THE WARNING
So quickly that Obadiah Price might not have counted ten before it had
come and gone the significance of his new situation flashed upon Captain
Plum as he stood under the king's window. His plans had changed since
leaving ship but now he realized that they had become hopelessly
involved. He had intended that Obadiah should show him where Strang was
to be found, and that later, when ostensibly returning to his vessel, he
would visit the prophet in his home. Whatever the interview brought
forth he would still be in a position to deliver the councilor's
package. Even an hour's bombardment of St. James would not interfere
with the fulfilment of his oath. But those few minutes at the king's
window had been fatal to the scheme he had built. The girl had seen
him. She had not betrayed his presence. She had called to him with her
eyes--he would have staked his life on that. What did it all mean? He
turned to Obadiah. The old man was grimacing and twisting his hands
nervously. He seemed half afraid, cringing, as if fearing a blow. The
sight of him set Nathaniel's blood afire. His white face seemed to
verify the terrible thought that had leaped into his brain. Suddenly he
heard a faint cry--a woman's voice--and in an instant he was back at the
window. The girl had risen to her feet and stood facing him. This time,
as her eyes met his own, he saw in them a flashing warning, and he
obeyed it as if she had spoken to him. As he dropped silently back to
the ground the councilor came close to his side.
"That's enough for to-night, Nat," he whispered.
He made as if to slip away but Nathaniel detained him with an emphatic
hand.
"Not yet, Dad! I'd like to have a word with--this--"
"With Strang's wife," chuckled Obadiah. "Ho, ho, ho, Nat, you're a
rascal!" The old man's face was mapped with wrinkles, his eyes glowed
with joyous approbation. "You shall, Nat, you shall! You love a pretty
face, eh? You shall meet Mrs. Strang, Nat, and you shall make love to
her if you wish. I swear that, too. But not to-night, Nat--not
to-night."
He stood a pace away and rubbed his hands.
"There will be no chance to-night, Nat--but to-morrow night, or the
next. O, I promise you shall meet her, and make love to her, Nat! Ho, if
Strang knew, if Strang _only_ knew!"
There was something so fiendishly gloating in the councilor's attitude,
in his face, in the hot glow of his eyes, that for a moment Nathaniel's
involuntary liking for the little old man before him turned to
abhorrence. The passion, the triumph of the man, convinced him where
words had failed. The girl was Strang's wife. His last doubt was
dispelled. And because she was Strang's wife Obadiah hated the Mormon
prophet. The councilor had spoken with fateful assurance--that he should
meet her, that he should make love to her. It was an assurance that made
him shudder. As he followed in silence up out of the gloom of the town
he strove, but in vain, to find whether sin had lurked in the sweet face
that had appealed to him in its misery--whether there had been a flash
of something besides terror, besides prayerful entreaty, in the lovely
eyes that had met his own. Obadiah spoke no word to break in on his
thoughts. Now and then the old man's insane chucklings floated softly to
Nathaniel's ears, and when at last they came to the cabin in the forest
he broke into a low laugh that echoed weirdly in the great black room
which they entered. He lighted another candle and approached a ladder
which led through a trap in the ceiling. Without a word he mounted this
ladder, and Nathaniel followed him, finding himself a moment later in a
small low room furnished with a bed. The councilor placed his candle on
a table close beside it and rubbed his hands until it seemed they must
burn.
"You will stay--eh, Nat?" he cried, bobbing his head. "Yes, you will
stay, and you will give me back the package for a day or two." He
retreated to the trap and slid down it as quickly as a rat. "Pleasant
dreams to you, Nat, and--O, wait a minute!" Captain Plum could hear him
pattering quickly over the floor below. In a moment he was back,
thrusting his white grimacing face through the trap and tossed something
upon the bed. "She left them last night, Nat. Pleasant dreams, pleasant
dreams," and he was gone.
Nathaniel turned to the bed and picked up a faded bunch of lilacs. Then
he sat down, loaded his pipe, and smoked until he could hardly see the
walls of his little room. From the moment of his landing on the island
he turned the events of the day over in his mind. Yet when he arrived at
the end of them he was no less mystified than when he began. Who was
Obadiah Price? Who was the girl that fate had so mysteriously associated
with his movements thus far? What was the plot in which he had
accidentally become involved? With tireless tenacity he hung to these
questions for hours. That there was a plot of some kind he had not the
least doubt. The councilor's strange actions, the oath, the package, and
above all the scene in the king's house convinced him of that. And he
was sure that Obadiah's night visitor--the girl with the lilacs--was
playing a vital part in it.
He plucked at the withered flowers which the old man had thrown him. He
could detect their sweet scent above the pungent fumes of tobacco and as
Obadiah's triumphant chuckle recurred to him, the gloating joy in his
eyes, the passionate tremble of his voice, a grim smile passed over his
face. The mystery was easy of solution--if he was willing to reason
along certain lines. But he was not willing. He had formed his own
picture of Strang's wife and it pleased him to keep it. At moments he
half conceded himself a fool, but that did not trouble him. The longer
he smoked the more his old confidence and his old recklessness returned
to him. He had enjoyed his adventure. The next day he would end it. He
would go openly into St. James and have done his business with Strang.
Then he would return to his ship. What had he, Captain Plum, to do with
Strang's wife?
But even after he had determined on these things his brain refused to
rest. He paced back and forth across the narrow room, thinking of the
man whom he was to meet to-morrow--of Strang, the one-time schoolmaster
and temperance lecturer who had made himself a king, who for seven years
had defied the state and nation, and who had made of his island
stronghold a hot-bed of polygamy, of licentiousness, of dissolute power.
His blood grew hot as he thought again of the beautiful girl who had
appealed to him. Obadiah had said that she was the king's wife. Still--
Thoughts flashed into his head which for a time made him forget his
mission on the island. In spite of his resolution to keep to his own
scheme he found himself, after a little, thinking only of the Mormon
king, and the lovely face he had seen through the castle window. He knew
much about the man with whom he was to deal to-morrow. He knew that he
had been a rival of Brigham Young and that when the exodus of the
Mormons to the deserts of the west came he had led his own followers
into the North, and that each July, amid barbaric festivities, he was
recrowned with a circlet of gold. But the girl! If she was the king's
wife why had her eyes called to him for help?
The question crowded Nathaniel's brain with a hundred thrilling
pictures. With a shudder he thought of the terrible power the Mormon
king held not only over his own people but over the Gentiles of the
mainlands as well. With these mainlanders, he regarded Beaver Island as
a nest of pirates and murderers. He knew of the depredations of Strang
and his people among the fishermen and settlers, of the piratical
expeditions of his armed boats, of the dreaded raids of his sheriffs,
and of the crimes that made the women of the shores tremble and turn
white at the mere mention of his name.
Was it possible that this girl--
Captain Plum did not let himself finish the thought. With a powerful
effort he brought himself back to his own business on the island, smoked
another pipe, and undressed. He went to bed with the withered lilacs on
the table close beside him. He fell asleep with their scent in his
nostrils. When he awoke they were gone. He started up in astonishment
when he saw what had taken their place. Obadiah had visited him while he
slept. The table was spread with a white cloth and upon it was his
breakfast, a pot of coffee still steaming, and the whole of a cold baked
fowl. Near-by, upon a chair, was a basin of water, soap and a towel.
Nathaniel rolled from his bed with a healthy laugh of pleasure. The
councilor was at least a courteous host, and his liking for the curious
old man promptly increased. There was a sheet of paper on his plate upon
which Obadiah had scribbled the following words:
"My dear Nat:--Make yourself at home. I will be away to-day but will see
you again to-night. Don't be surprised if somebody makes you a visit."
The "somebody" was heavily underscored and Nathaniel's pulse quickened
and a sudden flush of excitement surged into his face as he read the
meaning of it. The "somebody" was Strang's wife. There could be no other
interpretation. He went to the trap and called down for Obadiah but
there was no answer. The councilor had already gone. Quickly eating his
breakfast the master of the _Typhoon_ climbed down the ladder into the
room below. The remains of the councilor's breakfast were on a table
near the door, and the door was open. Through it came a glory of
sunshine and the fresh breath of the forest laden with the perfume of
wild flowers and balsam. A thousand birds seemed caroling and twittering
in the sunlit solitude about the cabin. Beyond this there was no other
sound or sign of life. For many minutes Nathaniel stood in the open, his
eyes on the path along which he knew that Strang's wife would come--if
she came at all. Suddenly he began to examine the ground where the girl
had stood the previous night. The dainty imprints of her feet were
plainly discernible in the soft earth. Then he went to the path--and
with a laugh so loud that it startled the birds into silence he set off
with long strides in the direction of St. James. From the footprints in
that path it was quite evident that Strang's wife was a frequent visitor
at Obadiah's.
At the edge of the forest, from where he could see the log house
situated across the opening, Nathaniel paused. He had made up his mind
that the girl whom he had seen through the king's window was in some way
associated with it. Obadiah had hinted as much and she had come from
there on her way to Strang's. But as the prophet's wives lived in his
castle at St. James this surely could not be her home. More than ever he
was puzzled. As he looked he saw a figure suddenly appear from among the
mass of lilac bushes that almost concealed the cabin. An involuntary
exclamation of satisfaction escaped him and he drew back deeper among
the trees. It was the councilor who had shown himself. For a few moments
the old man stood gazing in the direction of St. James as if watching
for the approach of other persons. Then he dodged cautiously along the
edge of the bushes, keeping half within their cover, and moved swiftly
in the opposite direction toward the center of the island. Nathaniel's
blood leaped with a desire to follow. The night before he had guessed
that Obadiah with his gold and his smoldering passion was not a man to
isolate himself in the heart of the forest. Here--across the open--was
evidence of another side of his life. In that great square-built
domicile of logs, screened so perfectly by flowering lilac, lived
Obadiah's wives. Captain Plum laughed aloud and beat the bowl of his
pipe on the tree beside him. And the _girl_ lived there--or came from
there to the woodland cabin so frequently that her feet had beaten a
well-worn path. Had the councilor lied to him? Was the girl he had seen
through the King's window one of the seven wives of Strang--or was she
the wife of Obadiah Price?
The thought was one that thrilled him. If the girl was the councilor's
wife what was the motive of Obadiah's falsehood? And if she was Strang's
wife why had her feet--and hers alone with the exception of the old
man's--worn this path from the lilac smothered house to the cabin in the
woods? The captain of the _Typhoon_ regretted now that he had given such
explicit orders to Casey. Otherwise he would have followed the figure
that was already disappearing into the forest on the opposite side of
the clearing. But now he must see Strang. There might be delay,
necessary delay, and if it so happened that his own blundering curiosity
kept him on the island until sundown--well, he smiled as he thought of
what Casey would do.
Refilling his pipe and leaving a trail of smoke behind him he set out
boldly for St. James. When he came to the three graves he stopped,
remembering that Obadiah had said they were his graves. A sort of grim
horror began to stir at his soul as he gazed on the grass-grown
mounds--proofs that the old councilor would inherit a place in the
Mormon Heaven having obeyed the injunctions of his prophet on earth.
Nathaniel now understood the meaning of his words of the night before.
This was the family burying ground of the old councilor.
He walked on, trying in vain to concentrate his mind solely upon the
business that was ahead of him. A few days before he would have counted
this walk to St. James one of the events of his life. Now it had lost
its fascination. Despite his efforts to destroy the vision of the
beautiful face that had looked at him through the king's window its
memory still haunted him. The eyes, soft with appeal; the red mouth,
quivering, and with lips parted as if about to speak to him; the bowed
head with its tumbled glory of hair--all had burned themselves upon his
soul in a picture too deep to be eradicated. If St. James was
interesting now it was because that face was a part of it, because the
secret of its life, of the misery that it had confessed to him, was
hidden somewhere down there among its scattered log homes.
Slowly he made his way down the slope in the direction of Strang's
castle, the tower of which, surmounted by its great beacon, glistened in
the morning sun. He would find Strang there. And there would be one
chance in a thousand of seeing the girl--if Obadiah had spoken the
truth. As he passed down he met men and boys coming up the slope and
others moving along at the bottom of it, all going toward the interior
of the island. They had shovels or rakes or hoes upon their shoulders
and he guessed that the Mormon fields were in that direction; others
bore axes; and now and then wagons, many of them drawn by oxen, left the
town over the road that ran near the shore of the lake. Those whom he
met stared at him curiously, much interested evidently in the appearance
of a stranger. Nathaniel paid but small heed to them. As he entered the
grove through which the councilor had guided him the night before his
eagerness became almost excitement. He approached the great log house
swiftly but cautiously, keeping as much from view as possible. As he
came under the window through which he had looked upon the king and his
wives his heart leaped with anticipation, with hope that was strangely
mingled with fear. For only a moment he paused to listen, and
notwithstanding the seriousness of his position he could not repress a
smile as there came to his ears the crying of children and the high
angry voice of a woman. He passed around to the front of the house. The
door of Strang's castle was wide open and unguarded. No one had seen his
approach; no one accosted him as he mounted the low steps; there was no
one in the room into which he gazed a moment later. It was the great
hall into which he had spied a few hours previous. There was the long
table with the big book on it, the lamp whose light had bathed the
girl's head in a halo of glory, the very chair in which he had found her
sitting! He was conscious of a throbbing in his breast, a longing to
call out--if he only knew her name.
In the room there were four closed doors and it was from beyond these
that there came to him the wailing of children. A fifth door was open
and through it he saw a cradle gently rocking. Here at last was visible
life, or motion at least, and he knocked loudly. Very gradually the
cradle ceased its movement. Then it stopped, and a woman came out into
the larger room. In a moment Nathaniel recognized her as the one who had
placed a caressing hand upon the bowed head of the sobbing girl the
night before. Her face was of pathetic beauty. Its whiteness was
startling. Her eyes shone with an unhealthy luster, and her dark hair,
falling in heavy curls over her shoulder, added to the wonderful pallor
of her cheeks.
Nathaniel bowed. "I beg your pardon, madam; I came to see Mr. Strang,"
he said.
"You will find the king at his office," she replied.
The woman's voice was low, but so sweet that it was like music to the
ear. As she spoke she came nearer and a faint flush appeared in the
transparency of her cheek.
"Why do you wish to see the king?" she asked.
Was there a tremble of fear in her voice? Even as he looked Nathaniel
saw the flush deepen in her cheeks and her eyes light with nervous
eagerness.
"I am sent by Obadiah Price," he hazarded.
A flash of relief shot into the woman's face.
"The king is at his office," she repeated. "His office is near the
temple."
Nathaniel retired with another bow.
"By thunder, Strang, old boy, you've certainly got an eye for beauty!"
he laughed as he hurried through the grove.
"And Obadiah Price must be somebody, after all!"
The Mormon temple was the largest structure in St. James, a huge square
building of hewn logs, and Nathaniel did not need to make inquiry to
find it. On one side was a two-story building with an outside stairway
leading to the upper floor, and a painted sign announced that on this
second floor was situated the office of James Jesse Strang, priest, king
and prophet of the Mormons. It was still very early and the general
merchandise store below was not open. Congratulating himself on this
fact, and with the fingers of his right hand reaching instinctively for
his pistol butt, Captain Plum mounted the stair. When half way up he
heard voices. As he reached the landing at the top he caught the quick
swish of a skirt. Another step and he was in the open door. He was not
soon enough to see the person who had just disappeared through an
opposite door but he knew that it was a woman. Directly in front of him
as if she had been expecting his arrival was a young girl, and no sooner
had he put a foot over the threshold than she hurried toward him, the
most acute anxiety and fear written in her face.
"You are Captain Plum?" she asked breathlessly.
Nathaniel stopped in astonishment.
"Yes, I'm--"
"Then you must hurry--hurry!" cried the girl excitedly. "You have not a
moment to lose! Go back to your ship before it is too late! She says
they will kill you--"
"Who says so?" thundered Captain Plum. He sprang to the girl's side and
caught her by the arm. "Who says that I will be killed? Tell me--who
gave you this warning for me?"
"I--I--tell you so!" stammered the young girl. "I--I--heard the
king--they will kill you--" Her lips trembled. Nathaniel saw that her
eyes were already red from crying. "You will go?" she pleaded.
Nathaniel had taken her hand and now he held it tightly in his own. His
head was thrown back, his eyes were upon the door across the room. When
he looked again into the girlish face there was flashing joyous defiance
in his eyes, and in his voice there was confession of the truth that had
suddenly come to overwhelm whatever law of self preservation he might
have held unto himself.
"No, my dear, I am not going back to my ship," he spoke softly. "Not
unless she who is in that room comes out and bids me go herself!"