"Nay, that have we not!" cried Hervitz, with a laugh. "And no one can say of us that we pay not our debts."
"Peace, Hervitz!" said Jaspar. "Let us hear the man's business; though, all the same, Pastor Oshart, you are somewhat over-bold to come thus into the lions' den."
The old minister smiled. "My God hath shut the lions' mouths ere this," he said quietly; "and what he did for His servant Daniel of old He could do now, if it so pleased Him. The Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save."
"There speaks the cant of your cloth!" piped the piercing voice of Hervitz. "Lucky for you if you need not to put your God to the test!"
"Master Jasper Valden," said the pastor, looking past the sharp, weasel face of Hervitz, and speaking to the old father, "have I your leave to sit? I am an old man, and, moreover, very weary to-night."
Jaspar rose and silently pushed a stool across the floor, and Pastor Oshart sat down.
"Master Jasper Valden, and you, Dorlat and Hervitz," said he, "I am sent to you with a message from all the people of Carfoos. And the message is this. You are requested to move away from this place and to return no more. We give you one week in which to make your preparations, and if at the end of that time you are still here, information against you will be lodged at the Klingengolf police-station, and the law must be suffered to take its course."
"And pray why should we thus be driven forth?" questioned Jaspar, his stern, rugged face flushing angrily. "Have we not as good a right to be here as you or any one else?"
"All peaceable and law-abiding folk have an equal right," replied the old pastor, with mild firmness. "And whose fault is it, my masters, that ye are not of such?"
"Yet know I not what charges could be brought against us," said Jaspar; "nor yet," he added fiercely, "why the whole village should band together to hound us out of the place."