Page:Curwood--The Courage of Captain Plum.djvu/336

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THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM

"Marion—" he whispered wistfully.

"She will come," said Nathaniel. "I will call her."

"No—not yet."

Obadiah's fingers tightened about Captain Plum's.

"I want to tell—you."

For a few moments he seemed struggling to command all his strength.

"A good many years ago," he said, as if speaking to himself, "I loved a girl—like Marion, and she loved me—as Marion loves you. Her people were Mormons, and they went to Kirtland—and I followed them. We planned to escape and go east, for my Jean was good and beautiful, and hated the Mormons as I hated them. But they caught us and—thought—they—killed—"

The old man's lips twitched and a convulsive shudder shook his body.

"When everything came back to me I was older—much older," he went on. "My hair

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