A shudder passed through the herculean frame of the hunter--though it
was scarcely perceptible, from the effort he made to conceal it. It was
noticed for all that; and the emotion that caused it perfectly
understood. The keen eye of the _ci-devant_ law clerk was too skilled
in reading the human countenance, to be deceived by an effort at
impassibility.
"My daughter?" muttered Holt, half interrogatively.
"Your daughter!" echoed the Mormon, with imperturbable coolness.
"But which o' 'em? Thur's two."
"Oh! you know which I mean--Marian, of course."
"An' what do ye want wi' Marian, Josh?"
"Come, Brother Holt? it's no use your feigning ignorance. I've spoken
to you of this before: you know well enough what I want with her."
"Durn me, if I do! I remember what ye sayed afore; but I thort ye wur
only jokin'."
"I was in earnest then, Hickman Holt; and I'm still more in earnest now.
I want a wife, and I think Marian would suit me admirably. I suppose
you know that the saints have moved off from Illinois, and are now
located beyond the Rocky Mountains?"
"I've heern somethin' o't."
"Well, I propose going thereto join them; and I must take a wife with
me: for no man is welcome who comes there without one."
"Y-e-s," drawled the squatter, with a bitter smile, "an' from what I've
heern, I reckon he'd be more welkum if he fetched half-a-dozen."
"Nonsense, Hickman Holt. I wonder a man of your sense would listen to
such lies. It's a scandal that's been scattered abroad by a set of
corrupt priests and Methody preachers, who are jealous of us, because
we're drawing their people. Sheer wicked lies, every word of it!"
"Wal, I don't know about that. But I know one thing, to a sartinty--you
will niver get Marian's consent."
"I don't want Marian's consent--that don't signify, so long as I have
yours."
"Myen?"
"Ay, yours; and I must have it. Look here, Hickman Holt! Listen to me!
We're making too long a talk about this business; and I have no time to
waste in words. I have made everything ready; and shall leave for the
Salt Lake before three more days have passed over my head. The caravan
I'm going with is to start from Fort Smith on the Arkansas; and it'll be
prepared by the time I get there, to move over the plains. I've bought
me a team and a waggon. It's already loaded and packed; and there's a
corner in it left expressly for your daughter: therefore, she must go."
The tone of the speaker had suddenly changed, from that of saintly
insinuation, to bold open menace. The squatter, notwithstanding his
fierce and formidable aspect, did not dare to reply in the same strain.
He was evidently cowed, and suffering under some fearful apprehension.
"_Must_ go!" he muttered, half involuntarily, as if echoing the other's
words. "Yes, _must_ and _shall_!"
"I tell ye, Josh Stebbins, she'll niver consent."
"And I tell you, Hickman Holt, I don't want her consent. That I leave
_you_ to obtain; and if you can't get it otherwise, you must _force_ it.
Bah! what is it for? A good husband--a good home--plenty of meat,
drink, and dress: for don't you get it into your fancy that the
Latter-Day Saints resemble your canting hypocrites of other creeds, who
think they please God by their miserable penances. Quite the reverse, I
can assure you. We mean to live as God intended men should live--eat,
drink, and be merry. Look there!" The speaker exhibited a handful of
shining gold pieces. "That's the way our church provides for its
apostles. Your daughter will be a thousand times better off there, than
in this wretched hovel. Perhaps _she_ will not mind the change so much
as _you_ appear to think. I know many a first-rate girl that would be
glad of the chance."
"I know _she_ won't give in--far less to be made a Mormon o'. I've
heern her speak agin 'em."
"I say again, she must give in. After all, you needn't tell her I'm a
Mormon: she needn't know anything about _that_. Let her think I'm only
moving out west--to Oregon--where there are plenty of respectable
emigrants now going. She'll not suspect anything in that. Once out at
Salt Lake City, she'll soon get reconciled to Mormon life, I guess."
The squatter remained silent for some moments--his head hanging forward
over his broad breast--his eyes turned inward, as if searching within
his bosom for some thought to guide and direct him. In there, no doubt,
a terrible struggle was going on--a tumult of mixed emotions. He loved
his daughter, and would leave her to her own will; but he feared this
saintly suitor, and dared not gainsay him. It must have been some dread
secret, or fiendish scheme, that enabled this small insignificant man to
sway the will of such a giant!
A considerable time passed, and still the squatter vouchsafed no answer.
He was evidently wavering, as to the nature of the response he should
make.
Twice or thrice he raised his head, stealthily directing his glance to
the countenance of his visitor; but only to read, in the looks of the
latter, a fixed and implacable purpose. There was no mercy there.
All at once, a change came over the colossus. A resolution of
resistance had arisen within him--as was evinced by his altered attitude
and the darkening shadow upon his countenance. The triumphant glances
of the pseudo-saint appeared to have provoked him, more than the matter
in dispute. Like the buffalo of the plains stung with Indian arrows, or
the great _mysticetus_ of the deep goaded by the harpoon of the whaler,
all the angry energies of his nature appeared suddenly aroused from
their lethargy; and he sprang to his feet, towering erect in the
presence of his tormentor. "Damnation!" cried he, striking the floor
with his heavy heel, "she won't do it--she won't, and she _shan't_!"
"Keep cool, Hickman Holt!" rejoined the Mormon, without moving from his
seat--"keep cool! I expected this; but it's all bluster. I tell you
she will, and she _shall_!"
"Hev a care, Josh Stebbins! Hev a care what yur about! Ye don't know
what you may drive me to--"
"But I know what I may _lead_ you to," interrupted the other with a
sneering smile.
"What?" involuntarily inquired Holt.
"The gallows," laconically answered Stebbins.
"Devils an' damnation!" This emphatic rejoinder was accompanied with a
furious grinding of teeth, but with a certain recoiling--as if the angry
spirit of the giant could still be stayed by such a menace.
"It's no use swearing about it, Holt," continued the Mormon, after a
certain time had passed in silence. "_My_ mind's made up--the girl must
go with me. Say _yes_ or _no_. If yes, then all's well--well for your
daughter, and well for you too. I shall be out of your way--Salt Lake's
a long distance off--and it's _not likely you'll ever set eyes on me
again_. You understand me?"
The saint pronounced these last words with a significant emphasis; and
then paused, as if to let them have their full weight. They appeared to
produce an effect. On hearing them, a gleam, like a sudden flash of
sunlight, passed over the countenance of the squatter. It appeared the
outward index of some consolatory thought freshly conceived; and its
continuance proved that it was influencing him to take a different view
of the Mormon's proposal. He spoke at length; but no longer in the tone
of rage--for his passion seemed to have subsided, as speedily as it had
sprung up.
"An' s'pose I say _no_?"
"Why, in that case, I shall not start so soon as I had intended. I
shall stay in the settlements till I have performed a duty that, for a
long time, I have left undone."
"What duty is't you mean?"
"One I owe to society; and which I have perhaps sinfully
neglected--_bring a murderer to justice_!"
"Hush! Josh Stebbins--for Heaven's sake, speak low! _You know it isn't
true_--but, hush! the gurls are 'thout. Don't let them hear sech talk!"
"Perhaps," continued Stebbins, without heeding the interruption,
"perhaps that murderer fancies he might escape. He is mistaken if he
do. One word from me in Swampville, and the hounds of the law would be
upon him; ay, and if he could even get clear of _them_, he could not
escape out of my power. I have told you I am an Apostle of the great
Mormon Church; and that man would be cunning indeed who could shun the
vengeance of our Destroying Angels. Now, Hickman Holt, which is it to
be? _yes or no_?" The pause was ominous for poor Marian.
The answer decided her doom. It was delivered in a hoarse husky voice:
"_Yes--yes--she may go_!"