The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-01-09
CHAPTER XI

Jim Saladine was a man of wit and
sense. and he was quicker than most
men at reading the riddles life may
day by day present. But all this day,
he had been deeply at loss. He was
a stranger to these folk, and they to
him; and for any appraisal of their
characters and their capacities for
good or evil, he had to depend upon
what his eyes could see, or upon what
this one said of that one.
Hubby he had seen, alive, beautiful,
seductive; Will he had seen and liked !;
Bart he had had time to weigh and to
appraise, and had found that young
man bold and headlong, yet we'll
enough; Zeke he had glimpsed briefly,
and held in pity, though he had not
been blind to the dangerous passion
in the man: Old Win Haven he knew
only by repute; yet that repute was
i'll. A cowardly old man, willing to
spite a woman, or to alright a woman
if he chose; willing perhaps to kill
one one, ttoooo?
But Saladine, even while he
recognized his own limitations, rec
ognized also that here were forces
in play which could not easily
be calculated. Such woman as Hubby
Ferrin had emanations which musr
affect the lives, the very souls, of all
those about her. Even Jim himself
and he was not a susceptible man
had after leaving her known a vague
uneaslness, nervous sense of being
spied on, of being trailed through the
sodden wood.
She was. he thought, sort of pagan.
She was vicious, beyond doubt; yet
there were not the marks Of vice upon
her, but rather of Astounding life and
deep undisciplined vitality. Saladine
could even pity this woman, ruled and
driven by forces whose nature and
depth she herself did not in the least
comprehend. She must have loved
her own body, that warm beauty 1t
contained; must have served it like an
acolyte, fetching to it whatever sacri-
fetal offerings were at hand.
But Saladine, though he might be g
mystic, was a realist, too; and-here
had been murder done. The woman
who, by the powerful spell her pres
ence cast, had wrecked and distorted
other lives-had worked her own de-
struction in the end.
Yet-through what human means?
Through Will, the husband she so bit
terly had wronged? Or through Zeke,
reduced from strong laughing manhood
to weary and tormented ember? Or
through old Win Haven whom she had
fiouted? Or through Bart Carey here,
who had hated her for her betrayal
of his friend? Or through some casual
passer-by? Saladine did not know !;
had no sure conjecture in his mind
at all.
1t seemed to him not impossible that
some stranger was involved. His own
experience with Hubby helped his ac-
ceptance of this hypothesis as pos
sibility. She had sought to detain
him, on that hidden ledge above the
Valley; he had escaped by a sort of
flight, as though he broke away from
an actual physical restraint. Such
women as Hubby must provoke In some
men a sort of violent repulsion; and
Saladine recognized this feeling in him.
self. If she had, for instance, tried by
physical means to prevent his depar-
ture, had clutched his arm with her
small hands, he could imagine him
self f1inging her with violent and
shuddering distaste backward and
away. Thus cast aside, she might
easily enough have tripped, or STUN
bled, and tottered off the ledge. He
thought grimly that he himself, as well
as any other man. might thus have
hurled her to death today.
So Saladine could conceive the ma
chinery of this, tragedy; but it re-
manned to discover the man. He had
for while almost forgotten this
necessity in watching Jenny, during
her disclosure of Huldy's dying accu-
sation; he had seen the fine trust and
tenderness in the girl Her clean devo-
ton shone against the dark back
ground of Huldy's ugly passions; and
he had forgotten that there was still a
murderer to be found, till Marin Pierce
by her word to the sheriff brought his
attention back again.
The old woman said she would tell
them who had killed Hubby; and Sala-
dine, whose thoughts had been absorbed
in dim distractions, returned to a keen
alertness.
On Marin Pierce's promise, silence
for a moment held them; and the old
woman said briskly: "It's cooled off
in here by this time. Will, chunk up
the fire. Bart, shut that shed doorr
ITO BE CONTINUED