It might have been a quarter of an hour, though to Joan it seemed an
endless time, until footsteps and voices outside announced the
return of Blicky.
He held by the arm a slight man whom he was urging along with no
gentle force. This stranger's face presented as great a contrast to
Blicky's as could have been imagined. His apparel proclaimed his
calling. There were consternation and bewilderment in his
expression, but very little fear.
"He was preachin' down there in a tent," said Blicky, "an I jest
waltzed him up without explainin'."
"Sir, I want to be married at once," declared Kells, peremptorily.
"Certainly. I'm at your service," replied the preacher. "But I
deplore the--the manner in which I've been approached."
"You'll excuse haste," rejoined the bandit. "I'll pay you well."
Kells threw a small buckskin sack of gold-dust upon the table, and
then he turned to Joan. "Come, Joan," he said, in the tone that
brooked neither resistance nor delay.
It was at that moment that the preacher first noticed Joan. Was her
costume accountable for his start? Joan had remembered his voice and
she wondered if he would remember hers. Certainly Jim had called her
Joan more than once on the night of the marriage. The preacher's
eyes grew keener. He glanced from Joan to Kells, and then at the
other men, who had come in. Jim Cleve stood behind Jesse Smith's
broad person, and evidently the preacher did not see him. That
curious gaze, however, next discovered the dead man on the floor.
Then to the curiosity and anxiety upon the preacher's face was added
horror.
"A minister of God is needed here, but not in the capacity you
name," he said. "I'll perform no marriage ceremony in the presence
of--murder."
"Mr. Preacher, you'll marry me quick or you'll go along with him,"
replied Kells, deliberately.
"I cannot be forced." The preacher still maintained some dignity,
but he had grown pale.
"I can force you. Get ready now! ... Joan, come here!"
Kells spoke sternly, yet something of the old, self-mocking spirit
was in his tone. His intelligence was deriding the flesh and blood
of him, the beast, the fool. It spoke that he would have his way and
that the choice was fatal for him.
Joan shook her head. In one stride Kells reached her and swung her
spinning before him. The physical violence acted strangely upon
Joan--roused her rage.
"I wouldn't marry you to save my life--even if I could!" she burst
out.