“Then think it over once more before you act.”

Gertrude turned from him impatiently.

“You should also think it over for Hellgum’s sake,” said Ingmar with rising anger, seizing her by the arm.

She shook off his hand.  “Are you out of your senses, Ingmar?” she gasped.

“Yes,” he answered; “these doings of Hellgum are driving me mad.  They must be stopped!”

“What must be stopped?”

“You’ll find out before long.”

Gertrude shrugged her shoulders.

“Good-bye, Gertrude!” he said in a choking voice.  “And remember what I tell you.  You will never join the Hellgumists!”

“What do you intend to do, Ingmar?” asked the girl, for she was beginning to feel uneasy.

“Good-bye, Gertrude, and think of what I have said!” Ingmar shouted back, for by that time he was halfway down the gravel walk.

Then he went on his way.  “If I were only as wise as my father!” he mused.  “But what can I do?  I’m about to lose all that is dearest to me, and I see no way of preventing it.”  There was one thing, however, of which Ingmar was certain:  if all this misery was to be forced upon him, Hellgum should not escape with his skin.

He went down to Strong Ingmar’s but in the hope of meeting the preacher.  When he got to the door, he caught the sound of loud and angry voices.  There seemed to be a number of visitors inside, so he turned back at once.  As he walked away he heard a man say in angry tones:  “We are three brothers who have come a long way to call you to account, John Hellgum, for what has befallen our younger brother.  Two years ago he went over to America, where he joined your community.  The other day we received a letter telling us that he had gone out of his mind, brooding over your teaching.”

Then Ingmar hurried away.  Apparently there were others besides himself who had cause for complaint against Hellgum, and they were all of them equally helpless.

He went down to the sawmill, which had already been set going by Strong Ingmar.  Above the buzzing noise of the saws and the roar of the rapids he heard a shriek; but he paid no special heed to it.  He had no thought for anything save his strong hatred of Hellgum.  He was going over in his mind all that this man had robbed him of:  Gertrude and Karin, his home and his business.

Again he seemed to hear a cry.  It occurred to him that possibly a quarrel had arisen between Hellgum and the strangers.  “There would be no harm done if they were to beat the life out of him,” he thought.

Then he heard a loud shout for help.  Ingmar dropped his work and went rushing up the hill.  The nearer he approached the hut the plainer he heard Hellgum’s cries of distress, and when he finally reached the cabin it seemed as if the very earth around it shook from the scuffling and struggling inside.