“I saw your window was bright and I had some things to tell you,” he said. “I am sorry to bring you down.”
Hugh blew out the candle and they sat down together on the doorstep.
“It is all right,” he said; “you wouldn’t have found me to-morrow. I am going away early in the morning.”
“Going?” echoed the other in a tone of the greatest disappointment and dismay. Then he heaved a deep sigh.
“Well,” he remarked, “I suppose it is the only thing you can do, but somehow I had kind of hoped you were going to stay.”
“Why?” Hugh stared in astonishment, for what difference could it make to any one whether he remained in Rudolm or went away?
Jethro sat staring at the ground between his feet and shuffled them uneasily several times.
“That Half-Breed Jake has been at the hotel all evening,” he said at last. “He has been talking a long time about the Edmonds boys and how they have disappeared because they had to. It is true that John’s books at the bank were pretty badly mixed and they have had an expert up to go over them, but nothing has been proved yet, one way or the other. It seemed to me, at last, that Jake talked rather too much. He always hated the Edmonds boys, they were too square and honest and they had blocked him more than once in some of his devilment. If there is a mean or a cruel or a crooked way of doing a thing, he will do it. That’s Jake.”
“But why is every one so afraid of him?” inquired Hugh. “He is only one man against all of you.”
“It is just part of living here to be afraid of him, I suppose, and to try to keep out of trouble with him,” Jethro answered slowly. “The Indians fear him so much that they will do anything he says; he understands them as very few men do and he uses his knowledge to get what he wants. A man who can control these Chippewas has a lot of power. There is a white deer that ranges these woods once in a long time and is supposed to bring bad luck. The Indians have a saying that whoever sees the white deer or opposes Half-Breed Jake is sure to die inside a year.”
“But the Swedes have better sense than that!” exclaimed Hugh.
“The Swedes are very superstitious too, and once they are convinced of a thing it is hard to make them change. And it does seem that whoever stands in Jake’s way is cursed with bad fortune until he gives it up. There are only a few that ever dared stand out against him, such as the Edmonds boys, and where are they?”