At twelve next day, Dan, who had been plowing, turned in at Bishop"s Court in his long boots and rough red shirt, and there in the library he found Mona and the Deemster seated. Mona did not speak when Dan spoke to her. Her voice seemed to fail; but the Deemster answered in a jaunty word or two; and then the Bishop, looking very thoughtful, came in with Ewan, whose eyes were brighter than they had been for many a day, and behind them walked the stranger whom Mona had seen at Ballamona the day before.
"Why, and how"s this?" said Ewan, on perceiving that so many of them were gathered there.
The Bishop closed the door, and then answered, with averted face, "We have a painful interview before us, Ewan--be seated."
It was a dark day; the clouds hung low, and the dull rumble of the sea came through the dead air. A fire of logs and peat burned on the hearth, and the Deemster rose and stood with his back to it, his hands interlaced behind him. The Bishop sat on his bra.s.s-clamped chair at the table, and rested his pale cheek on his hand. There was a pause, and then without lifting his eyes the Bishop said, "Ewan, do you know that it is contrary to the customs of the Church for a minister to stand security for a debtor?"
Ewan was standing by the table, fumbling the covers of a book that he had lifted. "I know it," he said, quietly.
"Do you know that the minister who disregards that custom stands liable to suspension at the hands of his Bishop?"
Ewan looked about with a stare of bewilderment, but he answered again, and as quietly, "I know it."
There was silence for a moment, and then the Deemster, clearing his throat noisily, turned to where Dan was pawing up a rug that lay under a column and bust of Bunyan.
"And do you know, sir," said the Deemster, in his shrill tones, "what the punishment of forgery may be?"
Dan"s face had undergone some changes during the last few minutes, but when he lifted it to the Deemster"s, it was as firm as a rock.
"Hanging, perhaps," he answered, sullenly; "transportation, perhaps.
What of it? Out with it--be quick."
Dan"s eyes flashed; the Deemster t.i.ttered audibly; the Bishop looked up at his son from under the rims of his spectacles and drew a long breath.
Mona had covered her face in her hands where she sat in silence by the ingle, and Ewan, still fumbling the book in his nervous fingers, was glancing from Dan to the Deemster, and from the Bishop to Dan, with a look of blank amazement.
The Deemster motioned to the stranger, who thereupon advanced from where he had stood by the door, and stepped up to Ewan.
"May I ask if this doc.u.ment was drawn by your authority?" and saying this the stranger held out a paper, and Ewan took it in his listless fingers.
There was a moment"s silence. Ewan glanced down at the doc.u.ment. It showed that fifty pounds had been lent to Daniel Mylrea, by Benas Brothers, of the Goree Piazza, Liverpool, and it was signed by Ewan"s own name as that of surety.
"Is that your signature?" asked the stranger.
Ewan glanced at Dan, and Dan"s head was on his breast and his lips quivered. The Bishop was trembling visibly, and sat with head bent low by the sorrow of a wrecked and shattered hope.
The stranger looked from Ewan to Dan, and from Dan to the Bishop. The Deemster gazed steadily before him, and his face wore a ghostly smile.
"Is it your signature?" repeated the stranger, and his words fell on the silence like the clank of a chain.
Ewan saw it all now. He glanced again at the doc.u.ment, but his eyes were dim, and he could read nothing. Then he lifted his face, and its lines of agony told of a terrible struggle.
"Yes," he answered, "the signature _is_ mine--what of it?"
At that the Bishop and Mona raised their eyes together. The stranger looked incredulous.
"It is quite right if you say so," the stranger replied, with a cold smile.
Ewan trembled in every limb. "I do say so," he said.
His fingers crumpled the doc.u.ment as he spoke, but his head was erect, and the truth seemed to sit on his lips. Dan dropped heavily into a chair and buried his face in his hands.
The stranger smiled again the same cold smile. "The lenders wish to withdraw the loan," he said.
"They may do so--in a month," said Ewan.
"That will suffice."
The Deemster"s face twitched; Mona"s cheeks were wet with tears; the Bishop had risen and gone to the window, and was gazing out through blurred eyes into the blinding rain that was now pelting against the gla.s.s.
"It would be cruel to prolong a painful interview," said the stranger; and then, with a glance toward Dan where he sat convulsed with distress that he made no effort to conceal, he added, in a hard tone:
"Only the lenders came to have reasons to fear that perhaps the doc.u.ment had been drawn without your knowledge."
Ewan handed the paper back with a nerveless hand. He looked at the stranger through swimming eyes and said gently, but with an awful inward effort, "You have my answer, sir--I knew of it."
The stranger bowed and went out. Dan leaped to his feet and threw his arms about Ewan"s neck, but dared not to look into his troubled face.
Mona covered her eyes and sobbed.
The Deemster picked up his hat to go, and in pa.s.sing out he paused in front of Ewan and said, in a bitter whisper:
"Fool! fool! You have taken this man"s part to your own confusion."
When the door closed behind the Deemster the Bishop turned from the window. "Ewan," he said, in a voice like a cry, "the Recording Angel has set down the lie you have told to-day in the Book of Life to your credit in heaven."
Then the Bishop paused, and Dan lifted his head from Ewan"s neck.
"As for you, sir," the Bishop added, turning to his son, "I am done with you forever--go from me--let me see your face no more."
Dan went out of the room with bended head.
CHAPTER XVI
THE PLOWING MATCH
When Ewan got back home there was Dan sitting before the fire in the old hall, his legs stretched out before him, his hands thrust deep in his pockets, his head low in his breast, and his whole mien indicative of a crushed and broken spirit. He glanced up furtively as Ewan entered, and then back with a stony stare to the fire. If Ewan had then given him one word of cheer, G.o.d knows what tragic consequences would have been spared to them both. But Ewan had saved Dan from the penalty of his crime at the cost of truth and his self-esteem.
"Dan," he said, "you and I must part--we can be friends no longer."
He spoke with a strong effort, and the words seemed to choke him. Dan shambled to his feet; he appeared to collect his thoughts for a moment, like one who had fainted and returns to consciousness.
"Mind--I don"t turn you out of the house," said Ewan, "only if we are to share this place together we must be strangers."
A hard smile broke out on Dan"s face. He seemed to be trying to speak, but not a word would come. He twisted slowly on his heel, and lifted the latch of the door that led to the inner part of the house.