Chapter 9
chapter nine of conjuror's house a romance of the free forest this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger muleen conjuror's house a romance of the free forest by stuart edward white chapter nine after a moment he pushed open the door without ceremony and entered he bent his brows studying the reverend archibald crane while the latter looking up startled turned pink he was a pink little man anyway the reverend archibald crane and why in the inscrutability of its wisdom the church had sent him out to influence strong grim men the church in its inscrutable wisdom only knows he wore at the moment a cambric english boating hat to protect his bald head from the draught a full clerical costume as far as the trousers which were of lavender and a pair of beaded moccasins faced with red his weak little face was pink and two tufts of side whiskers were nearly so a heavy gold-headed cane stood at his hand when he heard the door open he exclaimed before raising his head
my these first flies of the season do bother me so and then looked startled good evening greeted ned trent stopping squarely in the center of the room the clergyman spread his arms along the desk's edge in embarrassment good evening he returned reluctantly is there anything i can do for you the visitor puzzled him but he was dressed as a voyageur the reverend archibald immediately resolved to treat him as such i wish to introduce myself as ned trent went on the free trader with composure and i have broken in on your privacy this evening only because i need your ministrations cruelly i am rejoiced that in your difficulties you turn to the consolations of the church replied the other in the cordial tones of the man who is always ready pray be seated he whose soul thirsteth need offer no apology to the keeper of the spiritual fountains quite so replied the stranger dryly seating himself as suggested
only in this case my wants are temporal rather than spiritual they however seem to me fully within the province of the church the church attempts within limits to aid those who are materially in want assured crane with official dignity our resources are small but to the truly deserving we are always ready to give in the spirit of true giving i am rejoiced to hear it returned the young man grimly you will then have no difficulty in getting me so small a matter as a rifle and about forty or fifty rounds of ammunition a pause of astonishment ensued why really ejaculated crane i fail to see how that falls within my jurisdiction in the slightest you should see our trader mr macdonald in regard to all such things your request addressed to me becomes extraordinary not so much when you know who i am i told you my name is ned trent but i neglected to inform you further that i am a captured free trader condemned to la longue traverse and that i have in vain tried to procure elsewhere the means of escape
then the clergyman understood the full significance of the intruder's presence flashed over his little pink face in a trouble of uneasiness the probable consequences of such a bit of charity as his visitor proposed almost turned him sick with excitement you expect to have them of me he cried getting his voice at last certainly assured his interlocutor crossing his legs comfortably don't you see the logic of events forces me to think so what other course is open to you i am in this country entirely within my legal rights as a citizen of the canadian commonwealth unjustly i am seized by a stronger power and condemned unjustly to death surely you admit the injustice well of course you know the customs of the country it is hardly an abstract question stammered crane still without grasp on the logic of his argument but as an abstract question the injustice is plain resumed the free trader imperturbably
and against plain injustice it strikes me there is but one course open to an acknowledged institution of abstract and concrete morality the church must set itself against immorality and you as the church's representative must get me a rifle you forgot one thing rejoined crain what is that such an aid would be a direct act of rebellion against authority on my part which would be severely punished of course he asserted with conscious righteousness i should not consider that for a moment as far as my own personal safety is concerned but my cause would suffer you forget sir that we are doing here a great and good work we have in our weekly congregational singing over forty regular attendants from the aborigines next year i hope to build a church at wale river thus reaching the benighted inhabitants of that distant region all of this is a vital matter in the service of our lord and saviour jesus christ
you suggest that i endanger all this in order to right a single instance of injustice of course we are told to love one another but he paused you have to compromise finished the stranger for him exactly said the reverend crane thank you it is exactly that in order to accomplish what little good the lord vouchsafes to our poor efforts we are obliged to overlook many things otherwise we should not be allowed to stay here at all that is most interesting agreed ned trent with a rather biting calm but is it not a little calculating my slight familiarity with religious history and literature has always led me to believe that you are taught to embrace the right at any cost whatsoever that if you give yourself unreservedly to justice the lord will sustain you through all trials i think at a pinch i could even quote a text to that effect my dear fellow objected the reverend archibald in gentle protest
you evidently do not understand the situation at all i feel i should be most untrue to my trust if i were to endanger in any way the lifelong labor of my predecessor you must be able to see that for yourself it would destroy utterly my usefulness here they'd send me away i couldn't go on with the work i have to think what is for the best there is some justice in what you say admitted the stranger if you persist in looking on this thing as a business proposition but it seems to my confessedly untrained mind that you miss the point trust in the lord saith the prophet in fact certain rivals in your own field hold the doctrine you expound and you consider them wrong to do evil that good may come i seem to recognize as a tenant of the church of the jesuits i protest i really do protest objected the clergyman scandalized all right agreed ned trent with good-natured contempt that is not the point do you refuse can't you see begged the other
i'm sure you are reasonable enough to take the case on its broader side you refuse insisted ned trent it is not always easy to walk straightly before the lord and my way is not always clear before me you refuse cried ned trent rising impatiently the rev archibald crane looked at his catechizer with a trace of alarm i'm sorry i'm afraid i must he apologized the stranger advanced until he touched the desk on the other side of which the rev archibald was sitting where he stood for some moments looking down on his opponent with an almost amused expression of contempt you are an amusing little beast he drawled and i've seen a lot of your kind in my time here you preach every sunday to whomever will listen to you certain cut-and-dry doctrines you don't believe practically in the least here for the first time you have had a chance to apply them literally and you hide behind a lot of words and while you're about it you may as well hear what i have to say about your kind
i've had a pretty wide experience in the north and i know what i'm talking about your work here among the indians is rot and every sensible man knows it you coop them up in your log-built houses you force on them clothes to which they are unaccustomed until they die of consumption under your little tin steepled imitation of civilization for which they are not fitted they learn to beg to steal to lie i have traveled far but i have yet to discover what your kind are allowed on earth for you are narrow-minded bigoted intolerant and without a scrap of real humanity to ornament your mock religion when you find you can't meddle with other people's affairs enough at home you get sent where you can get right in the business and earn salvation for doing it i don't know just why i should say this to you but it sort of does me good to tell it once i heard one of your kind tell a sorrowing mother that her little child had gone to hell because it had died before he the smug hypocrite
had sprinkled its little body with a handful of water there's humanity for you it may interest you to know that i thrashed that man then and there you are all alike i know the breed when there is found a real man among you and there are such he is so different in everything including his religion as to be really of another race i came here without the slightest expectation of getting what i asked for as i said before i know your breed and i know just how well your two thousand year old doctrines apply to practical cases there is another way but i hated to use it you'd take it quick enough i dare say here is where i should receive aid i may have to get it where i should not you a man of god why you poor little insect i can't even get angry at you he stood for a moment looking at the confused and troubled clergyman then he went out
End of chapter 9 Recording by Roger Moline
