Part 32 (2/2)
It's the durned infernal ballot-box that's a curse to a free government. If it wasn't for that, republics would flourish. Bein' an uncrowned king don't keep a man from bein' a plain short-eared jacka.s.s--and they's three of us of the same breed--two against one.”
York's face was gray with anger, and he clutched his fingers in his wavy hair as if to get back the hold on himself.
”You will have your trial, of course. Demand two things--that the accused and the accusers meet face to face. It will be hard on Jerry.”
”Has she flinched or fell down once in three years, York Macpherson?
Ain't she stronger and handsomer to-day than she was the day I had the honor to bring her up from the depot in that new gadabout of mine? If I could I'd have had it framed and hung on the wall and kept, for what it done for her.”
The two men looked into each other's eyes, and what each read there made a sacred, unbreakable bond between them for all the years to come.
The trial was held in the hotel parlor, behind closed doors. The charges were vague and poorly supported by evidence, but the venom back of them was definite. Plainly stated, a pretty, incompetent girl had come West _for some reason_ never made clear to New Eden. Come as an heiress in ”style and stuckuppitude of manner” (that was Stellar Bahrr's phrasing); had suddenly become poor and dependent on the good-will of J. B. Ponk, who had fought to the bitter end to give her ”a place on the town pay-roll and keep her there” (that was the jealous superintendent's phrasing); and on the patronage of York Macpherson, who had really took her in, he and his honorable sister, even if they really were the worse ”took in” of the two. At this point Ponk rapped for a better expression of terms. The young person had tried to ”run things” in the church and schools and society. Even the superintendent himself had to be sure of her approval before he dared to start any movement in the high school.
And no one of the preachers would invite her to unite with his church.
But to the charges now:
First: She had refused to let Clare Lenwell graduate who wasn't any worse than the rest of the cla.s.s.
Secondly: She had a way of riding around over the country with young men on moonlight nights on horseback. Of going, the Lord knows where, with young men, _joy-riding_ in cars, or of going alone wherever she pleased in hired livery cars. And _some_ thought she met strange men and was acquainted with rough characters, and the moral influence of that was awfully bad; and there was something _even worse_, if that were possible, WORSE!
Things had disappeared around town often, but in _the last three years_ especially. If folks were poor, they needed money.
Then Stellar Bahrr came into the ring.
Jerry had sat and listened to the proceedings as an indifferent spectator to what could in no wise concern her. With the entrance of Mrs. Bahrr to the witness-stand, the girl's big, dreamy eyes grew brighter and her firm mouth was set, but no mark of anxiety showed itself in her face or manner.
Mrs. Bahrr whined a bit as to wis.h.i.+ng only to do the right thing, but her steel-pointed eyes, as she fixed them in Jerry, wrote as with a stylus across the girl's understanding:
”You are hopelessly in the minority. Now I can say what I please.”
What Mrs. Bahrr really knew, of course, she couldn't swear to in any court, because of Laura and York Macpherson. She wouldn't shame them, because they had befriended a fraud, all with good intentions. She only came now because she'd been promised protection by the board from what folks would say, and she was speaking what must _never_ be repeated.
”Most of us need that kind of protection when you are around,” Ponk declared, vehemently, knowing that, while the school board would keep her words sacred, nothing said or done in that trial would be held sacred by her as soon as the decision she wished for was reached.
Stellar, feeling herself safe, paid no heed to Ponk. What she really knew was that a certain young lady had been known to take money from her hostess and, being caught, had been forced to give it up. Stellar herself saw and heard the whole thing when it happened. Laura had told her about the matter, and then, when she was just leaving, Jerry had returned the money. She was right outside of the vines on the porch, and she knew. Stellar knew that dollars and dollars, jewelry, silverware, and other valuables had been taken, and some of them never restored; but some was sneaked back when the pressure got too strong. In a word, through much talk and little sense, Miss Geraldine Swaim was branded a high-toned thief. And worse than that. For three years strange men had slipped to the Macpherson home when the folks were away, and been let out by the side door. Real low-down-looking fellows. Stellar had seen them herself. She had a way of running 'cross lots up to Laury's evenings, and _she knew_ what she was talking about. Stellar dropped her eyes now, not caring to look at Jerry. Her blow had hit home and she was exultant.
”Has the young lady anything to say?” Lenwell of the school board asked, feeling a twinge of pity, after all, because the case was even stronger than he had hoped it could be made.
Jerry looked over at Stellar Bahrr until she was forced to lift her eyes to the girl's face.
”I cannot understand the degree of hate that can be developed in a human mind,” she said, calmly. ”That is all I have to say.”
Junius Brutus Ponk's round face seemed to blacken like a Kansas sky before the coming of a hail-storm. Lenwell gave a snort of triumph, and the third member of the board grinned.
At that moment the door of the hotel parlor opened. Jerry, who sat opposite to it, caught sight of York Macpherson in the hall. And York saw her, calm and brave, in what he read, in the instant, was defeat for her. Before her were dismissal, failure, and homelessness. But neither he nor any one else dreamed how far the influence of those Sunday afternoons of ”calling on mother,” with the fat little hotel-keeper, had led this girl into a ”trust in every time of trouble,” and she faced her future bravely.
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