diff options
Diffstat (limited to '19776.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 19776.txt | 4523 |
1 files changed, 4523 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/19776.txt b/19776.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..95801cb --- /dev/null +++ b/19776.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4523 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ordeal, by Charles Egbert Craddock + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Ordeal + A Mountain Romance of Tennessee + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock + +Illustrator: Douglas Duer + +Release Date: November 13, 2006 [EBook #19776] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORDEAL *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +[Illustration: A SWIFT, ERECT FIGURE STEPPED INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD + _Page 101_] + + + + + THE ORDEAL + + A MOUNTAIN ROMANCE OF TENNESSEE + + + BY + CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK + + + + AUTHOR OF + + "THE RAID OF THE GUERILLA," + "THE PROPHET OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS," + "THE FAIR MISSISSIPPIAN," ETC. + + + WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR BY DOUGLAS DUER + + + PHILADELPHIA & LONDON + J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + 1912 + + + COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + + + PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1912 + + + PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS + PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + + This paragraph in Chapter II. is obviously a printer's error: + + Here they found a change of sentiment prevailing. Although failing + in no observance of courtesy, Mrs. Briscoe had been a little less + than complaisant toward the departed guest. This had been vaguely + perceptible to Briscoe at the time, but now she gency constrained + him. + + In addition, a Table of Contents has been created for the convenience + of the reader. + + + + + Contents + + I. + II. + III. + IV. + V. + VI. + VII. + VIII. + IX. + X. + XI. + XII. + XIII. + XIV. + + + + + THE ORDEAL + + + + + I. + + +Nowhere could the idea of peace be more serenely, more majestically, +expressed. The lofty purple mountains limited the horizon, and in their +multitude and imposing symmetry bespoke the vast intentions of beneficent +creation. The valley, glooming low, harbored all the shadows. The air was +still, the sky as pellucid as crystal, and where a crag projected boldly +from the forests, the growths of balsam fir extending almost to the +brink, it seemed as if the myriad fibres of the summit-line of foliage +might be counted, so finely drawn, so individual, was each against the +azure. Below the boughs the road swept along the crest of the crag and +thence curved inward, and one surveying the scene from the windows of a +bungalow at no great distance could look straight beyond the point of the +precipice and into the heart of the sunset, still aflare about the west. + +But the realization of solitude was poignant and might well foster fear. +It was too wild a country, many people said, for quasi-strangers, and the +Briscoes were not justified in lingering so long at their summer cottage +here in the Great Smoky Mountains after the hotel of the neighboring +springs was closed for the season, and its guests and employees all +vanished town-ward. Hitherto, however, the Briscoes had flouted the +suggestion, protesting that this and not the spring was the "sweet o' the +year." The autumn always found the fires flaring on the cosy hearths of +their pretty bungalow, and they were wont to gaze entranced on the +chromatic pageantry of the forests as the season waned. Presently the +Indian summer would steal upon them unaware, with its wild sweet airs, +the burnished glamours of its soft red sun, its dreamy, poetic, +amethystine haze. Now, too, came the crowning opportunity of sylvan +sport. There were deer to stalk and to course with horses, hounds, and +horns; wild turkeys and mountain grouse to try the aim and tax the +pedestrianism of the hunter; bears had not yet gone into winter quarters, +and were mast-fed and fat; even a shot at a wolf, slyly marauding, was no +infrequent incident, and Edward Briscoe thought the place in autumn an +elysium for a sportsman. + +He had to-day the prospect of a comrade in these delights from his own +city home and of his own rank in life, despite the desertion of the big +frame hotel on the bluff, but it was not the enticement of rod and gun +that had brought Julian Bayne suddenly and unexpectedly to the mountains. +His host and cousin, Edward Briscoe, was his co-executor in a kinsman's +will, and in the settlement of the estate the policy of granting a +certain power of attorney necessitated a conference more confidential +than could be safely compassed by correspondence. They discussed this as +they sat in the spacious reception hall, and had Bayne been less +preoccupied he must have noticed at once the embarrassment, nay, the look +of absolute dismay, with which Briscoe had risen to receive him, when, +unannounced, he appeared in the doorway as abruptly as if he had fallen +from the clouds. As it was, the brief colloquy on the business interests +that had brought him hither was almost concluded before the problem of +his host's manner began to intrude on Bayne's consciousness. Briscoe's +broad, florid, genial countenance expressed an unaccountable disquietude; +a flush had mounted to his forehead, which was elongated by his premature +baldness; he was pulling nervously at his long dark mustache, which +matched in tint the silky fringe of hair encircling his polished crown; +his eyes, round and brown, and glossy as a chestnut, wandered +inattentively. He did not contend on small points of feasibility, +according to his wont--for he was of an argumentative habit of mind--in +fact, his acquiescence in every detail proposed was so complete and so +unexpected that Bayne, with half his urgency unsaid, came to the end of +his proposition with as precipitate an effect as if he had stumbled upon +it in the dark. + +"Well, that's agreed, is it? Easily settled! I really need not have +come--though"--with a complaisant after-thought--"it is a pleasure to +look in on you in your woodland haunts." + +Briscoe suddenly leaned forward from his easy chair and laid his hand on +his cousin's knee. + +"Julian," he said anxiously, "I hate to tell you--but my wife has got +that woman here." + +Bayne stared, blankly unresponsive. "What woman?" he asked wonderingly. + +"Mrs. Royston, you know--Lillian Marable, that was." + +Bayne looked as if suddenly checked in headlong speed--startled, almost +stunned. The blood rushed in a tumultuous flood to his thin cheeks, then +receded, leaving his face mottled red and white. His steel-gray eyes +suddenly glowed like hot metal. There was a moment of tense silence; then +he said, his voice steady and controlled, his manner stiff but not +without dignity, "Pray do not allow that to discompose you. She is +nothing to me." + +"I know--I know, of course. I would not have mentioned it, but I feared +an unexpected meeting might embarrass you, here in this seclusion where +you cannot avoid each other." + +"You need not have troubled yourself," Bayne protested, looking fixedly +at his cigar as he touched off the long ash with a delicate fillip. + +There was a great contrast in the aspect of the two, which accorded with +their obvious differences of mind and temperament. Briscoe, a man of +wealth and leisure, portly and rubicund, was in hunting togs, with +gaiters, knickers, jacket, and negligee shirt, while Bayne, with no trace +of the disorder incident to a long journey by primitive methods of +transportation, was as elaborately groomed and as accurately costumed in +his trig, dark brown, business suit as if he had just stepped from the +elevator of the sky-scraper where his offices as a broker were located. +His manner distinctly intimated that the subject was dismissed, but +Briscoe, who had as kindly a heart as ever beat, was nothing of a +diplomat. He set forth heavily to justify himself. + +"You see--knowing that you were once in love with her----" + +"Oh, no, my dear fellow," Bayne hastily interrupted; "I never loved +_her_. I loved only my own dream of one fair woman. It did not come true, +that's all." + +Briscoe seemed somewhat reassured, but in the pervasive awkwardness of +his plight as host of both parties he could not quit the subject. "Just +so," he acquiesced gladly; "a mere dream--and a dream can make no +sensible man unhappy." + +Bayne laughed with a tense note of satire. "Well, the awakening was a +rude jar, I must confess." + +For it had been no ordinary termination of an unhappy love affair. It +befell within a fortnight of the date set for the prospective marriage. +All the details of publicity were complete: the cards were out; the +"society columns" of the local journals had revelled in the plans of the +event; the gold and silver shower of the bridal presents was raining +down. The determining cause of the catastrophe was never quite clear to +the community--whether a lover's quarrel with disproportionate +consequences, by reason of the marplot activities of a mercenary relative +of the lady's, advocating the interests of a sudden opportunity of +greater wealth and station; or her foolish revenge for a fancied slight; +or simply her sheer inconstancy in a change of mind and heart. At all +events, without a word of warning, Julian Bayne, five years before, had +the unique experience of reading in a morning paper the notice of the +marriage of his promised bride to another man, and of sustaining with +what grace he might the role of a jilted lover amidst the ruins of his +nuptial preparations. + +In the estimation of the judicious, he had made a happy escape, for the +cruelty involved in the lady's methods and the careless flout of the +opinion of the sober, decorous world were not _indicia_ of worthy +traits; but he was of sensitive fibre, and tingled and winced with the +consciousness of the cheap gibe and the finger of scorn. He often said to +himself then, however, as now to the friend of his inmost thought, "I +would not be bound to a woman capable of such treachery for----" + +Words failed him, inadequate, though he spoke calmly. His face had +resumed its habitual warm pallor. His clear-cut features, something too +sharply defined for absolute regularity, with the unassertive effect of +his straight auburn hair, his deliberate, contemplative glance, his +reserved, high-bred look, the quiet decorum of his manner, were not +suggestive of the tumult of his inner consciousness, and the +unresponsiveness of his aspect baffled Briscoe. With some inapposite, +impulsive warmth he protested: "But she has had bitter cause for +repentance, Julian. Royston was a brute. The only decent thing he ever +did was dying! She has been an awfully unhappy woman. I know you will be +sorry for that." + +"Neither glad nor sorry. She is nothing to me. Not because she dealt me a +blow after a very unfair fashion, but because she is nothing in herself +that I could really care for. She has no delicate sensibilities, no fine +perceptions; she is incapable of constancy. Don't you understand? She has +no capacity to feel." + +Briscoe had a look of extenuating distress--a sentiment of loyalty to his +fair guest. "Oh, well, now, she is devoted to her child--a most loving +mother." + +"Certainly, she may grow in grace--let us hope that she will! And now +suppose we talk a little about that wonderful magazine shot-gun you have +so often offered to lend me. This is my chance to prove its values--the +only time in the last five years that I could spare a week from the +office." + +He rose and turned with his easy, lithe grace towards the gun-rack, but +Briscoe sat still in pondering dismay. For it was obvious that Julian +Bayne had no intention of soon relaxing the tension of the situation by +the elimination of the presence of the jilted lover. Pride, indeed, +forbade his flight. His self-respect clamored for recognition. There was +no cause for humiliation in his consciousness, and he could not consent +to abase himself before the untoward and discordant facts. He did not +disguise from himself, however, that, if he might have chosen earlier, he +would have avoided the ordeal of the meeting, from which he shrank in +anticipation. Already he was poignantly conscious of the heavy draughts +it made on his composure, and he raged inwardly to note how his fingers +trembled as he stood before the rack of guns, now and again a weapon in +his hands, feigning an interest in examining the construction first of +one and then of another. + +The entire place suggested a devotion to sport and whole-souled +hospitality. The vast spread of the autumnal landscape, in wonderful +clarity and depth of tint, was visible through the large, open front +doors. There was an effort to maintain in this apartment the aspect in +some sort of a lodge in the wilderness; the splendid antlers over the +mantel-piece, beneath which, in a deep stone chimney-place, a fire of +logs smouldered; the golden eagle, triumph of taxidermy, poising his +wings full-spread above the landing of the somewhat massive staircase; +the rack of weapons--rifles, shot-guns, hunting-knives; the game-bags; +the decoration of the walls, showing the mask and brush of many a fox, +and the iridescent wings of scores of wild-fowl; the rugs scattered about +made of the pelts of wolves, catamounts, and bears of the region--all +served to contribute to the sylvan effect. But the glister of the +hardwood floor, waxed and polished; the luxury of the easy chairs and +sofas; the centre-table strewn with magazines and papers, beneath a large +lamp of rare and rich ware; the delicate aroma of expensive cigars, were +of negative, if not discordant, suggestion, and bespoke the more +sophisticated proclivities and training of the owner. + +In the interval of awkward silence, Briscoe remained motionless in his +easy chair, a rueful reflectiveness on his genial face incongruous with +its habitual expression. When a sudden disconcerted intentness developed +upon it, Bayne, every instinct on the alert, took instant heed of the +change. The obvious accession of dismay betokened the increasing +acuteness of the crisis, and Briscoe's attitude, as of helpless +paralysis, stricken as it were into stone as he gazed toward the door, +heralded an approach. + +There were light footfalls on the veranda, a sudden shadow at the door. +The next moment two ladies were entering, their hands full of autumn +leaves, trophies of their long walk. Bayne, summoning to his aid all the +conservative influences of pride and self-respect, was able to maintain +an aspect of grave composure as, fully warned, he turned to meet them. +Nevertheless, the element of surprise to the new-comers rendered it an +awkward moment to all the group. Mrs. Briscoe, considerably in advance +of her guest, paled at the sight of him, and, silent and visibly +shocked, paused as abruptly as if she beheld a ghost. It was a most +uncharacteristic reception, for she was of a gracious and engaging +personality and a stately type of beauty. She was tall and graceful, +about thirty years of age, in full bloom, so to speak, extremely fair, +the delicacy of her complexion enhanced by the contrast with her dark +hair worn _en pompadour_. Her gown of dark red cloth, elaborately +braided and with narrow borders of otter fur, had a rich depth of color +which accorded with her sumptuous endowments. + +The role of cordial hostess she was wont to play with especial +acceptability, but now she had lost its every line, its most trivial +patter. She said not one word as Bayne clasped her hand with the +conventional greeting, but only looked at him with her hazel eyes at once +remonstrant, pleading, compassionate. + +The moment of vantage, short as it was, afforded by the precedence of her +hostess in the matter of salutation, gave Mrs. Royston the opportunity to +catch her breath and find her voice. She had not seen this man since, +five years ago, he had left her home her expectant bridegroom. But beyond +a fluctuating flush in her fair cheek, a dilation of her blue eyes, a +flutter of those eyelids which he had always esteemed a special point of +her beauty, being so smooth, so full, so darkly lashed, she conserved an +ostensible calm, although she felt the glance of his eye as sensitively +as red hot steel. But he--as he dropped the hand of his hostess and +advanced toward her guest--in one moment his fictitious composure +deserted him. For this was not the widow in weeds whom he had expected to +see, not the woman of whom he had trained himself to think, when he must +needs think of her at all, as another man's wife. This was his own fair +Past, the unfulfilled promise of his future, the girl he had adored, the +ideal wife whom he had worshipped in his cherished dreams! Just as always +heretofore, she stood now, so fresh, so fair, so candid-seeming, wearing +her white serge gown with her usual distinction, a spray of golden-rod +fastened in her mass of yellow hair that glowed with a sheen of differing +gold. How had time spared her! How had griefs left her scathless! It was +an effort to reflect that two years and more had elapsed since he had +read the obituary of Archibald Royston, with scornful amusement to mark +the grotesque lie to the living in the fulsome tribute to the dead. + +In some sort, Bayne was prepared for change, for the new identity that +the strange falling out of events betokened. He had never realized her, +he had never divined her character, he would have said. She was now, as +she had always been, an absolute stranger. But this little hand--ah, he +knew it well! How often it had lain in his clasp, and once more every +fibre thrilled at its touch. With all his resolution, he could not +restrain the flush that mounted to his brow, the responsive quiver in his +voice as he murmured her name, the name of Archibald Royston's wife, so +repugnant to his lips. He was in a state of revolt against himself, his +self-betrayal, to realize that she and the two Briscoes could not fail to +mark his confusion, attributing his emotion to whatsoever cause they +would. Indeed, in the genial altruism of host, Briscoe had succeeded in +breaking from the thrall of embarrassment to shield and save the +situation. + +"Why, here is Archie!" he exclaimed resonantly. "How are _you_, old +man?" His clear tones were vibrant with disproportionate elation at the +prospect of a diversion of the painful interest of the scene. + +For at the moment a fine blond boy of three years burst in at the rear +door of the apartment and came running to meet Mrs. Royston, just +apprised, doubtless, of her return from her afternoon stroll. He looked +very fresh in his white linen dress, his red leather belt, and twinkling +red shoes. With the independent nonchalance of childhood, he took no note +of the outstretched arms and blandishing smile of Mr. Briscoe, who sought +to intercept him, but made directly toward his mother. His gleaming +reflection sped along in the polished, mirroring floor, but all at once +both semblance and substance paused. With a sudden thought the child put +his dimpled hands over his smiling pink face, while his blue eyes danced +merrily between the tips of his fingers. Then he advanced again, lunging +slowly along, uttering the while a menacing "Mew! Mew! Mew!" + +His mother had no heart for his fun. She could scarcely summon the +strength and attention requisite for this fantastic infantile foolery +when all her capacities were enlisted to support her dignity in the +presence of this man, necessarily inimical, censorious, critical, who had +once meant so much in her life. But she could not rebuff the baby! She +would not humble his spirit! She must enter into his jest, whatever the +effort cost her. + +It was poor acting certainly. She affected fright, as the child expected. +She cowered dismayed. "Oh, oh!" she cried, watching his erratic approach. +"What _is_ that?" She pretended flight, but sank into a chair, apparently +overpowered. She gazed down at the child with the lifted hands of horror +as he clasped the folds of her gown, his eyes shining with fun, his teeth +glittering between his red lips, his laughter rippling with delight. "Me +scared oo,' mamma," he squealed ecstatically. "Oo didn't know what me +was. Oo t'ought me was a great big bear." + +Whereupon she looked down at him with amazed recognition. "Is it _you_, +Archie? Dear me, I thought it was a great big bear." + +"Mew! Mew! Mew!" he repeated in joy. + +"Why, Archie, old man, bears don't mew!" cried the genial Briscoe, +recovering his equanimity. "Bears _growl_--didn't you know that?" + +He straightway began to teach the little fellow a very noisy and +truculent vocalization of the ursine type, which Archie, who was a great +favorite with his host, eagerly imitated, Briscoe appearing throughout +the duet at the pitiable disadvantage of the adult imbecile disporting +himself in infantile wise. + +The tumult of the child's entrance had the effect of relaxing for Briscoe +the tension of the situation, but when Archie's nurse appeared at the +door and he ran away at her summons, the host looked apprehensively about +the circle as the party ranged themselves around the fire, its glow +beginning to be welcome in the increasing chill of the evening. +Ordinarily, this was a household of hilarious temperament. Life had been +good to the Briscoes, and they loved it. They were fond of rich viands, +old wines, genial talk, good stories, practical jests, music, and sport; +the wife herself being more than a fair shot, a capital whip, and a +famous horsewoman. Even when there was no stranger within the gates, the +fires would flare merrily till midnight, the old songs echo, and the +hours speed away on winged sandals. But this evening neither host nor +hostess could originate a sentence in the presence of what seemed to +their sentimental persuasions the awful tragedy of two hearts. Indeed, +conversation on ordinary lines would have been impossible, but that Bayne +with an infinite self-confidence, as it seemed to Mrs. Briscoe, took the +centre of the stage and held it. All Bayne's spirit was up! The poise and +reserve of his nature, his habit of sedulous self-control, were +reasserted. He could scarcely forgive himself their momentary lapse. He +felt it insupportable that he should not have held his voice to normal +steadiness, his pulses to their wonted calm, in meeting again this woman +who had wrought him such signal injury, who had put upon him such +insufferable indignity. Surely he could feel naught for her but the +rancor she had earned! From the beginning, she had been all siren, all +deceit. She was but the semblance, the figment, of his foolish dream, and +why should the dream move him still, shattered as it was by the torturing +realities of the truth? Why must he needs bring tribute to her powers, +flatter her ascendency in his life, by faltering before her casual +presence? He rallied all his forces. He silently swore a mighty oath that +he at least would take note of his own dignity, that he would deport +himself with a due sense of his meed of self-respect. Though with a +glittering eye and a strong flush on his cheek, he conserved a deliberate +incidental manner, and maintained a pose of extreme interest in his own +prelection as, seated in an arm-chair before the fire he began to talk +with a very definite intention of a quiet self-assertion, of absorbing +and controlling the conversation. He described at great length the +incidents of his trip hither, and descanted on the industrial and +political conditions of east Tennessee. This brought him by an easy +transition to an analysis of the peculiar traits of its mountain +population, which included presently their remarkable idiosyncrasies of +speech. When he was fairly launched on this theme, which was of genuine +interest to him, for he had long fostered a linguistic fad, all danger of +awkward silence or significant pauses was eliminated. He found that +Briscoe could furnish him with some fresh points in comparative +philology, to his surprise and gratification, for he never expected aught +bookish of his host. But like men of his type, Briscoe was a close +observer and learned of the passing phase of life. He took issue again +and again with the deductions of the traveller. + +"You think it queer that they use 'you-uns' in the singular number? Then +why do you use '_you_' in the singular number? I haven't heard you +'thou-ing' around here this evening. Just as grammatical in that respect +as you are! And on the same principle, why do you say 'you were' to me +instead of 'you was,' which would be more singular--ha! ha! ha!" + +"What _I_ think so curious is the double-barrelled pronouns themselves, +'you-uns' and 'we-uns.'" Mrs. Royston forced herself to take part in the +colloquy at the first opportunity. + +"Not at all queer," Bayne promptly contended. "The correlatives of that +locution appear in other languages. The French has _nous autres_, the +Italian, _noi altri_, the Spanish, _nosotros_." + +"And pray consider our own classical 'we-all,'" Mrs. Briscoe gayly +interposed, surprised that she could pluck up the spirit for this +interruption. + +"More interesting to me is the survival in this sequestered region of old +English words and significations, altogether obsolete elsewhere," +continued Bayne. "Now, when I asked the driver yesterday the name of a +very symmetrical eminence in the midst of the ranges he said it had no +name, that it was no mountain--it was just the 'moniment' of a little +ridge, meaning the image, the simulacrum. This is Spenser's usage." + +"Look here, Julian," said Briscoe, rising suddenly, all his wonted +bluff self again, "if you fire off any more of your philologic wisdom +at us I'll throw you over the cliff. We are skilled in the _use_ of +words--honest, straight talk--not their dissection. I want to get at +something that we can all enjoy. Tune this violin and come and play some +of those lovely old things that you and Gladys used to practise +together." + +"Yes, yes, indeed," exclaimed Mrs. Briscoe cordially, and, rising +promptly, she approached the piano. + +Briscoe also started toward the instrument, to open it for her. "Mrs. +Royston and I will be a generous audience and applaud enthusiastically. +But stop--what is that?" + +He suddenly paused, the lid of the piano half lifted in his hands, the +scattered sheet music falling in a rustling shower to the floor. + +"What _is_ that?" he reiterated, motionless and hearkening. + + + + + II. + + +A voice was calling from out the rising mists, calling again and again, +hailing the house. Briscoe dropped the lid of the piano and strode to the +door, followed by Bayne, the ladies standing irresolute on the hearthrug +and gazing apprehensively after them. + +The sudden changes incident to the mountain atmosphere were evidenced in +the opaque density of the fog that had ensued on the crystalline +clearness of the sunset. It hung like a curtain from the zenith to the +depths of the valley, obscuring all the world. It had climbed the cliffs; +it was shifting in and out among the pillars of the veranda; it even +crossed the threshold as the door was opened, then shrank back +ghostly-wise, dissolving at the touch of the warm home radiance. As the +lamp-light flickered out, illuminating its pervasive pallor, the +new-comer urged a very lame horse to the steps of the veranda. The two +friends waiting within looked at each other in uncertainty as to their +policy in admitting the stranger. Then as his rapid footfalls sounded on +the veranda, and a stalwart figure appeared in the doorway, Briscoe +tilted the shade of the lamp on the table to throw its glare full on the +new-comer's face, and broke forth with an acclaim of recognition and +welcome. + +To be sure, he was but a casual acquaintance, and Briscoe's cordiality +owed something of its fervor to his relief to find that the visitor was +of no untoward antecedents and intentions. An old school-fellow he had +been long ago in their distant city home, who chanced to be in the +mountains on a flying trip--no belated summer sojourner, no +pleasure-seeker, but concerned with business, and business of the +grimmest monitions. A brisk, breezy presence he had, his cheeks tingling +red from the burning of the wind and sun and the speed of his ride. He +was tall and active, thirty-five years of age perhaps, with a singularly +keen eye and an air intimating much decision of character, of which he +stood in need for he was a deputy collector of the revenue service, and +in the midst of a dangerous moonshining raid his horse had gone dead +lame. + +"I hardly expected to find you still here at this season," he said to +Briscoe, congratulating himself, "but I took the chances. You must lend +me a horse." + +Briscoe's instincts of hospitality were paramount, and he declared that +he would not allow the new-comer to depart so summarily. He must stay and +dine; he must stay the night; he must join the hunt that was planned for +to-morrow--a first-rate gun was at his disposal. + +"I'll get you back to Glaston without delay. I'll let you drive the +dog-cart with Fairy-foot, the prettiest bit of horse-flesh that ever wore +a shoe--trots to beat the band! You can hunt all day with Bayne and me, +and a little before sunset you can start for Shaftesville, and she will +whisk you there in an hour and a quarter, twenty miles. You needn't start +till five o'clock to catch the seven-ten train, with lots of time to +spare." + +In spite of all denial, the telephone bell was presently jangling as +Briscoe rang up the passenger-agent at the railroad depot in the little +town of Shaftesville, twenty miles away. + +"Twenty-six--yes, Central, I _did_ say twenty-six!... Hello, Tucker, is +that you?... See here--Mr. Frank Dean will be there with the dog-cart +and Fairy-foot to-morrow evening to catch the seven-ten train for +Glaston--leaves here about an hour by sun. Will you do me the favor to +hire a responsible party there to bring the mare back?... Can't spare +a man from here. Lost two of my dogs--yes, my fine, full-blooded +hounds--you remember Damon and Pythias? Strayed off from the pack, and +all hands and the cook have got to get out straightway and hunt them. +Wolves--awfully afraid they will get the hounds. Outnumber them and pull +them down--fierce at this season.... Yes, I hope so! You'll look out for +Fairy-foot?... Thanks, awfully.... Yes, _he_ would do--careful fellow! +Tell him to drive slowly coming back. Dean will race her down there at +the top of her speed. (Hush up, Frank, _I_ know what I am talking about.) +Mr. Dean will be there all right. Thank you very much. Do as much for you +some day. Goo'-by." + +But Dean's protests were serious. His duties admitted of no trifling. He +wanted no such superfine commodity as Fairy-foot, but a horse stout and +sound he must have to-night and the favor of leaving his disabled steed +in Briscoe's stable. He explained that his misfortune in laming the horse +and the fog combined had separated him from the revenue posse just from a +secluded cove, where his men had discovered and raided an illicit +distillery in a cavern, cutting the copper still and worm to bits, +demolishing the furnace and fermenters, the flake-stand and thumper, +destroying considerable store of mash and beer and singlings, and seizing +and making off with a barrel of the completed product. A fine and +successful adventure it might have seemed, but there were no arrests. The +moonshiners had fled the vicinity. For aught the officer had to show for +it, the "wild-cat" was a spontaneous production of the soil. He made +himself very merry over this phase of the affair, when seated at the +prettily appointed dinner table of the bungalow, and declared that +however the marshal might regard the matter, he could not call it a +"water-haul." + +The repast concluded, he insisted that he must needs be immediately in +the saddle again. He scarcely stayed for a puff of an after-dinner cigar, +and when he had bidden the ladies adieu both Bayne and Briscoe went with +him to the stable, to assist in the selection of a horse suited to his +needs. Little Archie ran after them, begging to be admitted to their +company. Briscoe at once caught him up to his shoulder, and there he was +perched, wisely overlooking the choice of an animal sound and fresh and +strong as the three men made the tour from stall to stall, preceded by a +brisk negro groom, swinging a lantern to show the points of each horse +under discussion. + +In three minutes the revenue officer, mounted once more, tramped out into +the shivering mists and the black night. The damp fallen leaves deadened +the sound of departing hoofs; the obscurities closed about him, and he +vanished from the scene, leaving not a trace of his transitory presence. + +Briscoe lingered in the stable, finding a jovial satisfaction in the +delight of little Archie in the unaccustomed experience, for the child +had the time of his life that melancholy sombre night in the solitudes of +the great mountains. His stentorian shouts and laughter were as bluff as +if he were ten years old, and as boisterous as if he were drunk besides. +Briscoe had perched him on the back of a horse, where he feigned to ride +at breakneck speed, and his cries of "Gee!" "Dullup!" "G'long!" rang out +imperiously in the sad, murky atmosphere and echoed back, shrilly sweet, +from the great crags. The stable lantern showed him thus gallantly +mounted, against the purple and brown shadows of the background, his +white linen frock clasped low by his red leather belt, his cherubic legs, +with his short half hose and his red shoes, sticking stiffly out at an +angle of forty-five degrees, his golden curls blowing high on his head, +his face pink with joy and laughter. The light shone too in the big, +astonished eyes of the fine animal he bestrode, now and then turning his +head inquisitively toward Briscoe--who stood close by with a cautious +grasp on the skirts of the little boy--as if wondering to feel the clutch +of the infantile hands on his mane and the tempestuous beat of the little +feet as Archie cried out his urgency to speed. + +Archie would not willingly have relinquished this joy till dawn, and the +problem how to get him peaceably off the horse became critical. He had +repeatedly declined to dismount, when at length a lucky inspiration +visited Briscoe. The amiable host called for an ear of corn, and with +this he lured the little horseman to descend, in order to feed a "poor +pig" represented as in the last stages of famine and dependent solely on +the ministrations of the small guest. Here renewed delights expanded, for +the "poor pig" became lively and almost "gamesome," being greatly +astonished by the light and men and the repast at this hour of the night. +As he was one of those gormands who decline no good thing, he affably +accepted Archie's offering, so graciously indeed that the little fellow +called for another ear of corn more amply to relieve the porcine +distresses, the detail of which had much appealed to his tender heart. It +seemed as if the choice of the good Mr. Briscoe lay between the fiction +of riding an endless race or playing the Samaritan to the afflicted pig, +when in the midst of Archie's noisy beatitudes sleep fell upon him +unaware, like a thief in the night. As he waited for the groom to +reappear with the second relay of refreshments, Briscoe felt the tense +little body in his clasp grow limp and collapse; the eager head with its +long golden curls drooped down on his shoulder; the shout, already +projected on the air, quavered and failed midway, giving place to a +deep-drawn sigh, and young Royston was fairly eclipsed for the night, +translated doubtless to an unexplored land of dreams where horses and +pigs and revenue officers and mountains ran riot together "in much +admired disorder." Briscoe bore him tenderly in his arms to the house, +and, after transferring him to his nurse, rejoined with Bayne the ladies +in the hall. + +Here they found a change of sentiment prevailing. Although failing in no +observance of courtesy, Mrs. Briscoe had been a little less than +complaisant toward the departed guest. This had been vaguely perceptible +to Briscoe at the time, but now she gency constrained him." + +"I don't see why you should have asked him to dine," she said to her +husband. "He was difficult to persuade, and only your urgency constrained +him." + +Her face was uncharacteristically petulant and anxious as she stood on +the broad hearth at one side of the massive mantelpiece, one hand lifted +to the high shelf; her red cloth gown with the amber-tinted gleams of the +lines of otter fur showed richly in the blended light of fire and lamp. +Her eyes seemed to shrink from the window, at which nevertheless she +glanced ever and anon. + +"I delight in the solitude here, and I have never felt afraid, but I +think that since this disastrous raid that revenue officer is in danger +in this region from the moonshiners, and that his presence at our house +will bring enmity on us. It really makes me apprehensive. It was not +prudent to entertain him, and certainly not at all necessary--it was +almost against his will, in fact." + +"Well, well, he is gone now," returned Briscoe easily, lifting the lid of +the piano and beginning to play a favorite air. But she would not quit +the subject. + +"While you three were at the stable I thought I heard a step on the +veranda--you need not laugh--Lillian heard it as well as I. Then, when +you were so long coming back, I went upstairs to get a little shawl to +send out to you to put over Archie as you came across the yard--the mists +are so dank--and I saw--I am _sure_ I saw--just for a minute--a light +flicker from the hotel across the ravine." + +Briscoe, his hands crashing out involuntarily a discordant chord, looked +over his shoulder with widening eyes. "Why, Gladys, there is not a soul +in the hotel now!" + +"That is why the light there seemed so strange." + +"Besides, you know, you _couldn't_ have seen a light for the mists." + +"The mists were shifting; they rose and then closed in again. Ask +Lillian--she happened to be standing at the window there, and she said +she saw the stars for a few moments." + +"_Now, now, now!_" exclaimed Briscoe remonstrantly, rising and coming +toward the hearth. "You two are trying to get up a panic, which means +that this delicious season in the mountains is at an end for us, and we +must go back to town. Why can't you understand that Mrs. Royston saw the +stars and perhaps a glimpse of the moon, and that then you both saw the +glimmer of their reflection on the glass of the windows at the vacant +hotel. Is there anything wonderful in that? I appeal to Julian." + +"I don't know anything about the conditions here, but certainly that +explanation sounds very plausible. As to the step on the veranda, Ned and +I can take our revolvers and ascertain if anyone is prowling about." + +The proposition appealed to Mrs. Briscoe, and she was grateful for the +suggestion, since it served, however illogically, to soothe her nerves. +She looked at Bayne very kindly when he came in with his host, from the +dripping densities of the fog, his face shining like marble with the +pervasive moisture, his pistol in his hand, declaring that there was +absolutely nothing astir. But indeed there was more than kind +consideration in Mrs. Briscoe's look; there was question, speculation, an +accession of interest, and he was quick to note an obvious, though +indefinable, change in Mrs. Royston's eyes as they rested upon him. She +had spent the greater portion of the evening tete-a-tete with her +hostess, the men being with the horses. He was suddenly convinced that +meantime he had been the theme of conversation between the two, and--the +thought appalled him!--Mrs. Briscoe had persuaded her friend that to see +again the woman who had enthralled him of yore was the lure that had +brought him so unexpectedly to this solitude of the mountains. His object +was a matter of business, they had been told, to be sure, but "business" +is an elastic and comprehensive term, and in fact, in view of the +convenience of mail facilities, it might well cloak a subterfuge. +Naturally, the men had not divulged to the women the nature of the +business, more especially since it concerned the qualifications of a +prospective attorney-in-fact. This interpretation of his stay Bayne had +not foreseen for one moment. His whole being revolted against the +assumption--that he should languish again at the feet of this traitress; +that he should open once more his heart to be the target of her poisonous +arrows; that he should drag his pride, his honest self-respect, in the +dust of humiliation! How could they be so dull, so dense, as to harbor +such a folly? The thought stung him with an actual venom; it would not +let him sleep; and when toward dawn he fell into a troubled stupor, half +waking, half dreaming, the torpid state was so pervaded with her image, +the sound of her voice, that he wrested himself from it with a conscious +wrench and rose betimes, doubtful if, in the face of this preposterous +persuasion, he could so command his resolution as to continue his stay as +he had planned. + + + + + III. + + +On descending the stairs, Bayne found the fire newly alight in the hall, +burning with that spare, clear brilliancy that the recent removal of +ashes imparts to a wood fire. All the world was still beclouded with +mists, and the windows and doors looked forth on a blank white +nullity--as inexpressive, as enigmatical, as the unwritten page of the +unformulated future itself. The present seemed eliminated; he stood as it +were in the atmosphere of other days. But whither had blown the incense +of that happy time? The lights on the shrine had dwindled to extinction! +What had befallen his strong young hopes, his faith, his inspiration, +that they had exhaled and left the air vapid and listless? He was +conscious that he was no more the man who used to await her coming, +expectant, his eyes on the door. He had now scarcely a pulse in common +with that ardent young identity he remembered as himself--his convictions +of the nobler endowments of human nature; his candid unreserve with his +fellows; his aspirations toward a fair and worthy future; his docile, +sweet, almost humble content with such share of the good things of this +life as had been vouchsafed him; his strength, as "with the strength of +ten," to labor night and day with the impetus of his sanctified impulses; +but, above all, his love, that had consecrated his life, his love for +this woman who he believed--poor young fool!--loved him. How could five +years work such change? World-worn he was and a-weary, casuistic, +cautious, successful in a sort as the logical result of the exercise of +sound commercial principles and more than fair abilities, but caring less +and less for success since its possession had only the inherent values of +gain and was hallowed by no sweet and holy expectation of bestowal. He +could have wept for the metamorphosis! Whatever he might yet become, he +could never be again this self. This bright, full-pulsed identity was +dead--dead for all time! Icarus-like, he had fallen midway in a flight +that under other conditions might have been long and strong and +sustained, and he bemoaned his broken wings. + +So much depression of spirit was in his attitude, even listless despair, +as he stood in the vacant apartment, looking down at the silver bowl on +the table, filled with white roses and galax leaves, freshly gathered; so +much of the thought in his mind was expressed in his face, distinct and +definite in the firelight, despite the clouds at the dim window, that +Lillian Royston, descending the stair unperceived, read in its lineaments +an illuminated text of the past. + +"Oh, Julian, Julian, I was cruel to you--I was cruel to you!" she cried +out impulsively in a poignant voice. + +He started violently at the sound, coming back indeed through the years. +He looked up at her, seeing as in a dream her slim figure clad in a gray +cloth gown, on the landing of the stair. Her face was soft and young and +wistful; her aspect had conquered the years; she was again the girl he +knew of old, whom he had fancied he had loved, crying out in the +constraining impetus of a genuine emotion, "I was cruel to you! I was +cruel to you!" + +The next moment he was all himself of to-day--cool, confident, serene, +with that suggestion of dash and vigor that characterized his movements. +"Why, don't mention it, I beg," he said with a quiet laugh and his +smooth, incidental society manner, as if it were indeed a matter of +trifling consequence. Then, "I am sure neither of us has anything to +regret." The last sentence he thought a bit enigmatical, and he said to +Briscoe afterward that, although strictly applicable, he did not quite +know what he had meant by it. For the door had opened suddenly, and his +host had inopportunely entered at the instant. Although Briscoe had +affected to notice nothing, he heard the final sentence, and he was +disposed to berate Bayne when the awkward breakfast was concluded and the +party had scattered. + +"You were mighty sarcastic, sure," he observed to Bayne over their cigars +in the veranda, for with all the world submerged in the invisibilities of +the mists the day's hunt was necessarily called off. + +"Why, I was rattled," Bayne declared. "I did not expect to hear her +upbraid herself." + +"She is _so_ sensitive," said Briscoe compassionately. He had heard +from his wife the interpretation that she had placed on Bayne's sudden +visit to this secluded spot, and though he well knew its falsity, he +could but sympathize with her hope. "Lillian is very sensitive." + +"I think it is up to me to be sensitive on that subject; but her +sensitiveness at this late day is what gave _me_ the cold shivers." + +Briscoe eyed him sternly, the expression incongruous with the habitual +aspect of his broad, jovial, florid face. Their features were visible to +each other, though now and then the fog would shift between the rustic +chairs in which they sat. Julian Bayne laughed. How easily even now did +this woman convert every casual acquaintance into an eager partisan! + +"If she is growing sensitive for her cruelties to me, I am apprehensive +that it may be in her mind to make amends. I should keep away from +her--discretion being the better part of valor." + +Briscoe drew back with an air of averse distaste. He spoke guardedly, +however, remembering that he was in his own house and fearful of going +too far; yet he could not let this pass. "You surprise me, Julian. I +never imagined _you_ could say anything so--so--caddish." + +"Why don't you say 'currish' and be done with it?" Julian's eyes flashed +fire. His face had flushed deeply red. Every muscle was tense, alert. +Then he checked himself hastily. He turned his cigar in his hand and +looked intently at it as he reflected that this woman had already done +harm enough in his life. He would not allow her to inflict the further +and irreparable injury of coming between him and the friend he loved as a +brother. He slipped quietly into his former easy attitude before he +resumed, smiling: "Currish, indeed it may be, but that is exactly the +kind of old dog Tray I am." + +"You will please take notice that _I_ have said nothing of the sort," +Briscoe stiffly rejoined. "But I think and I do say that it is a +preposterous instance of coxcombry to subject such a woman as Mrs. +Royston--because of a generous moment of self-reproach for a cruel and +selfish deed--to the imputation of inviting advances from a man who coyly +plans evasion and flight--and she scarcely two years a widow." + +"Time cuts no ice in the matter," Bayne forced himself to continue the +discussion. "She has certainly shown the manes of Archibald Royston the +conventional respect." + +"She made an awful mistake, we all know that! And although I realized +that it was on account of that rubbishy little quarrel you and she got up +at the last moment, I felt for her, because to people generally her +choice was subject to the imputation of being wholly one of interest. +They were so dissimilar in taste, so uncongenial; and I really think +_he_ did not love her!" + +"_He_ had no other motive, at all events." + +"Oh, of course he had a certain preference for her; and it was the sort +of triumph that such a man would relish--to carry her off from you at the +last moment. I always recognized _his_ influence in the sensational +elements of that denouement. He liked her after a fashion--to preside in +a princess-like style in his big house, to illustrate to advantage his +florid expenditure of money, to sparkle with wit and diamonds at the head +of his table--a fine surface for decoration she has! But Royston couldn't +love--couldn't really care for anything but himself--a man of that +temperament." + +Bayne rose; he had reached the limit of his endurance; he could maintain +his tutored indifference, but he would not seek to analyze the event anew +or to adjust himself to the differentiations of sentiment that Briscoe +seemed disposed to expect him to canvass. + +The encroachments of the surging seas of mist had reduced the limits of +the world to the interior of the bungalow, and the myriad interests and +peoples of civilization to the little household circle. The day in the +pervasive constraint that hampered their relations wore slowly away. +Under the circumstances, even the resources of bridge were scarcely to be +essayed. Bayne lounged for hours with a book in a swing on the veranda. +Briscoe, his hands in his pockets, his hat on the back of his head, his +cigar cocked between his teeth--house-bound, he smoked a prodigious +number of them for sheer occupation--strolled aimlessly in and out, now +in the stables, now listening and commenting as Gladys at the piano +played the music of his choice. Lillian had a score of letters to write. +Her mind, however, scarcely followed her pen as she sat in the little +library that opened from the big, cheery hall. Her thoughts were with all +that had betided in the past and what might have been. She canvassed +anew, as often heretofore, her strange infatuation, like a veritable +aberration, so soon she had ceased to love her husband, to make the +signal and significant discovery that he was naught to love. She had +always had a sort of enthusiasm for the truth in the abstract--not so +much as a moral endowment, but a supreme fixity, the one immutable value, +superior to vicissitudes. She could not weep for a lie; she could only +wonder how it should ever have masqueraded as the holy verities. + +She would not rehearse her husband's faults, and the great disaster of +the revelation of his true character that made the few short years she +had passed with him stretch out in retrospect like a long and miserable +life. It was over now, and her friends could not disguise their +estimation of the end as a blessed release. But peace had not come with +it. She was not impervious to remorse, regret, humiliation, for her +course. The sight of Bayne, the sound of his voice, had poignantly +revived the past, and if she had suffered woeful straits from wanton +cruelty, she could not deny to herself that she had been consciously, +carelessly, and causelessly cruel. In withdrawing herself to the library +she had thwarted certain feints of Mrs. Briscoe's designed to throw them +together in her hope of their reconciliation. Lillian had become very +definitely aware that this result was far alien to any expectation on +Bayne's part, and her cheeks burned with humiliation that she should for +one moment, with flattered vanity and a strange thrill about her heart, +have inclined to Mrs. Briscoe's fantastic conviction as to the motive of +his journey hither. Indeed, within his view she could now scarcely +maintain her poise and the incidental unconscious mien that the +conventions of the situation demanded. She welcomed the movement in the +folds of the curtaining mist that betokened a prospect of lifting and +liberating the house-bound coterie. Presently, as she wrote, she heard +the stir of the wind in the far reaches of the valley. The dense white +veil that swung from the zenith became suddenly pervaded with vague +shivers; then tenuous, gauzy pennants were detached, floating away in +great lengths; the sun struck through from a dazzling focus in a broad, +rayonnant, fibrous emblazonment of valley and range, and as she rose and +went to the window to note the weather signs she could not resist the +lure of escape. She had struggled all day with an eager desire to be out +of the house, removed from the constantly recurring chances of meeting +Bayne, quit of the sight of him. She instantly caught up her broad gray +hat with its flaunting red and gray ostrich plumes and called out to Mrs. +Briscoe a suggestion that they should repair to the vacant hotel for a +tramp on its piazzas, for it was the habit of the two ladies in rainy or +misty weather to utilize these long, sheltered stretches for exercise, +and many an hour they walked, on dreary days, in these deserted +precincts. + +"I'll overtake you," was Mrs. Briscoe's rejoinder, and until then Lillian +had not noticed the employ of her hostess. The gardener was engaged in +the removal of the more delicate ornamental growths about the +porte-cochere and parterre to the shelter of the flower-pit, for bright +chill weather and killing frosts would ensue on the dispersal of the +mists. Mrs. Briscoe herself was intent on withdrawing certain hardier +potted plants merely from the verge of the veranda to a wire-stand well +under the roof. Briscoe was at the gun-rack in the hall, restoring to its +place the favorite rifle he had intended to use to-day. He could not +refrain from testing its perfect mechanism, and at the first sharp crack +of the hammer, liberated by a tentative pull on the trigger, little +Archie sprang up from his play on the hearth-rug, where he was harnessing +a toy horse to Mrs. Briscoe's work-basket by long shreds of her zephyr, +and ran clamoring for permission to hold the gun. + +Mrs. Briscoe saw him through the open door and instantly protested: "Come +away, Archie!" Then to her husband, "You men are always killing somebody +with an unloaded gun. Come away, Archie!" + +"Nonsense, Gladys!" Briscoe remonstrated. "Let the child see the rifle. +There is not a shell in the whole rack." + +She noticed her husband not at all. "Come away, Archie," she besought the +little man, staring spellbound with his big blue eyes. He had scant care +for the authority of "Gad-ish," as Gladys loved for him lispingly to call +her. Only when she began to plead that she had no one to help her with +her flowers, to carry the pots for her, did he wrench himself from the +contemplation of the flashing steel mechanism that had for him such +wonderful fascination and lend his flaccid baby muscles to the fiction of +help. He began zealously to toil to and fro, carrying the smallest pots +wherever she bade him. Her own interest in the occupation was enhanced by +the colloquy that ensued whenever she passed her small guest. "Hello, +Archie!" she would call for the sake of hearing the saucy, jocose +response: "Oh, oo Gad-ish!" as the juvenile convoy fared along with his +small cargo. + +Lillian felt that she could not wait. Gladys might come at her leisure. +She burst impulsively out of the door, throwing on her hat as she went, +albeit wincing that she must needs pass Bayne at close quarters as he +still lounged in the veranda swing. He looked up at the sound of the +swift step and the sudden stir, and for one instant their eyes met--an +inscrutable look, fraught with an undivined meaning. For their lives, +neither could have translated its deep intendment. She said no word, and +he merely lifted his hat ceremoniously and once more bent his eyes on his +book. + +She was like a thing long imprisoned, liberated by some happy chance. Her +feet seemed scarcely to touch the ground as she sped along down the +ravine, then across the rustic bridge that spanned the chasm through +which rushed the tumultuous mountain stream foaming among the boulders +deep in its depths, and breaking ever and anon into crystal cascades. On +the opposite side she soon struck into the mountain road that had been +graded and tamed and improved by the hotel management into the aspect of +a sophisticated driveway, as it swept up to the great flight of steps at +the main entrance of the big white building. + + + + + IV. + + +The vacant hotel, bereft of the pleasure-seeking crowds whose presence +seemed the essential condition of its existence, looked strangely +sinister in the silent golden splendor of the clearing afternoon, with +its tiers of deserted piazzas, its band-stand mute and empty, the +observatory perched above the precipice, seemingly so precarious as to +have all the effect of teetering in the wind. + +Languid now, preoccupied, Lillian ascended the long flight of steps to +the piazza and paused to look out at the great spread of the landscape, +wreathed in flying mists and of a different aspect from this increase of +elevation. She had begun to stroll aimlessly along in the possession of +the seclusion she craved, when she suddenly noted the fact that the front +door stood a trifle ajar. She paused with a repugnant sense of a lapse of +caution. Then she reflected that bolts and locks could add but little +security in a desert solitude like this, where a marauder might work his +will from September to June with no witnesses but the clouds and winds to +hinder. She had forgotten the insistent declaration of Gladys that she +had seen a light flicker from these blank windows the preceding night. +Indeed, even at the time she had accounted it but the hysteric adjunct of +their panic in the illusion of a stealthy step on the veranda of the +bungalow. She was animated only by the simplest impulse of idle curiosity +when she laid her hand on the bolt. The big door swung open at once on +well-oiled hinges, and she found herself in the spacious hotel office, on +one side of which were the clerk's desk and the office clock, looking +queerly disconsolate without the loitering groups of humanity wont to +congregate about the counter. The day glared garishly through the great +skylight on the dusty interior; the big windows held expansive sections +of mountain landscape, bronze, blue, and scarlet, like vivid paintings in +frames. A staircase of fine and stately proportions descended from the +lofty reach of the upper story, dividing into two sweeping flights from +the landing. A massive mantel-piece was on the opposite side, with an +immense fireplace, and heavy brass andirons and fender. She was a +stranger to the interior of the place, for her visit to the locality +began after the closing of the hotel, but though she looked about with a +vague sub-current of interest as she sauntered through the building, glad +of any pretext to prolong her absence from the bungalow, her mind was +really introverted. + +She felt that she could never forgive herself her part in the scene of +the morning, that wild, impulsive cry that voiced at once confession and +a plea for pardon. At the sheer recollection of his rejoinder she tingled +and winced as from the touch of fire. "Don't mention it," quotha. And +they neither had aught to regret--he was sure of that, forsooth! Regret! +It was only another name for her life. There was nothing but regret, +night and day, sleeping and waking. But oh, how could she have said the +words! What was it to him? He cared naught for her now and her +cruelties--an old, old story to him, to be sure, told to the end, the +pages shut. And she must needs seem to seek to turn the leaf anew! What +else indeed could he think? Surely she had been beguiled by Gladys' +vicarious sentimentality as to the lure of his coming, even while she had +flouted the possibility. + +Suddenly--a sound! It broke upon her absorption so abruptly that in an +instant every muscle was adjusted for flight, though she paused and +looked fearfully over her shoulder. Only an echo, she told her plunging +heart--an echo of her own footfalls in the resonant emptiness of the +deserted place. She had wandered down a long corridor, from which doors +opened only on one side into the big bare dining-room, the chairs all +ranged on the tops of the many round tables, standing at equidistant +intervals. An echo--doubtless that was all. She upbraided herself to have +sustained so sudden and causeless a fright. Her heart was beating like a +trip-hammer. It seemed to fill all the building with the wild iteration +of its pulsations. As she sought to reassure herself, she remembered that +in a cross-hall she had noted the telephone, the wire still intact, as +she knew, for the connection of the hotel was with that of the bungalow +on a party-line of the exchange at Shaftesville, twenty miles away. If +she should be really frightened, she could in one moment call up the +house across the ravine. + +The next instant she was almost palsied with recurrent terror: the +footfall, stealthy, shuffling, weighty, sounded again. It was never the +echo of her own deft, light step! A distinct, sibilant whisper suddenly +hissed with warning throughout the place, and as she turned with the +instinct of flight she caught a glimpse in the darkling mirror across the +dining-room of a fugitive speeding figure, then another, and still +another, all frantically, noiselessly fleeing--why or whom, she could not +descry, she did not try to discriminate. + +Without a word or a sound--her voice had deserted her--she turned +precipitately and fled in the opposite direction through the corridor, +down a cross-hall, and burst out of a side door upon a porch that was the +nearest outlet from the building. This porch was less intended as an +exit, however, than an outlook. True, there were steps that led down at +one side to the ground, but the descent thence was so steep, so rugged +and impracticable, that obviously no scheme of utility had prompted its +construction. Jagged outcropping ledges, a chaos of scattered boulders, +now and again a precipitous verge showing a vertical section of the +denuded strata, all formed a slant so precarious and steep that with the +sharp sound of the door, closing on its spring, Bayne looked up from his +seat in the swing on the veranda across the ravine in blank amazement to +see her there essaying the descent, as if in preference to an exit by the +safe and easy method of the winding road at the front of the edifice. + +Lillian, still with all the impetus of terror in her muscles, her breath +short and fluttering, her eyes distended and unseeing, plunged wildly +down the rugged, craggy declivity, painfully aware of his wonder as he +gazed from the distance, prefiguring, too, his disapproval. Perhaps this +had its unnerving influence, though swift and surefooted ordinarily, her +ankle turned amidst the gravel shifting beneath her flying steps, and she +sank suddenly to the ground, slipped down a precipitous incline, caught +herself, half crouching against a gigantic boulder. + +There was no recourse for Bayne. No one else was within view. Though +between his teeth he muttered his distaste for the devoir that should +bring him to her side, and the solicitude he was constrained to show, he +leaped from the veranda and started down the ravine to her assistance, to +"make his manners," as he said sarcastically to himself. But when he had +come to the little rustic bridge and, glancing up, saw that she had not +yet risen, he began to run, and before he reached her, climbing the +ascent with athletic agility, he called out to ask if the fall had hurt +her. + +"I don't know," she faltered, and when he was at her side she looked up +at him with a pale and quivering face. + +"Try to stand," he urged, as he leaned down and took her arm. "Let me +lift you. There! How did it happen?" + +"My ankle turned," she replied, rising with effort and standing +unsteadily, despite his support. + +"Does it pain you?" he queried with polite solicitude, looking down at +the dainty low-cut gray shoe. "Bear your weight on it." + +She essayed the experiment. "No," she barely whispered; "it is all +right." + +He fixed upon her a look of questioning amazement, as she still held +trembling to his arm. "What is the matter, then?" + +"There is somebody in the hotel." + +He gave a hasty glance upward from under the stiff brim of his hat. +"Hardly likely--but I'll examine and see." + +He was about to start off when she tightened her clutch on his arm. + +"No, no," she pleaded. "Don't leave me! I don't know why--but I can't +stand. I can't walk." + +"Did you really hear something?" he asked sceptically. + +The light note of satire stung her pride. "Oh, I _saw_ them, and they saw +me," she protested. "I saw three men, and they all ran as I came into the +dining-room." + +He broke into a short laugh. "Got them on the run, did you? Not very +formidable they were, you must admit. Shadows, I fancy. There is a large +mirror on the blank side of the dining-room opposite the door. Don't you +suppose it possible that you saw only your own moving reflection?" + +Her pride was roused. The pulse of anger began to tint her face with a +dull crimson. "I should imagine I could distinguish my own reflection +from three men--rough-looking men with slouched hats, all running and +looking backward over their shoulders." + +It had been a conscious effort to nerve herself for this protest in +defence of her poise and capacity, but at the mere recollection of the +scene she had conjured up anew she fell to trembling, looking very pale +again and as if she might faint. + +"Well, it is no great matter, as the intruders were bluffed off," he said +suavely, putting the question aside. "I will send one of Briscoe's grooms +to investigate the premises. But now, suppose we go to the piazza, and +let you rest there and recover from the strain to your ankle." Once more +he glanced down at the dainty shoe with its high French heel. "I don't +wonder it turned. A proper shoe for mountaineering!" That rancor against +a frivolity of feminine fashion that holds a menace to health or safety, +so characteristic of the utilitarian masculine mind, was a touch of his +old individuality, and it made him seem to her more like himself of yore. +The resemblance did not tend to confirm her composure, and she was almost +piteous as she protested that she could not, she would not, go near the +hotel again. + +"Why, you need not, then," he reassured her abruptly, waiving the +possibility of insistence, as much as to say it was no concern of his. + +"I might walk to the observatory," she suggested, "and--and--I need not +detain you then." + +"In view of three bandits in slouched hats, although all on the +back-track--and although I am convinced that it was but their astral +apparitions with which you were favored--I will venture to intrude my +society until I can see you to the Briscoe bungalow." + +"Oh, there's no intrusion," she rejoined petulantly. "You must know I +couldn't mean that!" + +"I never know what you mean, I am sure!" he said with that tense note of +satire. Then he paused with a vague wonder at himself thus to trench on +the emotional phases between them that must be buried forever. +Remembering her own allusion that morning, her cry of regret and appeal, +he was apprehensive of some renewal of the topic that he had thus +invited, and he began to move hastily down the slope, supporting her with +care, but with a certain urgency too. He was obviously eager to terminate +the conversational opportunity, and when it was requisite to pause to +rest he improved the respite by beckoning to one of the stablemen passing +near, bound toward a pasture in the rear of the hotel with a halter in +his hand, and ordering him to investigate the building to discover any +signs of intrusion. + +The man hearkened in patent surprise, then asked if he might defer the +commission till he had harnessed Fairy-foot, Mr. Briscoe having ordered +out the dog-cart and his favorite mare. + +"Plenty of time, plenty of time! We can't hope to overtake them, with the +start they have already. Just see if there are any signs of intrusion +into the place and report. And now, Mrs. Royston, shall we move on?" + +The observatory was a structure strong but singularly light and airy of +effect, poised on the brink of the mountain, above a slant so steep as to +be precipitous indeed, terminating in a sheer vertical descent, after +affording such foothold as the supporting timbers required. A great +landscape it overlooked of wooded range and valley in autumnal tints and +burnished sunset glow, but this made only scant impression on the minds +of both, looking out with preoccupied, unseeing eyes. The balustrade +around the four sides formed the back of a bench, and on this seat +Lillian sank down, still feeble and fluttering, painfully agitated, +acutely aware that, as she had no obvious physical hurt, the nervous +shock she had sustained might scarcely suffice to account for her +persistent claim on his aid and attention. Certainly he was warranted in +thinking anything, all he would, since her wild, impulsive appeal in the +early morning. How had it chanced, that cry from her heart! It was a +triumph in some sort for him, unsought, complete, yet so pitiable, so +mean, that he did not even care for it. His face was not triumphant; +rather, listless, anxious, careworn. He was gazing down toward the +bungalow where Briscoe stood at the head of the flight of the veranda +steps, drawing on his driving gloves, while Fairy-foot, the fine mare, +now resplendent in the least restrictions of harness that might control +her bounding spirits and splendid strength, stood between the shafts of +the dog-cart on the drive, a groom at her head, holding the bit. + +Mrs. Briscoe had approached, and they discerned from her husband's +gestures that he was inviting her to accompany him. They could not hear +the words at this distance, but presently Briscoe, the most transparently +candid of men, suddenly whirled and glanced up toward the observatory +across the ravine, showing plainly that the two had become the subject of +conversation. + +Lillian was all unstrung, her powers of self-control annulled. She broke +out with as unreasoning a sense of injury as a sensitive child might have +felt. "They are talking about us!" she wailed. + +"They are not the first!" Bayne could not restrain his curt, bitter +laugh, the unconscious humor of the suggestion was so patent, albeit the +edge cut deep. + +"And how do you suppose that fact makes _me_ feel?" she asked, looking up +at him, her eyes full of tears, her heart swelling, her face scarlet. + +Bayne would have given much to avoid this moment. But now that the +discussion was upon him, he said to himself that he would not traffic +with the insincerities, he would not be recreant to his own identity. He +would not fawn, and bow, and play the smug squire of dames, full of +specious flatteries, and kiss the hand that smote him. + +"And how do you suppose that _I_ should think you could feel at all?" he +retorted sternly. + +It was so unlike him, the rebuke--he had so ardently worshipped her, even +her faults, which were like shining endowments in his estimation--that +for the first time she felt the full poignancy of his alienation. He was +no longer hers, loving, regretting, always yearning after her, the +unattainable! Had he not said only to-day that neither of them had aught +to regret? Was this what he had really felt through the long years of +their separation? Was it she who had forfeited him, rather than he who +had lost her? She sat quite still, almost stunned by the realization, a +vague sense of bereavement upon her. A woman's faith in the constancy of +a lover is a robust endowment! It withstands change and time and many a +coercive intimation. + +"I suppose," she said at length, quite humbly, "it is natural that you +should say that to me." + +"You asked for it," he replied tersely. + +Then they were both silent for a space, looking down at the group on the +veranda of the bungalow. + +"May I have the honor and pleasure of your company, madam?" Briscoe had +asked his wife with fantastic formality. + +"You may _not_!" she rejoined with a gay laugh. + +"And why not?" + +"I declare, Ned, you live so much up here in the wilderness, with your +bears and deer and catamounts and mountaineers, that you are likely to +forget all the _bienseance_ you ever knew. Don't you perceive that my +duties as chaperon to those lovers should lie nearest my heart?" + +Then it was that he turned and cast that comprehending glance at the two +in the distant observatory. Knowing how far from Bayne's mind was the +emotion, the intention, she ascribed to him, that she would fain foster, +his face grew rueful and overcast. He shook his head with disconsolate +rebuke. "Oh, you woman, you!" + +But the reproach did not strike home. Mrs. Briscoe was quite satisfied to +be a woman, and was avowedly seeking to add to the normal subtleties of +this state the special craft of a matchmaker. + +Briscoe desired to avoid being drawn into any confession of his knowledge +of Bayne's attitude of mind, and, aware of his own lack of diplomacy, +sheered off precipitately from the subject. He turned, beaming anew, to +the little boy who was looking on, cherubically roseate, at the sleek +mare and the smart groom at her bit. + +"Then, Archibald Royston, Esquire, may I hope that _you_ will favor +me?" + +Archibald Royston, Esquire, suddenly apprehending in the midst of his +absorption the nature of the invitation, gave two elastic bounces +straight up and down expressive of supreme ecstasy; then, his arms +outstretched, he began to run wildly up and down the veranda, looking in +at the doors and windows as he passed, seeking his mother and her +permission. + +"Oh!" cried Lillian, springing to her feet as she watched the dumb-show +at the distance. "They want Archie to go to drive. Oh, how can I make +them hear me? I am sure Ned will not take him without permission." + +She waved her hand, but the distance was obviously too great for the +signal to be understood, and Briscoe's attitude was doubtful and +perplexed. There was no time to be lost, for it was growing late, and a +postponement, as far as Archie was concerned, seemed inevitable. + +"Oh, the poor little fellow will be so disappointed! The mare will be off +before I can make them understand." + +"Wait," said Bayne authoritatively. He sprang upon the bench, and in this +commanding position placed both hands megaphone-like to his lips, and as +Archie came running along the veranda again, having descried his mother +in the distance, and with outstretched arms bleating forth his eager, +unheard appeal, Bayne shouted, his voice clear as a trumpet, "Yes, you +_may go_!" + +Not until he was once more on the floor of the observatory did he realize +the form of the permission, and what relish its assumption of authority +must give the matchmaking Mrs. Briscoe. Apparently, it did not impress +Lillian as they stood together and she smilingly watched the group at the +bungalow, when Archie was swung to a seat in the dog-cart beside his +host. It seemed for a moment that they were off, but Mrs. Briscoe, with +womanly precaution, bethought herself to throw a wrap into the vehicle. +Throughout the day the close curtaining mists had resisted all stir of +air, and the temperature had been almost sultry. Since the lifting of the +vapors, the currents of the atmosphere were flowing freely once more, and +the crystal clarity that succeeded was pervaded by an increasing +chilliness. Before nightfall it would be quite cold, and doubtless the +smart little red coat, gay with its Persian embroideries, would be +brought into requisition. + +For many a month afterward, whenever Lillian closed her eyes, she saw +that little red coat. Shutting out the light, the world, brought neither +rest nor darkness; instead, the long flaring vistas of gold and russet +foliage and gray crags and flaming sunset remained indelible, and amidst +it all one vivid point of scarlet hue as the little red coat was tossed +through the air like a red leaf flying in the wind. + +Now, as all unprescient she watched the group, she thought again they +were gone. But no! Fairy-foot was a handful, even for so capital a whip +as Briscoe. He obviously considered that the boy would be more secure +stowed on the floor of the vehicle, half under the soft rug, and braced +by the firm foot planted on either side against the dash-board. + +"How considerate!" the watching mother thought with a glow of gratitude, +noting the caution. + +Suddenly the groom leaped aside; the splendid mare sprang forward; there +was a whirl of wheels, a whorl of rays as the gleaming spokes caught the +sunshine, and they were gone indeed! + +"Oh!" cried Mrs. Royston, her eyes bright and soft with tenderness, "what +a delight for Archie! He fairly adores to go with Ned. He owes it to you +this time. You always took little things so much to heart." + +"And great ones, too, to my sorrow," he said. + +Her face changed. She was trembling once more on the brink of tears. She +looked up at him with earnest appeal. "I wish, Julian, that we could +forget the past." + +"I do not," he returned, stern and grave, gazing far away over the +landscape. + +"No," she cried in a sudden transport of painful emotion; "you hold it +against me like a grudge--a grudge that you despise too much to wreak +vengeance for its sake. The past will always live in your memory--you +hold it like a sword to my throat. You know that I shall always feel the +torture of its edge, but in your magnanimity"--with sarcastic +emphasis--"you forbear to thrust in the murderous blade." + +"Good God, Lillian!" exclaimed Bayne, losing his balance altogether at +the accusation. "How have I arrogated magnanimity, or anything else? I +assume nothing! I have sought to efface myself while here, as far as +might be. For the sake of all concerned--you, the Briscoes, _les +convenances_, myself--I could not run away at the sight of you, like a +whipped hound! But I perceive my error. I will get out of this forthwith. +Heaven knows it has been anything but a pleasure!" + +"Don't let me stand between you and your friends," she sobbed, weeping +now in the reaction of sentiment. "Don't let me drive you away." + +"Why not?" He sought relief from the pressure of the circumstances by +affecting a lighter tone. "By your own account, you have stampeded three +men this afternoon. I shall be the fourth! The fugitives are counting up +like Falstaff's 'rogues in buckram.' Are you ready to go now? We are +leaving Mrs. Briscoe alone." + +He did not offer to assist her to rise. Somehow, he could resist aught, +all, save the touch of that little hand. It brought back to him as +nothing else the girl he had loved, and who had loved him. Oh, he was +sure of it once! This woman was a changeling in some mystic sort--the +same in aspect, yet how alien to his ideal of yore! + +She did not seem to mark the lapse of courtesy. She sat still, with her +broad gray hat tilted back on her head, a soft and harmonious contrast +with her golden hair and roseate face. Her ungloved hands were clasped in +her lap, her eyes were melancholy, meditative, fixed on the distant +mountains. "I wish we might reach some mutual calm thought of the past, +like the tranquil unimpassioned brightness of the close of this troubled, +threatening day. We don't care now for the clouds that overcast the +morning. To attain some quiet sentiment of forgiveness----" + +"_I_ ask no pardon," he said curtly. + +"Oh!"--she gazed up at him with all her soul in her eyes--"_you_ have no +need!" + +Had she been warned in a dream, she could have compassed no surer method +of reducing his pride than this self-abnegating generosity. But suddenly +an alien sound impinged on the quietude. The sharp note of a rifle +shattered the silence, the fragmentary echoes clamoring back from the +rocks like a volley of musketry. + +"How startling that was!" she exclaimed, turning to look in the opposite +direction over the placid valley commanded by the observatory, with the +purple mountains encircling the horizon. "How this clear air carries the +sound!" + +"That was not distant," Bayne observed. "Damp air is a better conductor +of sound than a clear atmosphere." + +"It was like blasting," she submitted. + +"It was a rifle-shot," he discriminated. "A still-hunter, probably. The +deer come down from the coverts toward evening to drink. Some rock may +have fallen along the river-bank, dislodged by the concussion." + +A sense of melancholy was in the air, gathering with the gathering +darkness. The light was fading out of the west, and the early autumnal +dusk was at hand. Lillian was sensible of an accession of lassitude, a +realization of defeat in a cause which she felt now it was futile to have +essayed. Why should he forgive? How was reparation possible? She could +not call back the Past--she could not assuage griefs that time had worn +out long ago, searing over the wounds. She was quite silent as she rose +and together they took their way down toward the bungalow. While she +flagged now and again, she walked without assistance, though he kept +close and ready at her side. + +Gladys watched their progress expectantly, but her face fell as they drew +near and she could discern their listless expression and manner. She did +not await their arrival, but turned, disappointed, within. It was already +time to dress for dinner, the ladies habitually observing this formality, +although Briscoe often went in knickerbockers till midnight. Lillian +paused on the veranda and gazed down the road, winding away into the +dusky red flare of the fading west, for the drive must needs be short in +this season of early nightfall. There was no sign of approach along its +smooth and shadowy curves, and at the end of the long vista, where the +jagged verges of crags serrated the serene green sky a star shone, white +and splendid, amidst the vanishing vermilion suffusions of the +sunset-tide. + + + + + V. + + +In the light of after events, one might wonder if the genial, care-free +Edward Briscoe remembered any detail of the discarded arrangement of the +previous evening for the transportation of his transitory guest, Frank +Dean, to Shaftesville; if he realized that at the moment when the revenue +officer would have been starting on the journey, as the host had +insistently planned it, he was himself at the turn of the road and just +beyond the jutting crag; if he divined that the vibrations of the +telephone wire had betrayed the matter to a crafty listening ear on the +party-line in the vacant hotel across the ravine--or was the time too +short for the consideration? Did he even recognize the significance of +the apparition when a swift, erect figure stepped openly from under the +shadowy boughs of the balsam firs into the middle of the road, that the +bead might be drawn straight? Did he appreciate that the flash is sooner +sped than the missile and know his fate before the rifle-ball crashed +into his skull!--or was the instant all inadequate and did he enter +eternity ere he was well quit of this world? + +Frightened by the sudden appearance of the man in the middle of the +thoroughfare, the funnel-shaped flare of light, the sharp report of the +weapon, the mare, trotting at full speed, swerved, plunged, backed, the +reins hanging loose about her heels, her driver having fallen forward +upon the dashboard. The dog-cart began to careen to one side as the +animal continued to back and rear, deterred from flight by the figure +standing still directly in the road. Suddenly she sought to turn in the +restricted narrow space, and instantly the wheels were over the verge of +the precipice. + +All useless were the convulsive efforts of the creature to maintain her +footing on the rocky brink, the clutching hoofs, the elastic bounds. With +the weight of the vehicle, the dead man leaning heavily on the dashboard, +it was but a moment of suspense--then like a thunderbolt the whole went +crashing down into the valley, the depth to be conjectured by the +considerable interval of time before the sound of rending boughs and +surging foliage in the air gave token that the wreck was hurtling through +the trees on the levels a thousand feet below. + +Two other men, armed with rifles, had sprung from among the firs and +stood aghast and listening on the verge of the crag. There was no longer +a sound. The tragedy was complete, irrevocable, before a word was +uttered. + +"'T warn't _him_!" gasped the youngest--hardly more than a boy indeed. +His broad, beardless face was ghastly white, and his lips trembled as +violently as his shaking hand. + +"Lawd! That was _Edward Briscoe_! What a pity, _sure_! It war a plumb +mistake, Copenny," plained an elder man, whose rifle had not been fired. +There was a regretful cadence in his voice akin to tears, and he held his +long, ragged red beard in one hand as he peered down into the +unresponsive depths. + +"You oughter hev made sure afore ye teched the trigger, Copenny, that he +_war_ the revenuer!" cried the young fellow, Alvin Holvey, with a sudden +burst of petulance, despite the tragic realization expressed in his +quivering face. "Ye're sech a dead shot that ye could hev spared a minute +ter make sure of the revenuer, afore _he_ could hev pulled a +shooting-iron." + +The man who had fired the fatal shot had seemed hitherto stunned, silent +and motionless. Now he exclaimed in self-justification: "Why, I war sure, +plumb sure, I thought. We-uns chased that man Dean clear to Briscoe's +house last night--his horse went lame and he got lost from his posse--but +when I fund he hed sheltered with Briscoe, we-uns went into the empty +hotel ter wait and watch fur him ter go. Not knowin' how many men Briscoe +hev got thar, we-uns didn't want ter tackle the house. An' whilst at the +hotel the Briscoes' tellyfun-bell rung--ye know it's on a party line with +the hotel connection--an' I tuk down the thing they call the receiver an' +listened. An' that's jes' the way Briscoe planned it: ter send the +revenuer down an hour by sun with the dog-cart an' his fine mare. Shucks! +Ef Briscoe war minded ter step into Frank Dean's shoes, he hev jes' hed +ter take what war savin' up fur the revenuer, that's all!" Once more he +relapsed into silent staring at the brink, balked, dumfounded, and +amazed. + +Suddenly he seemed to respond to some inward monition of danger, of +responsibility. "I be enough of a dead shot ter stop all that dad-burned +talk of yourn!" he drawled in a languid, falsetto, spiritless voice, but +with an odd intimation of a deadly intention. "Ye both done the deed the +same ez ef ye hed pulled the trigger; ye holped ter plan it, an' kem +along ter see it done an' lend a hand ef needed. Ye both done the deed +the same ez me--that's the law, an' ye know it. That is sure the law in +Tennessee." + +"Waal, now, Phineas Copenny, 't warn't right nor fair ter we-uns ter +clumsy it up so," protested the young mountaineer. "Ef it hed been the +revenuer, I'd hev nare word ter say. I'd smack my lips, fur the deed +would taste good ter me, an' I'd stand ter it. But this hyar Mr. +Briscoe--why, we-uns hev not even got a gredge agin him." + +"No, nor nobody else that ever I hearn of. Mr. Briscoe war a plum +favor_ite_, far an' nigh," said old Jubal Clenk, the eldest of the party. +"But shucks!" he continued, with a change of tone and the evident +intention of preserving harmony among the conspirators. "'Twar jes' an +accident, an' that's what it will pass fur among folks ginerally. Mr. +Briscoe's mare skeered an' shied an' backed off'n the bluff--that air +whut the country-side will think. Whenst his body is fund his head will +be mashed ter a jelly by the fall, an' nobody kin say he kem otherwise by +his death--jes' an accident in drivin' a skittish horse-critter." + +Whether it was a sound, whether it was a movement, none of the group was +accurately aware. It may have been merely that mesmeric influence of an +intently concentrated gaze that caused them suddenly to turn. They beheld +standing in the road--and they flinched at the sight--a witness to all +the proceedings. A small, a simple, object to excite such abject terror +as blanched the faces of the group--a little boy, a mere baby, staring at +the men with wide blue eyes and unconjecturable emotions. He had +doubtless been enveloped in the rug which had fallen from the vehicle as +it first careened in the road, and which now lay among the wayside weeds. +His toggery of the juvenile mode made him seem smaller than he really +was; his scarlet cloth coat, embroidered in Persian effects, was thick +and rendered his figure chubby of aspect; his feet and legs were encased +in bulky white leggins; he wore a broad white beaver hat, its crown +encircled by a red ribbon, and his infantile jauntiness of attire was +infinitely incongruous with the cruel tragedy and his piteous plight. +Although perhaps stunned at first by the shock of the fall, he was +obviously uninjured, and stood sturdily erect and vigilant. He looked +alert, inquiring, anxious, resolved into wonder, silently awaiting +developments. His eyes shifted from one speaker to another of the strange +party. + +"Lord! He'll tell it all!" exclaimed Alvin Holvey, appalled and in +hopeless dismay. + +"Naw, he won't, now," snarled Copenny rancorously. "Thar will be a way +ter stop his mouth." + +"Why, he is too leetle ter talk. He don't sense nuthin'," cried old +Clenk, with an eager note of expostulation, attesting that he was human, +after all. "Don't do nuthin' else rash, Phineas Copenny, fur the love of +God!" + +Jubal Clenk dropped on one knee in front of the little boy, and the two +were inscrutably eyeing each other at close quarters. "Hello, Bubby! +Whar's yer tongue? Cat got it?" he asked in a grandfatherly fashion, +while the other men looked on, grim and anxious, at this effort to gauge +the mentality of the child and their consequent danger from him. + +Still staring, the little boy began slowly to shake his head in negation. + +"What's yer name, Squair? What's yer name?" + +But the child still stared silently, either uncomprehending or perceiving +that his safety lay in incompetency. + +Clenk rose to his feet in sudden relief. "He don't sense nuthin'! He's +too little to talk. He can't tell wuth shucks! We will jes' leave him +hyar in the road, an' the folks that find what's down thar in the valley +will find him too. I wonder somebody ain't passed a'ready. An' sure +we-uns oughter be a-travellin'." + +But Holvey revolted against this offhand assumption of confidence. He +made a supplemental effort on his own account. "Why don't ye tell yer +name, Bubby?" he asked cajolingly. + +"'Tause," the child answered abruptly, "I tan't talk." + +Copenny burst into sudden sardonic laughter, with wondrous little mirth +in the tones, and the other miscreants were obviously disconcerted and +disconsolate, while the small schemer, whose craft had failed midway, +looked affrighted and marvelling from one to another, at a loss to +interpret the mischance. + +"Dadburn it!" said the mercurial Clenk, as depressed now as a moment +earlier he had been easily elated. "We-uns will jes' hev ter take him +along of us an' keep him till he furgits all about it." + +"An' when will ye be sure o' that?" sneered Copenny. "He is as tricky as +a young fox." + +Half stunned by the tremendous import of the tragedy he had witnessed, +the child scarcely entered into its true significance in his concern for +his own plight. He realized that he was being riven from his friends, his +own, and made a feeble outcry and futile resistance, now protesting that +he would tell nothing, and now piteously assuring his captors that he +could not talk, while they gathered him up in the rug, which covered head +and feet, even the flaunting finery of his big, white beaver hat. + +In the arms of the grandfatherly Clenk he was carried along the +bridle-path in the dulling sunset, and presently dusk was descending on +the austere mountain wilderness; the unmeasured darkness began to pervade +it, and silence was its tenant. As the party went further and further +into the woods, the struggles of the child grew fitful; soon he was +still, and at last--for even Care must needs have pity for his callow +estate--he was asleep, forgetting in slumber for a time all the horror +that he had seen and suffered. + +But when he came to himself he was a shivering, whimpering bundle of +homesick grief. He wanted his mother--he would listen to naught but +assurances that they were going to her right away--right away! It was a +strange place wherein he found himself--all dark, save for flaring +torches. He could not understand his surroundings, and indeed he did not +try. He only rubbed his eyes with his fists and said again and again that +he wanted his mother. He was seated on a small stone pillar, a stalagmite +in a limestone cavern, where there were many such pillars and pendants of +like material hanging from the roof, all most dimly glimpsed in the +torch-light against an infinitude of blackness. The men who had brought +him hither, and others whom he had not heretofore seen, were busied about +a dismantled stone furnace, gathering up such poor belongings as had +escaped the wreckings of the revenue force. Now and then a glitter from +the fragments of the copper still and the sections of the coils of the +worm marked the course their ravages had taken, and all the chill, +cavernous air was filled with the sickly odor of singlings and the +fermenting mash adhering to the broken staves of the great riven tanks, +called the beer-tubs. The moonlight came into this dark place at the +further end, for this was one of the many caves among the crags that +overhang the Little Tennessee River, and once, looking toward the jagged +portal, Archie saw a sail, white in the beams on the lustrous current, +and asked if they were going in that boat to his mother, for, he said, he +knew that she did not live in this cellar. + +"Yes, yes," Clenk assured him. They were making ready to leave now, +though not in that boat. "An' look-a-hyar! What a pretty! Ye kin hev this +ter play with ef ye will be good." + +He led the little boy up to a tallow dip blazing on the head of a barrel, +that he might have light to examine the token. It was a small bit of the +cavernous efflorescence, which, growing on subterranean walls, takes +occasionally definite form, some specimens resembling a lily, others +being like a rose; the child tried feebly to be grateful, and put it with +care into one of the pockets of his little red coat--his pockets in which +he had once felt such plethora of pride! + + + + + VI. + + +When next he saw the river the lunar lustre had dulled on the currents. +No more the long lines of shimmering light trailing off into the deep +shadow of the wooded banks, no more the tremulous reflection of the moon, +swinging like some supernal craft in the great lacustrine sweep where the +stream broadens in rounding the point. Now a filmy veil was over all, yet +the night was so fine that the light filtered through the mist, and +objects were still discernible, though only vaguely visible, like the +furnishings of a dream. A rowboat was rocking on the ripples among the +boulders at the water's edge. As the child made the perilous descent in +the practised clasp of the grandfatherly Clenk, he could look up and see +the jagged portal of the cave he had left, high above the river, though +not so high as the great, tall deciduous trees waving their lofty boughs +on the summit of the cliffs. Certain grim, silent, gaunt figures, +grotesquely contorted in the mist, the child's wide blue eyes traced out, +as the other moonshiners climbed too down the rugged face of the crag, +all burdened with bundles of varying size and unimaginable +contents--food, clothing, or such appliances of their craft as the +hurried revenue raiders had chanced to overlook. The little boy must have +contended with fear in this awesome environment, the child of gentlest +nurture, but he thought he was going to his mother, or perchance he could +not have submitted with such docility, so uncomplainingly. Only when they +had reached the rocky marge of the water and he had been uncoiled from +the rug and set upon his feet did he lift his voice in protest. + +Clenk had stepped into the boat and seated himself, the oars rattling +smartly in the rowlocks, the sound sharp on the misty air, as he laid +hold on them. "So far, so good," he exclaimed cheerily. + +"Won't they be fur trackin' of _him_?" One of the moonshiners, whom +the child had not seen before, seemed disposed to rebuke this easy +optimism. + +"What fur? They will think Bubby went over the bluff too," Clenk declared +definitely. + +"There's nuthin' ter show fur it, though," Copenny joined the opposite +opinion. + +"Nuthin' needed in that mixtry of horseflesh an' human carcass an' +splintered wood and leather," argued Clenk. + +"Yes, they will hev ter gather up them remains in a shovel," acquiesced +Holvey. + +The shadowy form of the doubter who had introduced the subject, thick-set, +stoop-shouldered, showed in its attitude that he was lowering and ill at +ease. "Waal, you-uns hev made a powerful botch of the simple little trick +of drawing a bead on a revenuer anyhow. Takin' one man fur another--I +never dreamed o' the beat! Copenny war so sure o' the man an' the mare! +_I_ never purtended to know either. Seems ter me ye oughter be willin' +ter lis'n ter reason now." + +"Waal, let's hear reason, then," Copenny's sardonic falsetto tones rasped +on the air, and the little head under the broad white, gayly beribboned +hat turned up attentively, as the child stood so low down among the big +booted feet of the armed moonshiners. + +"Why, how easy it would hev been ter throw su'thin' over the bluff----" +the counsellor began. + +"Good Lord!" Clenk exclaimed angrily, from his seat in the boat, "ain't +ye got _no_ human feelin's, Jack Drann? We-uns never went ter shed the +innercent blood nohow. We-uns war loaded fur that tricky revenuer, an' +Edward Briscoe war kilt by mistake. An' now ye ter be talkin' 'bout +heavin' the leetle, harmless deedie over the bluff!" + +"What ails yer hearin'?" retorted Drann angrily. "I said _su'thin'_--his +coat, his hat--throw _su'thin'_ over, ter make folks think he war in the +accident, too--mare run away and the whole consarn flopped bodaciously +over the bluff! They will scour the kentry fur Bubby ef thar ain't +su'thin' positive ter make them _sure_ ez he be dead, too." + +Jubal Clenk, so readily cast down, meditated dolorously, as he sat still +in the boat, on this signal omission in the chain of evidence. "It would +sure hev made it all 'pear a heap mo' like an accident," he said +disconsolately. Then, with suddenly renewing hopefulness, "But 't ain't +too late yet--good many hours 'fore daylight. We kin send the coat an' +hat back an' toss them over the bluff long before it is light good." + +Thus it was that the moonshiners laid hold on the boy's simple +possessions, and thus it was that Archie fought and contended for his +own. He clutched at the cuffs as Copenny dragged the sleeves over his +wrists; he held on to his hat with both hands, despite the grip of the +elastic under his chin, and he stamped and screamed in a manner that he +had heretofore known to inspire awe and respect in the nursery and disarm +authority. Alack, it had lost its efficacy now! Most of the men took no +notice whatever of his callow demonstrations of wrath, though old Clenk, +with a curious duality of mental process, laughed indulgently at his +antics of infantile rage, despite his own absorptions, his sense of +danger, his smart of loss and wreck of prospects. + +It was Copenny who undertook to carry the coat and rug back to the spot, +and they willingly agreed to this on the score that he knew best the +precise locality where the catastrophe had befallen. Secretly, however, +he had resolved not to rejoin his companions at a named rendezvous, for +he had bethought himself that if all fled but him, remaining in his +accustomed home, he would necessarily avoid implication in the crime with +them. The boat had been provisioned with a view to their escape by water +when the ambush of the revenue officer had been planned, and they were +now congratulating themselves on their foresight as they prepared to +embark. Clenk had an ill-savored story to tell of the apprehension of a +malefactor through the coercion of hunger, constrained to stop and beg a +meal as he fled from justice, and Drann had known a man whose neck was +forfeited by the necessity of robbing a hen-roost, the cackling poultry +in this instance as efficient in the cause of law and order as the geese +that saved Rome. Copenny, listening sardonically, could not be thankful +for such small favors. His venture as a moonshiner at all events was, so +to speak, a side line of employ. He was trained a blacksmith, and had a +pretty fair stake in the world, according to the rating of a working-man +of this region, now in jeopardy of total loss. The rest had nothing to +lose, and as ever and anon they fell to canvassing the opportunities of +beginning anew in a fresh place the dubious struggle for bare +subsistence, his determination to slip free of them was confirmed. The +morrow would see him in his appointed place--nay, he perceived a sure +means of hoodwinking any possible suspicion of the authorities by finding +a conspicuous position in the searching parties who would go out, he +knew, as the night wore on and the alarm was given that the owner of the +bungalow had not returned. + +The boat with the others embarked was far up the river before the child +had ceased to sob and plain for his precious gear. He began to listen +curiously to the splash of the oars as they marked time and the boat rode +the waves elastically. There was no other sound in all the night-bound +world, save once the crisp, sharp bark of a fox came across the water +from the dense, dark riparian forests. The mists possessed all the upper +atmosphere, but following the boat were white undiscriminated +presentments on the sombre surface of the river, elusive in the vapor and +suggestive of something swimming in pursuit. Once Archie pointed his +mittened hand at this foaming wake, but the question died on his lips as +the dank autumnal air buffeted his chill cheek. He shivered in his thin +little white linen dress, meant for indoor wear only, with its smart red +leather belt clasped low and loose about it, and the hardship of cold and +hunger tamed him. He was glad to nestle close to the pasty-faced Holvey, +who had not yet recovered the normal glow of complexion, and to stick his +yellow head under the moonshiner's arm for warmth while he steered the +craft. Indeed, when the boat was at length run into one of the small, +untenanted islands and the party disembarked, the little boy began to +chirp genially and to laugh for joy as a fire was kindled amidst the +rocks and brush of the interior, invisible from the shores. He basked in +the blaze and grew pink and gay, and even sought to initiate a game of +peek-a-boo from behind his white mittens with one of the ruffians; and +although a bit dashed when the surly, absorbed eyes stared unresponsively +at him, he plucked up spirit to ask if they were going to have supper, +and to say that he wanted some, and that he was a very good boy. + +"Breakfast, Bub--this is the 'tother end of the day," Clenk explained, +preparing to broil slices of meat on the coals. There was soon a +johnny-cake baked on a board set up before the flames, but the pork was +evidently a new proposition to the small captive, and although he eyed it +greedily he could make no compact with it. Now and again he licked with a +grimace of distaste the unsavory chunk given him, and desisted, to watch +with averse curiosity the working jaws of the men and the motion of the +muscles in their temples as they hastily gobbled the coarse fare which +they cut with their clasp-knives. The fire duplicated their number with +their shadows, and occasionally he eyed these semblances speculatively as +they stretched on the sandy ground or skulked in the underbrush behind +their unconscious principals. Once or twice he lifted his own arm with an +alert gesture in imitative energy, and looked over his shoulder at his +squat little image, to note its obedience to his behest. One might have +thought he had put the greater part of the fat meat in smears about his +rosy cheeks and fresh baby lips, and certainly the pleated bosom of his +immaculate linen suit had received a generous remembrance. The remnant +was still in his hand when he began to nod in the drowsy influences of +the heat of the fire; he had collapsed into insensibility long before the +coals were raked apart to dull and die. He had no knowledge of the fact +when he was borne away by Holvey, who had been delegated to assume charge +of him, and who sulked in disaffection under the responsibility and his +doubts of the success of their plan. + +Once more in the boat, the chill of the dank river atmosphere awakened +little Archie. He sent forth a peevish, imperative call, "Mamma!" so +shrill and constraining, reaching so far across the dark water, that a +hand before his lips smothered its iteration in his throat. "Bee-have!" +Holvey hissed in his ear, and as the child struggled into a sitting +posture his involuntary bleat, "Mamma!" was so meekened by fear and +plaintive recollection and submissive helplessness that it could scarcely +have been distinguished a boat's length distant. + +The moon was down, but the morning star was in the sky, splendid, +eloquent, charged with a subtle message expressed in no other sidereal +scintillation, heralding not only the dawn, but palpitant with the +prophecy and the assurance of eternal day. There was a sense of light +about the eastern mountains, albeit so heavily looming. And suddenly, all +at once, the faces of the shadowy men who had borne him hither were fully +revealed, and as he sat and shivered in his thin little dress he eyed +them, first one for a long time, and then another, and he shivered +throughout with a fear more chilly than the cold. Perhaps it was well for +the equilibrium of his reason that fear so acute could not continue. He +presently began to cough, and when he sought to reply to a question he +could only wheeze. An infantile captive wields certain coercions to fair +treatment peculiar to nonage. The moonshiners had suddenly before their +eyes the menace of croup or pneumonia, and, to do them justice, the +destruction of the child had not been part of their project. There ensued +gruff criminations and recriminations among them before the baby was +rolled up in a foul old horse-blanket, and a dose of the pure moonshine +whisky, tempered with river water, was poured down his throat. It may +have been the slumber induced by this potent elixir, or it may have been +the effects of fever, but he was not conscious when they reached the +forks of the Tennessee and were pulling up the Oconalufty River. He only +knew vaguely when once more they had disembarked, though now and then he +sought vainly to rouse himself to the incidents of a long march. Finally +he was still and silent so long in old Clenk's arms as to excite +immediate fears. Now and again as they forged along at the extreme limit +of their endurance they took the time to shake up the poor baby and seek +by suggestion to induce him to say that he felt better. But his head had +begun to roll heavily from side to side, and they could not disguise from +themselves that he looked at them with uncomprehending eyes, and, left to +himself, sank immediately into stupor that simulated slumber. + +"Fellows," said old Clenk drearily, "I believe this leetle chap be agoin' +ter make a die of it!" + +But he was still alive the following morning when the chill, clouded day +broke, and a happy thought occurred to old Clenk. Throughout his illness +the child had instinctively refused the coarse food proffered him, and +this was brought anew to their notice when they paused to eat their +scanty rations in a deep, secluded dell. A stream ran foaming, crystal +clear, amidst great rocks hemming it in on every side, save where a +jungle of undergrowth made close to the verge. A sudden sound from these +bosky recesses set every nerve of the fugitives a-quiver. Only the tinkle +of a cow-bell, keen and clear in the chill rare air! There was the +exchange of a sheepish grin as the tones were recognized, when suddenly +Clenk arose, a light as of inspiration on his dull old face. "Soo, cow, +soo!" he called softly; then listened intently for a responsive stir in +the bushes. A muttered low--and he pressed into the covert in the +direction of the sound. The docile animal lifted her head at an approach, +then calmly fell a-grazing again. She let down her milk readily, though +looking over her shoulder questioningly during the process, for Clenk was +no practised hand. He contrived, however, to fill a "tickler" in which +there was a small residue of whisky, which possibly aided the efficacy of +the milk, for the child was perceptibly revived after the first draught +was forced down his throat, and when an hour or two afterward the bottle +was put to his lips he voluntarily drank a few swallows with obvious +relish. + +"Ye leetle old toper," cried Clenk delightedly, waxing jocose in his +relief, "ye been swindling me! Ye hev been playin' sick to trick me out +'n this fine milk punch!" + +Archie did not comprehend the banter, but he smiled feebly in response to +the jovial tone, and after a time babbled a good deal in a faint little +voice about a train of steam-cars, exponent of a distant civilization, +that with a roar of wheels and clangor of machinery and scream of +whistles and clouds of smoke went thundering through the wild and wooded +country. To the old man's delight, he sought to lift himself to a sitting +posture in Clenk's arms, and asked if they were to travel soon on the +"choo-choo train." Yes, indeed, he was assured, and he seemed to +experience a sort of gratified pride in the prospect. With this fiction +in mind, he presently fell into a deep and refreshing slumber. + +Suddenly the child was all himself again, glad, hopeful, expectant, with +the sense of being once more under a roof, touched by a woman's hand. +Then he looked keenly into the face before him--such a strange face! He +was tempted to cry out in terror; but the mind is plastic in early youth: +he had learned the lesson that now his protests and shrieks availed +naught. A strange face, of a copper hue, with lank black hair hanging +straight on both sides, a high nose, a wide, flat, thin-lipped mouth, and +great, dark, soft eyes amidst many wrinkles. He could not have thus +enumerated its characteristics, nor even described its impression on his +mind; but he realized its fundamental difference from all the faces he +had ever seen, and its unaccustomed aspect appalled him. He was petrified +by his uncomprehending amazement and an intensity of grief that was not +meet for his tender years in this extreme. He could hardly realize his +own identity. He did not seem himself, this child on the floor in front +of a dull wood fire, squalid, wrapped in an old horse-blanket, facing +this queer woman, sitting opposite him on the uneven flagging of the +hearth. + +All at once his fortitude gave way. He broke forth into sobs and cries; +his heart was heavy with the sense of desertion, for he wept not for his +home, his mother, his kind friends, Ned and Gad-ish--on these blessings +he had lost all hold, all hope. He mourned for his late companions, +forsooth!--the big men, the boat, the river, the star. They had so +cruelly forsaken him, and here he was so poignantly unfamiliar and +helpless. When the woman held out a finger to him and smiled, he bowed +his head as he wept and shook it to and fro that he might not see her, +for her yellow teeth had great gaps among them, and as she laughed a +strange light came into her eyes, and he was woe--woe!--for his comrades +of the rowlocks and the Tennessee River. + +It would have seemed a strange face to others as well as to the poor +baby. For this was indeed an Indian woman. A late day, certainly, for a +captive among the Cherokees, but the moonshiners felt that they had +scored a final victory when they left the little creature within the +Qualla Boundary, the reservation where still lingers a remnant of that +tribe, the "Eastern Band," on the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky +Mountains, a quaint survival of ancient days amidst the twentieth +century. The moonshiners had represented the little boy as the son of one +of their party, recently a widower. They stated that they were seeking +work among the laborers employed in a certain silver mine beyond the +Qualla Boundary, and that they had lost his kit with the rest of his +clothes in the Oconalufty River hard by. Leaving some goods, purchased at +a cross-roads store on the way, to supply this need, with a small sum of +money for his board in advance, and fixing an early day for their return, +they departed. + +Their story excited no suspicion at Quallatown: the craft of the +Cherokees is an antiquated endowment, and has not kept pace with modern +progress. Even the woman, who arrogated a spirit of prophecy and had long +practised the devices of a fortune-teller, thus accustomed to scan the +possibilities and in some degree versed in the adjustment of the +probabilities, accorded the homely verisimilitude of their worldly-wise +representations the meed of a simple and respectful credulity. The +mountaineers were ignorant indeed in their sort, but far too +sophisticated to entertain aught but the most contemptuous disbelief in +her pretensions of special foresight and mysterious endowment. They did +not fear her discrimination, and told their story, through an +interpreter, with a glib disregard of any uncanny perspicacity on her +part. She was one of the many Indians of the reservation who speak no +English. Her cabin was far from Quallatown, and indeed at a considerable +distance from any other dwelling. With her and her few associates, the +moonshiners thought the child would soon forget his name, his language, +and his terrible experience, and they promised themselves that when all +was buried in oblivion they would come and reclaim him and place him more +suitably among themselves, and see to it that he should have some chance, +some show in the world to make a man of himself. All of this had served +to soothe the vague pricks of conscience, which from time to time had +harassed them as the attractions of the child began to make an impress +even on their indurated hearts, and all was forgotten as soon as they +caught the first glimpse of the red clay embankment of the new railroad, +crawling across the valley country far away in one of the adjoining +States; for they sought employment in the construction gangs here, and +the silver mines of their pretended destination held all its treasures +unmolested for any pick or shovel of their wielding. + + + + + VII. + + +The discovery of the catastrophe came late to the inmates of the bungalow +on the crag. The suave resplendent sunset drew slowly to a majestic +close. The color deepened and glowed in the red west, even while the moon +made speed to climb the eastern mountains. Long burnished silver shafts +were all aslant in the woods, the dense autumnal foliage still visibly +russet and yellow, before Mrs. Briscoe came out on the veranda where +Bayne lounged in the swing, although no longer able to scan the pages of +the magazine in his hand. + +"Don't you think it is odd that Ned is so late?" she asked. + +"I don't know his habit," he rejoined carelessly. "But it is almost as +light as day in the road." + +"He is usually so particular about detaining the servants," she said +uneasily, evidently a bit disconcerted. "Dinner has been ready to serve +for nearly an hour." + +She returned indoors after a little, but Bayne still swung languidly to +and fro, all unprescient of the impending disclosure. Presently he +glanced through the window of the hall near at hand, noting how the tints +of the pretty gowns of the two women now before the fire imparted a rich +pictorial effect to the interior, the one costume being of a canary tint, +with bretelles and girdle of brown velvet, while Mrs. Briscoe's striking +beauty was accentuated by the artistic blending of two blues. In the +interval, while his attention was diverted from the scene without, a +change had supervened there, and he experienced a sudden disquieting +monition as he observed that the groom, who had been hovering in the road +at some distance, had been joined by another stable-man, and that the +butler, easily distinguishable from the others in the gathering gloom by +his white shirt front, was swiftly crossing the lawn toward them. Bayne +sprang from the swing, leaped silently from the veranda into the grass, +and walked quickly toward the group. They had already descried his +approach, and eagerly met him half way--in a state verging on panic, he +found to his own fright and dismay. + +Something had happened, they averred. Mr. Briscoe was never late like +this. He had too much consideration for his household. He would not risk +occasioning Mrs. Briscoe anxiety. He would not keep little Archie out in +the night air--he was very particular about little Archie. Oh, Fairy-foot +was all right--there was not a horse in Tennessee that Mr. Briscoe could +not handle. They had no fear at all about the mare. But after Mr. Briscoe +had driven away, the groom who had been ordered to investigate the hotel +had found signs of intrusion in the vacant building. Broken victuals were +on the hearth of the serving-room adjoining the great dining-hall, and an +old slouched hat was lying in that apartment, evidently dropped +inadvertently near one of the tables. A rude lantern with a candle burned +down almost to the socket was in an upper chamber, usually illuminated by +acetylene gas, as was all the building. Bayne remembered, according the +circumstance a fresh and added importance, the fleeing apparition in the +vacant hotel that had frightened Lillian, and Mrs. Briscoe's declaration +that a light had flashed the previous night from the interior of the +deserted building. But this intrusion was not necessarily of inimical +significance, he argued. Tramps, perhaps, or some belated hunter stealing +a shelter from the blinding fog, or even petty thieves, finding an +unguarded entrance--it might mean no more. In fact, such intrusion was +the normal incident of any vacant house in remote seclusion, unprotected +by a caretaker. But this reasoning did not convince the servants. +Something had happened, they reiterated; something terrible had happened! + +Bayne, flouting fear as a folly, yet himself feeling the cold chill of +dismay, dared not dismiss their anxieties as groundless. He hastily +arranged for a patrol of the only road by which Briscoe could return, +incongruously feeling at the moment absurd and shamefaced in view of his +host's indignation and ridicule should he presently appear. Bayne had +ordered the phaeton with the intention of himself rousing the +country-side and organizing a search when, to his consternation, the two +ladies, who had observed the colloguing group, issued on the veranda, +frantic with terror, pale and agonized. Both had grasped the fact of +disaster, albeit unformulated, yet both hoped against hope. + +"Take me with you!" Lillian cried, seizing Bayne's wrist in a grip like +steel. "Take me to my child!" + +He could not be rid of her importunacy, and he came to think it was well +that the two should be separated, for Mrs. Briscoe had not abandoned all +self-control, and her gallant struggle for composure appealed for his +aid. + +"No," she had said firmly; "Ned would expect me to wait for him here. +Dead or alive, he will come back to me here." + +He was glad to get Lillian out of her sight and hearing. With every +muscle relaxed, almost collapsed, curiously ghastly in her gay gown, she +was lifted bodily into the vehicle, repeating constantly with bloodless +lips and a strange, false, mechanical voice, "Take me to my dead child!" + +Once as they spun swiftly through the misty sheen and dewy shadow, the +moisture-laden boughs that thrust across the narrow roadway now and again +filliping them on the cheeks with perfumed showers, she turned that +death-smitten face toward him and said in her natural, smooth tones, "You +have your revenge at last. It couldn't be a heavier blow!" + +"I want you to be still!" he cried with vehement rudeness. "I can't drive +straight if you rattle me. I am taking you to your child." + +And once more broke forth the eerie shrilling anew: "Take me to my child! +Take me to my dead child!" + +At the first house that Bayne roused, he was encumbered and harassed by +her strange intolerance that they should speak of Briscoe at all; for the +summer sojourner was a favorite with his humble neighbors, and a great +tumult of concern ensued on the suggestion that he had encountered +disaster in some sort. + +It all seemed to the jealous mother-heart to minimize her own sacred +grief. "But he had my child with him, my dead child!" she would shrill +out. And the slow rustic's formulation of a suggestion or a plan must +needs tarry in abeyance as he gazed awestruck at this ghastly apparition, +decked in trim finery, mowing and wringing her hands, shown under the +hood of the phaeton in the blended light of the moon and the +mountaineer's lantern, while his household stood half-clad in the doorway +and peered out, mute and affrighted, as at a spectre. + +The scanty population of the district turned out to the last man. The +woods of the vicinity were pervaded with exploring parties, now and again +hallooing their signals, till the crags rang with the melancholy +interchange of hail and hopeless response. In fact, the night was nearly +spent before a hunter, roused by the echoing clamors, joined the search +with the statement that he had been at a "deer stand" in the valley +during the afternoon, and had noted at a distance some object crash down +from the summit of a certain crag. He had fancied it only a fragment of +the rock falling, and had not the curiosity to leave his occupation and +go so far to investigate the nature of a circumstance seemingly of so +little significance. + +Thus it came about that the inquisition of the coroner's jury resulted in +a verdict of death by accident. It was supposed that the little child's +body was crushed indistinguishably in the mangled mass of horse and man, +themselves scarcely to be disintegrated in the fall from so stupendous a +height. The big white beaver hat of the child was found floating on the +surface of a deep pool hard by, half quagmire, half quicksand, and would +in itself have sufficed to dispel any doubts of his fate, had doubt been +entertained. The burial was accomplished as best might be, and the +dolorous incident seemed at an end. But throughout the dry, soft Indian +summer the little boy's jaunty red coat swung in the wind, unseen, +unheeded, on the upper boughs of a tree in the valley, where it had +chanced to lodge when the treacherous Copenny had cast it forth from the +bluff above to justify the hypothesis of the fall of the little fellow +from those awful heights. + +Gradually the catastrophe ceased to be the paramount sensation of the +country-side. Bayne's interests of necessity had drawn him back to his +city office. He had remonstrated against the decision of the two bereaved +women to remain in the bungalow for a time. He had advocated change, +travel, aught that might compass a surcease of the indulgence of sorrow +and dreary seclusion, that are so dear and so pernicious to the stricken +heart. But in their affliction the two clung together and to the place +endeared by tender associations of the recent habitation of the beloved +and vanished. They said that none could feel for them as each for the +other, and, in fact, their awful tragedy had cemented an affection +already almost sisterly. Thus the bungalow caged through the opening of +wintry weather these tenants of woe who had come like the birds for +sunshine and summer only. Since the community continued in absolute +ignorance that any crime had been committed, there was no sense of +insecurity or apprehension of danger, other than might menace any country +house, isolated and secluded in situation. The normal precautions were +taken, the household was strengthened, and Mrs. Marable, Lillian's aunt, +or rather her uncle's wife, who had come to her at the first news of her +affliction, had consented to remain during her stay. Owing to the +discovery of the intrusion into the hotel, with no other fear than +material injury to the property by frisky boys of the vicinity, the +management had installed there a caretaker with his family, who was also, +as weather favored, to superintend some repairs to the building. It had +been arranged by Bayne, previous to his departure, that the eldest son, a +stalwart youth of twenty, should sleep in a room at the bungalow, having +his rifle loaded and pistols at hand, provided against any menace of +disturbance. Thus the winter closed in upon a seclusion and solitude of +funereal intimations. + +The winds were loosed and rioted through the lonely recesses of the +craggy ravines and the valley with a wild and eerie blare; the leaves, +rustling shrilly, all sere now, so long the weather had held dry, fled in +myriads before the gusts. Soon they lay on the ground in dense masses, +and in the denudation of the trees the brilliant tints of the little +coat, swinging so high in the blast, caught the eye of a wandering +hunter. At first sight, he thought it but a flare of the autumnal +foliage, and gave it no heed, but some days afterward its persistence +struck his attention. It seemed a tragic and piteous thing when he +discovered its nature. He cut the tree down, too high it was lodged for +other means to secure it, and after the county officials had examined it, +he brought it to the mother. + +Over it Lillian shed such tears as have bedewed the relics of the dead +since first this sad old world knew loss, since first a grave was filled. +How unavailing! How lacerating! How consoling! She began to feel a +plaintive sympathy for all the bereaved of earth, and her heart and mind +grew more submissive as she remembered that only for this cause Jesus +wept, albeit a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." + +The little coat, so gayly decorated, reminded her of another coat of many +colors, its splendor testimony of the gentlest domestic affection, +brought stained with blood to another parent long ago, to interpret the +cruel mystery of a son's death. And after all these centuries she felt +drawn near to Jacob in the tender realization of a common humanity, and +often repeated his despairing words, "I shall go down into the grave unto +my son mourning." + +Then her heart was pierced with self-pity for the contrast of his +gratuitous affliction with her hopeless grief. So happy in truth was he, +despite his thought of woe, that he should have lamented as dead his son, +who was so full of life the while, whose future on earth was destined to +be so long and so beneficent. She spoke of this so often and so wistfully +that it seemed to Gladys to precipitate an illusion, which afterward +absorbed her mind to the exclusion of all else. + + + + + VIII. + + +One sinister day when the slate-hued clouds hung low, and the valley was +dark and drear with its dense leafless forests, when the mountains +gloomed a sombre purple and no sound but the raucous cawing of crows +broke upon the sullen air, Lillian's paroxysms of grief seemed to reach a +climax. Their intensity alarmed her two companions, and the forced +composure and latent strength of character of Gladys were tried to the +utmost to sustain her own equilibrium. But as the afternoon wore away +Lillian grew calmer, though her mind never deviated from the subject. The +trio had ceased to sit in the large reception hall, for its gun-rack and +rods and reels, its fur rugs, its trophies of sport, its mandolin and +flute and piano, were now pathetically reminiscent of the vanished +presence of its joyous and genial owner. They used instead the small +library which opened from it, where a spacious bay-window gave ample +light in the dreary days, and the big wood fire sent its flash and +fragrance to the remotest corner. It filled with a rich glow the fabric +of the little red coat as the mother held the sleeve to her lips and then +turned it to readjust the cuff creased in folding. "He used to look so +pretty in it. My beauty! My baby! My own!" she cried out in a voice +muffled, half-smothered, by her choking throat. "And he thought it so +fine! He valued it beyond all his other possessions," she continued +presently with a melancholy smile, even while the tears, so bitter that +they stung her cheeks, coursed down her face; for she had begun to find a +languid, sad pleasure now and then in discursive reminiscence, and +Gladys, who knew the little fellow so well, could respond with discretion +and stimulate this resource for the promotion of calm and resignation. +"You remember, Gladys, don't you, how he delighted in these pockets? You +were with me when he first got the coat. He doubted if he were really +going to have pockets, because there were none in his little white +reefer. Do you remember how he looked when I lifted the flap--isn't the +embroidery lovely?--and put his dear little hand into his first pocket? +How surprised he was when I showed him this pocket between the facing and +the lining! I wanted him to have enough pockets--he admired them so! He +had never dreamed of finding one here. I told him it was his inside +pocket--he called it his 'shy pocket.'" + +"A good name for it, too," commented Gladys. "Nobody would ever think to +find a pocket there." + +Lillian had suddenly ceased to speak. She had suited the action to the +word and slipped her own fingers into the pocket. There was something +within. She drew it forth, startled, her pale face all contorted and +ghastly. It was a bit of stone, of white stone, fashioned by curious +nature in the similitude of a lily, wrought in the darkness, the silence +of the depths of the earth. Lillian had previously seen such things; she +recognized the efflorescence of a limestone cavern. She sprang up +suddenly with a scream that rang through the room with the force and +volume of a clarion tone. + +"This child has been in a cave!" she shrilled, remembering the raid on +the moonshiners' cavern. "He is not dead. He is stolen, _stolen_!" + +The logic of the possibilities, cemented by her renewal of frantic hope, +had constructed a stanch theory. She was reasoning on its every phase. +The coercion of this significant discovery had suggested the truth. "This +coat was left as a blind, a bluff, to cover the tracks of a crime. +Gladys, Gladys, think--_think_!" + +But poor Gladys, in her deep mourning gown, all her splendid beauty +beclouded by grief, sadly shook her head, unconvinced. The child had +possibly found the stone, she argued. + +"Would he not have shared his joy with every creature in the household?" +demanded Lillian. "Did he ever have a thought that I did not know?" + +"It might have been given to him," Gladys sadly persisted. + +"Remember his disposition, Gladys, his grateful little heart. He would +have worn us all out, showing the gift and celebrating the generosity of +the giver. How flattered he was, always, to be considered! He never +seemed in the least to care for the value of the thing. He would cherish +an empty spool from a friend's hand. It was wonderful how he loved to be +loved. I feel sure, I _know_, that coat was taken from him; and he is +alive, _stolen_." + +And from this conviction she would not depart. It was a folly, a frenzy, +her two friends contended. Its indulgence would threaten her sanity. They +besought her to consider anew. The discovery of such a stone in this +mountain region was altogether devoid of significance. Right reason and +religion alike dictated submission to the decrees of Providence. + +These arguments were all thrown away. Neither could urge aught to +restrain her. With a swift strength of gait that seemed amazing to those +who had witnessed her feeble dragging about the house for weeks past, +Lillian flashed through the door, and suddenly there was the keen tinkle +of a bell in the darkening, chill spaces of the unused hall. The other +two, startled, appalled, as in the contemplation of the aberrations of +acute mania, scarcely knowing whether to follow or to call for help, +remained motionless, gazing at each other in pallid agitation, awaiting +developments, of which they could divine naught. + +Lillian, however, was perfectly calm as she called up "Long Distance" and +gave the address of Julian Bayne in the city of Glaston--the number of +his office and his residence as well. + +The two women in the firelight glanced at each other in mute +significance. Then Lillian urged the operator at Shaftesville to the +utmost diligence. "Find him wherever he is. Send special messenger. Get +him to the 'phone at once. Emergency call! Make them understand that at +the Glaston exchange." + +Mrs. Marable, a little, precise, wrinkled old lady, with a brown taffeta +gown and a Marie Stuart lace cap, cherished the traditions of the old +school of propriety, and the controlling influence proved strong even +amidst this chaos of excitements. As Mrs. Royston returned in a state of +absolute exaltation to the fireside, "Lillian," said Mrs. Marable coldly, +"the officers of the law are the proper parties for you to appeal to, if +you are going to pursue this obsession. Why should you call up that--man? +Why don't you call the sheriff of the county?" + +"Because I want Julian Bayne. I believe in him! I can trust him! It is +almost like the hand of omnipotence--there is help in the very thought of +him." + +There were no more tears. She sat strong, elate, her head held high, her +hands folded calmly on the crape pleats of the black gown she wore for +the child's sake, ready to wait the evening through. But there was a +prompt response. When the telephone-bell jarred out suddenly in the dim +stillness of the hall, Gladys sprang up with a sharp cry, her hands to +her ears, as if to shut out the sound. But Lillian ran lightly out of the +room, and the two heard in wonder the sure vibrations of her clear +composed accents. "Yes, Long Distance, this is Mrs. Royston." Then +suddenly her tones were pervaded with embarrassment: "Oh, Mr. _John_ +Bayne.... Oh, the father of Mr. Julian Bayne.... No, no, no commands.... +Thank you very much. Only the present address of Mr. Julian Bayne." + +Once more the two in the library exchanged a glance expressive of more +than either would have been willing to put into words. For there was a +very definite interval of delay at the telephone, and it would need no +sorcerer to divine that the father might deem that this lady, who had so +signally befooled his son heretofore, had no beneficent concern to serve +with his address. But the old gentleman was evidently the pink of +punctilio. Moreover, Julian Bayne had already proved himself man enough +to be safely chargeable with his own affairs. + +"At Crystal?... Thirty miles from Shaftesville?... Telephone exchange +there?... So much obliged! Good-by!" + +The bitter disappointment! The torturing delay! Gladys dreaded to witness +their effects on Lillian, baffled at the outset in this miserable +delusion that her child still lived, because of a bit of stone in the +pocket of a coat he had worn. It would debilitate her as completely as if +her belief were founded on cogent reason. But Lillian, with a singularly +fresh aspect, with a buoyant energy, swept into the room after calling up +Crystal, cool, collected, as competent of dealing with delay and suspense +as factors in her plan as if it were some commonplace matter of business, +and naturally dependent on the contingencies which environ the domain of +affairs. The lamps came in and filled the room with a golden glow, as she +sat in a majestic assurance that gave her an aspect of a sort of regal +state. Her hair, ill-arranged, disordered in lying down throughout the +day in her reclining chair, showed in its redundance the splendor of its +tint and quality; her face, lately so wan and lean and ghastly, was +roseate, and the lines had strangely filled out in soft curves to their +wonted contour; her hands lay supple and white and quiet in her lap, with +not a tense ligament, not a throbbing fibre--delicate, beautiful +hands--it seemed odd to her companions to think how they had seen her +wring them in woe and clench them in despair. Her black gown with its +heavy folds of crape had an element of incongruity with that still, +assured, resolved presence, expressing so cheerful a poise, so confident +a control of circumstance. She did not expend herself in protest when at +ten o'clock they besought her to go to bed, to be called should the +telephone-bell ring. Her negation was so definite that they forbore +futile importunacy. She did not even waste her strength in urgency when +they declared that they would keep the vigil with her. She merely essayed +a remonstrance, and, since it was obviously vain, she desisted. She would +not discuss the theme. She had no words. It even seemed that she had no +thoughts, no fears, no plans. She was annulled in waiting--waiting for +the moment, the opportunity to take action. While the time went by, she +sat there as under a spell of suspended animation, fresh, clear, capable, +tireless, silent. The housemaid came in once and mended the fire, but +later Gladys, mindful of the curiosity of servants, forbore to ring the +bell and threw on the logs herself; then sat down to gaze again into the +depths of the coals, flickering to a white heat at the end of the glowing +red perspective, and wonder what was to come to them all--indeed, what +was this strange thing that had already befallen them in the obsession of +this silent woman, who sat so still, so suddenly endued with vigor, so +brilliant with health and freshness, out of a state of mental anguish +bordering on nervous prostration? Was it all fictitious?--and was there +something terrible to ensue when it should collapse? And what action was +incumbent on her hostess, left to face this problem in this lonely +country house in the dead hours of night? + + + + + IX. + + +The wind had risen; the swaying of the great trees outside was partially +visible as well as drearily audible to the group, for Gladys had +postponed ordering the shutters closed, and then had forgotten them. The +gigantic dim shapes of the oaks surged to and fro in an undiscriminated +shadowy turmoil. It was a dark night, and cloudy. Vast masses of vapor +were on the march, under the coercion of the blast that followed fast and +scourged and flouted the laggards. Mrs. Marable noted now and again a +light and tentative touch on the panes, and began to wonder how far the +illumined window could be seen down the road. Was it not calculated to +allure marauders and nighthawks to this lonely house? She was moved to +hope that the stalwart son of the hotel caretaker, who occupied a room at +the bungalow for the greater security of its occupants, was not a heavy +sleeper; though from the stolid, phlegmatic appearance of the young man, +of a sluggish temperament, she drearily thought it possible that he could +be roused by no less means than applying a torch to his bed furniture to +bring him out in a light blaze. She experienced a great revulsion of +relief when she began to recognize the mysterious sound that had +attracted her attention. It was sleet--no longer slyly touching the glass +here and there, but dashing with all the force of the wind in tinkling +showers against it. The sound had its chilly influence even before the +warm fire. + +Suddenly the shock of the bell, jangling out its summons in the dark cold +hall! Again Lillian's composed, swift exit in response. Crystal had +answered, and here was Mr. Julian Bayne at the hotel and on the wire. +Could he come to her at once, at her utmost need, and by the first train? +Oh! (at last a poignant cadence of pain) there was no train? Crystal was +not on a railroad at all? (A pause of silent, listening expectancy, then +the keen vibration of renewed hope.) Oh, could he? Could he really drive +across country? But wasn't it too far? Oh, a fast horse? Fifty miles? But +weren't the roads dreadful? + +"Oh--oh, Gladys, he has rung off! He was in such a hurry I could hardly +understand him. I could hear him calling out his orders in the hotel +office to have his horse harnessed, while he was talking to me." + +The effort was triumphantly made, and Julian Bayne was coming, but as she +returned from the chill hall to the illumined, warm room the tinkle of +ice on the window-pane caught her attention for the first time. + +"Snow?" she said, appalled; then, listening a moment: "And there is +sleet! I wonder if it is more than a flurry." + +She ran to the window, but, already frozen, the sash refused to rise. She +pressed her cheek to the pane and beheld aghast a ghostly and sheeted +world, so fast had the snowflakes fallen, and still the sleet sent its +crystal fusillade against the glass. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, "Julian Bayne can never come safely through this ice +storm and up the mountain. Listen--listen! It is hailing now! Oh, he will +break his neck! Remember what a wild and savage thing it is that Julian +Bayne calls a fast horse! He will lose his way in the woods and freeze to +death; and after all, it is perhaps for nothing. I can wait--I can +wait--time is not _so_ essential. Oh, I will postpone his coming! I will +call him up again! Run, Gladys, ring the bell! Call up Long Distance! I +can't get there quickly enough." + +And indeed it seemed some feeble old woman hirpling through the shadows, +rather than the vigorous commanding presence of a few minutes ago. Gladys +felt that the reaction was ominous as Lillian held the receiver with a +hand that shook as with palsy. All had feared the usual delay, but while +they were still in the hall the bell jangled, and the night-clerk of the +hotel in Crystal responded--little to a cheering effect to the listener, +though of this he was unaware. Mr. Bayne had already set out, he stated +glibly. He must be five miles away by this time (the clerk evidently +thought that he pleased his interlocutor by his report of the +precipitation with which Mr. Bayne had obeyed her summons). Mr. Bayne was +a good judge of horse-flesh, and the clerk would venture to say that he +had never handled the ribbons over a higher-couraged animal than the one +he had between the shafts to-night. Pretty well matched, horse and +driver--ha! ha! ha! If anything could get through the ice-storm to-night, +it was those two! Oh, yes, it had been snowing hard at Crystal for two +hours past. + +So he rang off jauntily, fancying that Julian Bayne's presence was much +desired at some house-party or romantic elopement, or other lightsome +diversion in the upper country. + +"How could I? How could I, Gladys?" Lillian said again and again, white, +wild-eyed, and haggard, so limp and nerveless that she could not have +reached the library had not the other ladies supported her between them, +half carrying her to her reclining chair. "You both think I was wrong, +don't you?" She looked up at them with agonized eyes, pleading for +reassurance. + +"Well, dear, time is not an element of importance just now, it would +seem, to be considered against other disadvantages--so many weeks having +already passed. A day or two more would not have mattered," returned Mrs. +Marable, fatally candid. + +Once again the blast drove against the windows with elemental frenzy, +shaking the sashes, that being hung loosely, rattled in their casings. No +more the dark, glossy spaces between the long red curtains reflected +fragmentary bits of the bright, warm room within, or gave dull glimpses +of the bosky grove and the clouded sky without. The glass was now blankly +white, opaque, sheeted with ice, and only the wind gave token how the +storm raged. It was indeed a wild night for a drive of fifty miles +through a mountain wilderness, over roads sodden with the late rains, the +deep mire corrugated into ruts by the wheels of travel and now frozen +stiff. + +But the roads might well be hopelessly lost under drifts of snow, and the +woods were as uncharted as a trackless ocean. Many water-courses were out +of the banks with the recent floods. Gladys remembered that the county +paper had chronicled the sweeping away of several bridges; others were +left doubtless undermined, insecure, trembling to their fall. Julian +would be often constrained to trust his life to his plucky horse, +swimming when out of his depth, and dragging after him, as best he might, +the vehicle, heavy with its iron fixtures, and reeking with the water and +the tenacious red clay mire. And then, too, the mountain streams were +beset with quick-sands--indeed, every detail of the night journey was +environed with danger. He could scarcely be expected to win through +safely, and Gladys felt a rush of indignation that he should have +attempted the feat. Must a man be as wax in a woman's hands--especially a +woman whom he knew unreliable of old, who had failed him when his whole +heart was bound up in her? At her utmost need, she had said, to be sure, +but he had not canvassed the urgency of the necessity, he had not even +asked a question! He had simply rushed forth into the blizzard. But even +while she contemned his foolhardiness, she was woe for Lillian!--to +entertain a hope, even though the folly of illusion, as an oasis in her +deep distress, a sentiment so revivifying, so potent, that it seemed to +raise her as it were from the dead; and yet within the hour to be +battered down by self-reproach, an anguish of anxiety, of torture, of +suspense, for the fate of the man she had so arbitrarily called to her +aid, to make the hope effective in the rescue of her child. Poor little +Archie! It was difficult indeed to think of him as dead! Gladys felt that +she must find some way to sustain Lillian. + +"Why, what are we thinking of?" she exclaimed. "Julian Bayne will be half +frozen when he gets here. His room must be prepared--something hot to +drink, and something to eat. No, Lillian, you _mustn't_ ring the bell! +The servants have been at work all day, and have earned their rest. We +will just take this matter in charge ourselves. You go to the kitchen and +see if the fire has kept in the range. If not, make it up. You will find +wood at hand, laid ready for getting breakfast. Mrs. Marable, look in the +refrigerator, please, and see what there is for him to eat. I will get +out the bed linen and blankets, for he will be exhausted, no doubt." + +But when she stood alone in the upper hall, at the door of the vacant +guest-room, the candle in her hand, Gladys had a sudden keen intimation +that she was herself but human, endowed with muscles susceptible of +overstrain, with nerves of sensitive fibre, with instincts importunate +with the cry of self-interest, with impulses toward collapse, tears, +terrors, anxieties--all in revolt against the sedulous constraint of +will. The light of the candle in her hand, thrown upward on her face, +showed the fictitious animation that she had sustained vanish out of its +lineaments, as life itself might flicker to extinction, and leave a mask +like death. It was a tragic mask. Her lids fell over her hopeless eyes; +her lips drooped; the flush of her splendid florid beauty had faded as if +it had never bloomed. She discovered that she was gasping in the dull, +chill air. She leaned against the balustrade of the stairs, limp, inert, +as if every impetus of vigor had deserted her. But it would never do for +her to faint, she reflected. She must act for others, with just judgment, +with foresight, with effective housewifely care, and with good heart and +courage. + +"I must think for the rest--as Ned would, if he were here," she said, +still half fainting. She got the window open hard by, and a vagrant gust +of the cold air stung her face as with a lash. But she was out of the +direct course of the blast as it came shrilly fluttering from over the +roof, and she could maintain her position, although she could scarcely +breathe in the keen frigidity. Snow had fallen, deeper than she had ever +seen. With it had come that strange quality of visibility that seems to +appertain to a sheeted world like an inherent luminosity; or was it +perchance some vague diffusion of light from the clouded moon, skulking +affrighted somewhere in the grim and sullen purlieus of the sky? She +listened, thinking to hear the stir of horses in their stalls, some sound +from barn or byre, the wakening of the restless poultry, all snugly +housed; but the somnolent stillness of the muffled earth continued +unbroken, and only the frantic wind screamed and howled and wailed. + +One sombre hour succeeded another as if the succession were endless. +Long, long before there was the sense of a boreal dawn in the chill +darkness, the house stood in readiness, though none came. The servants +were presently astir; the fires were freshly flaring, the furniture +rearranged. In view of the freeze, the gardener had seen fit to cut all +the blooms in the pit to save them from blight, and a great silver bowl +on the table in the hall, and the vases in the library, were filled with +exotics. The fragrance oppressed Lillian in some subtle sort; the spirit +of the scene was so alien to the idea of festival or function; the dim +gaunt morning was of so funereal an aspect; the gathering of household +companions, gloomy, silent, expectant, into one room duly set in order, +was so suggestive, that the array of flowers and the heavy perfumed air +gave the final significant impression of douleur and doom. + +At the first glimpse of dawn, Gladys had despatched a groom, well mounted +and with a fresh led horse, out on the road to descry perchance some +approach of Mr. Bayne, to afford assistance if this were needed. Hours +went by, and still there was no news, no return of the messenger. Now and +again Mrs. Briscoe sought to exchange a word with Mrs. Marable to relieve +the tension of the situation; but the elder lady was flabby with fatigue; +her altruistic capabilities had been tried to the utmost in this long +vigil and painful excitement, which were indeed unmeet for her age and +failing strength. She did not enter into the troubled prevision of +Gladys, who had been furtively watching a strange absorption that was +growing in Lillian's manner, a fevered light in her eyes. Suddenly, as if +in response to a summons, Lillian rose, and, standing tall and erect in +her long black dress, she spoke in a voice that seemed not her own, so +assured, so strong, monotonous yet distinct. + +"You cruel woman," she said, as if impersonally. But Gladys perceived in +a moment that she had in mind her own arraignment, as if another were +taxing her with a misdeed. "In this bitter black night, in this furious +ice-storm, and you did not forbid it! You did not explain your need. You +summoned him to risk his life, _his life_, that he might something the +earlier offer his fallible opinion, perhaps worth no more than that bit +of stone! You would not wait till daylight--you would not wait one hour. +You cruel woman! Already you had the best of him, his heart, to throw +away at a word as if it were naught--merely a plaything, a tawdry +gaud--the best and tenderest and noblest heart that ever beat!--and for a +silly quarrel, and for your peevish vanity, you consented to humiliate +his honest pride and to hold him up to ridicule, jilted on his +wedding-day. And but that he is so brave and genuine and fine of fibre, +he would never have had the courage to hold up his head again. But even +the basest of the yokels and groundlings could not make merry over the +cozening of so noble a gentleman! And now, because of your faith in his +magnanimity, you summon him forth in an ice-storm at your 'utmost need,' +all careless of his suffering, at the risk of his life. And he, fool +that he is, without even a question, regardless of all that has come +and gone--or, more foolish still, forgiving and forgetting--obeys your +behest! You have taken all he had left, you cruel woman!--his life, this +time, his life, _his life_!" + +Gladys literally cowered under this storm of words, as if the pitiless +hail had beaten on her own head. But as Lillian, her arms outstretched, +her voice broken into shrill cries, rushed to the door, Mrs. Briscoe +sprang forward, caught her arm, and sought to detain her. "What are you +going to do, Lillian?" + +"To raise the country-side, the county--to search for all that the storm +and the floods and that baneful woman have left of him!" + +She broke away hastily from the restraining clutch of Gladys, who, +following her closely, saw her reel backward as if in shrinking affright +from a shadowy figure standing in the dim hall. + + + + + X. + + +Julian Bayne, his long coat covered with snow and jingling with icicles, +his chill face scarlet with cold, his lips emitting a cloud of visible +breath, his eyes intent beneath the brim of his frost-rimmed hat, stood +gazing as if petrified by the strange scene he had witnessed just enacted +within, the strange words he had overheard. + +"What is all this?" he cried at length. "Did you think I couldn't make +it?" Then to Lillian specially, as he took her hand, "Am I late?" he +asked solicitously. "I made all the speed I could. I hope I haven't +killed the horse." + +He glanced over his shoulder through the open door, where he could see a +bit of the snowy drive, on which the groom was slowly leading the animal, +heavily blanketed, up and down before taking him to the stable. Although +sobbing now and again from the stress of his exertions, the horse had +evidently sustained no permanent injury. + +"I came instantly," Julian repeated. "What is it?" + +"Nothing!" cried Lillian hysterically, clinging to his arm. "They all +think it is _nothing_--nothing at all." + +He stared at her somewhat grimly, though evidently mystified. + +"Come," he said, "let us get at the rights of this. And I'd really like a +glimpse of the fire--I'm half frozen." + +He threw off his overcoat, stiffened with the ice, and strode into the +library toward the blazing hearth. Mrs. Marable was suddenly roused to +remember the decoction that she herself had prepared, and put the glass +into his hand. But he took only a single swallow, gazing in absorption at +Gladys, who had undertaken to detail the discovery of the stone in the +pocket of the little red coat, and the theory that Mrs. Royston had +desperately based upon it. Lillian herself was hanging her head in shame +for her folly, that she should for this fantastic illusion have inflicted +on this man of all men, on whom indeed she had least claim, the agony he +had endured, and the peril of his life. + +She could never have described the overwhelming tumult of her heart when +he lifted his head at the end of the story, with a look of grave and +intent pondering. + +"This stone is the efflorescence of a limestone cavern, given to him, no +doubt, but when and where? And how is it that you did not know it, +knowing his every thought?" he said in a tense, excited voice. + +Lillian was on her feet again in an instant, her eyes shining, her cheeks +flushed, her voice trembling. "Oh, Julian, you think it is possible that +Archie is alive! Oh, I believe it! I believe it! And the thought is like +the elixir of life, like the ecstasy of heaven!" + +He made no direct reply, but turned hastily to go to the telephone. "You +cannot afford to lose any chance, even the most remote. The county +officers must be notified, advertisements sent out, and offers of reward. +There is not a moment to be wasted." + +"But Gladys thinks it is a folly," cried Lillian, following him into the +hall, eager to test the negative view, fearful of her trembling hope; +"and my aunt is troubled for my sanity." + +As he waited for the line, which was "busy," he turned and sternly +surveyed her. "Why should you defer to their views, Lillian? Haven't you +yet had enough of ordering your life by the standards of others? Be +yourself--if you have any identity left at this late day. Rely on your +own judgment, consult your own intuitions, rest on your own sense of +right and justice and conscience, and you cannot err!" + +"Oh, Julian!" she exclaimed in tearful amaze. "How can you say that of +me--of _me_?" + +He looked startled for one moment, as if he had spoken inadvertently, for +her guidance, his inmost thought, without regard to its personal +significance. Then, with a rising flush and a conscious eye, he sought to +laugh off the episode. "Oh, well, I didn't _mean_ it, you know! Only +the compliments of the newly arrived." And as the bell jingled he took +down the receiver with obvious relief. + +In the presence of poor Gladys, for whose calamity there could be no +prospect of alleviation, the subject of Briscoe's death and the child's +abduction as connected therewith could not be discussed in all its +bearings. Only Mrs. Marable joined Lillian in the library that afternoon +when the sheriff arrived, and the mother's eager hopes were strengthened +to note the serious importance he attached to the discovery of the bit of +stone in the pocket of the little red coat. He was obviously nettled that +it should have remained there unnoted while the garment was in his +keeping, but Lillian tactfully exhibited the unusual inner pocket in the +facing, the "shy pocket," which, thus located, offered some excuse for +the failure to find earlier its contents. With Julian Bayne's +suggestions, the sheriff presently hammered out a theory very closely +related to the truth. The visit of the revenue officer was detailed by +Bayne, and considered significant, the more since it began to be evident +that Briscoe was murdered, and in his case a motive for so perilous a +deed was wholly lacking. The stone lily in the child's pocket made it +evident that he himself had been in the moonshiners' cavern, the only one +known to the vicinity, or that the stone had been given to him by some +frequenter of that den--hardly to be supposed previous to the +catastrophe. In fact, the sheriff declared that he had reason to believe +that the child was wearing the coat at the time of the tragedy, and thus +it could not have been cast loosely from the vehicle at the moment when +the mare had fallen from the bluff to the depths below. It had been +restored to the locality in a clumsy effort to prove the child's death. + +The officer was a big, burly man, handsome in his way, his ponderosity +suggesting a formidable development of muscle rather than fat. His manner +was as weighty as his appearance. He seemed as if he might have been +manufactured in a tobacco factory, so was the whole man permeated by +nicotian odors of various sorts, but he politely declined to smoke during +the long and wearing consultation, even with the permission of the ladies +present, and stowed away in his breast pocket the cigars that Bayne +pressed upon him, as he remarked, for reference at a moment of greater +leisure. Bolt upright, a heavy hand on either big-boned knee, his shaven +jowl drooping in fleshy folds over his high stiff collar, he sat gazing +into the fire with round, small, gray, bullet-like eyes, while the top of +his bald head grew pink and shining with warmth. He had a loud, +countrified voice in his normal speech, that gave an intimation of a +habit of hallooing to hounds in a fox-chase, or calling the cattle on a +thousand hills, but it had sunk to a mysterious undertone when he next +spoke, expressive of the importance of the disclosure he was about to +make. + +A few days previous, he said, he had chanced to arrest an Irish mechanic +who, during the season, had been employed at the neighboring hotel in +replacing some plaster that had fallen by reason of leakage. Since then, +a hard drinking man, he had been idly loafing, occasionally jobbing, +about the country, but the offence charged was that of being concerned in +a wholesale dynamiting of fish in the Tennessee River some months ago. +The man protested violently against his arrest, being unable to procure +bail, and declared he could prove an alibi but for fear that a worse +thing befall him. This singular statement so stimulated the officer's +curiosity that his craft was enlisted to elicit the whole story. Little +by little he secured its details. It seemed that on the day when the fish +were dynamited contrary to law, the Irishman was some thirty miles +distant from the spot--the day of the Briscoe tragedy. He believed that +he was the last man who had seen Briscoe alive--unless indeed he were +done to death. He was afoot, walking in the county road, not more than +two miles from the vacant hotel, when he saw a dog-cart coming like the +wind toward him. The gentleman, driving a splendid mare, checked his +speed on catching sight of him, and called out to him. Upon approaching, +he recognized Mr. Briscoe, whom he had often seen when at work at the +neighboring hotel. On this occasion Mr. Briscoe asked him to hold the +mare while he slipped a coat on the little boy whom he had in the +dog-cart with him--a red coat it was--for it took all he knew to drive +the mare with both hands. And the Irishman declared it took all _he_ +knew to hold the mare for the single minute required to slip the child +into the coat. Twice the plunging animal lifted him off his feet as he +swung to the bit. But the gentleman did not forget to pay him royally. +Mr. Briscoe tossed him a dollar, and then, with "the little bye in his +red coat" sitting on the floor of the vehicle, he was off like a cyclone +and out of sight in a moment. Almost immediately afterward the Irishman +heard the sharp crack of a rifle, and a tumultuous crash, as of some +heavy fall into the depths of the valley. To his mind, the sound of the +weapon intimated some catastrophe, and he said nothing at the time as to +his meeting with Mr. Briscoe. That circumstance seemed to him of no +importance. He was afraid of being numbered among the suspects if any +evil deed had been done. He heard the searching parties out all night, +and it was a terrible sound! "It was too aisy fur a poor man to be laid +by the heels fur a job he niver done, bedad, as was the case at present." +He permitted himself, however, to be persuaded to let a charge of +vagrancy be entered against him and go to jail, really to be held as a +witness in the event of more developments in the Briscoe case; for the +authorities desired that no arrests in that connection should be made +public until the significance of the fact that at the time of the tragedy +the child was wearing the coat--afterward found hanging loose, without a +rent or a blemish, on the tree in the valley--should be fully exploited. +If it were indeed a direful instance of murder and abduction, as the +sheriff now believed, he wished the miscreants to rest unwitting of the +activity of the officers and the menace of discovery. + +"But it seems a pity for the poor innocent Irishman to have to stay in +jail. How good of him to consent!" exclaimed Mrs. Marable pathetically. + +The sheriff was all unacclimated to the suave altruism of fashionable +circles. His literal eyebrows went up to an angle of forty-five degrees; +he turned his belittling eyes on Mrs. Marable, as if she were a very +inconsiderable species of wren, suddenly developing a capacity for +disproportionate mischief. "Not at all, madam," he made haste to say. "He +can be legally held for a witness, lest he get away and out of reach of a +subpoena. It is the right of the State, and of Mrs. Briscoe as well, +who will doubtless join the public prosecution. We are asking nothing of +nobody, and taking nothing off nobody, neither." + +"But I should like," said Lillian, "to arrange that he shall suffer no +hardship. I shall be happy to defray any expense to make him thoroughly +comfortable." + +The sheriff looked down on feminine intelligence. The law was exclusively +man's affair. He made it and administered it. The officer had seldom +known women to intrude into it, save to get the worst of it. Its minister +had an air of burly ridicule that trenched on contempt as he broke into a +laugh of great relish. + +"The county can accommodate its boarders without your help, Mrs. Royston. +Much obliged, all the same. He ain't no nice customer. He is mighty lucky +to be sure of his grub and fire and shelter this tough winter. He ain't +got to do any work. He has the freedom of the yard and the halls and the +office at all hours. No, madam, he is as snug as a bug in a rug. You'll +have a chance to spend all the money that you care to put up in this +affair, if I'm not mightily mistaken. No use in wastin' any of it on +Micky." + +The fact that the child had not been wearing the coat when starting on +the drive, but had been seen in it immediately previous to the +catastrophe; that it should be subsequently found and not on his body, of +which no trace had ever been discovered, went far to convince the +authorities that the garment had been restored to the locality afterward +in pursuance of an effort to prove his death. They had begun to believe +that the child had in some manner escaped at the time of the tragedy, and +was now held in retreat lest he disclose incriminating evidence. But it +was a barren triumph of logic. They realized that any demand of the +reward offered must needs bring a counter inquiry concerning the facts of +Briscoe's murder, and therefore from the beginning they had little hope +that any good result would ensue from the wide publicity and the extended +search that his mother and her adviser had inaugurated. The child +remained as if caught up in the clouds. Though extravagant offers of +reward for any information concerning him, as well as for his ultimate +recovery, were scattered broadcast throughout the country; though every +clue, however fantastic or tenuous or obviously fraudulent, was as +cautiously examined as if it really held the nucleus of discovery; though +fakers and cheats of preposterous sorts harassed the proceedings and +wrought many malevolent bits of mischief in disappointed revenge, being +treated with a leniency which would suffer aught, all, rather than clog +any vague chance of a revelation of the seclusion of the lost +child--there seemed no prospect, no hope. + +It had been Lillian's instinct to continue in the place where the child +had been last seen--she felt a fictitious sense of proximity in the +familiar localities that had known him. But with the exigencies of the +systematic effort for his recovery she returned to her own home in the +city of Glaston, whither Gladys accompanied her, as being more accessible +when her presence in the search was required. + +Julian Bayne gave himself wholly to the effort. He travelled here and +there, pervading the country like some spirit of unrest, threading the +intricacies of city slums, north, south, east, and west, personally +interviewing all manner of loathly creatures, damaged by vice and sloth +and ignorance and crime almost out of all semblance of humanity. He had +not dreamed that such beings existed upon the earth. Sometimes, unaware +of the circumstances and the danger they courted, they caught up a child +wherewith to deceive him, if it might be, generally a pitiable, puny +thing, swarming with vermin, half famished and forlorn. But Julian was +dubious how ill treatment and lack of nourishment might have transformed +the heir of the proud Archibald Royston, and in each instance he summoned +Lillian through long journeys, tortured with alternations of hope and +suspense, to inspect the waif. All without avail. True, she invariably +bettered the condition of the little creature, thus fortunate in +attracting her notice, purveying clothes and food, and paying a good +round price for the consent of its keepers to place it in some orphanage +or other juvenile refuge. So exhaustive, so judicious, so tireless, was +the search, so rich the reward, that as time went by and no result +ensued, the authorities became more than ever convinced that since the +child's abduction was complicated with the more desperate crime of +Briscoe's murder, this effectually precluded any attempt at his +restoration by the kidnappers; for indeed, to those who knew the facts, +the large reward was obviously the price of a halter. As this theory +gained strength, their ardor in the search declined, and Lillian and +Julian realized that more than ever the child's restoration would depend +on their individual exertions. + +The effort came to seem an obsession on the part of Bayne. He was worn +and weary; his business interest languished, and his friends, +remonstrating in vain, regarded it as the culminating injury to his life +and prospects already wrought by the influence of this woman. + +Indeed, one of the chief difficulties of the continuance of the +enterprise was the resistance they must needs maintain to the +remonstrance of friends. This finally came to be so urgent that it even +involved an effort to circumscribe the futile activities. In view of the +provisions of Mr. Royston's will no portion of the minor's estate could +be used to defray the extremely lavish expenses that the thoroughness and +extent of the search involved. All the large disbursements of money came +from Mrs. Royston's own share of her husband's fortune. This brought her +uncle, Mr. Marable, into the discussion. Her resources would not sustain +these heavy draughts, he urged. In case the child remained perdu, to be +sure, and the legal presumption of his death obtain by reason of the +lapse of time, his estate would by the terms of the will vest in her, and +thus financially all might be well. But on the contrary, should he be +found in the course of time, this wild extravagance would result in +bankrupting her. She thought it necessary to keep detectives in constant +pay to hold their efforts and interest to the search, even though the +ultimate rich reward were dangled continually before their eyes. The +flamboyant advertisements, the widespread publicity over half the world, +had involved commensurate cost. Large sums had been disbursed for +information merely that was rooted in error and bore only disappointment. +Then, too, were the inevitable mistakes, the fakes and cheats, and the +expenses of a score of agents effecting nothing. Mr. Marable rubbed the +wisps of gray hair on either side of his corrugated temples, and wrung +his solvent hands in financial anguish. + +He sought in this cause to take advantage of Bayne's influence with +Lillian, and made an effort to induce him to remonstrate with her. They +were in the library of her house in Glaston, looking over some papers +together, a real estate mortgage, in fact, by which Lillian intended to +raise a large sum for more unrestricted use in the extension of the +search. + +Bayne sat at the table, scanning the money-lender's memoranda, his +experience as a broker having developed a keen scent for any untoward or +mischievous detail. + +"But in seeking the wisest methods of economy, the essential opportunity +may escape her. While she is financiering, the child may die in the hands +of his abductors, or he may succumb to hardship otherwise--be disfigured +by disease or disabled by exposure, or slaughtered, so to speak, mentally +or morally, or spirited away and be heard of never again. No, no," Bayne +declared definitely; "I could not advise her to consider money in this +connection." + +Mr. Marable could ill brook contradiction or dissent. He quivered with +more than the infirmities of age as he stood by the table, supporting +himself on his cane. + +"You don't reflect, Mr. Bayne, that though she gets the child's estate if +he dies or continues lost--if he lives and this expenditure goes on, she +will be penniless--you don't realize that. She will be a poor woman--she +will have nothing left of her provision as a widow." + +"Well, that suits me to the ground," Bayne retorted unexpectedly. "I +shall be glad to profit as little as possible by Mr. Royston's property." + +The notary public, come to take Mrs. Royston's acknowledgment, was +announced at the moment, and the two gentlemen, still wrangling, went +into the reception room to meet him. Mrs. Marable, her eternal Battenberg +in her hands, looked up through the meshes of a perplexity, as visible as +if it were a veritable network, at Gladys, who was standing in the recess +of the bay-window, a book in her hand. + +"I didn't understand that remark of Mr. Bayne's as to the poverty of Mr. +Royston's widow," the old lady submitted. + +Gladys, the match-maker, laughed delightedly. "_I did!_" she cried +triumphantly. + +As she went out of the room, she encountered Lillian in the hall, +summoned to sign and acknowledge the papers. The flush on the cheek of +Gladys, the triumph in her eyes, the laugh in the curves of her beautiful +lips, arrested Mrs. Royston's attention. "What are you laughing about?" +she asked, in a sort of plaintive wonderment. + +"About something that Julian said just now." + +"What was it?" Lillian queried, still bewildered in a sort. + +The flush deepened on Mrs. Briscoe's cheek, her eyes were full of light, +her voice chimed with a sort of secret joy. + +"I will not tell you!" she cried, and, still smiling, she floated down +the hall, her book in her hand. + +Lillian stood motionless in amaze. Something that Julian Bayne had said +to work this metamorphosis! Something that she must not hear, must not +know! The look in her friend's eyes, the tone of her voice, stayed with +Lillian in every moment of surcease of torment for the child's rescue, +and worked their own mission of distress. Had she thought indeed that she +could hold Julian Bayne's heart through all vicissitudes of weal and woe, +of time and change? She had of her own free choice thrown it away once as +a thing of no worth. She had never justified her course, or thought it +could be deemed admirable as an exponent of her character. And here she +was constantly contrasted with a woman who had no fault, no foible, who +was generous, whole-souled, splendid, and beautiful, already with a +strong hold on his affections, close to him, the widow of his cousin who +was always the friend of his heart. And so sweet she was, so unconscious +of any thought of rivalry! That night she came late to Lillian's room to +say good-night once more, to counsel hope, and urge an effort to sleep. +Even when she seemed gone at last, she opened the door again to blow a +kiss and smile anew. When the door had closed finally Lillian, standing +near the mirror, could but note the difference. She was ghastly in her +gay and modish attire, for she had instantly laid aside her mourning for +the death of the boy, as an affront to her faith that he still lived. The +sharp tooth of suspense had eaten into her capacities of endurance; her +hopes preyed upon her in their keen, fictitious exaltations; the +alternations of despair brought her to the brink of the grave. She was +reduced almost to a shadow; she would go about the affair--she would +entertain no other--with a sort of jerking, spasmodic activity as unlike +muscular energy as if she were an automaton. She had no rest in her +sleep, and would scream and cry out in weird accents at intervals, and +dream such dreams! She would blanch when questioned, and close her lips +fast, and never a word escaped them of what these visions of terror might +be. + + + + + XI. + + +How the mother-heart would have rejoiced could Lillian have divined that +her child was well and happy, though affectionate in new ties while she +languished in his absence! Archie had begun to adore the old Indian +fortune-teller who cuddled and coddled him in loving delight. She lived +for a time in grievous fear of his departure, but when no news came of +the men who had placed him there, and the date fixed for their return +passed without event, she began to gloat on the possibility of desertion. +She tried all her ancient savage spells and methods of forecast--many +strange jugglings with terrapin shells and white beads and pointed sticks +and the aspect of the decoction of magic herbs. With fervor, she gave +herself also to her pagan invocations to those spirits of Zootheism and +personified elements of Nature, so real even to the modern Cherokee, +esteemed so potent in the ordering of human affairs. Suddenly her hope +glowed into triumph! She had a fantastic conviction that the child was +bound fast. The signs intimated that the great mystic Red Spider, +_Kananiski gigage_, had woven his unseen web about the boy, and he +could not escape from those constraining meshes. As to the men--she +concluded that they were blown away somewhere. The wind had attended to +that little matter. "_Agaluga Hegwa! Atigale yata tsutu negliga_," she +exclaimed in grateful rapture. ("Oh, great Whirlwind! By you they must +have been scattered.") + +Happiness had long held aloof. She was of the poorest of the tribe; +childless, for many years; a widow; she suffered much from rheumatism; +she was slowly going blind; she was deemed unlucky and avoided. For more +than once of late years she had in important crises predicted disaster, +and this prophecy, by fortuitous circumstances, had been fulfilled; thus +those to whom a deceitful hope is preferable to a warning of trouble +sought by fleeing the oracle to elude the misfortune. Being esteemed a +witch, and associated with dark dealings and prone to catastrophe, she +lived in peculiar solitude, and the two spent the long months of the +winter within the cabin together, while the mountain snows lay heavy on +the eaves and the mountain winds beat and gibed at the door. Great +icicles hung from the dark fissures of the crags; frosty scintillations +tipped the fibres of the pines; wolves were a-prowl--sometimes their +blood-curdling howls from afar penetrated to the hut where the +ill-assorted companions sat together in the red glow of the fire, and +roasted their sweet potatoes and apples on the hearth, and cracked nuts +to pound into the rich paste affected by the Cherokees, and drank the +bland "hominy-water," and gazed happily into each other's eyes, despite +their distance apart at the two termini of life, the beginning and the +end. + +As she could speak no English, yet they must needs find a medium of +exchange for their valuable views, she tried to teach him to speak +Cherokee. He was a bird, her little bird, she told him by signs, and his +name was _Tsiskwa_. This she repeated again and again in the velvet-soft +fluting of her voice. But no! he revolted. His name was Archie Royston, +he declaimed proudly. He soon became the monarch of this poor hearth, and +he deported himself in royal fashion. + +"Oo tan't talk," he said patronizingly to her one day, after listening in +futile seriousness to her unintelligible jargon. Forthwith he essayed to +teach her to speak English, and, humoring his every freak, she sought to +profit. She would fix intent eyes upon him and turn her head askew to +listen heedfully while she lisped after his lisping exposition of "Archie +Royston." He grew heady with his sense of erudition. He would fairly roll +on the puncheon floor in the vainglory of his delight when she identified +chair and fire and bed and door by their accurate English names. +Sometimes, in a surge of emotion, hardly gratitude or a sense of comfort, +neither trust nor hope, but the sheer joy of love, the child would come +at her in a tumultuous rush, cast himself in her arms, and cover her face +with kisses--the face that had at first so terrified him, that was so +typical of cruelty and craft and repellent pride. Then as they nestled +together they would repeat in concert--poor woman! perhaps she thought it +a mystic invocation charged with some potent power of prayer or +magic--"Ding-dong-bell!" and the comparative biographies of little Johnny +Green and little Johnny Stout, and the vicissitudes of the poor pussycat +submitted to their diverse ministrations. He was wont to sing for her +also, albeit tunelessly, and as he sat blond and roseate and gay, +warbling after his fashion on the hearth, her clouded old eyes were +relumed with a radiance that came from within and was independent of the +prosaic light of day. His favorite ditty was an old nursery rhyme in +which the name "Pretty Polly Hopkins" occurs with flattering iteration, +and he began to apply it to her, for he had come to think her very +beautiful--such is the gracious power of love! And while the snow was +flying, and the sleet and hail tinkled on the batten shutter, and the +draughts bleated and whined in the crevices, he made the rafters ring: + + "'Pretty, pretty Polly Hopkins, + How de do?--how de do?' + + "'None the better, Tommy Tompkins, + For seeing you, for seeing you!' + + "'Polly, I've been to France + And there spent all my cash.' + + "'More the fool for you, Mister Tompkins, + Fool for you, fool for you!'" + +It was a valuable course in linguistics for the inmates of the cabin, +and Archie Royston was far more intelligible and skilled in expressing +himself when that door, that had been closed on the keen blast, was +opened to let in the suave spring sunshine and the soft freshness of the +mountain air. + + + + + XII. + + +With the return of fine weather the work of railroad construction on the +extension of the G. T. & C. line began to be pressed forward with eager +alacrity. Indeed, it had languished only when the ground was deeply +covered with snow or locked so fast in the immobile freeze that steel and +iron could not penetrate it. The work had been persistently pushed at +practicable intervals, whenever the labor could be constrained to it. +Possibly this urgency had no ill results except in one or two individual +cases. The sons of toil are indurated to hardship, and most of the gang +were brawny Irish ditchers. Jubal Clenk, already outworn with age and ill +nourished throughout a meagre life, unaccustomed, too, to exposure to the +elements (for the industry of moonshining is a sheltered and well-warmed +business), was the only notable collapse. He began by querulously +demanding of anyone who would listen to him what he himself could mean by +having an "out-dacious pain" under his shoulder-blade. "I feel like I hev +been knifed, that's whut!" he would declare. This symptom was presently +succeeded by a "misery in his breast-bone," and a racking cough seemed +likely to shake to pieces his old skeleton, growing daily more +perceptible under his dry, shrivelled skin. A fever shortly set in, but +it proved of scanty interest to the local physician, when called by the +boss of the construction gang to look in upon him, in one of the rickety +shacks which housed the force of laborers, and which was his temporary +home. + +"There's no show for him," the doctor laconically remarked. "Lungs, +heart, throat, all have got into the game. You had better get rid of +him--he will never be of any use again." + +"Throw him over the bluff, eh?" the jolly, portly boss asked with a +twinkling eye. "We ain't much on transportation yet." + +"Well, it's no great matter. He'll provide his own transportation before +long;" and the physician stepped into his buggy with an air of finality. + +The old man had, however, unsuspected reserves of vitality. He crept out +into the sunshine again, basking in the vernal warmth with a sense of +luxury, and entering into the gossip of the ditchers with an unwonted +mental activity and garrulity. + +One day--one signal day--as he sat clumped up on a pile of timber +destined for railroad ties, his arms hugging his knees, his eyes +feverishly bright and hollow, a personal interest in his condition was +developed in the minds of his old pals and fellow-laborers, Drann and +Holvey, albeit of no humane tendency. It was the nooning hour, and the +men at their limited leisure lay in the sun on the piles of lumber, like +lizards. + +"Gee!" exclaimed one burly fellow, rising on his elbow. "How I'd like ter +git my paw on that reward--five thousand dollars for any information!" + +"I'm in fur money ez sure ez ye air born! All signs favor," exclaimed old +Clenk eagerly. "I dream about money mighty nigh every night. Paid in ter +me--chink--chink--I allus takes it in gold. Goin' ter bed is the same ter +me that goin' ter the bank is ter most folks." + +His interpolations into the conversation usually failed to secure even a +contemptuous rebuff; they passed as if unheard. But such is the coercive +power of gold, albeit in the abstract, that this tenuous vision of wealth +had its fascination. The brawny workman held the newspaper aside to look +curiously over at the piteous wreck, as the old ragamuffin grinned and +giggled in joyous retrospect, then began to read again the advertisement: +"Twenty-five thousand dollars in cash if the information leads to the +recovery of the child." + +"Do they head them advertisements '_Suckers, Attention_'?" asked one of +the men who labored under the disadvantage of illiteracy. The scraps read +aloud from the papers were his only source of information as to their +contents. "They _oughter_ say 'Suckers, Attention,' for they don't even +tell whut the kid looks like. I wouldn't know him from Adam ef I wuz ter +pass him in the road." + +"But they _do_ tell what he looks like!" exclaimed the reader. "Here it +all is: blue eyes, golden hair, fair skin, rosy cheeks----" + +"Cutest leetle trick!" exclaimed old Clenk, with a reminiscent smile at +the image thus conjured up. + +The words passed unnoticed save by Drann and Holvey. They exchanged one +glance of consternation, and the fancied security in which they had +dwelt, as fragile as a crystal sphere, was shattered in an instant. The +old man was broken by his illness, his recent hardships. He was verging +on his dotage. His senile folly might well cost them their lives or +liberty. + +Indeed, as the description progressed, detailing the child's attire even +to his red shoes, the old fellow's fingers were toying fatuously with one +of them in his deep coat pocket among the loose tobacco that fed his +pipe. "That don't half ekal _him_," he broke out suddenly. "Never war +sech another delightsome leetle creeter." + +A moment of stunned amazement supervened among the group. + +"Why, say, old Noah, did you ever see that kid?" at length demanded the +reader, with a keen look of suspicion. + +It was the inimical expression, rather than a definite consciousness of +self-betrayal, that sent the old man's drifting mind back to its +moorings. "Jes' listenin' ter that beautiful readin'," he grinned, his +long yellow tobacco-stained teeth all bare in a facial contortion that +essayed a smile, his distended lips almost failing of articulation. "Them +was fine clothes sure on that lovely child." + +The flamboyant advertisements had often before been read aloud in the +construction camp, and the matter might have passed as the half-fevered +babblings of a sick old man, but for that look of stultified comment, of +anguished foreboding, that was interchanged between the two accomplices. +Only one man, however, had the keen observation to catch that fleeting +signal, and the enterprise to seek to interpret it. + +The next day, when Clenk did not reappear, this man quietly slipped to +the shack where the three lived together. There was a padlock knocking in +the wind on the flimsy door. This said as plain as speech that there was +no one within. Ordinarily this would have precluded all question, all +entrance. But the intruder was seeking a pot of gold, and informed by a +strong suspicion. With one effort of his brawny hands, he pulled loose +from the top first the strap of one of the broad upright boards that +formed the walls, then the board itself. He turned sideways and slipped +his bulk through the aperture, the board swinging elastically back into +place. + +There was a stove in the squalid little apartment, instead of the open +fires common to the region. It was masked in a dusky twilight, but as his +eyes became accustomed to the obscurity and the disorder, his suspicion +exhaled, and a heavy sense of disappointment clogged his activities like +a ball and chain. + +There in his bunk lay Clenk, his eyes shining with the light of fever, +his illness affording an obvious explanation of the precaution of his +comrades in locking the door while they were away at work, at the limits +of the construction line, to protect him from molestation by man or +beast. + +Nevertheless, the intruder made an effort to hold his theory together. He +approached the bunk, and with an insidious craft sought to draw the old +man out. But Clenk was now on his guard. His comrades had bitterly +upbraided him with his self-betrayal, that indeed threatened the safety +of all. In fact, their courage was so reduced by the untoward episode +that he more than suspected they intended to flee the region, and he was +disposed to give the fact that he was left cooped up here under lock and +key no such humane interpretation as the intruder had placed upon it. +They had left him to starve, if not discovered, while they sought to +compass a safe distance. At all events, he was so broken in mind and body +that his story was more than likely to be discredited, unless their own +clumsy denials and guilty faces were in evidence to confirm its truth. + +Now his garrulity had vanished; he licked his thin lips ever and anon, +and looked up over the folds of the red blanket drawn to the chin with a +bright, inscrutable eye and said nothing. His weakness was so great that +the policy of lying silent and supine, rather than exert his failing +powers, was commended by his inclination as well as his prudence. + +Though it was in vain that the spy plied him with question and +suggestion, one phrase was like a galvanic current to this inert atrophy +of muscle and mind. "Look here, old man," the intruder said at length, +baffled and in despair, "you mark my words!" The brawny form had come +close in the shadow and towered over the recumbent and helpless creature, +speaking impressively through his set teeth. "You mark my words: your +pals are going to do you." + +A quiver of patent apprehension ran over the dimly descried face, and +under the blanket the limbs writhed feebly; but Clenk's resolution held +firm, and with a curse, balked and lowering, the man stepped out at the +place where he had effected his entrance at the moment when his scheme +might have borne fruit. + +For old Clenk had struggled up in bed. This threat was true. He had +vaguely suspected the fact, but in the words of another his fear had an +added urgency. He had betrayed his accomplices, he had betrayed himself. +Doubtless it was a race between them as to who could soonest seize the +opportunity to turn State's evidence. + +And why should he fear the law more than another? As matters stood, he +would be left to bear the brunt of its vengeance, while the active +perpetrator of the deed escaped, and the accessories sought shelter +beneath the aegis of the law itself. + +He was not long in reasoning it out. The strength of his resolution +imparted a fictitious vigor to his muscles. While unaided he could never +have stirred the heavy board, his efforts made it give, loosened as it +had already been, so that his thin, wiry body could slip between its edge +and the rest of the wall. He had one moment of intense terror lest it +slip elastically back and hold him pinioned there, but a convulsive +struggle sufficed, and he stepped out, exhausted and trembling, into the +gathering dusk, a lowering assemblage of darkling mountains, and at a +little distance the shacks of the construction gang. The doors were +aflare with flickering lights from within, and the unctuous smell of +frying pork was on the air. It was well for his enterprise that at the +critical moment the camp was discussing its well-earned supper and had +scant attention to bestow on other interests. + +An hour later the men on a hand-car, whizzing down the portion of the +track that was sufficiently complete for this mode of progression, gave +little heed that a workman from the camp was stealing a ride, sitting in +a huddled clump, his feet dangling. Whether discharged or in the +execution of some commission for the construction boss, they did not even +canvass. Far too early it was for the question of rates or passes to vex +the matter of transportation. They did not even mark when he dropped off, +for the hand-car ran into the yards at the terminus, carrying only its +own crew. + +Clenk was equally fortunate in creeping into an empty freight here +unobserved, and when it was uncoupled and the engine swept into the +round-house in the city of Glaston, it was verging again toward sunset, +and he was hundreds of miles from his starting-point. + +Some monitions of craft were vaguely astir in his dull old brain. He had +resolved to throw himself on the mercy of the mother, ere he trusted +himself to the clutches of the law. He winced from the mere thought of +those sharp claws of justice, but he promised himself that he would be +swift. He could not say how Holvey and Drann might secure precedence of +him. They had gotten the start, and they might hold it. But if he should +tell the mother where they had left the child, he would surely have a +friend at court. When he was in the street he walked without hesitation +up to the first responsible-looking man he met, and, showing him the +advertisement in the newspaper, boldly asked to be directed to the house +of that lady. + +So dull he was, so unaccustomed to blocks and turnings and city squares, +that after an interval of futile explanation the stranger turned out of +his way and walked a short distance with him. All the world had heard of +the tragedy and the mysterious disappearance of the child, and, although +suspecting a fake, even a casual stranger would not disregard a chance of +aid. + +It was well that the distance was not great, for even his excitement was +hardly adequate to sustain Clenk's failing physique. When the old +mountaineer paused on the concrete sidewalk to which the spacious grounds +of the suburban residence sloped, he looked about with disfavor. "Can't +see the house fur the trees," he muttered, for the great oaks, accounted +so magnificent an appurtenance in Glaston, were to him the commonest +incident of entourage, and a bare door-yard, peeled of grass, a far more +significant token of sophistication. As he approached, however, the +stately mansion presently appeared, situated on a considerable eminence, +and with long flights of stone steps from a portico, enriched with +Corinthian columns, and from two successive terraces at some little +distance in front. Here were tall stone vases on either hand, and beside +one of these at the lower terrace two ladies had paused, waiting, +descrying his approach. One was gowned in deep black, sad of aspect, +though serene, and very beautiful. The other wore a dress all of sheer +white embroideries, with knots of brocaded lilac ribbon, festival of +intimation, but her face was thin, wan, worn, tortured out of all +semblance of calm or cheer. He came falteringly toward them, and stood +for a moment uncertain. Then--for the scope of his cultivation did not +include the civility of lifting his hat--he said, "Which of ye two wimin +hev los' a child?" His voice was quavering, even sympathetic, and very +gentle as he looked at them. + +"I have lost my little son!" cried Lillian in a keen, strained tone, +agonized anew by the mere mention of the catastrophe. "Have you any +information about him? I am ready to pay for it." She had been warned a +hundred times that eagerness in proffering money, in making the reward so +obviously sure, was not conducive to accelerating the disclosure, +bringing into play the innate perversity of human nature, and a desire to +trade on the situation and increase the gains; yet try as she might, she +could not refrain from invoking always the cogent aid of gold. + +"I ain't so particular 'bout the money, lady. I got su'thin' on my mind. +I be bent on makin' it square with the law. An' then, too, that leetle +Archie air a mighty gamesome leetle trick." He laughed slightly as with a +pleasant fleeting reminiscence. "Come mighty nigh dyin', though--skeered +me, fur a fack. Powerful tight squeak he had!" + +All at once his eyes, glancing over his shoulder, lighted on Bayne, who +had just come to call on the ladies and now stood at the bottom of the +flight of the terrace steps. Clenk drew back with an obvious shock. "Why, +look-a-hyar, _you_ ain't Mr. Briscoe!" he exclaimed insistently, as with +a desire to reassure himself. His eyes large, light, distended, were +starting out of his head. His jaw quivered violently. The grimy, +claw-like hand he extended shook as with a palsy. + +When together, Briscoe and Bayne had scant facial resemblance; but apart, +that stamp of consanguinity might easily recall for each the face of the +other. Bayne, with his wonted subtlety of divination, replied at once, +"No, but Mr. Briscoe was my cousin." + +"Oh, ho--oh, ho--I see," the old man said, tractable and easily +convinced. "I know--Lawd! I got reason ter know that Briscoe's dead. I +war afeared o' seein' su'thin' oncommon--his harnt, or some sech. The +idee shuk me powerful. I hev had a fever lately. Lemme sit +down--I--I--can't stand up. I been hevin' a misery lately in my +breast-bone--oh!"--he waved his hand in the air with a pathetic, grasping +gesture--"me breath is gone--me breath, me breath----" + +He sank down on an iron bench at one side on the velvety turf and feebly +gasped. + +"I'll get some brandy," Gladys said in a low tone to Lillian, and sped +swiftly up the steps toward the house. + +Suddenly Clenk partially lifted himself and dived into one of the pockets +of his loose coat. He brought up a little red shoe, all tarnished and +tobacco-stained, and held it out to Lillian with a faint and flickering +smile of bestowal, certain of gratitude as well as recognition. "Does +you-uns know that leetle foot?" + +Lillian swayed for a moment as if she might fall. Then, with a piercing +shriek, she darted forward and seized it from his shaking grasp. She held +it up to the light, and as Gladys returned, herself bearing the tray with +the glass and decanter, Lillian convulsively clutched her arm and, +speechless and trembling, pointed to the name in tarnished gilt on the +inside of the sole--her own shoemaker, who had constructed the delicate +little hand-sewed slipper! + +"Where is he now--where is this child?" Bayne demanded precipitately, his +own breath short, his pulses beating in his temples till the veins seemed +near bursting. + +"I can't rightly say _now_," the old man drawled; "but--but I kin tell +you where we-uns lef' him. 'T war a awful bis'ness, that crackin' off +Briscoe--that warn't in the plan at all. We-uns war after the revenuer. +What right had he ter bust our still an' break up our wu'm and pour our +mash an' singlings out on the ground? Ain't it our'n? Ain't the corn an' +apples an' peaches our'n? Didn't we grow 'em?--an' what right hev the +gover'ment ter say we kin eat 'em, but can't bile 'em--eh? They b'long +ter we-uns--an' gosh! the gover'ment can't hender! But we never meant no +harm ter Briscoe. Lawd! Lawd! that warn't in the plan at all. But the +child viewed it, an', by gosh! I b'lieve that leetle creetur could hev +told the whole tale ez straight as a string--same ez ef he war +twenty-five year old. That deedie of a baby-child talked +sense--horse-sense--he _did_, fur a fack!" + +"Where--where----" Lillian was using every power of her being to restrain +the screams of wild excitement, to sustain the suspense. + +"Where did you last see him?" asked Bayne. He had grown deadly white, and +the old man, lifting his face, gazed vaguely from one to the other. Their +intense but controlled excitement seemed subtly imparted to his nerves. +The details of the tragedy had become hackneyed in his own consciousness, +but their significance, their surfeit of horror, revived on witnessing +their effect on others. + +"Look-a-hyar, you two an' this woman will stan' up fur me when I gin +myself up fur State's evidence, ef I put ye on the track fur findin' +Bubby? He's thar all right yit, I'll be bound--well an' thrivin, I +reckon. He hev got backbone, tough ez a pine knot." + +"Yes, yes, indeed; we pledge ourselves to sustain you," cried Lillian. +Bayne was putting the glass of brandy into the grimy, shaking paw, +mindful of the old man's shattered composure. + +"It be a mighty risk I be a-runnin'"--the old, seamed face was of a +deadly pallor and was beginning to glister with a cold sweat. "I reckon I +oughtn't ter tell nuthin' exceptin' ter the officers, but--but--I 'lowed +leetle Archie's mother would help me some again them bloodhounds o' the +law." + +"I'll move heaven and earth to aid you!" cried Lillian. + +"See here, I can _promise_ that you shall be held harmless, for I am the +prosecutor," Gladys struck suddenly into the conversation, pale but calm, +every fibre held to a rigorous self-control. "I am Mr. Briscoe's wife, +his widow. Now tell me, _where_ did you last see that child?" + +"Wh--wh--wh--whut? You the widder?" Clenk's eyes were starting from their +sockets as he gazed up at her from his crouching posture on the bench, +his head sunk between his shoulders, his hand with the untasted glass in +it trembling violently. + +"An' ye say that ye too will stand by me? Then lemme tell it--lemme tell +it now. 'T was--what d'ye call that place?--I ain't familiar with them +parts. _Wait_"--as Bayne exclaimed inarticulately--"lemme think a minit." +He dropped his head on one of his hands, his arm, supported by the back +of the bench, upholding it. His slouched hat had fallen off on the stone +pavement, and his shock of gray hair moved in the soft breeze. + +The moment's interval in the anguish of suspense seemed interminable to +the group. "Drink a little brandy," Bayne counselled, hoping to stimulate +his powers. + +He evidently heard, and sought to obey. The hand holding the untasted +liquor quivered, the glass swayed, fell from his nerveless grasp, and +shivered to fragments on the stone pavement. + +Bayne sprang to his side and lifted his head. Ah, a drear and ghastly +face it was, turned up to the gorgeous sunset, the gentle ambient air, +the happy, fleeting shadows of the homing birds. + +"Has he fainted?" asked Lillian. + +"The man is dead!" Bayne cried with a poignant intonation. "He is dead! +He is dead!" + +For while they had waited for the word that had eluded him he had gone +out into the great wordless unknown. His failing strength had thwarted +his will. His spirit had given him the slip. + + + + + XIII. + + +Every appliance of resuscitation known to science was brought into use, +but in vain. No scrap of paper, no clue of identification, was found upon +the body. The three, bound together in such close ties of sympathy, were +stricken as with a new and appalling affliction. The burden was all the +heavier for that momentary lightening of a treacherous hope. For a time +Bayne could not reconcile himself to this new disaster. So overwhelming +indeed, so obvious, was its effect that Lillian, ever with her covetous +appropriation of every faculty, her grasping claim on every identity in +this sacred cause, feared that despair had at last overtaken him, and +that he would succumb and give over definitely the search. The idea +roused her to a sort of galvanic energy in promoting the project, and she +would continually formulate fantastic plans and suggest to him tenuous +theories with feverish volubility, only to have him thrust them aside +with a lacklustre indifference that their futility merited. + +"He is discouraged, Gladys; he is at the end of his resources," she said +aside to her friend. "He can try no more." + +"How can _you_ believe that?" cried Gladys. + +Even in this crisis Lillian noted anew with a wounded amazement the +significant smile on the fair face of her friend, the proud pose of her +head. Could she arrogate such triumphant confidence in the temper and +nature of a man who did not love her?--whose heart and mind were not +trusted to her keeping? That doubt assailed Lillian anew in Bayne's +absence, and in the scope for dreary meditation that the eventless days +afforded it developed a fang that added its cruelties to a grief which +she had imagined could be supplemented by no other sorrow. + +It was merely sympathy that animated him in her behalf, she felt sure; it +was pity for her helplessness when none other would abet the hopeless +effort to recover the child. His conviction that Archie still lived +constrained him by the dictates of humanity to seek his rescue. He was +doubtless moved, too, by the great generosity of his heart, his +magnanimity; but not by love--never by love! How could it be, indeed, in +the face of all that had come and gone, and of the constant contrast, +mind, body, and soul, with the perfect, the peerless Gladys! + +In this, the dreariest of his absences, seldom a word came to the two +women waiting alternately in agonized expectation or dull despair. For +Bayne was much of the time beyond the reach of postal and telegraphic +facilities. In the endeavor to discover some clue to identify that +strange visitant of the smiling spring sunset, and thus reach other +participants in the crime of the murder and the abduction, Bayne had the +body conveyed to the Great Smoky Range, within the vicinity of the +Briscoe bungalow, discerning from the speech of the man, as well as from +his familiarity with the deed, that he was a native mountaineer. Lillian +had desired to bestow upon him, in return for his intention of aid at the +last, a decent burial, but the interpretation of the metropolitan +undertaker of this commission was so far in excess of the habit of the +rustic region that men who had known old Clenk all their lives did not +recognize him as he lay in his coffin, clean, bathed, shaven, clad in a +suit of respectable black and with all the dignity of immaculate linen, +and they swore that they had never before seen him. The alertness of +Copenny's guilty conscience sharpened his faculties. His keen eyes +penetrated the disguise of this reputable aspect at once, though he +sedulously kept his own counsel. He heard the details of the death in the +rounds of the mountain gossip, and divined what Clenk's errand had been. +He deemed that the effort to turn State's evidence had met its condign +punishment, and he felt more assured and secure now that it had been +attempted and had failed. + +Bayne, however, had scant time to push his investigations here, where +indeed the ground had been previously so thoroughly searched, for he was +summoned away by another lure of a clue far to the northeast. His recent +bitter disappointment, on the verge of a discovery of importance, perhaps +enabled him better to bear in this instance the result of a fruitless +quest, for he had definitely ceased to hope. He had begun to believe the +child was dead. Clenk's words implied no present knowledge of his +seclusion. The allusion to a severe illness suggested possibilities of +relapse, of a weakening of the constitution as much from lack of proper +attention and nourishment as from disease. + +On the lonely railway journey from the scene of this latest +disappointment, Bayne was dismayed to note from time to time how blank +were the hours before him, how his invention had flagged! What to do +next, what tortuous path to try, he did not know. Now and again he sought +to spur up his jaded faculties to perceive in the intricate circumstances +of all his futile plans some fibre of a thread, untried hitherto, that +might serve to unravel all this web of mystery. But no! He seemed at the +end. His mind was dull, stagnant; his thoughts were heavy; he was +oblivious of the surroundings. The incidents of the passing moment +scarcely impinged upon his consciousness. He did not share the vexation +of his fellow-passengers when a wreck of freight cars on the track bade +fair to delay the train some hours, awaiting the clearance of the +obstructions. It hardly mattered where he spent the time. He had lost all +interests, all hold on other phases of life, and this that he had made +paramount, essential, baffled and deluded and denied him, and in its +elusiveness it seemed now to have worn him quite out. + +Then once more he sought to goad his drooping spirits, to rouse himself +to a keener efficiency. He would not give up the emprise, he declared +again, he would not be conquered save by time itself. It was rather an +instinct, in pursuance of this revival of his resolution, to seek to rid +himself of his own thoughts, the constant canvass of his despair; this +had necessarily a resilient effect, benumbing to the possibilities of new +inspiration. He sought to freshen his faculties, to find some diversion +in the passing moment that might react favorably on the plan nearest his +heart. He forced himself to listen, at first in dull preoccupation, to +the talk of a group in the smoker; it glanced from one subject to +another--the surroundings, the soil, the timber, the mining +interests--and presently concentrated on a quaint corner of the region, +near the scene of the stoppage, the Qualla Boundary. This was the +reservation of a portion of the tribe of Cherokee Indians, the Eastern +Band, who nearly a century earlier had evaded, in the dense fastnesses of +these ranges, removal with their brethren to the west, and had finally +succeeded in buying this mountainous tract of fifty thousand acres. + +As Bayne looked out of the window, urging his mind to appraise the human +interest of the entourage, to apprehend its significance, he bethought +himself of a certain old Cherokee phrase that used to baffle him in his +philological studies. He remembered in a sort of dreary wonder that he +had once felt enough curiosity concerning this ancient locution to +maintain a correspondence with the Ethnological Bureau of the Smithsonian +Institution as to its precise signification--and now he could scarcely +make shift to recollect it. + +He had then been hard on the track of the vanishing past; his wish was to +verify, solely for the sake of scholastic accuracy, these words of the +ancient Cherokee tongue, the Ayrate dialect, which was formerly the +language of their lowland settlements in this region, but which, since +the exodus of the majority of these Indians to the west and the fusion of +the lingering remnant of their upper and lower towns into this tribal +reservation east of the Great Smoky Mountains, has become lost, merged +with the Ottare (Atali) dialect, once distinctively the speech of their +highland villages only, but now practically modern Cherokee. + +As Bayne recalled the circumstances, he noted one of the Qualla Indians +loitering about the scene of the wreck. He put a question to him from out +the window of the coach, and discovered that he spoke English with some +facility. The old habit reasserted itself with inherent energy, and +presently Bayne was moved to leave the car and sit on a pile of wood near +the track, where, with his new acquaintance, he floundered over verbal +perversions of modern changes and lost significations of the language and +the contortions of Anglicized idioms, till at length he remarked that if +his interlocutor would act as interpreter he should like to converse on +the subject of these words with some old Cherokee who had never learned +English and had seldom heard it spoken. + +The Qualla Boundary is sufficiently permeated with the spirit of the past +to feel that Time is the intimate possession of man. In that languid +environment there is no frenzy to utilize it lest it fly away. No man is +hurried into his grave within the reservation. It seemed not more strange +to the Indian than to the linguist to spend an hour or so in meditating +on a queer word that has lost its meaning amidst the surges of change. +The tribesman, lending himself readily to the investigation, suddenly +bethought himself of the ancient sibyl in her remote cabin on the steep +slant of the mountain, among the oldest and the least progressive +denizens of the Qualla Boundary. + +Despite her arrogations of uncanny foreknowledge of human events, despite +her mystic lore of spells and charms, she had no faint presentiment of +the fact when Fate came boldly here and laid a hand on her door. None of +her familiars of the air, of the earth, gave her warning. Often she +thought of this afterward with bitterness, with upbraiding. The Mountain +Climber, _Atali Kuli_ (the ginseng), must, she was sure, have known of +this inimical ascent of the steeps, but he only burrowed the deeper, and +treacherously made no sign. As to _Agaluga Hegwa_, the great Whirlwind--she +would have bidden him arise quickly--"_Ha-usi-nuli datule-hu gu!_"--but +to what avail! Doubtless he was asleep somewhere on the sunny slopes. The +Ancient White Fire was covered with ash; not a glimmer did _Higayuli +Tsunega_ afford her, not a flicker. What a mockery was it that _Kananiski +Gigage_ should pretend to weave his web so fast, so fine, about the +child, and yet suffer its strong meshes to be burst apart by a mere word. + +It was not the obsolete word which the visitor sought, for as he sat +outside her door in a chair, brought from within the cabin, while she +crouched on the threshold, and the interpreter perched on the stump of a +tree, an interruption occurred that flung those enigmatic syllables back +on the mysterious past forever. "Polly Hopkins" in her poor and ragged +calico gown--for the picturesque Indian garb of yore is now but a +tradition in the Qualla Boundary--had barely lifted her head in her +flapping old sunbonnet that scarcely disguised its pose of surprised +expectation, when a sound came from the interior of the house as +turbulent as the approach of a troop of wild horses, and instantly there +rushed out into the sunshine a sturdy blond child with wide, daring blue +eyes, golden hair, muscular bare legs, arrayed in a queer little frock of +blue gingham, and no further garb than the graces of his own symmetry. + +For a moment Bayne was like a man in a dream. To be confronted suddenly +with the realization of all his hopes, the consummation of all his +struggles, took his breath away. He had not been sufficiently acquainted +with the boy to recognize him at once in this different attire, and with +the growth and vigor of nearly a year's time, but the incongruity of his +fair complexion, his blond hair, in this entourage, his exotic aspect, +made Bayne's heart leap and every nerve tremble. + +Meeting the gaze of the big, unafraid blue eyes, he asked at a venture in +English, "And what is your name, young man?" + +"Archie Royston," promptly replied the assured and lordly youngster. + +"Alchie Loyston," mechanically repeated the old sibyl. Even the glance of +her dimmed eyes was a caress as she fondly turned them toward the child. + +Bayne looked as if he might faint. A sharp exclamation was scarcely +arrested on his lips. He flushed deeply, then turned pale with +excitement. For months past, flaring in all the public prints, that name +had been advertised with every entreaty that humanity must regard, with +every lure that might excite cupidity, with every threat that +intimidation could compass. And here, in this sequestered spot, out of +the world, as it were, among the remnant of an Indian tribe, of a +peculiarly secluded life, of a strange archaic speech and an isolated +interest, was craftily hidden the long-lost child. Any ill-considered +remark might even yet jeopardize his restoration, might result in his +withdrawal, sequestered anew and inaccessible. Julian Bayne became +poignantly mindful of precaution. He affected to write down the Cherokee +words as the interpreter and the old sibyl discussed them, but his pencil +trembled so that he could hardly fashion a letter. It was an interval to +him of urgent inward debate. He scarcely dared to lose sight of the boy +for one moment, yet he more than feared the slightest demonstration +unsupported. + +He was in terror lest he find the situation changed when next he +approached the fortune-teller's cabin, a few hours later, but the little +blond boy, half nude, was playing in the lush grass before the open door. +The visitor was bolder now, being accompanied by officers of the law; so +bold indeed that he was able to pity the grief of the poor, +unintelligible squaw, volleying forth a world of words of which every +tenth phrase was "Alchie Loyston." By what argument she sought to detain +him, what claims she preferred, what threats she voiced, can never be +known. The sheriff of the county was obdurate, deaf to all intents and +purposes. He shook his head glumly when it was suggested that she might +remain with the child until his mother should arrive in response to the +telegram already sent. "Might poison him--Indians are queer cattle! +Mocking-birds will do that if the young ones are caged, through the bars, +by jing!" + +All night long, like some faithful dog, she lay on the floor outside the +door of the room where they kept the child, her face to the threshold; +and on the inner side, in emulation and imitation, little Archie lay on +the floor and echoed her every groan and responded to her lightest +whisper. But sleep was good to him, and when he was quite unconscious the +officers took him up and placed him on a bed, while they awaited in great +excitement and with what patience they could muster the response to the +telegram sent by Bayne, couched in guarded phrase and held well within +the facts: + + Child here in the Qualla Boundary, answering to description in + advertisements. Says his name is Archie Royston. Will not talk + further. Well-treated. Held for identification. Awaiting advices. + + + + + XIV. + + +Lillian, at her home in Glaston, replied by wire in that tumult of +emotion which each new lure was potent to excite, despite the quicksands +of baseless hope that had whelmed its many precursors. Still, she +expected only another instance of deliberate and brazen fraud, or crafty +and sleek imposture, or, worse still, honest mistake. The little +suit-case, packed with all that the child might need, which had journeyed +through so many vicissitudes, so many thousand miles, was once more in +her hand as she took the train. She never forgot that long night of +travel, more poignant than all her anguished journeyings that had +preceded it. Hurtling through the air, it seemed, with a sense of fierce +speed, the varied clangors of the train, the ringing of the rails, the +frequent hoarse blasts of the whistle, the jangling of the metallic +fixtures, the jarring of the window-panes, all were keenly differentiated +by her exacerbated and sensitive perceptions, and each had its own +peculiar irritation. She scarcely hoped that she might sleep, and it was +only with a dutiful sense of conserving her strength and exerting the +utmost power of her will in the endeavor, that she lay down when her +berth was prepared. But the seclusion, the darkness within the curtains, +oppressed her, for unwittingly the sights and sounds of the outer world +had an influence to make her quit of herself, in a measure, and to focus +her mind on some trivial object of the immediate present. She drew the +blind at the window that she might see the scurrying landscape--the +fields, the woods, the river--and now and again the sparkling lights of a +city, looking in the distance as if some constellation, richly instarred +with golden glamours, had fallen and lay amidst the purple glooms of the +hills. For these elevations, and the frequent tunnels as the dawn drew +near, gave token that the mountains were not distant; the great central +basin of Tennessee lay far to the west; the engine was often climbing a +steep grade, as she noted from the sound. She was going to the mountains, +to the mountains--to meet what? Sometimes she clasped her hands and +prayed aloud in her fear and heart-ache and woe. Then she blessed the +many clamors of the train that had lacerated her tenderest fibres, for +they deadened the sound of her piteous plaints, and she was a proud woman +who would fain that none heard these heart-throbs of anguish but the +pitying God Himself. + +She must have slept from time to time, she thought, for she was refreshed +and calmer when she looked forth from the window and beheld the +resplendent glories of the sunrise amidst the Great Smoky Mountains. +Vast, far-stretching, lofty, as impressive as the idea of eternity, as +awesome as the menace of doom, as silent as the unimagined purposes of +creation, they lifted their august summits. They showed a deep, restful +verdure in the foreground, and in more distant reaches assumed the +blandest enrichments of blue, fading and fading to mere illusions of +ranges, and finally dreaming away to the misty mirages of the horizon. + +Lillian was ready, erect, tense, waiting, for miles and miles before her +destination could be reached, when suddenly the conductor appeared, his +face alive with the realization of sensation. The sheriff of the county +had flagged the train. He had a vehicle in waiting for Mrs. Royston, in +order that she might curtail the distance, as the house where the child +was held was on the verge of the Qualla Boundary, and the nearest station +was still some miles further. There were few words spoken on that hasty +morning drive under the vast growths of the dense and gigantic valley +woods. The freshness of the forest air, the redundant bloom of the +rhododendron, the glimpse now and again of a scene of unparalleled +splendor of mountain range and the graces of the Oconalufty River, +swirling and dandering through the sunshine as if its chant in praise of +June must have a meaning translated to the dullest ear--all was for +Lillian as if it had not been. The officers had cast but one glance at +her tense, pale face, then turned their eyes away. The suspense, the +pain, the torture of fear could end only with that signal moment of +identification. Though the group respected her sorrow in silence, they +themselves experienced the rigors of uncertainty and agitation when the +log cabin came into view amidst the laurel, and every man of them trooped +in, following her, when the door opened and she was ushered into the +little, low-ceiled room, so mean, so rough, so dingy of hue. But for her +it held the wealth of the universe, the joy of all the ages. There upon +the bed lay her sleeping child, larger, more vigorous, than she +remembered him, garbed in a quaint little garment of blue gingham; his +blond hair clipped close, save for two fine curls on top, worn indeed +like a scalp-lock; his long lashes on his cheeks, rosy ripe; his red lips +slightly parted; his fine, firm-fleshed, white arms tossed above his +head; his long, bare legs and plump, dimpled feet stretched out at their +full length. His lips moved with an unformulated murmur as her +hysterical, quavering scream of joyful recognition rang through the room. +Then he opened his big blue eyes to find his mother bending over him. He +did not recognize her at once, and after a peevish sleepy stare he pushed +her aside, calling plaintively for his precious "Polly Hopkins." + +"Oh, bring Polly Hopkins, whoever she is!" cried the poor rebuffed +mother. "And Heaven bless her if she has been good to him." + +But when the dismal old squaw blundered into the room, more blinded by +grief and tears than infirmity, the identity of his visitor came back +suddenly to him with the recollections of the past, and in all the +transcendent joy of an invaluable possession he called out, "Look, mamma! +Ain't her pretty? So-o pretty! Me s-sweet Polly Hopkins!" And sitting up +in bed, he threw his arms around both as they knelt beside it, and all +three wept locked in the same tender embrace. + +For Lillian would not hear of the implication of "Polly Hopkins" in the +suspicion of the abduction, and the rigors of the law were annulled so +far as she was concerned. On the contrary, Mrs. Royston's first effort +was to ameliorate the old woman's condition, to take her at once to their +home to be cherished there forever. When the ancient sibyl, affrighted at +the idea of removal and change, positively refused, the mother tenderly +begged that she would tell then what could be done for her. + +"Polly Hopkins" asked but one boon: the boy. That was the limit of her +demand. + +Lillian was fain to solace her earnest desire to bestow rich reward by +settling a comfortable annuity on her and contracting for a snug, stanch +house to be built here, with every appliance that could add to her +comfort, and for this "Polly Hopkins" cared not at all; for her poor home +had been full of joy with "Alchie Loyston." + +"I am glad I can afford it," said Lillian, with a gush of tears--how long +it had been since she could say she was glad of aught! "Though she will +not come with me, I shall have the best specialist in the United States +to leave everything and come here and take the cataracts from her eyes. +At least, she shall have her sight restored." + +But alack, it was not "Alchie Loyston" whom she should see! + +As for Lillian, she would scarcely consent to be separated from the +child for one moment. The authorities conceived it necessary to take +his statement in private--but allowed her to stand just outside the +door--before his mind could be influenced by the comments of others or +the involuntary assimilation of their views with his knowledge of the +facts, for there was still a large reward for any information leading +to the apprehension of the murderers of Edward Briscoe. Little Archie +had obviously been a witness of that catastrophe and kidnapped to prevent +his revealing the identity of its perpetrators. Indeed, this was a +well-founded fear, for he was very glib with the details of that +momentous occasion, and he had no sooner mentioned the name of Phineas +Copenny, or "Phinny 'Penny," in his infantile perversion, than the North +Carolina official turned aside and indited a telegram to the sheriff of +the county in Tennessee where the crime had been committed. + +None of his capacity to make himself understood had the boy lost by the +craft of the moonshiners in placing him where he would never hear an +English word and was likely to forget the language. A very coherent story +he told still later when he was brought into the criminal court at +Shaftesville, being the capital of the county in Tennessee where the deed +was perpetrated, and confronted by Copenny. One of the moonshiners, +arrested on suspicion of complicity with the murder, had turned State's +evidence and had given testimony as to the details of the plot to ambush +the revenue officer, and the delegation of Phineas Copenny and two others +to execute it. Another testified that he had afterward heard of the +murderous plan and of the mistake in the identity of the victim; but as +neither of these parties was present at the catastrophe, the story of the +child was relied on as an eye-witness to corroborate this proof. The +admission of his testimony was hotly contested because of his tender +years, despite the wide inclusiveness of the statute, and its inadequacy +would possibly have resulted in a reversal of the case had an appeal been +taken. But Phineas Copenny made no motion for a new trial and desired no +appeal. He had feared, throughout, the possible capture and conclusive +testimony of Drann and Holvey, and, lest a worse thing befall him, he +accepted a sentence of a long term in the penitentiary. In view of the +turpitude of "lying in wait," though a matter of inference and not proof, +he doubted the saving grace of that anomaly of the Tennessee law that in +order to constitute murder in the first degree the victim of a +premeditated slaughter must be the person intended to be slain. + +There was scant doubt as to his guilt in the minds of the jury. The boy +singled out Copenny from a crowd in which he had been placed to test his +recognition by the little witness. He remembered the man's name, and +called him by it. He gave an excited account of the shooting, although +this was the least intelligible part of his testimony, for he often +interrupted himself to exclaim, "Pop-gun--_bang!_" disconnectedly, as +the scene renewed itself in his memory. He explained the disappearance +of Mr. Briscoe and the mare by the statement that "Phinny runned +out--pop-gun--_bang!_--an' bofe felled over the bluff." He called the +moonshiners' cave a cellar, however, and declared that he went hunting +for his mamma in a boat, and the counsel for the defence made the most of +such puerilities and contradictions. But the child was very explicit +concerning the riving from him of his coat by Phineas Copenny, and the +plan to throw it over the bluff, and it made a distinct impression on the +jury when he added that Copenny took his hat also--for no mention had +been made of the discovery of the hat in the quagmire in the valley--and +that Copenny had broken the elastic that held it under his chin and this +snapped his cheek. He could, nevertheless, give no account how he reached +the Qualla Boundary, and he broke off suddenly, dimpling, bright-eyed, +and roseate, to ask the judge if he knew "Polly Hopkins." + +"Her is so-o pretty!" he cried out in tender regret. + +Mrs. Royston was nettled by the laughter elicited by this query, with its +obvious fervor of enthusiasm, for she divined that the merriment of the +crowd was charged with ridicule of the incongruous object of his callow +adoration, the forlorn old fortune-teller, who had been so gentle and so +generous, albeit so alien to the civilization of the present day. Lillian +could but realize that the ministering angel is of no time or +nationality, and the transcendent beauty of its apparition may well be a +matter of spiritual and not merely visual perception. The heart of a +woman is no undecipherable palimpsest for the successive register of +fleeting impressions. Here was written in indelible script the tenderest +thought of affection, the kindest charity, and all the soft graces of +fostering sentiment, with no compensatory values of reciprocal loyalty, +or the imposing characters of authority. For the old squaw could not even +understand the justice of the dispensation; it seemed to her that with +impunity she was deserted, denied; her plea was a jest to right reason; +her love, in which the child had once rejoiced, was superfluous, +worthless, now that he had come to his own; her poor hearth, which his +bright infantile smiles had richly illumined, was dark, desolate; the +inexorable logic of law and worldly advantages was beyond her ken, and +she felt that she had only rescued and cherished the little waif that she +herself might be lacerated by grief and bereaved for his sake, and fain +to beat her breast and to heap ashes on her head. Poor, poor, "pretty +Polly Hopkins!" + +Cheering news of her, however, now and again came from the mountains. The +noted oculist, after his final visit to her, stopped over in Glaston to +report to Mrs. Royston the complete success of the treatment, knowing the +gratification the details would afford. He brought, too, the intelligence +that she was free of her old torture from rheumatism, which had been of +the muscular sort, resulting from exposure and deprivation, and had +yielded to the comforts of the trig, close house that Mrs. Royston had +built for her, and the abundance of warm furnishings and nutritious food, +a degree of luxury indeed which was hardly known elsewhere in the +Boundary. Her prosperity had evolved the equivocal advantage of restoring +her prestige as a sibyl, and she had entered upon a new lease of the +practice of the dark arts of fortune-telling and working charms and +spells. He gave a humorous account of her expressions of gratitude to him +for the restoration of her sight, which facetiousness Bayne, who chanced +to be present, perceived did not add to Mrs. Royston's pleasure; for she +regarded "Polly Hopkins" very seriously indeed. Before the physician +quitted the "Boundary," the old squaw bestowed upon him, through the +interpreter, certain secret magic formulae for working enchantments on his +city patients, and thereby effecting rapid cures and filling his coffers. +Knowing of Bayne's hobby for linguistics, the oculist jocularly turned +these archaic curios over to him. In that connection Bayne recounted that +after the child had departed with his mother from the mountains, he +himself being detained by final arrangements with the authorities, his +interest in researches into the arcana of old Cherokee customs had been +revived by seeing the sibyl seated on the ground, swaying and wailing and +moaning, and casting ashes on her head as if making her mourning for the +dead. At the time he had marked the parity of the observance with the +Hebraic usage, and he intended to make an examination into the origin of +the curious tradition of the identity of the American Indians with the +lost tribes of Israel. + +Train-time forced the oculist to a hasty leave-taking, and it was only +after he was gone that Bayne noticed the evidence of restrained emotion +in Lillian's face. Bayne had been about to conclude his own call, which +concerned a matter of business, the claim of a reward which he considered +fraudulent, but he turned at the door, his hat in his hand and came back, +leaning against the mantel-piece opposite her. He noted that the tears +stood deep in her eyes. + +"I can't bear to think of her unhappiness," she said, "when I consider +all I owe to her." + +"You had better consider what you owe to me," Bayne gayly retorted, +seeking to effect a diversion. + +"Oh, you, you! But for _you_! When I think of what you have done for +Archie, and for me, I could fall down at your feet and worship you!" she +exclaimed with tearful fervor. + +"Oh, oh, this is so sudden!" he cried, with a touch of his old +whimsicality. + +"Don't--don't make fun of me!" she expostulated. + +"Bless you, I am serious indeed! I expected something like this, but not +so soon; and, in fact, I expected to say it _myself_--but I could not +have done it better!" + +"Did you really intend to say it, to come back to me?" She gazed +appealingly at him. + +"As soon as we had time for such trifles." He would not enter into her +saddened mood. + +"But one thing I want to know: did you _really_ intend it, or was it +only my cruel affliction that brought you back to me--motives of sheer +humanity--because no one else would help me, because they thought I was +the prey of frenzied fancies to believe that Archie still lived?" + +Julian was silent for a moment, obviously hesitating. Then he reluctantly +admitted, "No, I should never have come back." + +She threw herself back in the chair with a little pathetic sigh. He +looked at her with a smile at once tender and whimsical. She too smiled +faintly, then took up the theme anew. + +"But, Julian," she persisted, "it is very painful to reflect that you had +deliberately shut me out of your heart forever; that when you saw me +again you had no impulse to renew the past. Had you none, really?" + +The temptation was strong to give her the reassurance she craved. She had +suffered so bitterly that a pang of merely sentimental woe seemed a +gratuitous cruelty. Yet he was resolved that there should never come the +shadow of falsehood between them. He was glad--joyous! The future should +make brave amends for the past. He sought to cast off the bitter +retrospection with which she had invested the situation. His gay laughter +rang out. "Madam, I will not deceive you! I intended that you should +_never_ get another shot at me; but circumstances have been too much +for me--and I have ceased to struggle against them." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ordeal, by Charles Egbert Craddock + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORDEAL *** + +***** This file should be named 19776.txt or 19776.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/7/7/19776/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |