Tess got up again and faced them ... disgraced and outcast might be, but she must be loyal to her promise. "Don't ask me that, sir," she pleaded, bewildered, flinging a terrified glance toward the door. "I air goin' now, an'll never come no more, but don't ask me to say nothin', please." She turned into the aisle as Griggs stepped from the platform. She directed an appealing glance toward him that cut the man's heart through like a knife. "I want to go," she repeated. "Please!" "Not yet," broke in Waldstricker, grim-jawed. "It's the duty of this church to teach you a lesson if it can." Tess looked helplessly at the row of stern men. What did they intend to do to her? Oh, if they'd but let her go back to Daddy Skinner! "Please let me go home to my daddy," she pleaded faintly. "I'll never come no more, but I can't--I can't talk." Waldstricker walked toward her menacingly. "You've got to talk," he gritted, grasping her arm. "You've simply got to answer what the pastor just asked you." Tess flashed him a look of abhorrence. Oh, how she hated this man!... It seemed to her that he killed for the sake of killing ... tortured for the pure joy of it. She set her teeth hard on her under lip, shaking his hand from her arm. "I won't talk!" she cried. "You let go of me! See? You touch me again an'--an'--I'll--I'll--" She paused for some fitting threat. Would no one help her? No, not a friendly face met her searching gaze. If she could get to the door--out into the snow, under God's grey sky! But as if divining her intention, the elders gathered in an accusing squad in front of her. Frederick remained in his chair by the window, apparently oblivious to the tragedy being enacted in his presence. "I wish ye'd let me go home to my Daddy Skinner," she prayed again. Her curls fell in a cluster over either shoulder as she sank to her knees in the aisle. Waldstricker whirled upon Griggs. "_Make_ her tell us what we must know," he insisted, "or by the God that rules this house, I'll have her sent to some place where incorrigible girls go!" Incorrigible girls! He had said incorrigible girls of her, Tessibel Skinner, who obeyed even a glance from any one she loved. Desperately, she made a direct appeal to him. "My daddy's near dead, Mr. Waldstricker. Please don't send me away from him, not yet--not just yet." "Then answer what we ask of you, child," interjected the minister. "I think Brother Waldstricker has some questions to ask you." Waldstricker drew a paper from his pocket. "How old are you, Tessibel Skinner?" he demanded. "Over half past sixteen," whispered the girl's white lips. She _was_ over half past sixteen. There was no harm in telling that. It wouldn't hurt Frederick for the church people to know her age. "Are you a member of this church?" Tessibel lifted her head. "Ye all know I air." "Then answer this," shouted Eb. "Who is the man that made you unfit for decent people to speak to?"