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

 "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