Captain Pott's Minister Part 42

"You tried!" sneered her father. "I suppose this man forced you to steal from your home under cover of night, and come to him, over paths that were dark and out of the way, against your will. Do you expect me to believe that?"

Elizabeth came between the men as the minister took a step toward the Elder.

"I've done nothing to be ashamed of. I came here of my own accord, and you have no right to spy on me through those who are willing to do such vulgar things because you pay them. I came here to see Uncle Josiah. He wasn't in, and Mr. McGowan was--well, he was entertaining me."

"That will do! You shall not add perjury to your sin. You knew perfectly well that Pott was not home. You knew he was in the city. Your stories don't hang together."

"Father, you must not talk to me like that. Uncle Josiah came home this morning, and I made arrangements to meet him here to-night."

"And he was conveniently out, I suppose, so you might meet this fellow here alone."

"If you refuse to listen to reason, you may think what you like. I love that man you've been maligning!" she cried, her eyes filling with angry tears.

"You love him? Are you brazen enough to stand there and say that to my face?" he shouted, losing his self-control. "Him! You! I've a mind----Why, you silly little sentimental fool. You go so far as to flaunt----"

"Mr. Fox, allow me to explain," interrupted the minister.

The Elder did not heed the note of warning in the steady voice, but clutching his walking-stick with nervous fingers he started toward his daughter.

"Stand back!"

Mr. Fox stood back, almost falling against the wall. The minister's voice was as hard as his own.

"It seems that the time has come for a reckoning," said Mr. McGowan.

"You have stood in my way long enough. Elizabeth, will you kindly step into my study?"

"I prefer to remain here, Mack. You may need me."

"What I say may be quite unpleasant."

"I may need to add to what you say. I'll stay."

"Very well. Mr. Fox, our strained relations must come to an end. If you can show any just cause why I'm at fault, I shall do all in my power to rectify it. I do not know the slightest reason for your att.i.tude against me, but----"

"You lie, sir!"

The minister's lips tightened. "Only your age protects you in the use of that word to me. I repeat what I have said,--and it will be as well for you not to question my integrity again,--I do not know why you have treated me as you have. I now demand an explanation."

"If you will favor us with a little of your family history first," said the Elder with a sneering laugh, "there will be no need of any further explanation on my part."

"You seem to think me a vagabond, or something quite as bad if not worse. Well, I'm not. My family history is nothing to brag about, but the record is clean. If you'll be seated I'll be glad to furnish you with such bits as may be of interest to you. It isn't so difficult to hold one's temper while sitting."

Elizabeth lifted an imploring face to the minister. "Please, dear, don't say anything more! For my sake, don't. Wait till you both have had time to think over how foolish this all is."

"Foolish, you think! He need not speak, so far as I'm concerned,"

declared Mr. Fox, refusing the proffered chair. "I know his whole miserable story. I knew his parents. I take back my request. You doubtless would not tell the truth. What I wish my daughter to know, I shall tell her in the privacy of our own home."

Elizabeth looked as if she could not trust her own ears for what she had just heard from her father's lips.

"Mr. Fox, Elizabeth shall know my story now, and from my own lips. I have absolutely nothing to hide or be ashamed of. My father and mother were honest people. If it be a crime to be poor, then, they were guilty beyond redemption. They came to this country from Australia when I was little more than an infant. My father took ill and died shortly after our arrival. Mother said his death was the result of confining work he had done in Australia. I can remember my mother quite well, but she died before I was five. I was taken into a neighboring family, almost as poor as mine had been. As I grew up I worked hard, and saved every penny. My mother had left me one heritage that was priceless, a craving for knowledge. The people who brought me up sacrificed to help me along till I reached high school. I worked my way up through four hard years, into college, and then on into the seminary.

"That is about all there is to my uninteresting history. I came here as a candidate for this church. For the first time in my whole life I was beginning to taste real happiness. But no sooner had I taken my first breath of independence than I saw I must fight to hold the ground I had gained. I gloried in the opportunity. I was glad that I could do for your town what no other minister had been able to do. I took special delight in getting hold of those lads and men at the Inn. Hicks and his crowd didn't trouble me one bit, or even alter one plan I had for the members of the club. I didn't even grow discouraged when the opposition came from you, for I kept hoping that you'd see your mistake and come over to my aid. But time went on, and you did not. I sought reasons for your injustice. I concluded at last that you had discovered my love for your daughter, and that you did not consider my family connections to be sufficiently strong to permit any such union. I did all in my power to argue myself out of that love. But I soon discovered that a man cannot argue a cyclone out of his heart any more than he can argue one out of G.o.d's sky.

"If there is no other reason for your actions, sir, than my love for Elizabeth your opposition may as well be withdrawn right here and now.

Otherwise, I shall marry Elizabeth against your will."

"It seems to me, young man, that you are quite sure of yourself about something you can't do. I admire your nerve,"--the Elder was pulling out each word with violent tugs at the side-whiskers,--"but we'll see, sir, who holds the trumps."

"You mean that you offer me no other alternative than to fight this through to a finish?" asked the minister.

"I offer you no alternative whatsoever. I command you to remain away from my daughter."

"And I refuse to obey any such order unless you give some just and adequate reason."

"I shall give you reason enough. Why did you stop with that little bit of family history where you did?"

"I had nothing to add of any importance."

"You do not think it of importance to tell us what that confining work was your father did in Australia?"

"I haven't the slightest idea. If Mother ever told me I was so very young that I have forgotten."

"Perhaps your mother wished to spare you. If so, I do not intend to tell you at this late hour in your life. But what he did is sufficient reason for my forbidding you to carry your attentions any further."

"Father, this is getting really ridiculous," declared his daughter. "We love each other, and that fact is greater than all else. Not one word which you may say against Mack's people will make the slightest difference with me."

"My dear child, if I dared tell you one-tenth of the truth,--but I dare not."

"You shall not talk like this any longer. It's silly."

"Since when has my child taken to giving her father orders? You are forcing me to speak. I'd rather cut off my right arm than do it, but I must save my little girl from----"

"I shall not listen to another word!" broke in the girl.

"Be still! I shall speak, and you shall listen."

"Father! You dare not. I love him, and----"

"You'll blush at the thought of having used that word in connection with that man before I have finished."

"It doesn't matter what you say, you can never change----"

"Beth, I must ask you to stop interrupting me. This man's father is an out----"

"You'd better not say that, Father!" cried Elizabeth. "You'll wish you hadn't when it is too late."

The Elder's face grew livid. His hands trembled violently as he steadied himself to deliver his final blow. Elizabeth drew close to Mr. McGowan as though to shield him, and shot a defiant glance at her father.

"I shall tell the truth, and you shall hear it. That man's father is an outlaw. He is a fugitive from justice. All this prattle about him being dead is a hoax."