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Page 63
"Who?" asked Ingmar.
"Why, Hellgum and Anna Lisa. They marched themselves down to
Clementsson's in the night and kidnapped Gunhild."
A cry of amazement escaped Ingmar.
"I'm beginning to think my Anna Lisa is married to a brigand!" said
the old man. "In the middle of the night they came and tapped on
Gunhild's window, and asked her why she wasn't at the Ingmar Farm.
She told them about her parents having locked her in. "'Twas Satan
who made 'em do it,' said Hellgum. All this her father and mother
overheard."
"Did they really?"
"Yes, they slept in the next room, and the door between was partly
open; so they heard all that Hellgum said to entice their daughter."
"But they could have sent him away."
"They felt that Gunhild should decide for herself. How could they
think she would want to leave them, after all they had done for
her? They lay there expecting her to say that she would never
desert her old parents."
"Did she go?"
"Yes, Hellgum wouldn't budge till the girl went along with them.
When Clementsson and his wife realized that she couldn't resist
Hellgum, they let her go. Some folks are like that, you see. In the
morning the mother regretted it, and begged the father to drive
down to the Ingmar Farm and get their daughter. 'No indeed!' he
said, 'I'll do nothing of the sort, and what's more, I never want
to set eyes on her again unless she comes home of her own accord.'
Then Mrs. Clementsson hurried down to the school to see if Gertrude
wouldn't go and talk to Gunhild."
"Did Gertrude go?"
"Yes; she tried to reason with Gunhild, but Gunhild wouldn't
listen."
"I have not seen Gunhild at our house," said Ingmar thoughtfully.
"No, for now she is back with her parents. It seems that when
Gertrude left Gunhild she met Hellgum. 'There stands the one who is
to blame for all this,' she thought, and then she went straight up
to him, and gave him a tongue lashing. She wouldn't have minded
striking him."
"Oh, Gertrude can talk all right," said Ingmar approvingly.
"She told Hellgum that he had behaved like a heathen warrior and
not as a Christian preacher, in skulking about like that in the
night and abducting a young girl."
"What did Hellgum say to that?"
"He stood quietly listening for a while; then he said as meek as
you please that she was right, he had acted in haste. And in the
afternoon he took Gunhild back to her parents and made everything
right again."
Ingmar glanced up at the old man with a smile. "Gertrude is
splendid," he said, "and Hellgum is a fine fellow, even if he is a
little eccentric."
"So that's the way you take it, eh? I thought you would wonder why
Hellgum had given in like that to Gertrude."
Ingmar did not reply to this.
After a moment's reflection the old man began again. "There are
many in the village who want to know on which side you stand."
"I don't see as it matters which party I belong to."
"Let me remind you of one thing," said the old man: "In this parish
we are accustomed to having somebody that we can look up to as a
leader. But now that Big Ingmar is gone, and the schoolmaster has
lost his power over the people, while the pastor, as you know, was
never any good at ruling, they run after Hellgum, and they're going
to follow him just as long as you choose to remain in the
background."
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