The Heart's Kingdom
Page 78"I'll have had enough when I put you where you can't entice my girl
again," answered Jacob as he rose slowly to his feet. As he spoke Billy
went and stood beside the parson and Nickols stepped behind them into
the shadow in which Martha crouched.
"You know that is not true, Jacob. I helped Martha to go away to a place
of safety to earn her living and keep her honesty. Isn't that so,
Martha?" the rich voice softly asked the woman crouching in the dark.
"I told him that but he wouldn't believe me and the others don't," she
answered with a sob that was almost a shudder of fear.
"What did she come back fer then?" demanded Jacob. "Answer me that. And
other women, fine and sluts, do?" The liquor was still burning in
Jacob's head but at those words he got a response from the impact of
Billy's fist that again laid him low.
"Oh, I dasn't say nothing. I dasn't," moaned Martha, as she clutched at
my skirts just as Nell and Hampton began to arrive on the scene of
action, followed by Harriet and Mark and the others. They were all
panting and wild with anxiety. They had taken the wrong turning at the
end of the square and had gone around the block, thus giving the little
tragedy time to enact itself before a mercifully small audience.
trembling woman, and I didn't know where the sympathy in my voice came
from as I stood between her and the rest while she slipped behind an old
horse block before the court house gate and off in the darkness towards
the Settlement before they had noticed her presence.
"Anybody hurt? What's the matter?" gasped Mark as he seized hold of the
Reverend Mr. Goodloe's arm.
"Nothing serious," answered the parson in a voice that calmed the others
like oil on choppy water. "Jacob Ensley is out on a drunk and Billy had
to knock him down to quiet him. All of you go back to dinner quickly,
will help me get him home and I'll remonstrate with him when he is
sober. I'd rather do it at the Last Chance than at the jail. Jacob is a
leading citizen and I don't want a jail smirch on him. I intend to use
him later. Now all of you go. Go!" His voice was as gently positive as
if he had been speaking to a lot of children and nobody seemed even to
think of rebelling but we all began to fade away into the starlight as
rapidly as we had assembled and more quietly.