquired, observing the old frown +upon his face. He shook his head before replying, and tried +to smile.</p> + +<p>"This wind."</p> + +<p>"The wind?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jean!" she called.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied abstractedly.</p> + +<p>"What kind of weeds are those?" and she pointed to +the wild blossoms.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +and get you a big bunch of roses. Will that be all right, +dear?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, and he did not understand why her +eyes were downcast.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Why," he suddenly exclaimed, his eyes widening, +"what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing," she stammered more than spoke.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Of course, Jean," she agreed tremulously.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No, Jean," she admitted without hesitation and very +humbly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X_second" id="CHAPTER_X_second"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="center small">EUGENE CROOK</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The difficulty began when the survey was run. Notwithstanding +the fact that the county seat had been secured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"But I see a sod shack over in the draw," returned Crook. +"They have apparently called themselves establishing a +residence on the land."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Crook, thoughtfully, "we'll drive back to +town and consult Duval about it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +been seen only a few times there, and of the proposition to +contest it.</p> + +<p>"Who holds the place, did you say?" inquired Duval in +his deep, droll voice, crossing his legs judiciously.</p> + +<p>"Why, a nigger woman," said Spaight.</p> + +<p>"A Negro woman?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>Crook smiled; Duval was thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"What's her name—this Negress? Is she a single +woman or married?"</p> + +<p>"Why, she <i>was</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"And the name?" inquired Duval again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, Baptiste. That's it. Jean Baptiste is her husband's +name."</p> + +<p>"Oh, hell!" cried Duval, and spat upon the floor.</p> + +<p>"Why—what's the matter?" cried Crook and Spaight +in chorus.</p> + +<p>"I was struck with the joke."</p> + +<p>"The joke?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The bluffing."</p> + +<p>"But we don't understand?"</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Is that so?" they echoed, taken aback.</p> + +<p>"Well, I should say so, and everybody in the county +knows it."</p> + +<p>"But they haven't lived on the place as they should!" +protested Spaight, weakly.</p> + +<p>"Something like yourself," laughed Duval. Spaight colored +guiltily.</p> + +<p>"But I can prove it," insisted Spaight.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Then we can contest it?" cried Spaight.</p> + +<p>"Of course. You can contest any place so far as that +goes."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's what we intend to do. And I have the +goods on him and am sure we can win."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, to be frank, Duval," said Crook, "What +do you think of it anyhow?"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +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 +<i>other</i> way."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI_second" id="CHAPTER_XI_second"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="center small">REVEREND McCARTHY PAYS A VISIT</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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.</p> + +<p>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 re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>gards +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the other. "An elderly man, very distinguished +looking."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right, my son," said the other heartily. +"And how is Orlean?"</p> + +<p>"Fine! She'll be tickled to death to see you."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +old scout was pretty well "pickled" from imbibing too +freely in red liquor.</p> + +<p>"Sure thing," he roared in his big voice when Baptiste +stated his errand. "Bring him down here and I'll buy him +a drink."</p> + +<p>"But he's a preacher," cautioned Baptiste with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"A preacher! Well, I'll be damned!" exclaimed the +German, humorously. Whereupon he ordered drinks for +the house, and two for himself. Baptiste grinned.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Ah-ha!" roared the German from the buggy, sociably, +"So there you are!"</p> + +<p>"Why—Jean—the man is—drunk, is he not?" whispered +the Elder.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Come on, brother, and meet me!" called the German +again in a voice sufficiently loud almost to awaken the dead.</p> + +<p>"But, Jean," said the Reverend, lowly but apprehensively, +"I don't know whether I want to ride with a +drunken man or not."</p> + +<p>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 pave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>ment, +the German who did not like to be referred to as +drunk, roared:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>The Reverend beat a hasty retreat back into the hotel, +while Baptiste called after him:</p> + +<p>"I'll send Orlean for you in the morning," and went to +look up his neighbor who had made himself so conspicuous.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I have driven them fifty miles in a day—John!" +she called suddenly to the off mule who was given to mischievous +tricks.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," commented the Reverend, "but it certainly +beats all."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"That's her!"</p> + +<p>'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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII_second" id="CHAPTER_XII_second"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="center small">REVEREND MCCARTHY DECIDES TO SET BAPTISTE +RIGHT, BUT—</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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:</p> + +<p>"I have a fine claim, papa. Jean says it is the best piece +of land we have."</p> + +<p>"Now isn't that fine!"</p> + +<p>"It is," Orlean said, thinking of her husband.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"I—I haven't wanted for anything, papa."</p> + +<p>"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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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—"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"But Jean is not like Glavis, papa. They are two different +men entirely."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Hello, my boy. So you are home to dinner?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And how are the crops?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A contest on Orlean's place? What does that mean?"</p> + +<p>"Does that mean! But of course you couldn't understand," +whereat, Baptiste tried to explain to him what it +meant.</p> + +<p>"So you see you find us with our troubles." The Rev<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>erend +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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Wash up," cried Baptiste, pointing to the horse tub.</p> + +<p>"Jean!" called his wife remonstratingly. "You forget +yourself. Asking papa to wash where the horses have +drank! You must be more thoughtful!"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"He's wild, just wild!" muttered the Reverend, as he +followed them into the house.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII_second" id="CHAPTER_XIII_second"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE WOLF</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Dreadful!" he exclaimed when the other was out of +hearing distance.</p> + +<p>"What, papa?" inquired his daughter, regarding him +questioningly. She had become accustomed to Jean's ways +and did not understand her father's exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Why, the man! Your husband!"</p> + +<p>"Jean?"</p> + +<p>"Such rough ways!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, I never saw the like. I'm afraid he and Ethel +would never get along very well. No, he—is rather unusual."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> + +<p>This thought was passing through Orlean's mind when +she heard her father again:</p> + +<p>"Now, he said something about a contest." She caught +her breath quickly, swallowed, changed color, and then +managed, hardly above a whisper, to say:</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It's all my fault, papa," Orlean admitted falteringly.</p> + +<p>"Your fault!" the other exclaimed, not understanding.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she breathed with eyes downcast.</p> + +<p>"And what do you mean? How can it be your fault +when you have sacrificed the nice home in Chicago for this +wilderness?"</p> + +<p>"But, papa," she faltered. "You have never been West +before. You—you don't understand!"</p> + +<p>"Don't understand!" cried the Reverend, anger and impatience +evident. "What is there to understand about this +wilderness?"</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +explain." He frowned in his usual way, while she sighed +unheard, and then fell to the task before her.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, so he has them living out there alone like cattle, +helping him to get rich!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But they are not like you, daughter. Those are all +rough people. You cannot live like them. You have been +accustomed to something."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Please, don't, father," she almost screamed. She knew +he was going to say: "and in your grave, he will marry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +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.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="im006" name="im006"></a> +<img src="images/im_006.jpg" alt="" /> +<p class="atext">From a painting by W.M. Farrow.</p> +<p class="ctext">"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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Awfully small, my boy," said the Reverend, as they +looked around.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Places his horses before his wife, of course," muttered +the Reverend, but obligingly unheard.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," Baptiste returned shortly. "Onto Orlean's +place, west of here."</p> + +<p>"Oh. How far is that?"</p> + +<p>"Not so far. About fifty miles."</p> + +<p>"Good lord!" And the Reverend could say no more.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV_second" id="CHAPTER_XIV_second"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE CONTEST</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>To begin with their corroborating witness, James J. +Spaight, developed before the close to more definitely cor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>roborate +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was difficult to explain to his Majesty that they would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>was</i> urgent. It contained a +money order covering the price of a ticket to Chicago with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +a trite note that he expected her soon, and that he, her husband, +could come on later.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Evidently he voiced what he had done to near friends,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV_second" id="CHAPTER_XV_second"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="center small">COMPROMISED</p> + + +<p class="cap">"PLEASE don't go, Jean," she begged. "I don't +want you to go. Stay with me."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, you can go. But hurry back. I want you +to be home then, you understand."</p> + +<p>"Of course I want to be home then, wifey, and sure +want it to be a boy."</p> + +<p>"It <i>will</i> be a boy, Jean," she said with a strange confidence. +"I believe it. I am sure it will."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jean, you can make life seem so light."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"By the way, dear," she said suddenly, going into the +bedroom, and returning presently with a letter. "This is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I am kind of sorry we placed mother in this position," +he heard her say as if talking more to herself than he.</p> + +<p>"In what position, Orlean?"</p> + +<p>"In keeping this a secret."</p> + +<p>"From your father, you mean?" said he, frowning.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, Orlean, I have tried to be a husband to you."</p> + +<p>"And you have been, Jean."</p> + +<p>"Then it is our business if I chose to keep such a +secret."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, Jean," she said, lowering her eyes and thinking.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>His wife laughed.</p> + +<p>"Have I spoken rightly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she agreed and was momentarily amused.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Please hush, Jean," she begged, her arms about him. +But he was aroused. He had made himself forget as he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Jean, my God, please hush!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Ah—well—did my wife have—attention?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +couldn't give it birth, so they had to kill it in order to save +her life."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"To him!" cried Baptiste inaudibly. "<i>To</i> him!" he +repeated. "To him no doubt, that the baby—which he had +not known was to be, had come and—dead!"</p> + +<p>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 <i>Jean Baptiste knew that he was coming +nearer to the parting of the ways</i>.</p> + +<p>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. +<i>The fact that he himself had been absent when his +own Orlean came into the world</i> 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....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI_second" id="CHAPTER_XVI_second"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE EVIL GENIUS</p> + + +<p class="cap">"OH, JEAN," breathed Orlean, from the bed, "where +have you been?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +gradually disappeared, and the western air had brought +health and vigor to her.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Papa," she whispered, and in her voice there was a great +appeal. "Don't blame Jean. Jean has burdens, he has re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>sponsibilities—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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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. <i>But Jean Baptiste had a principle, +and was not a liar, nor a coward, nor a thief.</i> And, al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>though, +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +'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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now, don't you talk about Glavis," cried Ethel one day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now, after the expense we have been to," said Baptiste, +"I hardly know whether I can let you go to Chicago or +not."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear that, daughter?" said the Reverend, now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"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!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII_second" id="CHAPTER_XVII_second"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE COWARD</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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?"</p> + +<p>"My folks?"</p> + +<p>"Yeh. Three of them. A man and two women. One +of the ladies appears to be sick."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>He went directly to the preacher when he saw him. He +was aroused, and the insults he had suffered did not make +him pleasant.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Now, now, my son—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Looks as if she was able to take care of herself," suggested +Baptiste, deciding to counter the old rascal at his own +game.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"We'll leave personalities out of it, if you please," said +Baptiste, coloring.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they haven't," cried Baptiste, all patience gone.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>The other's face became terrible. The expression upon +his face was dreadful to behold. He started to rise, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +to the sick woman for succor—to her whom he was dragging +down to the gutter of misery for his own self +aggrandizement.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"Now, dear, I'll step into the bank here and get you +some money—"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, no, no, Jean," she said quickly, cutting him off before +he completed what he had started to say.</p> + +<p>"Well," and he started toward the bank again as if he +had not understood her.</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, Jean," she repeated, and caught his arm +nervously. "No, don't!"</p> + +<p>"But you are going away, dear, and will surely need +money?" he insisted.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but—Jean—Jean—I have money."</p> + +<p>"You have money?" repeated the other uncomprehendingly. +"But how came you with money? That much +money?"</p> + +<p>"I—I had—a—check cashed. That is—papa had +one cashed for me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, so that was it. M-m. <i>Your father</i> 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?</p> + +<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How much for, Orlean?"</p> + +<p>"Two—two—hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"<i>It was her, it was her. She did it, she did it!</i>"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"I will not keep her from going. She can go; but you +know I ought not let her."</p> + +<p>They carried her to where the cars stood, and made her +comfortable when once inside. She opened her eyes when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Orlean!"</p> + +<p>"Goodby!"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center biggest"><a name="EPOCH_THE_THIRD" id="EPOCH_THE_THIRD"></a>EPOCH THE THIRD</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>EPOCH THE THIRD</h2> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I_third" id="CHAPTER_I_third"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class="center small">CHICAGO—THE BOOMERANG</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 informa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>tion +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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 disposi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>tion +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So on Tuesday of the following week, the Elder left for +his work, and that same afternoon, Jean Baptiste arrived in +Chicago.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II_third" id="CHAPTER_II_third"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE GREAT QUESTION</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>why</i> was she away?</p> + +<p>Yes, that was the great question. <i>Why was she away?</i></p> + +<p>Oh, the agony this question gave the man of our story.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>And yet, why was his wife in Chicago without even a letter +from her to him; or one from him to her? Why, why, <i>why</i>?</p> + +<p>N. Justine McCarthy!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"She's out."</p> + +<p>"Out where?"</p> + +<p>"She just walked out into the street."</p> + +<p>"How is she?"</p> + +<p>"Better than when she came home," meaningly.</p> + +<p>"When she was <i>brought</i> home," he corrected.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"But I am not here to argue whereof. I am here to see +her."</p> + +<p>"But she's out."</p> + +<p>"However, she'll return, I hope. If not, then, where +might I find her?"</p> + +<p>"She'll return presently."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She did not reply, but sighed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"My husband told me," she countered.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he echoed.</p> + +<p>"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....</p> + +<p>"I have been good to your daughter; a husband to the best +of my ability."</p> + +<p>"But you—you—should not have blundered." Again +he was reminded of what it meant to displease or give her +husband any excuse.</p> + +<p>"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....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If I can see Orlean that will be sufficient," he said.</p> + +<p>"She went to walk."</p> + +<p>"Mother?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It's a shame," said the other.</p> + +<p>"You should have been careful," she returned meaningly. +But in her mind was still the dream. If she could be +brave....</p> + +<p>"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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +to the fact that she had a reputation for being disagreeable. +She turned to him, and said:</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>He answered her not. Her mother was trembling.</p> + +<p>"Get out of this house!" she commanded, getting control +of herself.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear!" she almost screamed.</p> + +<p>"I am waiting for my wife," he replied then calmly.</p> + +<p>"She is my sister!" she screamed again.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I am aware of that."</p> + +<p>"Then you cannot have her!"</p> + +<p>"She is mine already."</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" he called.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" came back. "Ah—ha—who—who—who +is th-is?" the other sputtered, all excitement.</p> + +<p>"Baptiste," replied the other, wondering at his excitement.</p> + +<p>"Wh—at a—re yo—u do-i-ng a—t m-y h-o-u-s-e?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, say," called back Baptiste. "There's nobody dead +out here. Now calm yourself and say what you want to. +I'm listening."</p> + +<p>"We—ll," said the other, a little better controlled. "I +ask what you are doing at my house?"</p> + +<p>"Your house!" echoed Baptiste, uncomprehendingly. +"Why, I do not understand you."</p> + +<p>"I want to know what you are doing at my house after +what you said about me!"</p> + +<p>"At your house after what I said about you!" Baptiste +repeated.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I want to see you downtown—you come down +here!"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Well, alright."</p> + +<p>Ethel slammed and locked the door behind him, and he +walked over to Cottage Grove Avenue and boarded a car.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III_third" id="CHAPTER_III_third"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="center small">GLAVIS MAKES A PROMISE</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, Baptiste, I guess I may as well agree with +you," replied Glavis.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, Baptiste," he replied quickly, and his expression +confirmed the words that followed, "I believe you."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, that is rather direct," suggested Glavis.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now, Baptiste," defended Glavis, "I am no party to +your wife's being here in Chicago."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That is sure manly in you, Baptiste," Glavis said heartily.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I'll have to admit that you are," and he scowled a little.</p> + +<p>"Do you believe these statements?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Now, now, Baptiste," the other cried quickly. "I do +not want to have anything to do with you and Orlean's +troubles. I—"</p> + +<p>"It is <i>not</i> Orlean and my troubles, Glavis. It is her father's +and my troubles."</p> + +<p>Glavis shifted uncomfortably. Presently he said hesitatingly:</p> + +<p>"The old man just left town this morning. Wished you +and he could have had your outs together."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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 <i>had</i> this to do in +order to live with Orlean."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +it expedient to be disagreeable in order to dispel the effect +of his son-in-law's frank personality.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Dammit!" exclaimed Glavis suddenly. "It <i>isn't</i> all my +fault or the old man's or my wife's! It's Orlean's!"</p> + +<p>"Well," agreed Baptiste, thoughtfully, "on the whole, that +is so."</p> + +<p>"Of course it is! If Orlean was a woman she would be +right out there with you now where she belongs!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"She cannot be two things at the same time," Glavis +argued, "and that is a daughter to her father and a wife +to you!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It certainly beats hell!"</p> + +<p>"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?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?</p> + +<p>Well, Glavis might have the courage—<i>but Ethel was his +wife. And Jean Baptiste realized that of all things in the +world, a woman's influence is the most subtle.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV_third" id="CHAPTER_IV_third"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE GAMBLER'S STORY</p> + + +<p class="cap">THE KEYSTONE was the oldest and most élite 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So it was such a crowd that Jean Baptiste encountered at +the Keystone that day. There were two real estate men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"Baptiste! Well, well, of all things! And how do you +happen to be down here in the spring?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, a little business," he returned, and joined with the +crowd, bought a drink for them all, and was apparently +jolly.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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>I</i> come to understand about your father-in-law, +and if you are not in a hurry, I'll tell you a little +story."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the other, "let's have a drink before you +start."</p> + +<p>"I don't care," and he beckoned to the bartender.</p> + +<p>"Small bottle, a Schlitz," he said, and turned to Baptiste.</p> + +<p>"Make it two," said the other, and turned to hear the +story the other had to tell.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"'Who?' I inquired as innocent as a lamb.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, those two girls living near the church,' and he +called their names.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Why, they are two young ladies who came here not +long ago,' I said, and waited.</p> + +<p>"'Is <i>that</i> all?' he asked then, and I looked at him. He +grinned, and said:</p> + +<p>"'Aw, come on, Speed! Be a good fellow. Now, <i>are +those girls</i> straight?' and he specified the one I had begun +going with.</p> + +<p>"'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?'</p> + +<p>"'Aw, now, Speed,' he laughed easily, his big fat round +face shaking. 'Be a <i>good</i> 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 +"<i>fix</i>" 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 <i>right</i> with you. You understand,' he said, rising, +'<i>I'll make it right with you</i>.'</p> + +<p>"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 <i>previous</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"I was outdone! But true to his words, the next Sunday +night he was back!</p> + +<p>"'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:</p> + +<p>"'Now, Reverend, you place me in a very awkward pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>dicament. +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.'</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>Baptiste was regarding him strangely.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But what—what became of their mother?" Baptiste +inquired curiously.</p> + +<p>"Her? What becomes of women who are deceived? If +you visited St. Louis and the <i>district</i>, you might find her. +She was there the last I heard of her."</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"Me?" the other repeated in a strangely hollow voice. +"You know what <i>I</i> am. A gambler, and with an old score +to settle with that man if I ever get the chance."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V_third" id="CHAPTER_V_third"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE PREACHER'S EVIL INFLUENCE</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where is Orlean?" he inquired after a time, whereupon +his wife's face darkened.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she's sick, and in bed," replied Ethel guardedly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Come in," called the other.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you, Glavis," she cried, dropping back into bed +when he entered the door.</p> + +<p>"A—ah—Orlean," he said in his stammering sort of +way. "A—ah—how are you?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Glavis?" she inquired, sitting up in +bed again. Glavis shifted about uneasily before replying.</p> + +<p>"Ah—why—Orlean, it's Baptiste, your husband."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"No, no," exclaimed Glavis, pushing her gently back upon +the pillow. "Nothing has happened. Ah—er—ah—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so relieved," she sighed, as she fell over in the +bed.</p> + +<p>"He's here—in the city," she heard then from Glavis.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Orlean, oh, Orlean," he cried then upon impulse. +"Great God, this is a shame, a shame before God!" he +lamented with great emotion.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you coming down to supper, Orlean?" he called.</p> + +<p>"No, Glavis. I am not hungry."</p> + +<p>"But you should eat something, Orlean."</p> + +<p>"No, Glavis," she repeated in a tired voice, a voice in +which he detected a sigh. "I couldn't eat anything—now."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She thought about her father again, and wished that he +was in Chicago.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ethel," Glavis said, arising from the table when +the meal was over, "I'm going to walk out for a while."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Very well, dear."</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +But now he was compelled to feel a little grateful because +she was apparently very prudent in the matter.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI_third" id="CHAPTER_VI_third"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="center small">MORE OF THE PREACHER'S WORK</p> + + +<p class="cap">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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 sleep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>less +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well, you are here," he heard then, and turned to greet +Glavis.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"An old-time cocktail," Glavis said to the bartender. He +then turned to Baptiste.</p> + +<p>"Well, how's everything over home?" said Baptiste, +coming directly to the point.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your wife's sick," said Glavis a little awkwardly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"That damn preacher!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Baptiste," cried Glavis, frowningly.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>They discussed plans at some length, and finally decided +to settle matters on the morrow.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Over him it cast a gloom; it cast great, dark shadows, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII_third" id="CHAPTER_VII_third"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="center small">A GREAT ASTRONOMER</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So be it.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, for a rain!" every settler cried. "For a rain, a +rain, a rain!" But no rain came.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> + +<p>So every day there was the continual firing of the crops.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> +to all who wanted to sell. Only a small portion of them, +however, had wanted to sell up to date.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>—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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p class="ind40"> +"<span class="smcap">Chicago, Ill.</span>, June, 30th, 191— +</p> + +<p>"<i>Dear friend Baptiste</i>:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum1"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Always your friend,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">E.M. Glavis</span>." +</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p class="ind40"> +<span class="smcap">Chicago, Ill.</span>, June 30th, 191— +</p> + +<p>"<i>The Reverend N.J. McCarthy, Cairo, Ill.</i></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Father</span>: 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.</p> + +<p>"Hoping that your health is the best, and that we may +see you real soon, believe me to be, as ever,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Your loving daughter,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">Ethel</span>."</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<blockquote class="small"> +<p class="ind40"> +July 5th, 191— +</p> + +<p>"<i>My dear wife</i>:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"With love to you, I am,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"As ever, your husband,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">Jean</span>."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII_third" id="CHAPTER_VIII_third"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">N. JUSTINE MC CARTHY PREACHES A SERMON</p> + + +<p class="cap">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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 Cæsar, 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!"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p>"<i>My dear daughter</i>:</p> + +<p>"I am in receipt of your letter and make haste to reply. +To begin with, I am not surprised to hear what you wrote<span class="pagenum1"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"From yours in Christ,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">N. Justine McCarthy</span>." +</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>He rearranged the house, bought a few pieces of much +needed furniture, and made elaborate preparations for the +homecoming. At last the day arrived.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He drove to Winner more filled with hope than he had +been for months.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He had longed to talk with her—and grieve with her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He got slowly into the wagon, and soon they were hurrying +homeward.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX_third" id="CHAPTER_IX_third"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="center small">WHAT THE PEOPLE WERE SAYING</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Upon arriving home, they met Glavis just returning from +work, and he was also greeted in the same effusive manner +by the Reverend.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Why everything is alright, father," glabbed Glavis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, father," Glavis swallowed. He felt then the dignity +of his position as a member of such a distinguished +family.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"And my wife, her own mother, was a party to it!" He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>"No longer than last week, I was approached by a +woman, a woman purporting to be a child of God, but who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> +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.'</p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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 <i>hope</i> 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 <i>you</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"It's outrageous," the Reverend cried. "We hardly +dare show our heads on the street; to greet old friends for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> +fear we are going to be ridiculed and abused for what we +have done."</p> + +<p>"It's certainly an ungrateful world, that's all," agreed +Ethel.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X_third" id="CHAPTER_X_third"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="center small">"UNTIL THEN"</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>ceived +a letter. It bore the postmark of the town where +he had met his wife in the beginning, and read:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p>"<i>My dear Jean</i>:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum1"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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....<span class="pagenum1"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Your dear friend,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">Jessie Mansfield</span>."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> +casually. However, he was relieved when he recalled that +the other knew nothing of his relations—not even that he +had ever married.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Mrs. Pruitt," He called.</p> + +<p>"Hello," came back, and he caught the surprise in her +voice. "Is it <i>you</i>?" she asked, and he noted that her voice +was trembling.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he called back nervously. "Do you recognize +my voice?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Listen," said she. "<i>Call this same number in about ten +minutes, understand?</i> Yes. Do that. I'll explain later."</p> + +<p>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: "<i>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!</i>" He regarded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm here, Jean", she called, "and the reason I +told you to call later was that <i>your</i> people—<i>your father-in-law +is right here in the house at this moment</i>. He was +sitting right here by the 'phone when you called awhile ago, +so now you understand."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Now, Jean," he heard Mrs. Pruitt. "I understand +<i>everything</i>. 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?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Pruitt," he replied, controlling the storm of +weakness that was passing over him. "I <i>get</i> you."</p> + +<p>"Very well, until then."</p> + +<p>"Until then," he called, and hung up the receiver.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI_third" id="CHAPTER_XI_third"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="center small">"IT'S THE WRONG NUMBER"</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>And now, before he was hardly in the city, he was all but +confronted with his hypocritical bulk.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can stand it no longer, no, no, no!" he cried in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>anything</i> he wished.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>was</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Why, it is <i>anything</i>."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"A sort of cabaret?" he suggested.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied, in the same pleasant tone of voice. +"A <i>sort</i> of cabaret."</p> + +<p>"So you serve drinks here, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we <i>serve</i> drinks here."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> +became seated in one, she took the other and her eyes asked +what he wished.</p> + +<p>"A cocktail," he said.</p> + +<p>She went to a tube and called the order.</p> + +<p>"And something for yourself," he said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Here's luck," he said, when the drinks had been +brought up.</p> + +<p>"Same to you," she responded, and both drank.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Your beer," she said, and he regarded her oddly.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" she said now, and regarded him +inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Of something unusual," she ventured.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered, wearily. "Of something <i>unusual</i>."</p> + +<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You are in trouble."</p> + +<p>He sighed but said no word.</p> + +<p>"In great trouble."</p> + +<p>He sighed again, and handed her the money for the beer.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You don't live here?" she suggested then.</p> + +<p>"No," he mumbled, trying to dispel the heaviness that was +over him. If he could just forget. That was it. If he +<i>could</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"And—you—you—have just come?" she said. Her +voice was kind. "Is it—it—a <i>woman</i>?"</p> + +<p>He nodded slowly.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she echoed. "Your wife, perhaps?"</p> + +<p>He nodded again.</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>They were both silent then for some moments; he +struggling to forget, she wondering at the strange circumstances.</p> + +<p>"Has some one come between you?" she inquired after +a time.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he whispered.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>—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:</p> + +<p>"You have such honest, frank and truthful eyes. Honestly, +I feel sorry for you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you," he said gratefully then. To have some +one—even <i>such a woman</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"Please don't do <i>that</i>," she said, and in her voice there +was a slight appeal.</p> + +<p>He regarded her oddly, and then understood. He sank +back listlessly in the seat, and sighed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He regarded her with gratitude in his eyes, and the expression +upon his face told her that she had spoken truly.</p> + +<p>"But try to refrain from that desire. Oh, it's justifiable +it seems. But then when we stop to think that we will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"You are awfully kind," he whispered. He felt rather +odd. Of all places, this was not where men came to be +<i>consoled</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, take it. <i>I</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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"<i>It's the wrong number.</i>"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII_third" id="CHAPTER_XII_third"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="center small">MRS. PRUITT EFFECTS A PLAN</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Mama," she called, "here is Jean Baptiste!" Her +mother came hurriedly forward, grasped his hand, and exchanged +a meaning look with Mildred.</p> + +<p>"And you are back <i>again</i>," she said as all three became +seated.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, and sighed.</p> + +<p>"It's awful," commented her mother.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it the truth, oh, my God, how can those people +be so mean?" cried Mildred.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He's in Chicago," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mildred, "and I'll bet right over at Mrs. +Pruitt's every day."</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't be <i>likely</i> to be home," commented her +mother.</p> + +<p>"He returns as a rule along about midnight." The two +laughed then, and regarded the man.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mildred, it does seem so, but she is my wife, and +somehow I feel that I should give her every chance."</p> + +<p>"The case <i>is</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well," said her mother. "Such as this <i>can't</i> keep up. +Some day he's going to be called on to pay—and the debt +will be large."</p> + +<p>"Understand that he aspires for the bishopric in the +convention next month," said Mildred.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That's what I think," from Mildred.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What are your plans, Jean?" her mother now inquired +of Baptiste who sat in a sort of stupor listening to their +talk.</p> + +<p>"I am trying to get to see her without the old man's +knowledge." And he told them of his conversation with +Mrs. Pruitt.</p> + +<p>"Isn't that a wife, now!" exclaimed Mildred. "Afraid +to meet the man she has married."</p> + +<p>"Orlean and old lady McCarthy have no voice in that +house," said her mother. "First it's the Reverend, and +then follows Ethel."</p> + +<p>"And it hardly seems credible when one knows how he +has always flirted with other women," said Mildred.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Reverend McCarthy," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It's to be regretted that she has not more will to stand +up for what she knows to be right," said her mother.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Just outside," said Mildred, and opened the door.</p> + +<p>He got Mrs. Pruitt directly, and again came back over +the wire:</p> + +<p>"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, "<i>The wrong number! You have the +wrong number!</i>" Suddenly he caught on, and as suddenly +hung up the receiver with a jerk.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You will awaken me early tomorrow—say, six +o'clock?" he asked, and upon being assured she would, +he went to bed.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He was greeted by Mrs. Pruitt, and the expression upon +her face did not disappoint him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It is so, Mrs. Pruitt," said he, recalling then that eating +had not occurred to him for the last eighteen hours or more.</p> + +<p>"Well," said she, becoming seated, "<i>he</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +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 <i>couldn't</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I realize so, Mrs. Pruitt, but I am determined to live +with Orlean and protect her if it is within my power."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But every man should exhaust all that is in him for +what he feels is right, shouldn't he, Mrs. Pruitt?" spoke +Baptiste.</p> + +<p>"Of course," she said somewhat absently. She looked +quickly at him then, and her eyes brightened with an inspiration.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Jean," she said. "You remember Mrs. +Merley?"</p> + +<p>"Who? Blanche's mother?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The same."</p> + +<p>"Most sure. Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Pruitt. "I have been thinking. She's +a friend of yours, a good friend, although you might not +have known it."</p> + +<p>"It is news to me—that is, directly."</p> + +<p>"Well, she is, and has been very much wrought up over +the Reverend's treatment of you."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is so. You see, moreover, she is a distant relation +of Mrs. McCarthy's, and is fairly well-to-do."</p> + +<p>"So I have understood."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they are, and McCarthys sort of look up to them."</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Merley is independent, and hasn't much patience +with the Elder."</p> + +<p>"So."</p> + +<p>"No, and for that reason he admires her."</p> + +<p>"Indeed."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You see Blanche got married this last summer, +and didn't quite please her mother."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is that so?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Oh!...."</p> + +<p>"Yes, she did. And meant it! She admired your type, +and I know she would have been more fully pleased in such +an event."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p> + +<p>He was silent.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, I have planned that it will be through her that +you and Orlean may be brought together."</p> + +<p>He was attentive.</p> + +<p>"But before you go into it, my request is that my name +shall be left out."</p> + +<p>His eyes asked a question that she answered.</p> + +<p>"It is so. While Mary is a friend of mine, she has certain +habits that I don't like."</p> + +<p>He regarded her more questioningly.</p> + +<p>"I will say no more."</p> + +<p>His face blanched, and then his mind went back two +years. Orlean had made just such a remark. He was +sorry.</p> + +<p>"So I don't want you to mention me, since it would do +no good."</p> + +<p>"I understand."</p> + +<p>"I want her to have the credit for whatever success +might come of this."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And my plans are that you go over there, and see +her?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Jolly her a little, and don't let on that you are aware +that she admires you."</p> + +<p>"Very well."</p> + +<p>"Get her to call Orlean up, and suggest a show."</p> + +<p>"I get you."</p> + +<p>"And there you are."</p> + +<p>"Your plan is simple, but practical," and he smiled upon +her thankfully.</p> + +<p>He was standing now. He held out his hand. She +grasped it, and bending forward, kissed him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Be careful, Jean," she said. "And don't do anything +rash."</p> + +<p>When he went his way, he understood.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII_third" id="CHAPTER_XIII_third"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">MRS. MERLEY</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She came at once all joy and gladness, and greeted him +with a shake of both hands, and kissed him into the bargain.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And you came to see me," she continued. "You could +have called on no one who would have been more delighted +to see you!"</p> + +<p>"You do me too much honor, Mrs. Merley," said he +gratefully.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Indeed," she returned. "I could not do you enough."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't hoped for so much kindness, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, really! But I thought I was forgotten by everybody +in Chicago."</p> + +<p>"You have never been forgotten by us. And especially +have we talked of you in this last year...."</p> + +<p>He was silent, though he felt he understood her reference.</p> + +<p>"Some dirty sinner ought to be in torment!"</p> + +<p>And still he did not speak.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know all that has been done to you, Jean," she +went on tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Your words give me much relief, Mrs. Merley."</p> + +<p>"I wish they could give you more. It is my wish that +an opportunity could be given me to help you."</p> + +<p>He straightened. Now was the time to state his mission. +But she was speaking again:</p> + +<p>"I spoke my sentiments to his face, the rascal! All his +dirty life has been given to making people miserable, wherever +he could."</p> + +<p>Jean said nothing, but was listening nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He was attentive. Always he liked to hear her.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> +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?'</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He mumbled something inaudible. She was out to talk, +so he heard her on:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why, Jean! Why ask me? You must know that I +would help you in any way I could."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Anything, Jean, anything! You don't know how anx<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>ious +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?"</p> + +<p>"I have," he replied. "I trust she is happy."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh," he echoed.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"I wish Blanche had a husband of your disposition and +attainments."</p> + +<p>"Blanche, I thought, was a sweet girl," he said reflectively.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I love the West, and had hoped others would be loving +it too," he said ruefully.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> +to seek to justify his action, he spreads the town with lies +that nobody believes."</p> + +<p>The other shifted his position.</p> + +<p>"Well, Jean," she said now more soberly, "just what +shall I do?"</p> + +<p>"If you would not mind—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't say that!"</p> + +<p>"Very well, Mrs. Merley. I would like you to call her +up and suggest a matinée."</p> + +<p>"Why not just go to one?"</p> + +<p>"That would please me if you would condescend?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A capital idea, I agree!"</p> + +<p>"Call her up and ask her to come over and go with you +to the matinée."</p> + +<p>"That is the plan, and I understand."</p> + +<p>"I will appreciate your kindness," said he heartily. She +arose then and advancing toward him, embraced him impulsively.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes...." Mrs. Merley was saying. "I want you to +go with me to a matinée.... Be here at one forty-five.... +Yes, I have the tickets.... And you'll not be +late."</p> + +<p>She was standing before him again, and her face was +lighted up with the joy of what she had accomplished. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"You may come upstairs, too, Jean," she invited, "and +from the front room there, you can watch for yours."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Merley, you make me happier than I have +been for a long time," he said, and almost was he emotional.</p> + +<p>"And I have a nice spare bedroom for you and <i>her</i>, tonight. +And tomorrow, she is <i>yours</i>."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV_third" id="CHAPTER_XIV_third"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="center small">OH, MERCIFUL GOD, CLOSE THOU MINE EYES!</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +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 <i>was</i> awake, and looking into the sleeping face of his +daughter. But if he <i>was awake, what was it he saw</i>?</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Father?" And betimes he answered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, daughter."</p> + +<p>"Where is my husband?" He gave a start. He thought +he caught at something, and then he heard her again:</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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: "<i>Shame, oh shame! That you +should be so evil, so vile, such a hypocrite, and let your evil +fall upon your own daughter!</i>" 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +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>I</i> who +brought all this?" But before he could recover, the procession +kept passing.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>he</i>, done that, too? Was <i>he</i> 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. "<i>Oh, merciful God, close thou mine eyes</i>," +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> +quickly passed upstairs but not before Mrs. Towles had +opened the door and caught a glimpse of him passing.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what he is doing here?" she mused to herself. +And then she suddenly brightened with an inspiration. +"<i>His wife</i>, of course," she cried, and fell to thinking +further.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, look," cried Mrs. Towles, pointing to the figure of +the other. "There goes Orlean!"</p> + +<p>The other strained her neck, and said:</p> + +<p>"M-m."</p> + +<p>"And I saw her husband last night."</p> + +<p>"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....</p> + +<p>"I did," replied the other, making herself comfortable +and getting ready to relate his strange actions.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, now!" echoed the other, all attention.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I don't think they know next door, that he is in town," +suggested the other.</p> + +<p>"Don't they?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Then we ought to go right over and inform them at +once!" said Mrs. Towles.</p> + +<p>"Just what we should do," agreed the other.</p> + +<p>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 matinée, and he realized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> +from previous statements, that Mrs. Merley was the "go +between."</p> + +<p>So he took no part in the gossip that followed, nor did +he for once sigh in self pity.</p> + +<p>Perhaps after all he had decided not to interfere.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV_third" id="CHAPTER_XV_third"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="center small">"LOVE YOU—GOD, I HATE YOU!"</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I ought not to sit here," she said.</p> + +<p>"Why not, Orlean?" he said kindly, placing his arm +about her waist fondly.</p> + +<p>"Because."</p> + +<p>"Because what, dear?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him quickly. He met her eyes appealingly. +She looked away, and then down at her toes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How you have fleshened," he commented.</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" she returned, inclined to be sociable.</p> + +<p>"It is quite noticeable. And you are better looking when +you are so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you flatter me," she chimed.</p> + +<p>"I would like to flatter my wife."</p> + +<p>She did not reply to this. She appeared to be comfortable, +and he went on.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know that I have longed to see you, and that +it has not been just right that I could not?"</p> + +<p>And still she made no answer.</p> + +<p>"I never want to live so again. I want you always, +Orlean."</p> + +<p>"When did you leave home?" she asked now.</p> + +<p>"A couple of days ago."</p> + +<p>"And how long have you been here?"</p> + +<p>"I came yesterday afternoon."</p> + +<p>"And when to Mrs. Merley's?"</p> + +<p>"This morning."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He drew his wife's head down, turned her face to his, +and kissed her lips. He caught the sigh that passed her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> +lips. He saw her eyebrows begin to contract. What was +passing in her mind? Duty? Then, to whom?</p> + +<p>He kissed her again, and caressed her fondly. This +meant much to him. He told her so then, too.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Do you love me, Orlean?" he said now, drawing her +face close to his again.</p> + +<p>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 <i>would not</i> 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.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, his head rested against her breast, and +he could hear the beating of her heart.</p> + +<p>"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?</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Jean?" she asked now, slightly excited +and anxious.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"There is <i>something</i>, Jean, of that I am sure," she insisted, +shifting where she could see his face more clearly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You are going back home with me tomorrow, dear?" +he dared to say presently.</p> + +<p>For answer she shifted uneasily, and then her eyes espied +the clock on the wall. It was five-thirty.</p> + +<p>"I think I should call up home," she said thoughtfully. +He caught his breath, and trembled perceptibly. She regarded +him inquiringly.</p> + +<p>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 <i>must</i> avoid, came before him. As he saw it +now, if she called her father, they would <i>never</i> live together +again. He was nervous when he anticipated the fact. +He started, and took on unconsciously a fearsome expression.</p> + +<p>"Please don't, Orlean," he said, beseechingly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't what?" she asked, apprehensive of something she +did not like.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>was</i> a +duty, she only remembered that she was obedient. Obedient +to the father who had reared her so to be.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Which?</p> + +<p>"Orlean," she heard now, from the lips of her husband. +"Listen, <i>before you go to the phone</i>." 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 can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>not +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—"</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"<i>Hell, hello, you!</i>" he cried savagely. "<i>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?</i>"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> +excitement she was striking him; she was trying to do him +injury.</p> + +<p>He became alive to what was going on, then. The receiver +hung suspended; he was in a grapple with his excited +wife.</p> + +<p>"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>I hate you</i>!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>How long he lay there he did not know, but he opened his +eyes when from the outside he heard hurried footsteps. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The next instant the door closed softly behind them, and +she went out of his life as a wife forever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI_third" id="CHAPTER_XVI_third"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="center small">A STRANGE DREAM</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I admit I did, Mrs. Merley, and I'm sorry—for you."</p> + +<p>"For me?" she repeated, not understanding his import.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied wearily. "For <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>"But—but—why—for <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, with a sigh, "It <i>had</i> 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."</p> + +<p>She was thoughtfully silent then for some time, then +she regarded him closely, and said as if to herself:</p> + +<p>"Well, I fear you are right. Yes, I <i>know</i> you are when +I recall how she abused you a while ago. Gracious! I +did not know that it was in Orlean."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nor did I," he said, his face covered with his hands.</p> + +<p>"<i>He</i> 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, "<i>he</i> will be the victim, and the +punishment will be severe."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Now, Jean," she said kindly, "I will leave you. But +you will do this favor which I ask of you?"</p> + +<p>He turned his face toward her.</p> + +<p>"Don't advise Mr. Merley about what has occurred here +tonight," she said.</p> + +<p>"I understand," he replied quietly. Thereupon she left +him to himself.</p> + +<p>At the Vernon Avenue home of the McCarthys, the +house was in an orgy of excitement. When the Reverend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> +had been advised regarding his son-in-law's presence in the +city, he recalled the séance 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>him</i>, and for all those near me! +I! I! <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 <i>tried</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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 pil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>low +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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I <i>recall</i>. <i>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.</i></p> + +<p>"<i>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!</i>" 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Laugh on, Ethel, you evil woman!" said Glavis at her +side. "Evil has this night come into our lives. It <i>wasn't</i> +right in the beginning; it <i>isn't</i> 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 <i>she</i> do injury to those who have +brought this about." And with this he turned on his side +and feigned sleep.</p> + +<p>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 <i>ever</i> forget it. It had +come, and it was inevitable. She had seen <i>it</i> in her sleep. +<i>It</i> 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.</p> + +<p>The sun shone and the birds sang, and the day was beautiful +without when she at last fell asleep again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p> +<p class="center biggest"><a name="EPOCH_THE_FOURTH" id="EPOCH_THE_FOURTH"></a>EPOCH THE FOURTH</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2>EPOCH THE FOURTH</h2> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I_fourth" id="CHAPTER_I_fourth"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE DROUGHT</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> +to try to regain his fortunes that had been gradually slipping +from him in the past two years.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Conditions in the new country had gone from bad to +worse, and if the season should experience another drought,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And with the hero of our story, he saw his hopes sink +with the disaster that was around him; he saw his holdings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> +gradually slipping from him, and after some time became +resigned to the inevitable.</p> + +<p>So it came to pass that another change came into his life, +hence another epoch in the unusual life was his.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II_fourth" id="CHAPTER_II_fourth"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE FORECLOSURE</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> +days he re-wrote the twenty thousand, and on the fifth day +he tore it into shreds and threw it to the winds.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span></p> + +<p>So with its completion, he wrapped it carefully, and sent +it to a Chicago publisher, while he sighed with relief.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Well, that sounded very encouraging, he thought, so he +took hope anew that it would be accepted.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>must</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> +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 <i>Martin Eden</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"There she is! Now read it aloud!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p>"<i>Mr. Jean Baptiste</i>,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum1"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> +therefore returning the same to you today by express.</p> + +<p>"Regretting that we cannot write you more favorably, +but thanking you for bringing this to our attention, believe +us to be,</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Cordially and sincerely yours,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">A.C. McGraw & Co.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He raised his hand to his forehead then, and began thinking. +He <i>had</i> 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!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III_fourth" id="CHAPTER_III_fourth"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="center small">IRENE GREY</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>But <i>what was he to do</i>! 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He was possessed with a business turn of mind, and one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am confident I can, too, Graydon," replied Baptiste. +"But I am clean, dead broke. I can't go down +there."</p> + +<p>The other was silent for a moment as he stood wrapped +in thought. Presently he said:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How much do you have to have to go down there?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, thirty-five or forty dollars."</p> + +<p>"I'll let you have fifty."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They prepared some prospectuses for him, and back home +he returned. He told, in answer to the volumes of inquiries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Is this the Greys home?" he called.</p> + +<p>"Yes," came back the answer, and he was thrilled at the +mellowness of the voice at the other end.</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Irene at home?" he called now.</p> + +<p>"Yes," it said. "This is she."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Why—er—ah—this is a friend of yours. An old +friend. Mayhap you have forgotten me."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she called back. "Who are you?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she cried, and the echo of her voice rang in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> +ears over the wire for some moments. "Is this you?" she +cried now, her voice evidencing the excitement she was +laboring under.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Then why don't you come on out here?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't know whether I would be welcome," he +replied, happy in a new way.</p> + +<p>"Oh, pshaw! Why <i>wouldn't</i> you be welcome? But +now," her tone changed. "Where are you?"</p> + +<p>"In Kansas City."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," he replied eagerly.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, that train stops at this station, and there I will +meet you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, fine," he cried. "I'll be there."</p> + +<p>"Now you will be sure to catch it," she cautioned.</p> + +<p>"Most assuredly!"</p> + +<p>"I will depend on it."</p> + +<p>"Count me there!"</p> + +<p>"I want to talk to you, I'm going to talk all night."</p> + +<p>"Good-by."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV_fourth" id="CHAPTER_IV_fourth"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="center small">WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>"Now wasn't that careless of you," she complained. "I +am sure you are <i>very</i> careless."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the <i>world</i>," 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."</p> + +<p>"How is that—did you say that you <i>drank</i>?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh," she echoed. "I am relieved. I don't trust a +drinker, and the fact that you were left made me suspect +you."</p> + +<p>"At least I can reassure you on that score. I am proud +to say that I have the strength of my convictions."</p> + +<p>"I am pleased to hear that. A man has a poor chance to +succeed in the world otherwise."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I agree with you."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I cross my heart that I will catch it."</p> + +<p>"And if you do not—so help you God!"</p> + +<p>"I hope to die if I miss it."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you do, don't die—but catch the train, that's +all. Now good-by, and you are forgiven this once."</p> + +<p>"Good-by."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" a voice whispered.</p> + +<p>He told the eye.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess that's whom you refer to."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That would have been a capital move."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you quit writing and got married, so we heard, +and had bad luck in the end," whereupon he laughed. Baptiste +looked embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"Where is the family and how many are there of you?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And the boys—"</p> + +<p>"Just gettin' ready to go swimmin'. Wanta go long?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> +walked forward, extended her hand, and he saw by the +expression she now wore, that she was sorry for him, as +she said:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And you came at last," she said later, when the two +were seated in the parlor.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"You are very successful in missing trains," she ventured.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Oh, I was so disappointed," she said.</p> + +<p>"It was not you?"</p> + +<p>"But how could you have missed the train so often?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot account for it. I am not in the habit of doing +so. Indeed, I think it was because I was overly anxious."</p> + +<p>She laughed then, to herself, elfin like.</p> + +<p>"I have been curious to see you for a long time."</p> + +<p>He was silent, and his eyes did not return the look she +had given him.</p> + +<p>"Ever since I received <i>that</i> letter...."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"What did you do with your little wife?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"I hope you will pardon me. I am sure I didn't intend +to embarrass you."</p> + +<p>"It is all right," he said. "And since you have asked +me, may I explain?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Of course you would think me a cad, a—well, I have +my opinion of a man that would tell <i>his</i> side of such a story +to a <i>woman</i>."</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V_fourth" id="CHAPTER_V_fourth"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="center small">"TELL ME WHY YOU DIDN'T ANSWER THE LAST LETTER I +WROTE YOU"</p> + + +<p class="cap">"NOW I wish you would tell me all about yourself, +that is, all you <i>care</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> +Baptiste had been rather curious to know the family intimately.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A wonderful mulch!"</p> + +<p>"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 bet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>ter +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>His race was filled with such as N.J. McCarthy, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"What—why—what's the matter?" she inquired anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," he said quickly, coloring guiltily. "I was +just thinking."</p> + +<p>"Of what?" she asked artfully.</p> + +<p>"Of you," he said evasively.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You are psychological."</p> + +<p>"But I have guessed correctly, haven't I?"</p> + +<p>"I'm compelled to agree that you have."</p> + +<p>They had reached the river now, and took a seat where +they could look out over its swiftly moving waters.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He was silent, but she was an unconventionally bold per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span>son. +She was curious, and the more he was silent on such +topics, the more anxious she became to know the secret that +he held.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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>I</i> have heard, I think I may be free to discuss this," +and she paused again, with her eyes asking that she may.</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>didn't</i> come on the visit you suggested?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>"I heard you."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"I hardly know how to answer you."</p> + +<p>"Please."</p> + +<p>"Don't insist on a reply."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to, but—"</p> + +<p>"I'd rather not tell."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know as I ought to have asked you. It +was perhaps unladylike in me so to do; but honestly I +<i>would</i> like to know the truth."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"We'll go now."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Papa has returned," said one of the boys, coming to +meet them.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI_fourth" id="CHAPTER_VI_fourth"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE STORY</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It <i>has</i> 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 <i>all</i>; that he had been foreclosed, +but that, he felt, was not necessary.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to attend services at the church this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> +evening," said Irene after a time, and when they were again +alone.</p> + +<p>"Why, I suppose I might as well."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"The <i>big</i> church, I guess," he said amusedly.</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" she exclaimed, feigning surprise.</p> + +<p>"And yours?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Baptist, of course," she replied easily.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of protestantism?"</p> + +<p>"Well," he replied thoughtfully, "it has not been until +lately that I have considered it seriously."</p> + +<p>"So?"</p> + +<p>"And sometimes I am not inclined to think it has been +for the best."</p> + +<p>"How so?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it appears to me that organization is lacking in +so many of the protestant churches."</p> + +<p>"But is that the fault of protestantism?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +that since it is obviously easier to be some kind of a protestant, +then protestantism has afforded a less organized appreciation +of the Christ."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You mean—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it so! Oh, it is dreadful when we come to consider +how much needy knowledge we lose thereby."</p> + +<p>"It is staggering."</p> + +<p>"Why is it so?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"Well, are they as a whole?"</p> + +<p>"Lord, no!"</p> + +<p>"Then, how can you expect their followers to be?"</p> + +<p>"We cannot."</p> + +<p>"Another disadvantage, is separate schools."</p> + +<p>"I don't quite understand?"</p> + +<p>"Well, mix the Negro children daily with the whites, and +they are sure to become enamored of their ways."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I gather your trend."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Evil environment, bad influence!"</p> + +<p>"That is it. There is no encouragement to read, therefore +no opportunity to develop thought, and the habit of +observation."</p> + +<p>"How plain you make everything."</p> + +<p>"And now we have come unto the church, and must +end our conversation."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry."</p> + +<p>He was, too, but they filed into the little church.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it warm tonight?" she said, when they reached +the porch.</p> + +<p>"Dreadfully so down here in your valley."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you will not care to retire, and would rather +sit out where the air is best," she suggested.</p> + +<p>"I would be glad to."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> +trying to understand. He never quite succeeded until that +night.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>Custom of the Country</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"Please, Jean," she begged, calling him by his first name. +"Won't you tell it to <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<i>Yes</i>, Irene," he said then. "I will tell <i>you</i> the story, +and tomorrow I will go away."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," she repeated. "For so long I have wanted +to hear."</p> + +<p>"Well, it was like this. You know—rather, perhaps +you recall the circumstances under which we met."</p> + +<p>"I remember <i>everything</i>, Jean."</p> + +<p>"I was in love with no one, I can say, but I <i>had</i> loved +outside of our race."</p> + +<p>"Our race?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You mean," she said, straightening curiously, "that you +loved an Indian up there? That, I recall is the home of +the Sioux?"</p> + +<p>"No, I have <i>never</i> loved an Indian."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>what</i>?"</p> + +<p>"A white girl."</p> + +<p>"<i>Oh, Jean</i>," 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.</p> + +<p>"Honestly, that was too bad. You sacrificed much. +And to think that you <i>loved</i> a white girl!"</p> + +<p>"It was so."</p> + +<p>"So it came that you sacrificed the real love to be loyal +to the race we belong to?"</p> + +<p>"I guess you may call it that."</p> + +<p>"It was manly, though. I admire your strength."</p> + +<p>"It was then I wrote you."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes. And—"</p> + +<p>"Others."</p> + +<p>"I understand. You loved none of us, perhaps, and it +was because you had not had the opportunity, maybe?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was so."</p> + +<p>"And now I will hear how it happened."</p> + +<p>"I must first confess something that pains me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that confession! But maybe I am entitled to hear +it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, I think so. There were three."</p> + +<p>"Oh...."</p> + +<p>"And you were the first choice."</p> + +<p>"<i>Me?</i>"</p> + +<p>"But I waited for your letter. There was a <i>time</i> limit."</p> + +<p>"And I was away."</p> + +<p>"Therefore never received it in time."</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"At Omaha I hesitated, and then decided that you did +not favor it."</p> + +<p>"O-oh!"</p> + +<p>"So I went to Chicago, to meet the second choice."</p> + +<p>"Such an unusual proceeding, but interesting, oh, <i>so</i> +much so. Please go on."</p> + +<p>"<i>She</i> lived in New York."</p> + +<p>"In New York?"</p> + +<p>"Was a maid on the Twentieth Century Limited."</p> + +<p>"O-oh!"</p> + +<p>"But sickness overtook her. She didn't get into Chicago +when she was due."</p> + +<p>"Such fate."</p> + +<p>"I wonder at it."</p> + +<p>"And then you got the <i>last</i> choice."</p> + +<p>"That is it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not knowing what else to do, she was so carried away +with the story, she stared before her into the darkness.</p> + +<p>"And when <i>did</i> you receive my letter? I understand +about the claim business."</p> + +<p>"When I returned with her to Gregory."</p> + +<p>She was silent. He was too. Both were in deep thought +and what was in the mind of both was:</p> + +<p><i>What might have been.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII_fourth" id="CHAPTER_VII_fourth"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="center small">HER BIRTHRIGHT "FOR A MESS OF POTTAGE"</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When Jean Baptiste had ended his visit with Irene Grey, +he returned to his office at the publishing house to find con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>siderable +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.</p> + +<blockquote class="small"><p class="ind40"> +"<span class="smcap">Washington, D.C.</span>, July, 191—</p> +<p> +"<i>Mr. Jean Baptiste</i>, +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: 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.</p> + +<p>"In the meantime, kindly send me a remittance on the +fee that is past due at your earliest convenience, and oblige.</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Very truly,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">Patrick H. Loughran</span>." +</p></blockquote> + +<p>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; <i>had +sold her birthright for a mess of pottage</i>. 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And Newton Justine McCarthy," muttered Baptiste, +"this is <i>more</i> of your work."</p> + +<p>He was very calm over it, was Jean Baptiste; but the +<i>turning point</i> in his life had come. At last his manhood +had returned, <i>and he was ready to fight</i>.</p> + +<p>He wrote his attorney at once at Gregory, and the reply +that came back in due time was:</p> + +<blockquote class="small"> +<p class="ind40"> +"<span class="smcap">Gregory, S.D.</span>, July — 191— +</p> + +<p>"<i>Mr. Jean Baptiste</i>,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Friend Jean</span>: 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p class="attr"> +"Very truly yours,</p> +<p class="attr1"> +"<span class="smcap">Wm. McConnell</span>."</p></blockquote> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"N.J. McCarthy, we vied twenty-five years ago, and we +encountered three years since. On both occasions you had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> +me at a disadvantage.... We are <i>going</i> to <i>vie</i> again, now; +<i>but it will be upon an equal basis</i>." So saying, he looked +before him at nothing; his eyes narrowed to mere slits.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And of the battle that he fought with his august contemporary, +will be the continuance of our story.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII_fourth" id="CHAPTER_VIII_fourth"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">ACTION</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>"Well, White," he said. "I think I have a little work +for you."</p> + +<p>"That's what I'm here to look after," said the other +aimiably.</p> + +<p>"A suit—want to obtain a judgment?"</p> + +<p>"We obtain judgments in this old town every day. The +question is—"</p> + +<p>"Are they worth anything?" laughed his prospective +client.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the other, after looking it up in the Illinois +Statutes, "it can be done."</p> + +<p>"Then we will begin at once," said Baptiste decidedly.</p> + +<p>"I'll have the papers drawn up, and have the same ready +for service tomorrow afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said the other, handing him a check for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> +twenty-five dollars as a retainer, and straightway left the +office.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why—what has happened to you," said Mildred's +mother, looking him over carefully from head to foot.</p> + +<p>"You infer that I have forgotten my troubles?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," and she laughed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Well, I have everything ready now," said the attorney +when Jean called at his office the following afternoon.</p> + +<p>"So the next is to get service on my friend," said Baptiste.</p> + +<p>"That's it. Where shall we find him?" inquired the +lawyer.</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>personal</i> +matter with him.... Yes ... that is all."</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's the town near where I first knew him. I was +born within four miles of it."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! Something of a coincidence."</p> + +<p>"Indeed so."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll see you about Saturday."</p> + +<p>"All right," and Jean was gone.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He knew that Odd Fellows' hall was where Negroes +might be easily found; at least the information as to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> +whereabouts of any particular one might be obtained. So +to that spot he went directly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You refer to me?" said the Elder, and wondered what +the sheriff could possibly want with him.</p> + +<p>"N.J. McCarthy?" the other repeated.</p> + +<p>"That's me," replied the Elder. The crowd looked on +with curious interest.</p> + +<p>"Some papers," and handed him the same, turned on his +heel and went his way.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Well," greeted the attorney, "got service right off on +your friend."</p> + +<p>"Good!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, got my return, and now we may as well draw up +the complaint."</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And so you are sued for ten thousand dollars," said the +attorney, "and by your son-in-law?"</p> + +<p>"It seems that way," replied the Elder. "And to me it +looks like a joke."</p> + +<p>"How so?"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever know a Negro preacher that was worth +such an amount?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span></p> + +<p>The attorney shared the obvious joke with his prospective +client and Glavis, and then took on a rather serious expression.</p> + +<p>"And you are not worth ten thousand?"</p> + +<p>"Lord, no!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He returned the book to its place and came back and sat +down.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of it?" inquired the Elder, still +seeming to take it as a joke.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Granting that he secured a judgment?"</p> + +<p>"And you could not pay it?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I could not."</p> + +<p>"Then he could remand you to jail for six months by +paying your keep."</p> + +<p>When the Elder, accompanied by Glavis, returned home, +both understood Jean Baptiste a little better than they had +ever before....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX_fourth" id="CHAPTER_IX_fourth"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="center small">GOSSIP</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That was it—positively!"</p> + +<p>"What was the conversation?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it was Ethel who was making the most of the +noise."</p> + +<p>"Naturally."</p> + +<p>"And she <i>made some</i> noise!"</p> + +<p>"I'd wager."</p> + +<p>"To begin with, they didn't know Jean had sued the +Reverend until they read it in the paper."</p> + +<p>"Is that so!"</p> + +<p>"Yes! You see, it was like this. Orlean sold her farm."</p> + +<p>"Gave it away."</p> + +<p>"Quite likely."</p> + +<p>"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 hun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span>dred +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."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that a shame!"</p> + +<p>"Nigga's!"</p> + +<p>"Negroes proper!"</p> + +<p>"Well, what did they say?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! Orlean sold her farm some time ago."</p> + +<p>"For three hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>"Is that all she received?"</p> + +<p>"Every cent."</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you think of that!"</p> + +<p>"It was the Reverend's work, of course."</p> + +<p>"That dirty old rascal."</p> + +<p>"Ignorant into the bargain."</p> + +<p>"If I were Baptiste I'd kill him."</p> + +<p>"That would do no good."</p> + +<p>"No, I guess not."</p> + +<p>"Would make him appear a martyr, also."</p> + +<p>"Well, ever since Orlean sold her place, you see, they +have been uneasy."</p> + +<p>"I guess so."</p> + +<p>"So they had been sort of looking to hear from him."</p> + +<p>"And they have."</p> + +<p>Mildred laughed.</p> + +<p>"And they'll hear from him some more!"</p> + +<p>Both laughed.</p> + +<p>"Now, Orlean heard that Jean was in town before the +rest of the family did, and told me so."</p> + +<p>"She's waited a long time to tell other people things she +hasn't told the folks first...."</p> + +<p>"Yes," thoughtfully. "Anyhow, Glavis met Baptiste on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> +the streets downtown, and, of course, Glavis, not knowing +Baptiste's mission, thought he was here after Orlean again."</p> + +<p>"Just like him."</p> + +<p>"The truth."</p> + +<p>"He was by here awhile ago."</p> + +<p>"He was?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I'll tell you about that later. Go on."</p> + +<p>"When he met Jean on the street—rather, after, he goes +around to where Orlean worked to warn her."</p> + +<p>"Sneak!"</p> + +<p>"But Orlean was out."</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>"So when she returned, and was told that a colored man +had called and inquired for her, she—"</p> + +<p>"Thought it had been Baptiste."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"I'll try to quit interrupting you."</p> + +<p>"Well, Orlean told me that she was provoked. She +wished that Jean would not be calling at where she worked +to bother her."</p> + +<p>"She got fooled—excuse me!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"No, none of them had gone out Saturday night, so they +hadn't heard any of the talk that was going the rounds."</p> + +<p>"Well, Glavis went outside Sunday morning and found +the <i>Defender</i> in the mail box."</p> + +<p>"So?"</p> + +<p>"You see, they do not subscribe for it, but the people +next door get it—"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And knowing they were not subscribers, they take the +paper and place it where they could get it."</p> + +<p>Mildred laughed.</p> + +<p>"So," resumed Mildred, "when they saw the paper, all +was excitement."</p> + +<p>"Goody!"</p> + +<p>"So Glavis (he is the Reverend's faithful lieutenant, +you know), went out to look up Baptiste and have a talk +with him."</p> + +<p>"Ump!"</p> + +<p>"He didn't find him."</p> + +<p>"That was how he happened by here."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Now won't there be some excitement when they learn!"</p> + +<p>Mildred laughed again, her mother joined her.</p> + +<p>"But getting back to Ethel."</p> + +<p>"Tell me about her."</p> + +<p>"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!'"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't that disgust you!"</p> + +<p>"'But you <i>would</i> go ahead and marry him! You <i>would</i> +go ahead and marry him, after all papa and <i>I</i> tried to persuade +you not to! And now! You are going to <i>kill</i> your +father; going to <i>kill your poor old father</i>.' 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> +with that nigga', and here he comes in here and sues him. +Think of it! <i>Sues him!</i> And now all the nigga's in Chicago +have the laugh on us—we daren't show our faces in +the street!</p> + +<p>"'And what has he done it for?' 'But, Ethel,' Orlean +protested, 'Papa isn't worth anything. He <i>can't</i> 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 <i>Jean</i> say it!' screamed Ethel, looking at Orlean severely. +And then she turned to me. 'Do you know, Mildred,' +she rang out, '<i>This</i> fool woman loves that man yet. +Yes. Y-e-s! <i>Loves</i> him yet and would go back to him tomorrow +if it wasn't for us!'"</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it beat anything you ever saw!"</p> + +<p>Mildred laughed again as she paused for breath.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ethel went on: 'And don't you think that nigga' +is a fool. No, no! <i>Never!</i> That's a scheming nigga'. +He's the schemingest nigga' in the world! <i>He</i> knows what +he's about. Believe me! He knows papa isn't worth anything. +And, besides, he isn't <i>after</i> money, he's after papa. +He don't <i>want</i> no money. A scheming nigga' like him can +make all the money he wants. Oh, yes! He's up to <i>something</i> +else.'"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> +have, yes, <i>you</i> 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 <i>up</i> to, and I +know it! <i>Oh, that nigga'!</i>'</p> + +<p>"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'.'"</p> + +<p>"When do they look for the Reverend in?"</p> + +<p>"In the morning. They are afraid to go out until he +comes."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to be around there when they found out what +Jean is up to."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"What did you tell her?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I said I thought he was visiting down in Kansas +before coming here."</p> + +<p>"Hump."</p> + +<p>"She said: 'I guess he was calling on Miss Irene +Grey.'"</p> + +<p>Her mother giggled.</p> + +<p>"I said I thought he remarked something about having +visited there, whereupon Orlean said: 'He ought to have +married her.'"</p> + +<p>"Jealousy."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Look! There is Glavis," cried Mildred's mother, +pointing to his figure crossing the street.</p> + +<p>"Now for some fun," said Mildred, whereupon, both +feigned sleepiness, and prepared for some good interesting +gossip.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Glavis," exclaimed Mildred, answering the rap +on the door and admitting him.</p> + +<p>"And how is everybody?" asked Glavis, coming in with +his head bared, and smiling in his usual way.</p> + +<p>"Fine, Mr. Glavis," replied Mildred's mother, arising to +greet him for the second time that day.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He has not been here today, Glavis," replied Mildred.</p> + +<p>"That's funny. I'd certainly like to see him."</p> + +<p>"Why would <i>you</i> want to see him?" inquired Mildred's +mother.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I want to see him, of course, about all this scandal +that's in the air."</p> + +<p>"Hump! This appears to be the first time that you have +wanted to see him since your father-in-law brought Orlean +home."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why not say you <i>wished the Reverend</i> had kept you out +of all the mess," ventured Mildred's mother, who was out of +patience with their conduct.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's rather awkward. Baptiste is a little in fault +himself."</p> + +<p>"How's that?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, he sorter had it in for father before he even married +Orlean. He didn't come into the family like <i>I</i> did."</p> + +<p>Mildred and her mother regarded each other as Glavis +went on thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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...."</p> + +<p>"I've heard something concerning that, but of course he +oughtn't hold such things against a man when he has grown +up."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why have <i>you</i> 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."</p> + +<p>Glavis winced under the fusillade with which the elder +lady of the house bombarded him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>Glavis was very uncomfortable. He shifted uneasily, +while his handkerchief was kept busy mopping the perspiration +from his brow.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Glavis, rising, "I want to see Baptiste anyhow. +If you see him, tell him to come over to the house."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess Baptiste hates all of us enough to make +up."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> +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 <i>a man</i>, and it's the <i>man</i> +in him with which you'll have to fight now."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well," returned the elder lady, "Perhaps you had +<i>better</i> wait until you see a lawyer."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X_fourth" id="CHAPTER_X_fourth"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="center small">A DISCOVERY—AND A SURPRISE</p> + + +<p class="cap">JEAN BAPTISTE called by to see the Merrills before +leaving the city, and took Mildred and her mother one +afternoon to a matinée 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:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to have you meet Miss Maryland, who will +now sing the discovery of the season, <i>O, My Homesteader</i>, +by Miss Agnes Stewart."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> +frozen, but for the now composer, came fresh again into his +mind.</p> + +<p>"Beautiful."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>might</i> 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.</p> + +<p>And everywhere he went, the people were playing and +singing <i>O, My Homesteader</i>. 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"By the way, my girl," he said one day when they were +settled on their claims, staying mostly on his, of course, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Now <i>who</i> do you reckon it was that interceded for me?"</p> + +<p>She paused and looked up from her sewing, and then bent +over it again, as she said:</p> + +<p>"Jean Baptiste."</p> + +<p>"Jean Baptiste!" he exclaimed incredibly.</p> + +<p>"It was him."</p> + +<p>"Why the stinkin' rascal, he never told me!"</p> + +<p>She was silent.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And <i>you knew</i> it all the time. He told you."</p> + +<p>"He didn't tell me."</p> + +<p>"Didn't tell you!"</p> + +<p>"I knew it when you returned home that morning."</p> + +<p>"Well, well...."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Of course not, now that I recall it; but did you tell him +about it?"</p> + +<p>Her eyes had business in her lap at the moment, <i>very</i> +much business. She saw the sewing and she didn't see it. +What she was seeing again was <i>what had happened one day +when she had gone to carry his and her brother's luncheon</i>....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span> +It passed before her, as it had done many times since. +<i>Never</i>, she knew, would she be able to forget <i>that day, that +day</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>man</i>.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear me, Aggie?" her father called now again. +She started.</p> + +<p>"Why—yes, father—I heard you," she said, straightening +up. "And—of course—I told him about it...."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what sort of woman he married," he mused +after a time.</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"I am sometimes a little afraid that he didn't get the right +kind of woman.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>you</i>, Aggie."</p> + +<p>He darted his eyes quickly in her direction, recalling a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>As he slowly walked out, what was in his mind was the +thing that had worried him before.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But <i>O, My Homesteader</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span> +and was really anxious to see the city, she refrained from +going, but promised to write more music.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XI_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE BISHOP'S INQUISITION</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The fact was, however, he regretted going back to a +charge, for his former experience in such work, in gaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span>cause +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.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Reverend Mac.," she exclaimed, and extended +her long, lean hand. He grasped it, and bowing +with accustomed dignity, replied:</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Sister Jones. I trust that your health is +the best."</p> + +<p>"My health is good, Reverend Mac. But, say, Reverend +Mac., you don't look so well."</p> + +<p>"Indeed so, my dear madame, I have not been in the +best of health for some months."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"The man is crazy," he retorted shortly, and stiffened. +But it took more than stiffness to satisfy this gossip.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Reverend McCarthy would liked very well to have moved +on. But Mrs. Jones was very much interested.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You can appreciate that it is very embarrassing to me,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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 +<i>not</i> an emotional man; he was <i>not</i> given to patience with +those who pitied themselves—in short, the Bishop was +<i>very much</i> of a cold hearted business man, notwithstanding +his position. He was waiting in calm austerity for the +other's reply.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Of course, my dear Bishop, of course."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course."</p> + +<p>"Then, my dear Reverend, it does not appear to me that +that should be a fact to be condemned."</p> + +<p>"I have not condemned it, my dear Bishop. No."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, my dear Reverend, please proceed."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"It is so, Bishop."</p> + +<p>"And is it not a fact that Mrs. Pruitt as well as your +daughter, explained it all at the time with satisfaction to +you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, ah—yes, she did."</p> + +<p>"You admit to this, then, my dear Reverend?"</p> + +<p>"Under the circumstances at the time, I was rather compelled +to, my dear Bishop."</p> + +<p>"Meaning that since she had gone and taken the land, +you were morally bound to look into and consider the matter +favorably?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think that explains it."</p> + +<p>"Now, Reverend. Is it not a fact that a considerable +write-up appeared in the Chicago <i>Defender</i> shortly after this +visit, detailing considerable, and with much illustration regarding +the trip; that, in short, your daughter had come into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span> +considerable land and was regarded as having been very +fortunate?"</p> + +<p>"I think so, my dear Bishop."</p> + +<p>"Very well, Reverend. Now—a—who solicited that +write-up? Did the editor not have a conversation with you +before the article appeared?"</p> + +<p>"I believe he did, yes, sir. I think he did."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I think so. Yes, Bishop, I remember having introduced +him to you myself."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I think you quote correctly, my dear Bishop."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I did, my dear Bishop. Yes, I did."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear Bishop. I did that."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Nobly said, Reverend, nobly said," said the Bishop, and +for the first time during his explanation, the Elder felt encouraged.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>was +so ambitious to get rich</i> 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:</p> + +<p>"I note by the reports in the newspaper that you are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Well, under the circumstances, methods <i>had</i> to be resorted +to—er, rather to fit the occasion." The Elder's +defence was artful.</p> + +<p>The Bishop, not pretending to take his question seriously, +pursued:</p> + +<p>"I note, further, that he accuses you of disposing of +some property...."</p> + +<p>"My daughter sold her place. It was hers, in her name, +and the transaction did not require his consent."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the other, stroking his beard which was thick +and flowing.</p> + +<p>"A piece of wild, raw land such as that I could not estimate +it as being so valuable."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I have heard my daughter say that a place near +there had brought five thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"Which would not compare with the value you put on the +place your daughter held."</p> + +<p>"It would not seem to."</p> + +<p>"M-m. You say this was your daughter's place entirely?"</p> + +<p>"It was," returned the Reverend promptly.</p> + +<p>"And she paid for it out of her own money?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no. She did not."</p> + +<p>"I see. M-m. Then who purchased it for her, Reverend?"</p> + +<p>"I think he did that. Yes, I think he did."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I think he claimed to have paid two thousand dollars +for the relinquishment, which I would consider too much, +considerably too much."</p> + +<p>"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 contro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span>versy +would likely be able to judge more correctly with +regard to values?"</p> + +<p>"It is obvious."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Of course, my dear Bishop. Naturally. A white man +bought the place."</p> + +<p>"I understand now. A <i>white</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"It seems by the paper that the man, according to the +accusations set forth in the complaint, had once contested +the claim."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he had done so, Doctor, he had."</p> + +<p>"I see. Why did he contest the place, my dear Reverend?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I do not understand clearly, but such methods +appear to be a recognized custom in those parts," countered +the Elder evasively.</p> + +<p>"But isn't it a fact that he tried to contest her out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span> +the place, and if he had been successful, he would have +had the place for nothing in so far as she was concerned?"</p> + +<p>"It is quite likely." The Elder had nothing but evasive +answers now. He tried counters no more.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It seems that way."</p> + +<p>"And then, forsooth, it must have been your daughter's +husband who was instrumental in saving the place for her?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I counciled her, my dear Bishop."</p> + +<p>"Ah, <i>you</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"That was—the railroad fare—a part of the transaction."</p> + +<p>"Ah-ha. A <i>part</i> of the transaction. You never, I suppose, +informed her husband regarding the <i>transaction</i> after +the deal was closed?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Well, see you at the conference, Newt," and was gone.</p> + +<p>The other stood regarding the closed door. His brain +was in a whirl and he could not quite understand what +had happened. But <i>something</i> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XII_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE BISHOP ACTS</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And not until the secretary arose to call the various<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<p>"Reverend McCarthy to Mitchfield!"</p> + +<p>"<i>Reverend McCarthy to Mitchfield!</i>" was the echo all +through the audience. Impossible! <i>Reverend McCarthy</i>, +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XIII_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">WHERE THE WEAK MUST BE STRONG</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Now, Baptiste, it seems we ought to be able to get +together on this case without going into court."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" replied Baptiste, regarding the other noncommittally.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think we could, and should. I think you and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> +Orlean ought to be able to console your differences without +such an extreme."</p> + +<p>"You <i>think</i> so?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I do. Orlean has always—ah—rather loved +you, Baptiste, and I think you two could make up."</p> + +<p>"But this is not between Orlean and me, Glavis. You +seem to misunderstand. It is between N. Justine McCarthy +and me."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Possibly so." The other was still noncommittal.</p> + +<p>"Then why not you and I get together on this proposition +before the trial is called?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That seems rather severe, Baptiste."</p> + +<p>"Why so?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I considered all that before I went into it, Glavis," replied +Baptiste calmly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why should I have done so when I didn't feel to?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Baptiste, you are <i>so</i> severe!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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. <i>Even +when I think of it now</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>Glavis proceeded to his lawyer, and advised him of his +inability to dissuade the plaintiff.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't dissuade him, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Couldn't do a thing!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I'm looking for him here in a day or so, now."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You think so?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Glavis was uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Now where is your sister-in-law?"</p> + +<p>"At home."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir. When shall I bring her?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I think he plans to bring his grandmother from +what I can hear, for one."</p> + +<p>"His grandmother? What does she know about it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, she was in the house when my father-in-law went +on the visit and the girl came away with him."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I really don't know."</p> + +<p>"Who else?"</p> + +<p>"I heard something about him going to bring a doctor +down, and also a lawyer."</p> + +<p>"The doctor, eh?" He shook his head then a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> +dubiously. "This physician attended the girl while she was +confined?"</p> + +<p>"I think so."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I hear that his bill amounted to something like two +hundred dollars."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You send or bring the girl down here tomorrow. It +will be up to <i>her</i> to keep her father out of jail, that's all. +It will be up to <i>her</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> +loved Jean Baptiste, he knew would be a deliberate falsehood. +It worried him, but he had to go through with it.</p> + +<p>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, <i>and her +statements only</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>up to her</i>. Her father's freedom, his continuance +in the pulpit, his vindication of the action he had taken +depended upon <i>her</i>, and <i>her strength</i>.</p> + +<p>And that strength—for on that day she would <i>have</i> to be +strong,—<i>depended upon a lie</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XIV_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE TRIAL—THE LIE—"AS GUILTY AS HELL!"</p> + + +<p class="cap"><i>"N</i> <i>OT guilty, your honor!"</i></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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—<i>and she had +stood by her father</i>.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm satisfied," said Baptiste as they went through +the street.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so, in a way."</p> + +<p>"I wanted vindication. I wanted the people to know the +truth."</p> + +<p>"And they know it now. He goes free, but the people +know he is a guilty man, and that your wife <i>lied</i> to save +him."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," said Baptiste a little wearily.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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—<i>and +this for the man who had brought her to it</i>. And <i>now</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span> +everything to him. And as a climax to it all, she had <i>lied</i>.</p> + +<p>Oh, that lie would haunt her forever!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I think that you should, too, father," he said, whereupon +he turned to accompany him.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>And thinking thusly, he reached his destination.</p> + +<p>He found the attorney alone, busy over some papers. He +approached him courteously, bowed, and thrusting his hand +in his pocket, said:</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Well, it's over, and you are free."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you are free and fortunate."</p> + +<p>"Fortunate," the Reverend repeated, thoughtfully, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span> +looking up found the lawyer's eyes upon him. They were +looking straight into his with the same expression of a +moment before.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the lawyer then coldly, "you are <i>free</i> and +<i>fortunate</i>, because <i>you were as guilty as hell</i>!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XV_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="center small">GRIM JUSTICE</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>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—<i>and even kissed a Negro</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, here you are," he cried as she stood upon the plat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span>form +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to take you to my aunt's," he said, when they +had gotten started.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You have certainly been a hard one to pull off the farm, +dear," she heard now.</p> + +<p>"Oh, do you think so?" she said coyly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I could never wish that," she said quickly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so."</p> + +<p>He regarded her quickly out of the corner of his eye, and +then looked ahead.</p> + +<p>"Ever heard of State Street?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Is this it?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, dear?" he said, glancing at her +quickly.</p> + +<p>"Why—ah—oh, nothing."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>that</i> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> +time had come, and she must. But <i>could</i> she? When she +dared close her eyes she seemed to see him more clearly.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, aunt, here we are."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>she</i> readily +become accustomed to such without displaying awkwardness.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Chump!" he said to himself as he turned and started +back down the steps. "I'll never sleep inside that house +again," and laughed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Heh! Heh! Baptiste, wake up, wake up, you're +wanted!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Two officers, the attorney in a bath robe, and Glavis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span> +stood at the door. He regarded them curiously. "What +is this?" he managed to say, as they came into the room.</p> + +<p>"Seems that they want you," said the attorney.</p> + +<p>"Me?" he chimed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"For murder! <i>Me</i>, for murder?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I don't understand what you're talking about—all +of you," persisted Baptiste. "Who has been murdered, +and why am I accused?"</p> + +<p>The lawyer had been observing him keenly, and now he +interposed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XVI_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="center small">A FRIEND</p> + + +<p class="cap">BECAUSE she feared that rising as early as she had +been accustomed to might serve to embarrass her +fiancé 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.</p> + +<p>"Would you care for it?" she asked courteously.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<blockquote><p class="center">STRANGE MURDER CASE ON VERNON AVENUE</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Negro Minister and His Daughter Found Murdered +about Midnight</span></p> + +<p class="hang2 small">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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Baptiste refused to make any comment further than that +he was innocent.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Accused of murder!" Agnes echoed, staring before her +in much excitement. "<i>Jean Baptiste accused of murder!</i>" +She read the account again. She arose and stood on the +floor. "He <i>is</i> innocent, <i>he is innocent</i>!" she cried to herself. +"<i>Jean Baptiste would not commit murder, no, no, no! +No, not even if he was justified in doing so.</i>" Suddenly +she seized her clothes, and in the next instant was getting +hurriedly into them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span></p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>going</i> to him, he was innocent, she was positive, +and she would do all in her power to save him.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"You refer to that case on Vernon Avenue, madam?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"And you would like to see this Jean Baptiste?"</p> + +<p>"That is the one."</p> + +<p>They regarded her closely, and was finally asked to follow +the bailiff.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, Agnes—Miss Stewart, <i>you</i>!" he cried in great +surprise. He regarded her as if afraid to try to understand +her presence there.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jean," she answered quickly. "It is <i>I</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.</p> + +<p>"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,</p> + +<p>"You must just tell <i>me</i>, Jean."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you must not speak that way, Jean. No, no, no! +I'm here to help you. You <i>didn't</i> kill him, you <i>didn't</i> kill +<i>her</i>—<i>you didn't kill anybody, did you, Jean</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I didn't kill anybody, Agnes."</p> + +<p>"Of course you didn't, Jean!" she cried with relief. "I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span> +<i>knew</i> you were innocent. I said so, and I got out of bed +and came at once, I did."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>He looked at her, and could not believe it was so, but +finally he murmured:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And <i>me</i>," she said quickly.</p> + +<p>"Yes—<i>you</i>," he repeated, and lowered his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm going now, Jean," and she reached for his +hand.</p> + +<p>He was almost overcome, and could not look at her directly.</p> + +<p>"Be strong, Jean. It will come out all right—it must +come out all right—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Agnes, this is too much. Forget it. You should +not—"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>they</i> +have been doing to you—how you have been made to +suffer. And—and—I—could <i>never</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"Agnes, oh, Agnes,—<i>and after all that has passed</i>!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XVII_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p class="center small">THE MYSTERY</p> + + +<p class="cap">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:</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Why—yes, Agnes," he said. He could hardly accustom +himself to her in such a situation.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That would be practical, Agnes. Yes," he said thoughtfully, +"since you insist—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Since Baptiste had observed the time by the clock in the +Keystone before leaving there, he was quite accurate in fix<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span>ing +the time he reached his room. Since we have followed +him to his room, we know this phase of the case.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who discovered the murder, Mr. Glavis?" he inquired +when they stood in the death room.</p> + +<p>"Why myself and another fellow returned home just +after it had been committed."</p> + +<p>"How did <i>you</i> know it had just been committed?"</p> + +<p>"Well—why, my wife was in the hall-way, and when we +entered she had just discovered the bodies."</p> + +<p>"But that doesn't prove that they had just been murdered."</p> + +<p>"But my wife says she was awakened by her sister's +scream."</p> + +<p>"I see. So it was your wife who first discovered the +bodies, or that they had just been murdered."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Where had you been, and what time did you return +home?"</p> + +<p>"I had been around town, to the Keystone where Baptiste +was until shortly after midnight."</p> + +<p>"You saw this Baptiste leave the hotel?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I did."</p> + +<p>"How long after Baptiste left was it, before you followed?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps fifteen minutes."</p> + +<p>"<i>Perhaps</i> fifteen minutes; but you are not positive?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I am quite certain."</p> + +<p>"When you left the hotel, where did you go?"</p> + +<p>"I came here."</p> + +<p>"You came directly here. Didn't stop on the way anywhere?"</p> + +<p>"I did not."</p> + +<p>"And when you arrived, what happened? Did you meet +anybody on the way?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Where did you meet him?"</p> + +<p>"Coming out of the house upon my arrival."</p> + +<p>"You met him coming out of the house upon your arrival?"</p> + +<p>"Well, out of the yard. I saw him come down the steps +that leads up to the house."</p> + +<p>"But you <i>didn't</i> see him come out of the house?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no, I didn't see that."</p> + +<p>"Did you exchange any words with him when you met +him? Did you stop and talk?"</p> + +<p>"No. But I heard him mutter something."</p> + +<p>"Did you understand the words or any words he muttered?"</p> + +<p>"I thought he said something about having turned in +at the wrong place."</p> + +<p>"How do you account for him having done so—if so?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, the house where he stops is just a few doors—about +a half dozen—up the street—"</p> + +<p>"On the same side or the opposite?"</p> + +<p>"The same side. And he was stopping there."</p> + +<p>"Did you have any conversation with Baptiste after the +trial in which he sued your father-in-law?"</p> + +<p>"No; but I tried to have him settle the case before going +to court."</p> + +<p>"What did he say to it?"</p> + +<p>"Refused to consider it."</p> + +<p>"Did he give reasons?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He said he wanted vindication."</p> + +<p>"Anything else?"</p> + +<p>"That he would have killed the Elder if it had not been +that he was an observer of the law."</p> + +<p>"Where were they murdered?"</p> + +<p>"She lay near the door, while he lay in bed."</p> + +<p>"Any evidence of a struggle?"</p> + +<p>"No, not as I could see."</p> + +<p>"With what were they murdered?"</p> + +<p>"With a knife that has been in the room here for two or +three years."</p> + +<p>"Was Baptiste aware that such a knife was in the room?"</p> + +<p>"Not that I know of."</p> + +<p>"When, to your knowledge, was Baptiste last in the +house?"</p> + +<p>"He has not been in the house for more than three years."</p> + +<p>"Then he couldn't have known the knife was there."</p> + +<p>"Well, unless he discovered it when he entered the +room."</p> + +<p>"Providing he <i>entered</i> the room. Was he aware also +that the preacher occupied this particular room? Is it not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span> +reasonable to suppose that he would not know where the +preacher slept if he had not been in the house for three +years?"</p> + +<p>"But he could have looked around."</p> + +<p>"Possibly. But how do you account for the girl's body +being here in the room also. Where did she sleep?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That is your <i>theory</i>. 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"May I consult with your wife?"</p> + +<p>Glavis looked around, uneasily. "She is very much torn +up by the incident," he suggested.</p> + +<p>"But this is a very grave matter."</p> + +<p>"Well," and he turned and entered the room wherein +Ethel had enclosed herself.</p> + +<p>"Ethel, an officer has called and wishes to consult with +you."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"You discovered this tragedy, madam?" he inquired +calmly, but with a note of firmness in his tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes!—oh, my poor sister! My poor father—and +that low down man!"</p> + +<p>"When did you discover this, madam?"</p> + +<p>"Just as soon as it was done, oh me!"</p> + +<p>"How did you come to discover it, lady?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"How long after you heard her scream was it before you +came out of the room—your room?"</p> + +<p>"I came at once," she said sulkily, and tried to cry louder. +The detective was thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"So you came at once! And what did <i>you see</i> when you +came out?"</p> + +<p>At this she seemed overcome, and it was some moments +before he could get her answer, and that was after he had +repeated.</p> + +<p>"My sister and father lying murdered in the room there."</p> + +<p>"Is <i>that all</i> you saw?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes. But I think I heard a door slam downstairs."</p> + +<p>"You <i>think</i> you heard a door slam? What happened +next?"</p> + +<p>"My husband came."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How long after the door slammed was it before your +husband came?"</p> + +<p>"Not long."</p> + +<p>"Is it not possible that when you heard the door slam, +that it was your husband coming in?"</p> + +<p>"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....</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What have you discovered?" she inquired anxiously, +her eyes searching his face.</p> + +<p>"Well," said he, slowly, "a few things, I think."</p> + +<p>"And Jean—Mr. Baptiste?" He looked up sharply and +searched her face.</p> + +<p>"He is innocent."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>prove</i> it?"</p> + +<p>He toyed idly with a pencil he held in his hands, and after +a time, drawled: "I think so. <i>When the proper time comes.</i>"</p> + +<p>"The <i>proper</i> time? And—when will that be?" Her +voice was controlled, but the anxiety was apparent.</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll say at the preliminary hearing tomorrow +morning."</p> + +<p>"And—and—you have no more to report?"</p> + +<p>"Not today. I shall attend the inquest, of course. And +where may I see you—say, tomorrow?"</p> + +<p>"At the hearing."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then. Good day."</p> + +<p>"Good day."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XVIII_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<p class="center small">VENGEANCE IS MINE. I WILL REPAY</p> + + +<p class="cap">"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!"</p> + +<p>"I'm glad," he said solemnly. She bestowed upon him a +kind smile as she said:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"My wheat?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, Jean. You have a fine crop of wheat +on all your land."</p> + +<p>"I have?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At the magistrate's office the following morning, the court +room was crowded. Scores were turned away, and all the +family had been subpœnaed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You say, madame, that after you heard your sister +scream you rushed from your room and to where she was?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, and those near noticed the sulkiness.</p> + +<p>"And when you arrived you found her dead near the +door, while your father lay murdered in the bed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Do you recall, Mrs. Glavis, whether she screamed long, +or whether it was brief?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated, somewhat confused. Presently, she stiffened +and said: "It was long."</p> + +<p>"Did it last until after you had left your bed?"</p> + +<p>"It did."</p> + +<p>"Until you had left the room you were in?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"In fact she was screaming still when you arrived at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Now Mrs. Glavis, do you recall having ever heard your +sister scream before in a like manner?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"No," she said bravely.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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, <i>that we are going to investigate +the case and prosecute for perjury</i>!" 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:</p> + +<p>"<i>No, no! Orlean, Orlean! Oh, my God, Orlean!</i>" +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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When the family returned from the court house, Orlean<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a id="im007" name="im007"></a> +<img src="images/im_007.jpg" alt="" /> +<p class="atext2">From a painting by W.M. Farrow.</p> +<p class="ctext2">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.</p> +</div> + + + +<p>"<i>There you are again, my betrayer</i>," she said coldly. +"<i>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span>—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!</i></p> + +<p>"<i>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!</i>"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Papa," she said in her usual, but sleepy-like voice, "Is +that you?"</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She stood between him and the door, and he regarded +her with a puzzled expression. Presently his eyes met hers, +and he started up. <i>What was the matter with her?</i> Her +eyes were like coals of burning fire; her stiff, bushy hair, was +unbraided and stood <i>away from her head giving her the appearance +of a savage. But it was the expression of her eyes +that disturbed him.</i> He was held in a thraldom of fear as +she slowly advanced toward the bed.</p> + +<p>"Orlean," he at last managed to say. "What is the—"</p> + +<p>"<i>I have come at last to right a wrong</i>," 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.</p> + +<p>"<i>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span> +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!</i>"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"<i>Orlean, my child, Orlean! My God—oh, my heaven, +what do you—</i>" he got no further. Quickly her poised arm +descended, and the knife she held sank deeply into his heart.</p> + +<p>"<i>Oh, God—my beloved God—ah—oh—Christ! +Christo....</i>" 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.</p> + +<p>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 for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span>ward, +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.</p> + +<p>When he heard his wife scream, and had rushed upstairs, +saw the dead father-in-law and her sister, he cried:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XIX_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<p class="center small">WHEN THE TRUTH BECAME KNOWN</p> + + +<p class="cap">"I HAVE hardly seen you for two days, my dear," he +complained when Agnes had returned from the +hearing.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"She'd <i>rather</i> not—now," and she tried to be jolly, +although she knew she must have failed miserably.</p> + +<p>"Very well, my dear. But, sweet one, when are you +going to become my own?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why, really—when?" She paused in her confusion, +and he said quickly:</p> + +<p>"Let's just get married—today!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, please don't ask me to so soon."</p> + +<p>He frowned. Then he was pleasant again. "Then, +when, Agnes?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After an hour she had told him of the legacy.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The night before, as they were returning from the theatre, +he said to her:</p> + +<p>"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 <i>will</i>, understand." He +paused then and she could see he was embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>She nodded, affirmatively.</p> + +<p>"Why is it, dear?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"And you—you have noticed it yourself?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And—can't you understand it, either?"</p> + +<p>She acknowledged the fact with her eyes.</p> + +<p>"It is strange. I'll be glad when we understand this +legacy."</p> + +<p>"I will, too."</p> + +<p>"It makes me feel that something's going to happen. +Perhaps we—you are going to prove to be an heiress."</p> + +<p>She laughed cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"And then you will not want to marry me, maybe."</p> + +<p>She laughed again.</p> + +<p>"But nothing would keep me from loving you always, +Agnes," he said with deep feeling.</p> + +<p>"Even if the papers would show me to be descended from +some horrible pirate or worse."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!"</p> + +<p>He kissed her impulsively, and in the next hour she went +off to bed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"What is this?" said her fiancé'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 fiancé 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.</p> + +<p>"Is <i>this</i> a fact?" said the aunt coldly. Never had she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> +appeared more dignified. Her nephew stood away, regarding +Agnes out of eyes in which she could see a growing +fear.</p> + +<p>"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. <i>At last she knew who she was.</i></p> + +<p>She turned to find herself alone. She opened her lips +and started to call the others, and then hesitated. <i>Why had +they left her?</i> She looked at the photographs she held—<i>and +understood</i>.</p> + +<p>She gathered the documents and placed them in the box, +went upstairs, slowly packed her belongings, and called a +cab.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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. <i>The Custom of the Country and its law</i> had +forbid, and he had <i>paid the penalty</i>. He wondered whether +he would do the same again and sacrifice all that had been +dear and risk the misery that had followed.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> +he had brought for his meal. Bill and George were eating +in the field where they worked.</p> + +<p>"Baching is hell," he muttered aloud, and picked up a +sandwich.</p> + +<p>"How very bad you are, Jean," he heard, and almost +strained his neck in turning so quickly.</p> + +<p>"<i>Agnes!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>why</i> not?"</p> + +<p>"But—but—oh, tell me," and then he became silent +and looked away, raising the sandwich to his mouth mechanically.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"But, Agnes, how came you here? I—I—thought you—were +<i>getting married</i>. Are you here on—on your <i>wedding +trip</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lord, no! No, Jean, I am not going to marry."</p> + +<p>"<i>Not going to marry!</i>"</p> + +<p>She shook her head and affected to be sad, but a little +smile played around her lips that he saw but didn't understand.</p> + +<p>"But—Agnes, <i>why</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Because the one to whom I was engaged—well, he +wouldn't marry me," and she laughed.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would make it all clear. At least tell me +what it means—that it is so."</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> so!" she said stoutly, and he believed her when +he saw her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I'll understand by and by."</p> + +<p>"You <i>will</i> understand, soon, Jean," she said kindly. +"Papa will explain—<i>everything</i>." She turned her eyes +away then, and in the moment he reached and grasped her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"Something happened and I was strangely glad and came +here because—because I—just <i>had</i> to see you, Jean."</p> + +<p>"Please, Jean. You—will—forget that <i>now</i>." 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She turned then and retraced her steps, but as she went +along the roadway she was thinking of him and herself and +<i>who she was at last</i>. She sighed, strangely contented, and +was positive—knew that in due time <i>he too</i> must come to +understand.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX_fourth" id="CHAPTER_XX_fourth"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<p class="center small">AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING</p> + + +<p class="cap">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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Being happy, however, is not quite possible alone. No, +and Jean Baptiste was <i>not</i> alone. And here is what had +happened.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> +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 <i>did</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I knew it was you," he said, happily, as he drew her +into the seat beside him, between himself and the window.</p> + +<p>"What are you thinking of, my Jean," she said then.</p> + +<p>"Of what I have been thinking ever since the day when +we understood that you and I after all are of the same +blood."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you have," she chimed, and drawing his face close +with her hands, she kissed him ardently.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it beautiful, Agnes? Just grand!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jean, you make me so happy."</p> + +<p>"You are <i>honestly</i> happy, dear?" he inquired for the +hundredth time.</p> + +<p>"I <i>couldn't</i> be happier," and she reposed in his arms.</p> + +<p>"Have truly forgotten that you are <i>an Ethiopian</i>, and +<i>must share</i> what is Ethiopia's?"</p> + +<p>"Will share what is <i>yours</i>, my Jean."</p> + +<p>"Always so beautifully have you said that."</p> + +<p>"Have I, now, really?"</p> + +<p>"Do you recall the day when I forgot, dear, <i>The Custom +of the Country—and its law</i>?"</p> + +<p>"How could I forget it?"</p> + +<p>"And what followed?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot forget that, either. But Jean, do you want +me to?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Agnes, we must both forget what followed. Still, when +we think how kind fate has been to us, after all, we must +feel grateful."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how much I do. But, Jean—it was <i>such</i> a sacrifice...."</p> + +<p>He was thoughtful for a time, and from the expression on +his face, the present was far away.</p> + +<p>"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—<i>that</i> expression +again?"</p> + +<p>He looked down at her.</p> + +<p>"Expression?"</p> + +<p>"Like you wore just then."</p> + +<p>"Oh."</p> + +<p>"You see, it seems to bring back events in your life that +we want to forget."</p> + +<p>"You mean, I—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said slowly, "you—we understand each other +and everything that has concerned each other, don't we, +Jean?"</p> + +<p>"Of course we do, Agnes. We have always—but there, +now!" and he smothered the rest of it in a fond caress.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you reckon your father understood the love that +was between us?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Did you love the man you were engaged to?"</p> + +<p>"Jean!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You know I never loved any one in the world but you."</p> + + +<p class="center">THE END</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="notes"> +<p>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:</p> + +<p>Obvious typos and printer errors have been corrected +without comment.</p> + +<p>With the exception of obvious printer errors, +the following changes have been made in this text:</p> +<blockquote><p class="hang2"> +1. Page 321: "truck" changed to "struck" in the phrase, "hope it hasn't struck...."</p> +<p class="hang2">2. Page 442: "We'll" changed to "He'll" in the phrase, "He'll get them tomorrow morning...." +</p></blockquote> + +<p>Inconsistencies in the author's spelling, punctuation, and use of +hyphens have been retained as in the original book.</p> + +<p>Unconventional spelling has been retained in words such as +(but not limited to) the following:</p> + +<blockquote><p> +weazened<br /> +uproarously<br /> +flustrated<br /> +glabbed<br /> +aimiably<br /> +counciled<br /> +</p></blockquote> + +In the original publication of The Homesteader, letters between various +characters are sometimes printed in smaller font, and sometimes are +printed in normal-sized font. In this html version, changes in font size +reflect the font sizes in the original text. +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Homesteader, by Oscar Micheaux + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOMESTEADER *** + +***** This file should be named 39238-h.htm or 39238-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/3/39238/ + +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) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOMESTEADER *** + +***** This file should be named 39238.txt or 39238.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/3/39238/ + +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) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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