A Study In Scarlet Part 6 (1/2)
”You're not hurt, I hope, miss,” said her preserver, respectfully
She looked up at his dark, fierce face, and laughed saucily ”I'htened,” she said, naively; ”whoever would have thought that Poncho would have been so scared by a lot of cows?”
”Thank God you kept your seat,” the other said earnestly He was a tall, savage-looking young fellow, h dress of a hunter, with a long rifle slung over his shoulders ”I guess you are the daughter of John Ferrier,” he remarked, ”I saw you ride down from his house When you see him, ask him if he remembers the Jefferson Hopes of St Louis If he's the same Ferrier, my father and he were pretty thick”
”Hadn't you better co fellow seeestion, and his dark eyes sparkled with pleasure ”I'll do so,” he said, ”we've been in the mountains for twocondition He ood deal to thank you for, and so have I,” she answered, ”he's awful fond of ot over it”
”Neither would I,” said her companion
”You! Well, I don't see that it would make much matter to you, anyhow You ain't even a friend of ours”
The young hunter's dark face grew so gloohed aloud
”There, I didn't mean that,” she said; ”of course, you are a friend now You , or father won't trust me with his business anyhis broad so over her little hand She wheeled her -whip, and darted away down the broad road in a rolling cloud of dust
Young Jefferson Hope rode on with his co the Nevada Mountains prospecting for silver, and were returning to Salt Lake City in the hope of raising capital enough to work some lodes which they had discovered He had been as keen as any of them upon the business until this sudden incident had drawn his thoughts into another channel The sight of the fair young girl, as frank and wholesome as the Sierra breezes, had stirred his volcanic, untamed heart to its very depths When she had vanished froht, he realized that a crisis had come in his life, and that neither silver speculations nor any other questions could ever be of such i one The love which had sprung up in his heart was not the sudden, changeable fancy of a boy, but rather the wild, fierce passion of awill and imperious temper He had been accustomed to succeed in all that he undertook He swore in his heart that he would not fail in this if human effort and human perseverance could render hiht, and ain, until his face was a familiar one at the farm-house John, cooped up in the valley, and absorbed in his work, had had little chance of learning the news of the outside world during the last twelve years All this Jefferson Hope was able to tell him, and in a style which interested Lucy as well as her father He had been a pioneer in California, and could narrate e tale of fortunes made and fortunes lost in those wild, halcyon days He had been a scout too, and a trapper, a silver explorer, and a ranch adventures were to be had, Jefferson Hope had been there in search of them He soon became a favourite with the old farmer, who spoke eloquently of his virtues On such occasions, Lucy was silent, but her blushi+ng cheek and her bright, happy eyes, showed only too clearly that her young heart was no longer her own Her honest father may not have observed these symptoms, but they were assuredly not throay upon thewhen he caate She was at the doorway, and came down to meet him He threw the bridle over the fence and strode up the pathway
”I a tenderly down into her face; ”I won't ask you to come with ain?”
”And ill that be?” she asked, blushi+ng and laughing
”A couple of months at the outside I will co There's no one who can stand between us”
”And how about father?” she asked
”He has given his consent, provided we get these ht I have no fear on that head”
”Oh, well; of course, if you and father have arranged it all, there's no ainst his broad breast
”Thank God!” he said, hoarsely, stooping and kissing her ”It is settled, then The longer I stay, the harder it will be to go They are waiting for ood-bye In two months you shall seehialloped furiously away, never even looking round, as though afraid that his resolutionShe stood at the gate, gazing after hiht Then she walked back into the house, the happiest girl in all Utah
CHAPTER III
JOHN FERRIER TALKS WITH THE PROPHET
THREE weeks had passed since Jefferson Hope and his comrades had departed from Salt Lake City John Ferrier's heart was sore within hiloss of his adopted child Yet her bright and happy face reconciled hiument could have done He had always deter would ever induce hie he regarded as no race Whatever he ht think of the Mormon doctrines, upon that one point he was inflexible He had to seal his mouth on the subject, however, for to express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous matter in those days in the Land of the Saints
Yes, a dangerous erous that even the ious opinions with bated breath, lest soht bedown a swift retribution upon them The victims of persecution had now turned persecutors on their own account, and persecutors of the most terrible description Not the Inquisition of Seville, nor the Gerericht, nor the Secret Societies of Italy, were ever able to put a more formidable machinery in motion than that which cast a cloud over the State of Utah
Its invisibility, and the anization doubly terrible It appeared to be omniscient and omnipotent, and yet was neither seen nor heard The ainst the Church vanished away, and none knehither he had gone or what had befallen him His wife and his children awaited him at home, but no father ever returned to tell thees A rash word or a hasty act was followed by annihilation, and yet none knehat the nature ht be of this terrible pohich was suspended over the, and that even in the heart of the wilderness they dared not whisper the doubts which oppressed theue and terrible poas exercised only upon the recalcitrants who, having embraced the Mormon faith, wished afterwards to pervert or to abandon it Soon, however, it took a wider range The supply of adult woamy without a female population on which to draas a barren doctrine indeed Strange rurants and rifled caions where Indians had never been seen Fresh women appeared in the harems of the Elders -- women who pined and wept, and bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishable horror Belated wanderers upon the s of armed men, masked, stealthy, and noiseless, who flitted by them in the darkness These tales and rumours took substance and shape, and were corroborated and re-corroborated, until they resolved themselves into a definite name To this day, in the lonely ranches of the West, the naels, is a sinister and an ill-oanization which produced such terrible results served to increase rather than to lessen the horror which it inspired in the ed to this ruthless society The names of the participators in the deeds of blood and violence done under the naion were kept profoundly secret The very friend to whos as to the Prophet and his ht with fire and sword to exact a terrible reparation Hence every s which were nearest his heart
One fine , John Ferrier was about to set out to his wheatfields, when he heard the click of the latch, and, looking through thea stout, sandy-haired,up the pathway His heart leapt to hishimself Full of trepidation -- for he knew that such a visit boded hireet the Mormon chief The latter, however, received his salutations coldly, and followed hi-roo the farht-coloured eyelashes, ”the true believers have been good friends to you We picked you up when you were starving in the desert, we shared our food with you, led you safe to the Chosen Valley, gave you a goodly share of land, and allowed you to wax rich under our protection Is not this so?”
”It is so,” answered John Ferrier
”In return for all this we asked but one condition: that was, that you should ees This you promised to do, and this, if colected”
”And how have I neglected it?” asked Ferrier, throwing out his hands in expostulation ”Have I not given to the common fund? Have I not attended at the Temple? Have I not ----?”
”Where are your wives?” asked Young, looking round hireet them”
”It is true that I have not married,” Ferrier answered ”But women were few, and there were many who had better claihter to attend to hter that I would speak to you,” said the leader of the Morrown to be the flower of Utah, and has found favour in the eyes of roaned internally
”There are stories of her which I would fain disbelieve -- stories that she is sealed to soues What is the thirteenth rule in the code of the sainted Joseph Smith? `Let every maiden of the true faith marry one of the elect; for if she wed a Gentile, she co so, it is impossible that you, who profess the holy creed, should suffer your daughter to violate it”
John Ferrier -whip
”Upon this one point your whole faith shall be tested -- so it has been decided in the Sacred Council of Four The girl is young, and ould not have her wed grey hairs, neither would we deprive her of all choice We Elders have erson has a son, and Drebber has a son, and either of thehter to their house Let her choose between the and rich, and of the true faith What say you to that?”
Ferrier remained silent for soive us ti -- she is scarce of an age to , rising froive her answer”
He was passing through the door, when he turned, with flushed face and flashi+ng eyes ”It were better for you, John Ferrier,” he thundered, ”that you and she were now lying blanched skeletons upon the Sierra Blanco, than that you should put your ills against the orders of the Holy Four!”
With a threatening gesture of his hand, he turned fro the shi+ngly path
He was still sitting with his elbows upon his knees, considering how he should broach the hter when a soft hand was laid upon his, and looking up, he saw her standing beside hihtened face showed him that she had heard what had passed
”I could not help it,” she said, in answer to his look ”His voice rang through the house Oh, father, father, what shall we do?”
”Don't you scare yourself,” he answered, drawing her to hily over her chestnut hair ”We'll fix it up so for this chap, do you?”