He called on John Ferrier that night, and many times again,until his face was a familiar one at the farmhouse. John, coopedup in the valley, and absorbed in his work, had had little chance oflearning the news of the outside world during the last twelve years.
All this Jefferson Hope was able to tell him, and in a style whichinterested Lucy as well as her father. He had been a pioneer inCalifornia, and could narrate many a strange tale of fortunes madeand fortunes lost in those wild, halcyon days. He had been a scouttoo, and a trapper, a silver explorer, and a ranchman. Whereverstirring adventures were to be had, Jefferson Hope had beenthere in search of them. He soon became a favourite with the oldfarmer, who spoke eloquently of his virtues. On such occasions,Lucy was silent, but her blushing cheek and her bright, happy eyesshowed only too clearly that her young heart was no longer herown. Her honest father may not have observed these symptoms,but they were assuredly not thrown away upon the man who hadwon her affections.
One summer evening he came galloping down the road andpulled up at the gate. She was at the doorway, and came down tomeet him. He threw the bridle over the fence and strode up thepathway.
“I am off, Lucy,” he said, taking her two hands in his, and gazingtenderly down into her face; “I won’t ask you to come with menow, but will you be ready to come when I am here again?”
“And when will that be?” she asked, blushing and laughing.
“A couple of months at the outside. I will come and claim youthen, my darling. There’s no one who can stand between us.”
“And how about father?” she asked.
“He has given his consent, provided we get these mines workingall right. I have no fear on that head.”
“Oh, well; of course, if you and father have arranged it all,there’s no more to be said,” she whispered, with her cheek againsthis broad breast.
“Thank God!” he said, hoarsely, stooping and kissing her. “It issettled, then. The longer I stay, the harder it will be to go. Theyare waiting for me at the ca?on. Good-bye, my own darling—good-bye. In two months you shall see me.”
He tore himself from her as he spoke, and, flinging himselfupon his horse, galloped furiously away, never even looking round,as though afraid that his resolution might fail him if he took oneglance at what he was leaving. She stood at the gate, gazing afterhim until he vanished from her sight. Then she walked back intothe house, the happiest girl in all Utah.
John Ferrier Talks With The Prophet
THREE weeks had passed since Jefferson Hope and hiscomrades had departed from Salt Lake City. John Ferrier’s heartwas sore within him when he thought of the young man’s return,and of the impending loss of his adopted child. Yet her brightand happy face reconciled him to the arrangement more thanany argument could have done. He had always determined, deepdown in his resolute heart, that nothing would ever induce him toallow his daughter to wed a Mormon. Such marriage he regardedas no marriage at all, but as a shame and a disgrace. Whatever hemight think of the Mormon doctrines, upon that one point he wasinflexible. He had to seal his mouth on the subject, however, forto express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous matter in thosedays in the Land of the Saints.
Yes, a dangerous matter—so dangerous that even the mostsaintly dared only whisper their religious opinions with batedbreath, lest something which fell from their lips might bemisconstrued, and bring down a swift retribution upon them. Thevictims of persecution had now turned persecutors on their ownaccount, and persecutors of the most terrible deion. Notthe Inquisition of Seville, nor the German Vehm-gericht, nor theSecret Societies of Italy, were ever able to put a more formidablemachinery in motion than that which cast a cloud over the Stateof Utah.
Its invisibility, and the mystery which was attached to it, madethis organization doubly terrible. It appeared to be omniscientand omnipotent, and yet was neither seen nor heard. The manwho held out against the Church vanished away, and none knewwhither he had gone or what had befallen him. His wife and hischildren awaited him at home, but no father ever returned to tellthem how he had fared at the hands of his secret judges. A rashword or a hasty act was followed by annihilation, and yet noneknew what the nature might be of this terrible power which wassuspended over them. No wonder that men went about in fear andtrembling, and that even in the heart of the wilderness they darednot whisper the doubts which oppressed them.
At first this vague and terrible power was exercised only uponthe recalcitrants who, having embraced the Mormon faith, wishedafterwards to pervert or to abandon it. Soon, however, it took awider range. The supply of adult women was running short, andpolygamy without a female population on which to draw was abarren doctrine indeed. Strange rumours began to be bandiedabout—rumours of murdered immigrants and rifled campsin regions where Indians had never been seen. Fresh womenappeared in the harems of the Elders—women who pined andwept, and bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishablehorror. Belated wanderers upon the mountains spoke of gangs ofarmed men, masked, stealthy, and noiseless, who flitted by them inthe darkness. These tales and rumours took substance and shape,and were corroborated and recorroborated, until they resolvedthemselves into a definite name. To this day, in the lonely ranchesof the West, the name of the Danite Band, or the Avenging Angels,is a sinister and an ill-omened one.
