WALDSTRICKER'S ANGER
Lysander Letts wanted to get married and settle down in a home of his
own. He had received and banked the five thousand dollars for
discovering the dwarf, and was, now, looking forward confidently to his
marriage with Tessibel Skinner. He was quite sure his wealth would
overcome the objections the squatter girl had hitherto opposed to his
suit.
He grew quite sentimental thinking of her. He'd buy a real house, and
put some fancy furniture in it, plush sofas in the parlor and lace
curtains at the windows,--not any squatter's shack or pecking-box hut on
the Rhine for him. His face darkened at a disturbing thought. He'd make
the girl give up that kid! He wouldn't tolerate another man's brat in
his home. But Lysander had a wholesome fear of Deforrest Young, and he
didn't venture down the lake until the second day after he'd heard Tess
had returned from Auburn.
On his way along the railroad tracks, he concluded he'd better go to
Brewer's and find out just how the land lay. The talk in the Rhine
saloons, the night before, had been that the dwarf'd returned from
Auburn, pardoned. He wanted to know the details, and was sure Jake
Brewer would be able to tell him. He passed through the woods and
scrambled down the steps the fisherman had cut roughly in the cliff
side. Mrs. Brewer answered his knock and invited him into the house.
Recognizing Sandy's voice, Jake shouted from the back room:
"Heard about Andy Bishop gettin' free?"
When Brewer came into the kitchen a moment later, Letts had taken a
seat. Beside him on the floor lay a large tissue-wrapped package and in
his hands he held a shiny new hat.
"Sure, I've heard he's back," he grinned, brushing a little
flower-pollen from a very loud trouser leg. "How'd it happen?"
Sandy handed Brewer a cigar and stuck one, jauntily, in his own mouth.
"Smoke that, while ye're tellin' me 'bout Andy," he suggested. "It air
the best money'd buy."
When the cigars were burning satisfactorily, Brewer sat down on the
doorstep and cleared his throat loudly. His news was the biggest thing
that'd happened in the Silent City since Orn Skinner escaped the rope.
Glad of another opportunity to recount the story of the dwarf's
liberation, he began:
"Well, ye see, Sandy, in the first place, yer tellin' old Eb, an'
gettin' the little feller sent back to Auburn air the best thing ever
happened to the kid. Tess and the Professor went with 'im. When they got
to the prison, Owen Bennet were dyin' in the horspitle. The brat seen
'im, an' sung to 'im an' talked to 'im, an' he confessed; said Andy
didn't do the shootin' but was tryin' to stop it, just as the kid allers
claimed."
"Yep," interrupted Letts, earnestly. "That air the way it were."
Jake nodded and continued:
"Sure, Sandy, us-uns all knowed ye swore false on the trial.... Well,
next day, Young an' the brat went to Albany to see the guvener."
The ex-convict's eyes widened at the thought of the squatter girl in
such august company.
"He were fine to Tess. Seemed kind a stuck on her, the Professor says.
The brat told 'im all about how she'd looked after Andy, an' how he were
in prison five years innercent, an' then, he give 'er a free pardon for
'im. Day before yesterday, they brought 'im home. Some happy they air, I
tell ye!"
"Well," commented Sandy, "I air glad he's out. I never did feel jest
right 'bout his bein' shet up, but I were needin' the money."
Jake rose, and coming into the room, took up a broken fishing tackle and
sat down again.
"That ain't all the news, nuther, Sandy. While the Professor was to
Auburn, some skunks tore down old Moll's shack. She come down here in
the rain madder'n a settin' hen. The old woman's going to stay with
us-uns."
"It air a fine thing fer old Moll," added Mrs. Brewer. "I been thinkin'
fer a long time as how she were too far 'long in years to be alone in
the shanty."
"Well," said Sandy. "I'm glad to hear it."
"What air ye doin' down here, Sandy?" inquired Mrs. Brewer.
"Me? oh, me!" He paused to choose his words. "I got some news for you
folks. I air goin' to get married."
"Air that why ye're all togged up?" Jake queried. "Gosh, but ye air some
beau, Sandy.... Ain't he, ma?"
"Yep, I air on my way to get my girl. I been waitin' over three years
for this here day, an' now--I air got flowers in this bundle."
"Who ye goin' to marry, Sandy?" demanded Mrs. Brewer.
Letts grinned again, straightened his shoulders pompously, and lined his
feet together on a crack in the floor.
"Tess Skinner," he answered, looking from the man to the woman.
Mrs. Brewer dropped on a stool, and her husband's jaws fell apart in
astonishment.
"Tess Skinner?" he repeated dully. "Pretty little Tess Skinner?"
"Well, I swan!" gasped the squatter woman. "Did she say she'd have ye,
Sandy?"
"Well, it air like this. I been askin' 'er to marry me ever since she
were sixteen year old, but she wouldn't while her daddy were alive. Then
once she says to me, 'Sandy, you go git Andy Bishop an' git that five
thousand, an' come back here.' Now I got the cash. I air a goin' to git
the girl."
"Mebbe she's foolin' ye," suggested Brewer. "Ye see, she had the dwarf
the hull time! Looks to me as if she'd put one over on ye."
"She'd better not try anythin' on me," returned Letts, snapping his
teeth.
"I heard 'er tell ye once," put in Brewer, "she wouldn't marry ye ...
the day ye shot yer leg up."
Sandy cocked the new hat on the side of his head, picked up his bundle,
and went to the open door.
"I'd a had 'er afore now if ye'd kept yer hands to hum, Jake," he
stated. "But I ain't holdin' up anythin' against ye for what ye done.
Now I got money, Tess'll be all the gladder. I air goin' to take 'er
over to Seneca Lake. I got a job on there. Good-bye, folks. Mebbe me an'
my woman'll drop in an' see ye some day."
The husband and wife watched the big squatter going down the rock path,
the tissue-wrapped flowers in his hand, then looked at each other and
laughed in perfect comprehension.
"I wonder if he gets 'er," chuckled Mrs. Brewer.
"I'll bet a bullhead he don't," grinned Jake.
* * * * *
Sandy Letts wasn't anxious to meet Deforrest Young, but just how to
avoid it he hadn't figured out. It took him a long time to consider just
what was best to do. Perhaps the lawyer had gone to Ithaca. He hoped so.
At any rate, he could go to the house and if the professor were there
he'd give the flowers to Tess, and if he had to, come another day when
she was alone.
Strutting along, supported by his fine clothes, and the consciousness of
doing the right thing in the right way, the newly-rich man walked up the
path to Young's house and ascended the steps quietly. The door stood
open. Without knocking, he stepped across the threshold into the sitting
room.
Tessibel was working at a little table, cutting out a blouse for Boy.
She looked up, and recognizing her visitor, got quickly to her feet.
"Hello, Tess," said Sandy, coming forward a little. "Nice day, ain't
it?"
Tessibel's fear of him since his roughness to Boy was very active. She
had suffered in anticipation, for he'd threatened to come again, and she
knew he would. Now he was here she didn't know what to do. Deforrest
wasn't home and Andy was out with Boy.
"Yes, it's a nice day," she assented.
"Ain't ye goin' to ask me to set down?" demanded Sandy, at the same time
helping himself to a rocking chair. "I brought ye somethin', brat." He
unwrapped the bundle and took out a huge bunch of flowers.
"Ye want to nurse 'em a long time, 'cause they cost money, them flowers
did. They ain't no wild posies!"
"They're awful pretty," she thanked him. "I'll put them in water right
away."
While she was arranging the flowers, Sandy got up.
"How do ye like my new togs, kid?" he asked, pivoting around and around
on one heel.
"You look very nice," replied Tessibel, gathering courage from his good
nature.
"Ye bet I do," grinned Letts. "I air some guy when I air all flashed out
in new things. Got all this with Waldstricker's money. Lord, brat--"
Here the man reseated himself. "Ye ought to hear that bloke bluster when
he found out ye'd got Andy back. Now for me--I were glad, for I knowed
all along the dwarf didn't kill Eb's daddy. But in this world I find ye
got to look out for yerself first. That air how I got the five
thousand."
"I see!" flared Tess, her disapproval of his spying getting the better
of her fear. "But your blood money won't do you any good."
"Won't do me no good? My five thousand won't do me no good? What do ye
mean, brat? 'Course it'll do me lots of good. I air a rich man, I air.
It's goin' to buy us a real home, kid, frame house with plastered walls
an' shingled roof, painted red an' yeller. All what I want now air my
woman, an' I've come fer ye, Tess."
The girl's heart sank. She glanced about helplessly. What could she say
or do? There was no other human being within call. In hasty
retrospection, her mind swept back to Ben Letts. She shuddered as she
remembered the many times he'd made the same demand upon her. And then,
she as suddenly remembered how, during those days, she had been saved
from men like Ben and Sandy, and courage came again in response to her
silent call for help.
"Ye heard what I said, brat, didn't ye?" demanded Sandy, leaning back
and throwing one leg over the other. "I air here fer ye."
"Yes, I heard."
"An' ye're comin', ain't ye, kid?" ... His voice was deep and persuasive
by reason of the passion that surged through him.... "I air a little
sorry fer bein' mean to ye afore, brat, an' now I air rich ye can
forgive it, can't ye?"
He bent forward and held out his heavy hands, palms up, ingratiatingly.
"Yes, I forgive you, Sandy, certainly. But--but--"
"Now, there ain't no 'buts' in this matter, kid! Ye said as how ye'd
marry me when I got Andy's reward money. Now I got it ye got to keep yer
word."
Tessibel shook her head.
"I didn't say I'd marry you," she answered. "I said, away back there,
when I was only a little kid, you could come back and ask me again. But
I'm a woman, now, and I'm never going to marry anyone."
The squatter leaned his elbows on his knees, cupped his white face in
his hands, and glared at the girl steadily.
"Ye're goin' to git married to me today," he growled. "Ye can't play
fast and loose with me, kid, an' don't ye think ye can, uther. Get on
yer togs. I air goin' to give ye the time of yer life."
Tessibel stood very still. She could hear plainly, through the silence,
the lap of the waves on the shore below, and the soft chug-chug of a
lake steamer. A bee flew in at the door, lighted on the lace curtain and
clung there, making sprawly motions with his thread-like legs. She
remembered without effort the day the squatter alluded to--remembered
also Daddy Skinner's telling him to go. Perhaps he _had_ thought she
meant to marry him if he were rich.
"Sandy," she said, dragging her eyes to the man's face. "When I tell you
I can't marry you, I mean it. Please don't ask me any more.... Would you
like a piece of cake?"
"Cake?..." snarled Letts. "Hell! What do I want with cake? No, ma'am, I
don't want no cake nor nothin' but you, an' I air goin' to have ye,
too!"
He got up slowly, as if to make more effective his menacing words.
"If ye put on yer things like I says," he continued, "there won't be no
trouble, brat. But if ye don't--" he moved toward her, "ye'll wish ye
had."
To this Tessibel couldn't reply. Insistent, in her panting heart, was a
constant call for rescue. She looked steadily at Lysander and he glared
back at her.
"Tess," he threatened, "ye know me well 'nough not to come any monkey
shines on me. I says again, get yer hat, fer I'm goin' to take ye one
way or t'other."
"I told you I couldn't," she answered. "I'm not any longer a little
girl. I've got to work. I want to learn things and take care of my
baby."
She couldn't have said anything that would have fired the squatter's
rage any quicker. Her baby! What did he care about the brat?
"Ye don't have to work no more fer Young," he retorted. "I ain't goin'
to have my woman keepin' house fer no professor, an' ye can make up yer
mind to it 'out no further clack." In one bound, Sandy rounded the
table. "If ye won't do what I tell ye, then, I'll make ye wish ye had.
Ye throwed up at me once, ye brat, ye, I never had no kisses from ye!
After today ye won't be able to say that."
A strong hand shot out, guided by a powerful arm. Fingers clutched for
her, but Tess, eluding them, slipped to the window.
"Sandy!" she implored. "Sandy, don't touch me, don't! Wait!"
"I won't wait," snarled Letts. "I air waited years an' years, an' I
won't wait no longer."
At that moment there seemed no escape for the girl, who was holding out
her hands to keep off the brute facing her. The very quiet of the day,
the singing of the birds, and the shrill chirping of the crickets, only
added to her sense of isolation. She glanced hopelessly from the huge
squatter out into the summer air.
"Ye can't get no help," said Sandy. "Ye might's well give up!... God,
ye're all the sweeter fer havin' to fight like I been doin'!"
By a motion, extraordinarily quick for so big a man, he clutched her
bodily, and dragged her to him. She lowered her face against his chest
and buried it under her curls.
"I air goin' to kiss ye, my pretty wench," muttered Letts. "Gimme yer
lips, gimme--"
In the scuffle neither heard the step on the porch and neither saw the
tall form loom in the doorway. Sandy wrenched at the red hair, drawing
Tessibel's face upward. Then Deforrest Young grappled with him, and in
the one blow he landed under the squatter's chin, the angry lawyer
concentrated the vim of years of exasperated waiting. Sandy slumped to
the floor. Kneeling beside him, Young's leg pressed against something
round and hard in Letts' pocket.
A quick investigation brought forth a small revolver.
"Are you hurt, child?" he inquired, getting up. "Did he hurt you?"
"Not a bit, Uncle Forrie, but he scared me awful."
The prostrate man groaned, moved his limbs and sat up, slowly. He
glanced around as though trying to figure out what'd happened. The sight
of Young, holding the gun Waldstricker's money bought, told Sandy the
whole story of his downfall.
"Get up, Letts, and get out of here quick!" Young ordered, prodding him
with his foot.
Sandy scrambled to his feet unsteadily.
"Now, take your hat and get out," said Young, "and don't stay in Ithaca,
or I'll have you locked up again."
Sandy didn't wait for any further advice. He grabbed his hat and flung
out of the door. Deforrest followed him down through the pear orchard to
the lane, and there he stood for a long time watching the ex-convict
struggle up the hill to the railroad tracks.
When he returned to Tess he found her leaning on the table, her face
buried in her hands. She did not lift her head, nor make a move at
Deforrest's entrance.
"Child," he said, taking a chair at her side, "Letts won't bother you
any more. If he doesn't go away, I shall have him arrested tomorrow....
I won't have you insulted like this.... And, dear, I believe I'd better
send you and the boy away for a spell. A change will do you both good."
"Yes, yes, do!" pleaded Tess. She snatched his hand and pressed it to
her cheek hysterically. "Let me go somewhere, please!"