Under the new revelation that Major Welch had received, his interest in Captain Allen naturally increased beyond measure, and he showed it. His only hope was that proof as to Captain Allen’s case might not be easy. The new laws under which the prosecutions were being pressed aimed at recent acts, and it might not be possible to prove Captain Allen’s participation in these acts.
His carrying Leech off could, of course, be proved; but while Leech would naturally push the prosecution for this, as Leech had returned, the Government might not now take that so seriously. As her father discussed Captain Allen’s chances earnestly, Ruth sat and listened with bated breath, her eyes, wide with anxiety, fixed on his face, her hands tightly clasped, her color coming and going as hope and fear alternated.
It was a few days after this, that she had her brief interview with Leech.
The next day after that interview an official rode up to the door and served a summons on Ruth to appear as a witness for the prosecution in the case of the Government against Stevenson Allen. With this notice he brought also a letter to Major Welch from Leech, who wrote Major Welch that for reasons of importance to the Government he had found it necessary to request his daughter’s attendance at the trial. The letter was full of expressions of regret that he should have to cause Major Welch’s daughter any inconvenience. She was the only one, he said, who could prove certain facts material to the case for the Government.
As Major Welch read the letter his countenance fell. Ruth’s knowledge of Captain Allen’s confession of his part in the Ku Klux organization had filled out Leech’s case, and Captain Allen was in graver danger than he had apprehended. The next day it was known in the County that Ruth had been summoned by Leech, and that the object of the summons was to have her prove Captain Allen’s confession to her of his part in the acts of the Ku Klux. It was stated that Leech had written Major Welch to obtain the information from him, and that Major Welch had replied that his daughter would be on hand, dead or alive. The excitement in the community was intense; and the feeling against the Welches flamed forth stronger than it had ever been—stronger even than before the trial of Jacquelin’s case. Intimations of this came to the Welches, and they could not ride out without encountering the hostile looks of their neighbors. It was asserted by some that Major Welch and his daughter had trapped Steve, and were taking their revenge for his part in Jacquelin’s suit. Major Welch received one or two anonymous letters accusing him of this, and warning him to leave the country without attempting to push his malice farther.
As the Major treated these letters with the contempt they deserved, and destroyed them without letting either Mrs. Welch or Ruth know anything about them, they would have given him no further concern except for the fact that he had made up his mind to go North just then on business. The letters came near preventing his going; but as the matter was urgent, he went, and the rumor got abroad that he had left on account of the letters.
Ruth was in a state of great distress. She hoped she would die before the day of the trial; and, indeed, to have seen her, one might have thought it not unlikely. Dr. Cary was sent for. He prescribed change of air and scene. Mrs. Welch shook her head sadly. That was impossible just now. “You look as though you needed change yourself, Doctor,” she said. And well she might say so. The Doctor had aged years in the last weeks. His face had never lost the prison pallor.
“No madam—I think not,” he said, calmly, his hand resting against his breast. Mrs. Welch did not know that he meant that he was past that now.
“Then you must take a rest,” urged Mrs. Welch.
“Yes, I think I shall take a rest before long,” said he.