Two little Finns

by Mary E. Ropes

"It is time that our village was rid of this family of evil-doers," said one of the men in council. "They are lawless enough to have descended in a direct line from the dreadful pirate band that are said to have settled here so long ago, and stored their treasure in the Isle of Ghosts."

"It is so," assented another; "and I propose that we take the law into our own hands, and punish these men as they deserve. But you, Pastor Oshart, it seems to us that you know more about them than you care to say. Why do you keep silence among us, when perhaps you have positive proof of the guilt of the brothers Valden, and possibly of old Jaspar also, in this matter of breaking forcibly into a man's homestead in search of plunder?"

"I have no proof that I should be justified in bringing forward at present," replied the old man, who could not suffer Freskel to witness against the members of his own family, and who had not yet heard the story of the siege of the cottage from the lips of Tonie and Blonda. "Nor, my people, would I counsel you to punish these men for violence with violence, however much they may seem to deserve such treatment at our hands. At the same time, I feel with you that a peaceful village and godly community cannot longer suffer in its midst the presence of such a family. Therefore my advice would be that you should depute one of your number on whose wisdom and self-control you can rely to go to the Valdens, and to tell them, in the name of the inhabitants of Carfoos, that we desire, nay, that we require them to leave this neighbourhood in the course, say, of a week, and that if they refuse to do as we wish, we must call in the aid of the police, and, collecting all possible evidence against them, have them punished by the law."

"Pastor Oshart, your counsel is wise. I propose that we do as you suggest," said the oldest villager present.

"And I would add," said another, "that our good pastor be elected to undertake to be our messenger and ambassador to the Valden family. We have no one amongst us in whom we have such confidence, or for whom we cherish so great esteem."

"It is true. So be it, then. Let the pastor be our ambassador!" shouted a score of voices.

"Yet bethink you a moment, my friends," said Rolf Bresser, who had arrived at Carfoos early that morning, and joined the little company collected at the pastor's house. "It is true that so far as you yourselves are concerned, it is well that the pastor should be your messenger. But none of you seem to have thought whether this mission would not be difficult and perhaps even dangerous, for the ambassador himself. Though I am not one of you, I have some right to speak now, since, innocently, I am the cause of the late disturbance which has brought things to a crisis; for it was I that entrusted the bag of money to Pastor Oshart's care, fancying—and probably not without reason—that the brothers Valden had come to know of it, and might rob me ere I could quit the neighbourhood. The pastor, in his turn, having the same feeling, and wishing to secure the safety of the property entrusted to him, stole away, under cover of night, to the woodcutter's cottage, and in that humble abode, where it might well be considered safe, left the bag of coin.

"Reuss himself was not at home, but the treasure was safely hidden away, and nothing occurred to disturb the little guardians that night. Two nights later, however, after the good pastor had brought the children news of their father's accident at Klingengolf, the cottage was broken into, and but for the courage and timely help of one whom I may not name here, the money entrusted to me for the poor of my village would have been carried away. In some fashion best known to themselves, the Valdens must have come to suspect that the bag of coin was no longer in the custody of the pastor; indeed, they may have followed him on his second visit to Grubert's cottage, mistaking the motive for it.

"Knowing of the woodcutter's absence from home, the men doubtless expected to have no trouble in effecting an entrance and seeing for themselves whether the money were there or no. Well, as we know, the robbers entered indeed, but the rest of their evil intent was frustrated. My friend, your pastor, tells me this morning that the money is hidden in a safe place, and as for the children of Grubert Reuss, they are no longer to stay alone in the cottage in the forest, but will remain with the pastor until their father's return. But now, to come back to the point from which I started," continued Rolf; "think you, indeed, that, after all that has passed, your pastor will be a welcome visitor at Jaspar Valden's home? Remember there are old grudges out against him for his faithful warnings in the past. And now there is this new trouble. What greeting, think you, he will receive?"

"You are right, Rolf Bresser!" cried several voices at once. "Our pastor shall not go. We will not expose him to insult or worse."