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Updated: May 17, 2025
"But, Deforrest, don't you think if you talked to Ebenezer, he'd see things differently?" "I'm afraid not," said he, adjusting Mrs. Waldstricker's furs. "You see, Eb's always had his own way in most things, and I can't take any other position about Tess, and I won't." "I wish you would come home with me," sighed Mrs. Waldstricker, when her brother was tucking the sleigh robe about her.
Waldstricker touching her made her turn suddenly. The cold wind from the door just opened by the officer, swept her hot face. She flashed her eyes past him to the vast open stretches of winter, and there, standing in the lane, smiling directly back at her, was Deforrest Young. God in his own good time had sent her hands stronger than Waldstricker's.
The other men joined in the grim laughter. After a minute, another voice sounded above the last ugly chuckles. "Now, we got 'er, Tess, ye air to do anythin' ye want to with 'er." Still, the blue eyes looked into the brown, and, still, Tessibel's heart raged its satisfaction. What were the squatters going to do with Waldstricker's daughter?
The prison-pallor of the squatter's face and hands and the ill-fitting, cheap prison clothes on his big body made him conspicuous among the men on the street. Waldstricker pulled up his team. "Sandy," he called, "come to the office when you're uptown. I want to see you." An hour or so later, the squatter slouched into Waldstricker's private room. The elder rose and greeted him.
Frederick turned upon her fiercely, then back to the big man whose eagerness bent him forward. "I'm the father of her boy." The blood left Waldstricker's face, so that it looked like carved marble. "So 'tis so," he got out, "and you admit it, you cur, and you dared to marry my sister?
Ebenezer Waldstricker came into her mind vaguely ... vindictive and violent. Her hand went suddenly to her face. He was going to send her to a reform school, going to take her from the shanty for years! How powerful he was! Frederick had said Waldstricker's hands were stronger than God's. What strong hands he must have those hands descending upon her defenseless, desolate life.
"I'm coming in," said he. "I've something to show you." Evidently not impressed by his brother-in-law's statement, Deforrest led the passive girl back from the threshold of the shanty into the kitchen. "Let me take off your wraps, dear child," he said tenderly. Waldstricker's growing amusement found audible expression in a condescending laugh.
"Didn't you see Tessibel in the library?" Helen asked. "She " "Well, I should say I did," Ebenezer snorted, "and I cleared her out of there. How dare the impudent huzzy come to my house?" "Great Heavens! Ebenezer!" exclaimed Helen. "She carried Elsie all the way from the lake!" When these words fell upon Waldstricker's ears, he couldn't comprehend their import entirely. Elsie was found!
"All right," he shouted, his irritation at her resistance overcoming his fear of the elder. "If you want the truth, here it is. I'm " "Don't! Don't!" screamed Tess. "Ah!" hissed Waldstricker's lips like a jet of steam. He'd caught within his powerful net the girl he wanted. He'd bring to light the secret that'd preyed upon his sister's spirits so long.
Except for Mother Moll, he was alone in the house with Tess and the Waldstricker child. Here was a terrible predicament. He'd already lost many years of his life, because he was present when Waldstricker's father was killed. He'd done what he could to avert that crime and paid a heavy penalty, for his interference. What to do, now, he didn't know.
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