“I’ll marry Absalom!  I’ll marry him to-morrow!” she repeated.  “You darsent—­you ain’t of age!  Let go my arm, or I’ll slap you ag’in!”

“I shall be of age in three months!  I’ll marry Absalom if you go on with this!”

“That suits me!” cried Absalom.  “Keep on with it, Jake!”

“If you do, I’ll marry him to-morrow!”

There was a look in Tillie’s eyes and a ring in her voice that her father had learned to know.  Tillie would do what she said.

And here was Absalom “siding along with her” in her unfilial defiance!  Jacob Getz wavered.  He saw no graceful escape from his difficulty.

“Look-ahere, Tillie!  If I don’t lick this here feller, I’ll punish you when I get you home!”

Tillie saw that she had conquered him, and that the teacher was safe.  She loosed her hold of her father’s arm and, dropping on her knees beside Fairchilds began quickly to loosen his bonds.  Her father did not check her.

“Jake Getz, you ain’t givin’ in that easy?” demanded Absalom, angrily.

“She’d up and do what she says!  I know her!  And I ain’t leavin’ her marry!  You just wait”—­he turned threateningly to Tillie as she knelt on the ground—­“till I get you home oncet!”

Fairchilds staggered to his feet, and drawing Tillie up from the ground, he held her two hands in his as he turned to confront his enemies.

“You call yourselves men—­you cowards and bullies!  And you!” he turned his blazing eyes upon Getz, “you would work off your miserable spite on a weak girl—­who can’t defend herself!  Dare to touch a hair of her head and I’ll break your damned head and every bone in your Body!  Now take yourselves off, both of you, you curs, and leave us alone!”

“My girl goes home along with me!” retorted the furious Getz.  “And you—­you ‘ll lose your job at next Board Meetin’, Saturday night!  So you might as well pack your trunk!  Here!” He laid his hand on Tillie’s arm, but Fairchilds drew her to him and held his arm about her waist, while Absalom, darkly scowling, stood uncertainly by.

“Leave her with me.  I must talk with her.  Must, I say.  Do you hear me?  She—­”

His words died on his lips, as Tillie’s head suddenly fell forward on his shoulder, and, looking down, Fairchilds saw that she had fainted.

XXII

THE DOC CONCOCTS A PLOT

So you see I’m through with this place!” Fairchilds concluded as, late that night, he and the doctor sat alone in the sitting-room, discussing the afternoon’s happenings.

“I was forced to believe,” he went on, “when I saw Jake Getz’s fearful anxiety and real distress while Tillie remained unconscious, that the fellow, after all, does have a heart of flesh under all his brutality.  He had never seen a woman faint, and he thought at first that Tillie was dead.  We almost had him on our hands unconscious!”