in notes as clear and loud as a bob-o"-link"s.
He walked on rapidly, and was very near overtaking the Frenchman, when a new thought struck him. "Now, if he"s uneasy about himself,--and if he knows he ain"t honest, of course he"s uneasy,--he"ll may be think I"m on his track, and be off to his "hum," as Nancy calls it," and the Elder chuckled at the memory, "an" I shouldn"t have any chance of ketchin" him here for another year." The Elder stood still again. Presently he jumped a fence, and walking off to the left, climbed a hill, from the top of which he could see old Ike"s house. Here, in the edge of a spruce grove, he walked back and forth, watching the proceedings below. "Seems little too much like bein" a spy," thought the good man, "but I never felt a clearer call in a thing in my life than I do in this little girl"s letter," and he fell to singing
"Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings,"
till the crows in the wood were frightened by the strange sound, and came flying out and flapping their great wings above his head.
The Frenchman drove into old Ike"s yard. Ike came out of the house and helped him unload the buckets, and carry them into an old corn-house which stood behind the barn: As soon as the Frenchman had turned his oxen"s head down the lane, the Elder set out for the house, across the fields. Old Ike was standing in the barn-door. When he saw the tall figure striding through the pasture, he ran to let down the bars, and hurried up to the Elder and grasped both his hands. Not in all Elder Kinney"s parish was there a single heart which beat so warmly for him as did the heart of this poor lonely old man, who had lived by himself in this solitary valley ever since the Elder came to Clairvend.
"Oh, Elder, Elder," said he, "it does me reel good to see your face. Be ye well, sir?" looking closely at him.
"Yes, Ike, thank you, I"m always well," replied the Elder absently. He was too absorbed in his errand to have precisely his usual manner, and it was the slight change which Ike"s affectionate instinct felt. But Ike saved him all perplexity as to introducing the object of his visit by saying at once, picking up one of the sugar-buckets which had rolled off to one side, "I"m jest pilin" up Ganew"s sugar-buckets for him. He pays me well for storin" "em, but I kind o" hate to have anythin" to do with him. Don"t you remember him, sir--him that was so awful bad with the fever down"n the clearin" five years ago this month? You was down to see him, I know."
"Yes, yes, I remember," said the Elder, with a manner so nonchalant that he was frightened at his own diplomacy. "He was a bad fellow, I thought,"
Ike went on: "Wall, that"s everybody"s feelin" about him: and there ain"t no great thing to show for "t nuther. But they did say a while back that he hadn"t no reel right to the land. He turned up all of a sudden, and paid up all there was owin" on the taxes, an" he"s paid "em regular ever sence. But he hain"t never showed how the notes come to be signed by some other name. Yes, sir, the hull lot--it"s nigh on ter three hundred acres, such"s "tis; a good part on"t "s swamp though, that ain"t wuth a copper--the hull lot went to a man down in York State, when the Iron Company bust up here, and for two or three year the chap he jest sent up his note for the taxes, and they"ve a drefful shiftless way o" lettin"
things go in this ere town, "s you know, sir; there wan"t n.o.body that knowed what a sugar orchard was a lyin" in there, or there"d been plenty to grab for it; but I don"t s"pose there"s three men in the town"d ever been over back o" Birch Hill till this Ganew he come and cut a road in, and had his sugar-camp agoin" one spring, afore anybody knew what he was arter. But he"s paid all up reg"lar, and well he may, sez everybody, for he can"t get his sugar off, sly"s he is, w"thout folks gettin" some kind o" notion about it, an" they say"s he"s cleared thousands an" thousands o"
dollars. I expect they ain"t overshot the mark nuther, for he"s got six hundred new buckets this spring, and Bill Sims, he"s been in with "em the last two years, "n he says there ain"t no sugar orchard to compare, except Squire White"s over in Mill Creek, and he"s often taken in three thousand pounds off his"n."
Ike sighed as he paused, breathless. "It"s jest my luck, allers knockin"
about "n them woods "s I am, not to have struck trail on that air orchard.
I could ha" bought it"s well"s not in the fust on"t, if it had been put up to vendue, "s"t oughter ben, an" n.o.body knowin" what "twas wuth."
Elder Kinney was almost overcome by this unhoped-for corroboration of his instincts; clearing up of his difficulties. His voice sounded hoa.r.s.e in his own ears as he replied:--
"Well, Ike, the longest lane has a turnin". It"s my belief that G.o.d doesn"t often let dishonest people prosper very long. We shall see what becomes of Ganew. Where does he live? I"d like to see him."
"Well, he don"t live nowhere, "s near"s anybody can find out. He"s in the camp with the gang about six weeks, sometimes eight; they say"s it"s a kind of settlement down there, an" then he"s off again till sugarin" comes round; but he"s dreadful sharp and partikler about the taxes, I tell you, and he"s given a good deal too, fust and last, to the town. Folks say he wants to make "em satisfied to let him alone. He"s coming up here again to-morrow with two more loads of buckets, sir: if "twouldn"t be too much trouble for you to come here agin so soon," added poor Ike, grasping at the chance of seeing the Elder again.
"Well, I think perhaps I"ll come," replied the Elder, ashamed again of the readiness with which he found himself taking to tortuous methods, "if I"m not too busy. What time will he be here?"
"About this same time," said Ike. "He don"t waste no time, mornin" nor evenin"."
The Elder went away soon, leaving poor Ike half unhappy.
"He"s got somethin" on his mind, thet"s plain enough," thought the loving old soul. "I wonder now ef it"s a woman; I"ve allus thought the Elder war"nt no sort of man to live alone all his days."
"Dear, good little Draxy," thought the Elder, as he walked down the road.
"How shall I ever tell the child of this good luck, and how shall I manage it all for the best for her?"
Draxy"s interests were in good hands. Before night Elder Kinney had ascertained that there had never been any sale of this land since it was sold to "the New York chap," and that Ganew"s occupation of it was illegal. After tea the Elder sat down and wrote two letters.
The first one was to Draxy, and ran as follows:--
"MY DEAR CHILD:--
"I received your letter last night, and by the Lord"s help I have found out all about your father"s land today. But I shall write to your father about it, for you could not understand.
"I wish the Lord had seen fit to give me just such a daughter as you are.
"Your friend,
"SETH KINNEY."
The letter to Reuben was very long, giving in substance the facts which have been told above, and concluding thus:--
"I feel a great call from the Lord to do all I can in this business, and I hope you won"t take it amiss if I make bold to decide what"s best to be done without consulting you. This fellow"s got to be dealt with pretty sharp, and I, being on the ground, can look after him better than you can.
But I"ll guarantee that you"ll have possession of that land before many weeks." He then asked Reuben to have an exact copy of the deed made out and forwarded to him; also any other papers which might throw light on the transfer of the property, sixteen years back. "Not that I calculate there"ll be any trouble," he added; "we don"t deal much in lawyer"s tricks up here, but it"s just as well to be provided."
The Elder went to the post-office before breakfast to post this letter.
The address did not escape the eyes of the postmaster. Before noon Eben Hill knew that the Elder had written right off by the first mail to a "Miss Draxy Miller."
Meantime the Elder was sitting in the doorway of old Ike"s barn waiting for the Frenchman; ten o"clock came, eleven, twelve--he did not appear.
The Elder"s uneasiness grew great, but he talked on and on till poor Ike was beside himself with delight. At last the distant creak of the wheels was heard. "There he is," exclaimed Ike. "I"m thinking, sir, that it"s a kind o" providential dispensation thet"s hendered him all this time; it"s done me such a sight o" good to hear you talk."
The Elder smiled tenderly on poor old Ike.
"Everything is a dispensation, Ike, accordin" to my way o" thinkin";" and again he thought involuntarily of "little Draxy."
Ganew a.s.sented with a half-surly civility to Elder Kinney"s proposition to ride down with him.
"I"ve got a matter of business to talk over with you, Mr. Ganew,"--said the Elder, "and I came up here on purpose to find you."
The man turned his stolid black eyes full on the Elder, but made no reply.
It was indeed an evil face. The Elder was conscious that impulses which he feared were unchristian were rising rapidly in his breast. He had wished a few times before in his life that he was not a minister. He wished it now. He would have liked to open his conversation with Ganew after the manner of the world"s people when they deal with thieves. And again he thought involuntarily of "little Draxy," and her touching "we are very poor."
But when he spoke, he spoke gently and slowly.
"I have some news for you which will be very disagreeable, Mr. Ganew."
Here the Frenchman started, with such a terrified, guilty, malignant look on his face, that the Elder said to himself: "Good G.o.d, I believe the man knows he"s in danger of his life. Stealin"s the least of his crimes, I"ll venture."
He proceeded still more gently. "The owners of the land which you"ve been using as your own in this town, have written to inquire about it, and have put the business in my hands."
Ganew was silent for a moment. Then trying to speak in an indignant tone, he said,--
"Using as my own! I don"t know what you mean, Mr. Parson. I have paid my taxes all regular, and I"ve got the t.i.tle-deeds of the land, every acre of it. I can"t help whoever"s been writing to you about it; it"s all my land."
But his face twitched with nervous excitement, and the fright and anger in his serpent-like black eyes were ugly to see.
"No, Mr. Ganew, it is not," said the Elder; "and you know it. Now you jest listen to me; I know the whole truth about the matter, an" all the time you spend fightin" off the truth"ll be wasted, besides addin" lyin" to havin" been a thief. The owners of the land"ll be here, I expect before long; but they"ve put it all in my hands, an" I can let you off if I choose."
"Let me off! What the devil do you mean?" said Ganew.
"Why, you don"t suppose there"s goin" to be nothin" said about all the thousands o" dollars" wuth of sugar you"ve carried off here, do"--
The next thing Elder Kinney knew he was struggling up to his feet in the middle of the road; he was nearly blinded by blood trickling from a cut on his forehead, and only saw dimly that Ganew was aiming another blow at him with his heavy-handled ox-goad.
But the Frenchman had reckoned without his host. Elder Kinney, even half stunned, was more than a match for him. In a very few minutes Ganew was lying in the bottom of his own ox-cart, with his hands securely tied behind him with a bit of his own rope and the Elder was sitting calmly down on a big boulder, wiping his forehead and recovering his breath; it had been an ugly tussle, and the Elder was out of practice.