Judith of the Godless Valley Part 71

Judith put down her coffee-cup and her great eyes blazed. "Why, Douglas Spencer! You are going to do nothing of the sort!"

"What is Lost Chief to me without you?" asked Douglas, coolly and entirely ignoring the eager-eyed audience.

Judith's face expressed entire disapproval. "I never thought you'd let them run you out, Doug!" She turned to Mr. Fowler. "Don't let him be a quitter, Mr. Fowler."

Mr. Fowler was watching Douglas with troubled eyes. "I don't know," he said, "that I blame Douglas. It seems to me that Lost Chief will have to become conscious of its needs before it can be helped. I love Douglas very much. I'd not be sorry to see him get out into the world where there's a bigger chance for his abilities than in that G.o.dless valley."

Judith turned from the preacher impatiently. "Douglas Spencer! You know you'll never be happy anywhere else. Lost Chief is your home and the home of all your people before you."

"How about its being home to you?" asked Douglas.

"No place can be home to me that doesn't need all that's in me," replied Judith. "Lost Chief is no place for me. It's not a woman's country."

"It ought to be made fit for women and for little children!" cried Mr.

Fowler, with sudden vehemence. "I should have done it. But I failed there as I have everywhere. I didn't bring G.o.d to Lost Chief, nor to Judith, nor worst of all, to Douglas."

"Don't you two young people believe in G.o.d?" demanded Elijah Nelson.

They stared at him without replying.

"Who guided Judith over the Pa.s.s?" asked the Mormon. "Her own smartness, I suppose, or chance, anything but the hand of the Almighty!"

"It was Destiny. All of it has been Destiny," said Douglas suddenly.

"And what is Destiny but G.o.d?" asked Elijah.

No one spoke for a moment. Then Elijah went on, with Mr. Fowler's own vehemence:

"You folks over in Lost Chief have seen fit to treat us Mormons as if we were a pack of coyotes bedding down too near your herds. Did you ever try to find out what kind of people we really are and why we stay and win out when we settle in a place? I'll tell you. The church makes our settlements for us. When she calls us to settle in the wild she says, Go, five families, or ten, or twenty, and settle in such a place. Take with you your wives and babies. Put your roots deep in the soil. Build for the future generations. Make a community deep fertilized by the idea of Mormonism, train your children in it, cling one family to the other in helpfulness and to the church in faith. Co-operate with each other and with the church, and the church will stand by you and loan you money, give you advice, be your very fountain of life.

"And the church does stand by us and we by it. And we are building up G.o.d-fearing communities all over the West, just like the Puritans once built up in the East. Why? Because we pioneer, inspired by our church and the love of G.o.d! What Gentile church is doing this, answering the economic needs of its people as well as the spiritual? Why should a settlement like yours prosper? Why, the most promising young man in it is deserting it to chase after a flighty girl! It has no church. It has no minister. Ha! As long as you Gentiles are so, the Mormons can ride over you and crowd you out!"

"You can't do anything of the kind!" declared Judith.

"Why not?" asked Douglas bitterly. "Of course they can! Nelson is dead right."

Elijah gave Judith a scornful glance. "You ought to be satisfied, Judith. You'll be getting your own way, no matter what becomes of Douglas. He ought never to leave Lost Chief. Though it will be better for us Mormons if he does."

Douglas was following his own line of thought. "The Mormons are right,"

he said. "It's the families that count. A man can't do real pioneering without a woman and Lost Chief is still pioneering. The right kind of a woman could do more for Lost Chief than a man."

Judith looked at him with gathering intentness. "How could she, Doug?"

"Why, look at the influence Inez has! She's thought it worth while to influence people, so's to justify her way of living. She's beautiful and she's bad. If a woman who was beautiful and good made up her mind to make Lost Chief the paradise it ought to be, nothing could stop her."

"If she had the church to back her," said Elijah Nelson.

Douglas nodded; then, his face aflame, he jumped to his feet. "If Jude and I could work together in Lost Chief we'd--My G.o.d, do you know what I'd do? I'd rebuild the cabin and I'd rebuild the chapel. And we'd bring Mr. Fowler back. And Judith and I would go to church to him and we'd hunt for G.o.d till we found Him! And when we found Him, we'd go out and bring the children of the Valley to the church. It's the children that count. We'd dish all this discussion with the grown folks. All the Scotts and Charletons and Inez Rodmans in the Valley wouldn't count if the children would be sure of G.o.d." He turned to Judith. "You'll admit, won't you, Jude, that if you and I had had faith, our childhood would have been a finer thing?"

"Yes, I think that's true," admitted Judith. "Do you think there's a job there for me, Mr. Fowler, all faithless as I am?"

Mr. Fowler nodded. "Yes, I do. Lost Chief offers a full-sized job to a woman with a brain and the right kind of a vision. She could, indeed, help to make it a very paradise for children."

"If the church didn't hamper her too much." Mrs. Nelson spoke for the first time. "The church and G.o.d are both males."

Judith gave the Mormon wife a sudden appreciative smile. Douglas, watching the girl's kindling face, said in his gentle way, "I've often thought if anybody could get the right kind of a moral hold on the kids of Lost Chief, the greatest horsemans.h.i.+p in the world could be developed in that old valley."

"You are dreaming dreams!" exclaimed Nelson. "All this takes time, and you Lost Chief folks want to realize that the Mormons are coming!"

Judith eyed her host keenly; then she turned to Douglas with overwhelming interest welling to her eyes. "This is the first time," she cried, "that you've ever suggested any kind of a future to me that made a demand on my intelligence. Mr. Nelson, have you really got your eyes on Lost Chief Valley, or are you just trying to bluff Douglas into going back because you like him?"

The Mormon's eyes narrowed and his jaw set. "I like him, yes, but the church says we are to take Lost Chief Valley, and we are going to take it when the time is ripe. I can afford to be as kind as I want to be to Douglas and Fowler. Nothing can stop us when we cross into your valley with the church behind us. You folks hang together by habit. We Mormons are knit together by a divine idea that takes care of every moment of our lives. Do you think a man like Scott Parsons can guard your gates?

And Douglas is running away!"

Judith jumped to her feet, indignation flas.h.i.+ng from her eyes.

"He is not! If your Mormon religion can do all you claim for you, then our religion can do as much for us as it did for our ancestors. I never did believe there was a G.o.d. But that's not saying He's not to be found if you really hunt for Him."

"'If with all your hearts ye truly seek me, ye shall ever surely find me,'" said Mr. Fowler quietly.

Judith gave him a quick look. "That isn't the kind of a G.o.d we young folks are looking for," she said.

"What is your idea?" asked Mr. Fowler.

Judith lifted her chin.

"A fire mist and a planet, A crystal and a cell, A jelly-fish and a saurian And caves where cave-men dwell.

Then a sense of law and beauty, And a face turned from the clod, Some call it Evolution And others call it G.o.d."

There was quiet in the warm, homely kitchen. Douglas watched Judith with his heart in his eyes.

Elijah Nelson cleared his throat. "Nevertheless, Judith," he said, "this is a fair warning that I'm going to put the Book of Mormon into Lost Chief."

Judith flushed, her lips tightened, and she walked deliberately around the table and took the preacher's hand. "Come, Mr. Fowler, let's go home with Douglas and get to work!"

Douglas drew a long breath.

The preacher rose with alacrity. "Where shall we go?" he asked.

Douglas answered. "To Peter's until I can rebuild the cabin."

Elijah Nelson smiled grimly.

"Let's get started!" urged Judith.

The breakfast party broke up. The men went out to attend to the horses.

Judith and Mrs. Nelson turned to the dishes. Douglas from the corral watched the backdoor attentively, and when Mrs. Nelson appeared he signaled to her to wait for him to speak to her.