night before, evading such indirect query as Makimmon
had addressed to him. It was a fundamental
principle of Greenstream conduct that the direct
question was inadmissible; at the same time, the inhabitants
of that far, isolated valley were, on all
occasions, coldly curious about such strangers, their
motives and complexions of mind, as reached their
self-sufficient territory. This combined restriction
and necessity produced a wily type of local inquisitor.
But here Gordon's diplomacy had been in
vain, his surmising at sea. The others were intimate
and familiar figures:

Father Merlier's advent into Greenstream had occurred
a number of years before. He had arrived
with papers of introduction to one of the few papist
families in that rigorously protestant neighborhood;
and, immediately, had erected outside the village of
Greenstream a small mission school and dwelling,
where he addressed himself to the herculean task
of gaining converts to his faith. At first he had
been regarded with unconcealed distrust -- boys,
when the priest's back was turned, had thrown
stones at him; the turbulent element, on more than
one occasion, had discussed the advisability of "running"
him from the community. But it was true
of both boys and men that, when they had confronted
the beady, black glitter of Merlier's unfaltering
gaze, encountered the patent contempt of his rigid

[[12]]

p011 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p012w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p013

v?