Part 6 (1/2)
”To-morroill put up head-boards with their naraves were filled in
Edith was sobbing A few broken sentences had been all she was capable of in the way of a funeral service, and now her husband was compelled to half-carry her back to the cabin
Dennin was conscious He had rolled over and over on the floor in vain efforts to free hi eyes, but made no attempt to speak Hans still refused to touch thehim across the floor to the men's bunk-room But try as she would, she could not lift him from the floor into his bunk
”Better let me shoot him, and we'll have no more trouble,” Hans said in final appeal
Edith shook her head and bent again to her task To her surprise the body rose easily, and she knew Hans had relented and was helping her Then ca of the kitchen But the floor still shrieked the tragedy, until Hans planed the surface of the stained wood away and with the shavings made a fire in the stove
The days came and went There was much of darkness and silence, broken only by the stor surf Hans was obedient to Edith's slightest order All his splendid initiative had vanished She had elected to deal with Dennin in her way, and so he left the whole matter in her hands
The murderer was a constant ht free hiuard hiht Thethe loaded shot-gun At first, Edith tried eight-hour watches, but the continuous strain was too great, and afterwards she and Hans relieved each other every four hours As they had to sleep, and as the watches extended through the night, their whole waking ti Dennin They had barely ti of firewood
Since Negook's inopportune visit, the Indians had avoided the cabin Edith sent Hans to their cabins to get them to take Dennin down the coast in a canoe to the nearest white settle post, but the errand was fruitless Then Edith went herself and interviewed Negook He was head e, keenly aware of his responsibility, and he elucidated his policy thoroughly in feords
”It is white man's trouble”, he said, ”not Siwash trouble My people help you, then will it be Siwash trouble too When white ether andand without end Trouble no good My people do no wrong What for they help you and have trouble?”
So Edith Nelson went back to the terrible cabin with its endless alternating four-hour watches Sometimes, when it was her turn and she sat by the prisoner, the loaded shot-gun in her lap, her eyes would close and she would doze
Always she aroused with a start, snatching up the gun and swiftly looking at him These were distinct nervous shocks, and their effect was not good on her Such was her fear of the h she ide awake, if he moved under the bedclothes she could not repress the start and the quick reach for the gun
She was preparing herself for a nervous break-down, and she knew it First ca of the eyeballs, so that she was compelled to close her eyes for relief A little later the eyelids were afflicted by a nervous twitching that she could not control To add to the strain, she could not forget the tragedy She re when the unexpected stalked into the cabin and took possession In her daily rit her teeth and steel herself, body and spirit
Hans was affected differently He became obsessed by the idea that it was his duty to kill Dennin; and whenever he waited upon the bound man or watched by him, Edith was troubled by the fear that Hans would add another red entry to the cabin's record Always he cursed Dennin savagely and handled hihly Hans tried to conceal his homicidal mania, and he would say to his wife: ”By and by you ant me to kill him, and then I will not kill hi into the roolaring ferociously at each other, wild animals the pair of them, in Hans's face the lust to kill, in Dennin's the fierceness and savagery of the cornered rat ”Hans!” she would cry, ”wake up!” and he would come to a recollection of himself, startled and shamefaced and unrepentant
So Hans becaiven Edith Nelson to solve At first it had beenwith Dennin, and right conduct, as she conceived it, lay in keeping him a prisoner until he could be turned over for trial before a proper tribunal But now entered Hans, and she saw that his sanity and his salvation were involved Nor was she long in discovering that her own strength and endurance had beco down under the strain Her left ars She spilled her food from her spoon, and could place no reliance in her afflicted ared it to be a form of St Vitus's dance, and she feared the extent to which its ravages o What if she broke down? And the vision she had of the possible future, when the cabin ht contain only Dennin and Hans, was an added horror
After the third day, Dennin had begun to talk His first question had been, ”What are you going to do with me?” And this question he repeated daily and many times a day And always Edith replied that he would assuredly be dealt with according to law In turn, she put a daily question to him, - ”Why did you do it?” To this he never replied
Also, he received the question with out-bursts of anger, raging and straining at the rawhide that bound hiot loose, which he said he was sure to do sooner or later At such tiun, prepared to meet him with leaden death if he should burst loose, herself tre and dizzy frorewweary of his unchanging recu and plead to be released He made wild proo down the coast and give hiive theo away into the heart of the wilderness, and never again appear in civilization He would take his own life if she would only free hi, until it see into a fit; but always she shook her head and denied him the freedom for which he worked himself into a passion
But the weeks went by, and he continued to grow h it all the weariness was asserting itself more andhis head back and forth on the pillow like a peevish child At a little later period he began toher to kill hiht at least rest co i, and she knew her break-down et her proper rest, for she was haunted by the fear that Hans would yield to his h January had already co schooner was even likely to put into the bay Also, they had not expected to winter in the cabin, and the food was running low; nor could Hans add to the supply by hunting They were chained to the cabin by the necessity of guarding their prisoner
Soo back into a reconsideration of the probleacy of her race, the law that was of her blood and that had been trained into her She knew that whatever she did shehours of watching, the shot-gun on her knees, thewithout, she ical researches and worked out for herself the evolution of the law It caroup of people It roup of people There were little groups, she reasoned, like Switzerland, and there were big groups like the United States Also, she reasoned, it did not ht be only ten thousand people in a country, yet their collective judgment and ould be the law of that country Why, then, could not one thousand people constitute such a group? she asked herself And if one thousand, why not one hundred? Why not fifty? Why not five? Why not - two?
She was frightened at her own conclusion, and she talked it over with Hans At first he could not co evidence He spoke of ether and ht be only ten or fifteen ether, he said, but the will of the majority became the law for the whole ten or fifteen, and whoever violated that as punished
Edith saw her way clear at last Dennin reed with her Between theroup It was the group-will that Dennin should be hanged In the execution of this will Edith strove earnestly to observe the custoroup was so small that Hans and she had to serve as witnesses, as jury, and as judges - also as executioners She fored Michael Dennin with the murder of Dutchy and Harkey, and the prisoner lay in his bunk and listened to the testiuilty or not guilty, and re to say in his own defence She and Hans, without leaving their seats, brought in the jury's verdict of guilty Then, as judge, she imposed the sentence
Her voice shook, her eyelids twitched, her left arm jerked, but she carried it out
”Michael Dennin, in three days' tied by the neck until you are dead”
Such was the sentence The hed defiantly, and said, ”Thin I'm thinkin' the damn bunk won't be achin' me back annyof the sentence a feeling of relief seemed to communicate itself to all of them Especially was it noticeable in Dennin All sullenness and defiance disappeared, and he talked sociably with his captors, and even with flashes of his old-ti to him from the Bible She read froal son and the thief on the cross
On the day preceding that set for the execution, when Edith asked her usual question, ”Why did you do it?” Dennin answered, ”'Tis very simple I was thinkin' - ”
But she hushed him abruptly, asked him to wait, and hurried to Hans's bedside It was his watch off, and he ca
”Go,” she told hi to confess Make the them up at the point of it if you have to”
Half an hour later Negook and his uncle, Hadikere ushered into the death cha theook,” Edith said, ”there is to be no trouble for you and your people Only is it for you to sit and do nothing but listen and understand”
Thus did Michael Dennin, under sentence of death, make public confession of his crime As he talked, Edith wrote his story dohile the Indians listened, and Hans guarded the door for fear the witnesses ht bolt
He had not been home to the old country for fifteen years, Dennin explained, and it had always been his intention to return with plenty of money and make his old mother comfortable for the rest of her days
”An' hoas I to be doin' it on sixteen hundred?” he deoold, the whole eight thousan' Thin I cud go back in style What ud be aisier, thinks I to uay for an Indian-killin', an' thin pull out for Ireland? An' so I started in to kill all iv yez, but, as Harkey was fond of sayin', I cut out too large a chunk an' fell down on the sin' iv it An' that's me confession I did me duty to the devil, an' now, God willin', I'll do ook and Hadikwan, you have heard the white man's words,” Edith said to the Indians ”His words are here on this paper, and it is for you to n, thus, on the paper, so that white men to come after will know that you have heard”
The tashes put crosses opposite their signatures, received a summons to appear on the s, and were allowed to go
Dennin's hands were released long enough for hin the document Then a silence fell in the room Hans was restless, and Edith felt uncoht up at the moss-chinked roof
”An' now I'll do me duty to God,” he murmured He turned his head toward Edith ”Read to lint of playfulness, ”Mayhap 'twill help et the bunk”
The day of the execution broke clear and cold The thermometer was down to twenty-five below zero, and a chill as blohich drove the frost through clothes and flesh to the bones For the first time in many weeks Dennin stood upon his feet His , and he was so out of practice inan erect position, that he could scarcely stand
He reeled back and forth, staggered, and clutched hold of Edith with his bound hands for support
”Sure, an' it's dizzy I ahed weakly
A lad I am that it's over with That damn bunk would iv been the death iv me, I know”
When Edith put his fur cap on his head and proceeded to pull the flaps down over his ears, he laughed and said: ”What are you doin' that for?”
”It's freezing cold outside”, she answered
”An' in tin minutes' time what'll matter a frozen ear or so to poor Michael Dennin?” he asked