Все приключения Шерлока Холмса. Сборник. Уровень 2. Артур Конан Дойл

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      “She will have a month to choose,” said Young. “At the end of that time she will give her answer.”

      He was passing through the door, when he turned, with flushed face and flashing eyes.

      “John Ferrier,” he thundered, “do not put your weak wills[51] against the orders of the Holy Four!”

      And he went away. Ferrier heard his heavy step along the path.

      Ferrier was still sitting with his elbows upon his knees, when he saw his daughter. She was standing beside him. She heard everything.

      “Oh, father, father, what shall we do?” she said.

      “Don’t be afraid,” he answered. “We’ll fix it up somehow or another[52]. You still like that chap, do you?”

      A sob and a squeeze of his hand was her only answer.

      “He’s a good lad, and he’s a Christian. Some people will go to Nevada tomorrow, and I’ll send him a message. If I know anything of that young man, he’ll be back here soon.”

      Lucy laughed through her tears.

      “When he comes, he will give us some advise. But it is for you that I am frightened, dear. One hears such dreadful stories about those who oppose the Prophet: something terrible always happens to them.”

      “But we don’t oppose him,” her father answered. “We have time. We have a clear month before us; at the end of that, I guess we will leave Utah.”

      “Leave Utah!”

      “Yes.”

      “But the farm?”

      “We will sell as much as we can. I don’t want to knuckle under to any man, under to this darned prophet. I’m a free-born American.”

      “But they won’t let us leave,” his daughter objected.

      “Wait till Jefferson comes, and we’ll soon manage that. There’s no danger at all.”

      John Ferrier uttered these consoling remarks in a very confident tone, but she observed that he fastened the doors that night, and carefully cleaned and loaded the old shotgun.

      Chapter IV

      A Flight For Life

      Next morning John Ferrier went in to Salt Lake City and found his acquaintance, who was going to the Nevada Mountains. He entrusted him with his message to Jefferson Hope. In it he told the young man of the imminent danger which threatened them. After that he returned home.

      As he approached his farm, he saw two horses. When he entered his house, he found two young men in his sitting-room. One, with a long pale face, was leaning back in the rocking-chair[53], with his feet upon the stove. The other was standing in front of the window with his hands in his pocket. He was whistling a popular hymn. Both of them nodded to Ferrier as he entered, and the one in the rocking-chair commenced the conversation.

      “Maybe you don’t know us,” he said. “This here is the son of Elder Drebber, and I’m Joseph Stangerson, who travelled with you in the desert.”

      John Ferrier bowed coldly. He guessed who his visitors were.

      “We are here,” continued Stangerson, “to solicit the hand of your daughter. Let her choose. I have only four wives and Brother Drebber here has seven, so my claim is the stronger one.”

      “No, no, Brother Stangerson,” cried the other; “the question is not how many wives we have, but how many we can keep. My father gave me his mills, and I am the richer man.”

      “But my prospects are better,” said the other, warmly. “I shall have my father’s tanning yard[54] and his leather factory. Then I am older, and am higher in the Church.”

      “The maiden will decide,” rejoined young Drebber.

      “Look here,” said John Ferrier, “when my daughter summons you, you can come, but until then I don’t want to see your faces again.”

      The two young Mormons stared at him in amazement.

      “There are two ways out of the room,” cried Ferrier; “there is the door, and there is the window. Which one will you use?”

      His brown face looked so savage, that his visitors sprang to their feet and ran away. The old farmer followed them to the door.

      “You will pay for this!” Stangerson cried, white with rage. “You go against the Prophet and the Council of Four. You will rue it to the end of your days.”

      “The hand of the Lord will be heavy upon you,” cried young Drebber; “He will arise and smite you!”

      “Then I’ll start the smiting,” exclaimed Ferrier furiously, and rushed upstairs for his gun. Lucy seized him by the arm and restrained him. The clatter of horses’ hoofs told him that they were beyond his reach.

      “The young rascals!” he exclaimed.

      “Father,” she said; “Jefferson will soon be here.”

      “Yes. The sooner the better[55], for we do not know what their next move may be.”

      Ferrier knew that his wealth and position were useless. He was a brave man, but he trembled. What to do next? He concealed his fears from his daughter, though she saw plainly that he was nervous.

      He expected some message or remonstrance from Young, and it came. Next morning he found, to his surprise, a small square of paper just over his chest. On it was printed, in bold letters:

      “You have twenty-nine days for amendment, and then…”

      How did this warning come into his room? He said nothing to his daughter, and destroyed the paper.

      Still more terrible was he next morning. They were having their breakfast when Lucy with a cry of surprise pointed upwards. In the centre of the ceiling was scrawled, with a burned stick, the number 28. To his daughter it was unintelligible, and he did not enlighten her. That night he sat up with his gun and ward. He saw and he heard nothing, and yet in the morning a great 27 was upon the outside of his door.

      Thus day followed day; and as sure as morning came he found that his unseen enemies were telling him how many days he had. Sometimes the fatal numbers appeared upon the walls, sometimes upon the floors, occasionally they were on small placards upon the garden gate or the railings. A horror came upon him at the sight of them. He became haggard and restless. He had but one hope in life now, and that was for the arrival of the young hunter from Nevada.

      Twenty changed to fifteen and fifteen to ten, but there was no news of Jefferson Hope. There came no sign of him. At last, when the old farmer saw three, he lost heart[56], and abandoned all hope of escape. With his limited knowledge of the mountains which surrounded СКАЧАТЬ