THE ORDEAL AT MT. HOPE
"I know you does, but I must n't. Cain't you see that dey 'd be glad to say dat— dat you was in cahoots wif me an' you tuk yo' dram on de sly?"
"I don't care what they say so long as it is n't true. Are you coming?"
"No, I ain't." He was perfectly determined, and Dokesbury saw that there was no use arguing with him. So with a resigned "All right!" he strode out the gate and up the street, thinking of the problem he had to solve.
There was good in Elias Gray, he knew. It was a shame that it should be lost. It would be lost unless he were drawn strongly away from the paths he was treading. But how could it be done? Was there no point in his mind that could be reached by what was other than evil? That was the thing to be found out. Then he paused to ask himself if, after all, he were not trying to do too much,—trying, in fact, to play Providence to Elias. He found himself involuntarily wanting to shift the responsibility of planning for the youth. He wished that something entirely independent of his intentions would happen.
59
