diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886-8.txt | 12001 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 232863 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 311013 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886-h/21886-h.htm | 12284 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886-h/images/illus-emb.png | bin | 0 -> 5435 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg | bin | 0 -> 60547 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886.txt | 12001 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 21886.zip | bin | 0 -> 232803 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
11 files changed, 36302 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21886-8.txt b/21886-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd9ec3f --- /dev/null +++ b/21886-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12001 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston + +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: Prisoners of Hope + A Tale of Colonial Virginia + +Author: Mary Johnston + +Release Date: June 21, 2007 [EBook #21886] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONERS OF HOPE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: "WHY ARE YOU SO EAGER?" (Page 2)] + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +PRISONERS OF HOPE + +A Tale of Colonial Virginia + +BY + +MARY JOHNSTON + +AUTHOR OF "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD," "AUDREY," ETC. + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +PUBLISHERS + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY MARY JOHNSTON + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINTH THOUSAND + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +TO MY FATHER + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A SLOOP COMES IN 1 + II. ITS CARGO 15 + III. A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY 27 + IV. THE BREAKING HEART 40 + V. IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD 50 + VI. THE HUT ON THE MARSH 60 + VII. A MENDER OF NETS 71 + VIII. THE NEW SECRETARY 86 + IX. AN INTERRUPTED WOOING 91 + X. LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER 100 + XI. LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR 108 + XII. A DARK DEED 117 + XIII. IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE 129 + XIV. A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION 137 + XV. THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE 150 + XVI. THE FACE IN THE DARK 162 + XVII. LANDLESS AND PATRICIA 173 + XVIII. A CAPTURE 185 + XIX. THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL 193 + XX. WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED 205 + XXI. THE DUEL 219 + XXII. THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN 226 + XXIII. THE QUESTION 239 + XXIV. A MESSAGE 247 + XXV. THE ROAD TO PARADISE 252 + XXVI. NIGHT 267 + XXVII. MORNING 273 +XXVIII. BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS 282 + XXIX. THE BRIDGE OF ROCK 295 + XXX. THE BACKWARD TRACK 306 + XXXI. THE HUT IN THE CLEARING 315 + XXXII. ATTACK 326 +XXXIII. THE FALL OF THE LEAF 335 + XXXIV. AN ACCIDENT 343 + XXXV. THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT 349 + XXXVI. THE LAST FIGHT 357 +XXXVII. VALE 369 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +PRISONERS OF HOPE + +CHAPTER I + +A SLOOP COMES IN + + +"She will reach the wharf in half an hour." + +The speaker shaded her eyes with a great fan of carved ivory and painted +silk. They were beautiful eyes; large, brown, perfect in shape and +expression, and set in a lovely, imperious, laughing face. The divinity +to whom they belonged was clad in a gown of green dimity, flowered with +pink roses, and trimmed about the neck and half sleeves with a fall of +yellow lace. The gown was made according to the latest Paris mode, as +described in a year-old letter from the court of Charles the Second, and +its wearer gazed from under her fan towards the waters of the great bay +of Chesapeake, in his Majesty's most loyal and well beloved dominion of +Virginia. + +The object of her attention was a large sloop that had left the bay and +was sailing up a wide inlet or creek that pierced the land, cork-screw +fashion, until it vanished from sight amidst innumerable green marshes. +The channel, indicated by a deeper blue in the midst of an expanse of +shoal water, was narrow, and wound like a gleaming snake in and out +among the interminable succession of marsh islets. The vessel, following +its curves, tacked continually, its great sail intensely white against +the blue of inlet, bay and sky, and the shadeless green of the marshes, +zigzagging from side to side with provoking leisureliness. The girl who +had spoken watched it eagerly, a color in her cheeks, and one little +foot in its square-toed, rosetted shoe tapping impatiently upon the +floor of the wide porch in which she stood. + +Her companion, lounging upon the wooden steps, with his back to a +pillar, looked up with an amused light in his blue eyes. + +"Why are you so eager, cousin?" he drawled. "You cannot be pining for +your father when 'tis scarce five days since he went to Jamestown. Do +the Virginia ladies watch for the arrival of a new batch of slaves with +such impatience?" + +"The slaves! No, indeed! But, sir, in that boat there are three cases +from England." + +"Ah, that accounts for it! And what may these wonderful cases contain?" + +"One contains the dress in which I shall dance with you at the party at +Green Spring which the governor is to give in your honor--if you ask me, +sir. Oh, I take it for granted that you will, so spare us your +protestations. 'Tis to have a petticoat of blue tabby and an overdress +of white satin trimmed with yards and yards of Venice point. The +stockings are blue silk, and come from the French house in Covent +Garden, as doth the scarf of striped gauze and the shoes, gallooned with +silver. Then there are my combs, gloves, a laced waistcoat, a red satin +bodice, a scarlet taffetas mantle, a plumed hat, a pair of clasped +garters, a riding mask, a string of pearls, and the latest romances." + +"A pretty list! Is that all?" + +"There are things for aunt Lettice, petticoats and ribbons, a gilt +stomacher and a China monster, and for my father, lace ruffles and +bands, a pair of French laced boots, a periwig, a new scabbard for his +rapier, and so on." + +The young man laughed. "'Tis a curious life you Virginians lead," he +said. "The embroidered suits and ruffles, the cosmetics and perfumes of +Whitehall in the midst of oyster beds and tobacco fields, savage Indians +and negro slaves." + +The girl put on a charming look of mock offense. "We _are_ a little bit +of England set down here in the wilderness. Why should we not clothe +ourselves like gentlefolk as well as our kindred and friends at home? +And sure both England and Virginia have had enough of sad colored +raiment. Better go like a peacock than like a horrid Roundhead." + +Her companion laughed musically and sang a stave of a cavalier love +song. He was a slender, well-made man, dressed in the extreme of the +mode of the year of grace sixteen hundred and sixty-three, in a richly +laced suit of camlet with points of blue ribbon, and the great scented +periwig then newly come into fashion. The close curled rings of hair +descending far over his cravat of finest Holland framed a handsome, +lazily insolent face, with large steel-blue eyes and beautifully cut, +mocking lips. A rapier with a jeweled hilt hung at his side, and one +white hand, half buried in snowy ruffles, held a beribboned cane with +which, as he talked, he ruthlessly decapitated the pink and white +morning-glories with which the porch was trellised. + +The house to which the porch belonged was long and low, built of wood, +with many small windows, and at either end a great brick chimney. From +the porch to the water, a hundred yards away, stretched a walk of +crushed shells bisecting an expanse of green turf dotted with noble +trees--the cedar and the cypress predominating. Diverging from this +central walk were two narrower paths which, winding in and out in +eccentric figures, led, on the one hand, to a rustic summer-house +overgrown with honeysuckle and trumpet-vine, and on the other to a tiny +grotto constructed of shells and set in a tangle of periwinkle. Along +one side of the house, and protected by a stout locust paling overrun +with grape-vines, lay the garden, where flowers and vegetables +flourished contentedly side by side, the hollyhocks and tall white +lilies, the hundred-leaved roses and scarlet poppies showing like gilded +officers amidst the rank and file of sober esculents. Behind the house +were clustered various offices, then came an orchard where the June +apples and the great red cherries were ripening in the hot sunshine, +then on the shore of a second and narrower creek rose the quarters for +the plantation servants, white and black--a long double row of cabins, +dominated by the overseer's house and shaded by ragged yellow pines. +Along one shore of this inlet was planted the Indian corn prescribed by +law, and from the other gleamed the soft yellow of ripening wheat, but +beyond the water and away to the westward stretched acre after acre of +tobacco, a sea of vivid green, broken only by an occasional shed or +drying house, and merging at last into the darker hue of the forest. +Over all the fair scene, the flashing water, the velvet marshes, the +smiling fields, the fringe of dark and mysterious woodland, hung a +Virginia heaven, a cloudless blue, soft, pure, intense. The air was +full of subdued sound--the distant hum of voices from the fields of +maize and tobacco, the faint clink of iron from the smithy, the wash and +lap of the water, the drone of bees from the hives beneath the eaves of +the house. Great bronze butterflies fluttered in the sunshine, brilliant +humming-birds plunged deep into the long trumpet-flowers; from the +topmost bough of a locust, heavy with bloom, came the liquid trill of a +mock-bird. + +It was a fair domain, and a wealthy. The Englishman thought of certain +appalling sums lost to Sedley and Roscommon, and there flitted through +his brain a swift little calculation as to the number of hogsheads of +Orenoko or sweet-scented it would take to wipe off the score. And the +girl beside him was beautiful enough to take Whitehall by storm, to be +berhymed by Waller, and to give to Lely a subject above all flattery. He +set his lips with the air of a man who has made up his mind, and turned +to his companion, who was absorbed in watching the white sail grow +slowly larger. + +"How long, now, cousin?" + +"But a few minutes unless the wind should fail." + +"And then you will have your treasures. But, madam, when you have +assumed all the panoply your sex relies on to increase its charms 'twill +be but to 'gild refined gold or paint the lily.' The Aphrodite of this +western ocean needs no adornment." + +The girl looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "You make me too many +pretty speeches, cousin," she said demurely. "We know the value of the +fine things you court gallants are perpetually saying." + +"Upon my soul, madam, I swear--" + +"Do you know the amount of the fine for swearing, Sir Charles? See how +large the sail has grown! When the boat rounds the long marsh she will +come more quickly. We will soon be able to see my father wave his +handkerchief." + +The young man bit his lip. "You are pleased to be cruel to-day, madam, +but I am your slave and I obey. We will look together for Colonel +Verney's handkerchief. How many black slaves does he bring you?" + +She laughed. "But half a dozen blacks, but there will be several +redemptioners if you prefer to be numbered with them." + +"Redemptioners! Ah, yes! the English servants who are sold for their +passage money. I thank you, madam, but _my_ servitude is for life." + +"The men my father will bring may not be the ordinary servants who come +here to better their condition. He may have obtained them from a batch +of felons from Newgate who have been kept in gaol in Jamestown until +word could be got to the planters around. I am sure I wish the ship +captains and the traders would stop bringing in the wretches. It is +different with the negroes: we can make allowance for the poor silly +things that are scarce more than animals, and they grow attached to us +and we to them, and the simple indented servants are well enough too. +There are among them many honest and intelligent men. But these gaol +birds are dreadful. It sickens me to look at them. Thieves and murderers +every one!" + +"I should not think the colony served by their importation." + +"It is not indeed, and we have hopes that it will cease. I beg my father +not to buy them, but he says that one man cannot stop an abuse--that as +long as his fellow-planters use them he might as well do so too." + +Sir Charles Carew delicately smothered a yawn. "The ship that brought me +over a fortnight ago," he said lazily, "had a consignment of such +rascals. It was amusing to watch their antics, crowded together as they +were in the hold. There were two wild Irishmen whom we used to have on +deck to dance for us. Gad! what figures they cut! The captain and I had +a standing wager of five of the new guineas as to which of the rascals +could hold out longest, promising a measure of rum to the victorious +votary of Terpsichore. When I had lost a score of guineas I found that +the captain was in the habit of priming his man before he came upon +deck. Naturally, being filled with Dutch courage, he won." + +"Poor Sir Charles! What did you do?" + +"Sent the captain a cartel and fought him on his own deck. There was one +man in the villainous company whom, I protest, I almost pitied, though +of course the rogue had but his deserts." + +"What was he?" + +"A man of about thirty. A fellow with a handsome face and a lithe +well-made figure which he managed with some grace. He had the air of one +who had seen better days. I remember, one day when the captain was +bestowing upon him some especially choice oaths, seeing him clap his +hand to his side as though he expected to touch a rapier hilt. He was +cleanly too; kept his rags of clothing as decent as circumstances +allowed, and looked less like a wild beast in a litter of foul straw +than did his fellows. But he was an ill-conditioned dog. We had some +passages together, he and I. He took it upon himself to defend what he +was pleased to call the honor of one of his precious company. It was +vastly amusing.... After that I fell into the habit of watching him +through the open hatches. A little thing provides entertainment at sea, +Mistress Patricia. He would sit or stand for hours looking past me with +a perfectly still face. The other wretches were quick to crowd up, +whining to me to pitch them half pence or tobacco, but try as I would, I +could not get word or look from him. Sink me! if he didn't have the +impudence to resent my being there!" + +"It was cruel to stare at misery." + +"Lard, madam! such vermin are used to being stared at. In London, +Newgate and Bridewell are theatres as well as the Cockpit or the King's +House, and the world of _mode_ flock to the one spectacle as often as to +the other. But see! the sloop has passed the marsh and has a clean sweep +of water between her and the wharf." + +"Yes, she is coming fast now." + +"What is coming?" asked a voice from the doorway. + +"The Flying Patty, Aunt Lettice," the girl answered over her shoulder. +"Get your hood and come with us to the wharf." + +Mistress Lettice Verney emerged from the hall, two red spots burning in +her withered cheeks, and her tall thin figure quivering with excitement. + +"I am all ready, child," she quavered. "But, mark my words, Patricia, +there will be something wrong with my paduasoy petticoat, or Charette +will not have sent the proper tale of green stockings or Holland smocks. +Did you not hear the screech owl last night?" + +"No, Aunt Lettice." + +"It remained beneath my window the entire night. I did not sleep a wink. +And this morning Chloe upset the salt cellar, and the salt fell towards +me." Mistress Lettice rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed +lugubriously. Patricia laughed. + +"I dreamed of flowers last night, Aunt Lettice; miles and miles of them, +waxen and cold and sweet, like those they strew over the dead." + +Mistress Lettice groaned. "'Tis a dreadful sign. Captain Norton's wife +(she that was Polly Wilson) dreamed of flowers the night before the +massacre of 'forty-four. The only thing the poor soul said when the +war-whoop wakened them in the dead of the night and the door came +crashing in, was, 'I told you so.' They were her last words. Then Martha +Westall dreamed of flowers, and two days later her son James stepped on +a stingray over at Dale's Gift. And I myself dreamed of roses the week +before those horrid Roundhead commissioners with the rebel Claiborne at +their head and a whole fleet at their back, compelled us to surrender to +their odious Commonwealth." + +"At least that evil is past," said the girl with a gay laugh. "And ill +fortune will never come to me aboard the Flying Patty, so I shall go +down to the wharf to see her in. Darkeih! my scarf!" + +A negress appeared in the doorway with a veil of tissue in her hand. Sir +Charles took it from her and flung it over Patricia's golden head, then +offered his arm to Mistress Lettice. + +The wharf was but a stone's throw from the wooden gates, and they were +soon treading the long stretch of gray, weather-beaten boards. Others +were before them, for the news that the sloop was coming in had drawn a +small crowd to the wharf to welcome the master. + +The dozen or so of boatmen, white and black, who had been tinkering +about in the various barges, shallops and canoes tied to the mossy +piles, left their employments and scrambled up upon the platform, and a +trio of youthful darkies, fishing for crabs with a string and a piece of +salt pork, allowed their lines to fall slack and their intended victims +to walk coolly off with the meat, so intense was their interest in the +oncoming sail. A knot of negro women had left the great house kitchen +and stood, hands on hips, chatting volubly with a contingent from the +quarters, their red and yellow turbans nodding up and down like +grotesque Dutch tulips. The company was made up by an overseer with a +broadleafed palmetto hat pulled down over his eyes and a clay pipe stuck +between his teeth, a pale young man who acted as secretary to the master +of the plantation, and by three or four small land-owners and tenants +for whom Colonel Verney had graciously undertaken various commissions in +Jamestown, and who were on hand to make their acknowledgments to the +great man. + +They all made deferential way for the two ladies and Sir Charles Carew. +Mistress Lettice commenced a condescending conversation with one of the +tenants, Darkeih added a white tulip to the red and yellow ones, and +Patricia, followed by Sir Charles, walked to the edge of the wharf, and +leaning upon the rude railing looked down the glassy reaches of the +water to the approaching boat. + +The wind had sunk into a fitful breeze and the white sail moved very +slowly. The tide was in, and the water lapped with a cooling sound +against the dark green piles. In the distance the blue of the bay +melted into the blue of the sky, while the nearer waters mirrored every +passing gull, the masts of the fishing boats, the tall marsh grass, the +dead twigs marking oyster beds--each object had its double. On a point +of marshy ground stood a line of cranes, motionless as soldiers on +parade, until, taking fright as the great sail glided past, they whirred +off, uttering discordant cries and with their legs sticking out like +tail feathers. Slowly, and keeping to the middle of the channel, the +boat came on. Upon the long low deck men were preparing to lower the +sail, and a portly gentleman standing in the bow was vigorously waving +his handkerchief. The sail came down with a rush, the anchor swung +overboard, and half a dozen canoes and dugouts shot from under the +shadow of the wharf and across the strip of water between it and the +sloop. The gentleman with the handkerchief, followed by a man plainly +dressed in brown, sprang into the foremost; the others waited for their +lading of merchandise. + +Before the boat had touched the steps the master of the plantation began +to call out greetings to his expectant family. + +"Patricia, my darling, are you in health? Charles, I am happy to see you +again! Sister Lettice, Mr. Frederick Jones sends you his humble +services." + +"La, brother! and how is the dear man?" screamed Mistress Lettice. + +"As well as 'tis in nature to be, with his heart at Verney Manor and his +body at Flowerdieu Hundred." + +The boat jarred against the piles and the planter stepped out, grasping +Sir Charles's extended hand. + +"Again, I am happy to see you, Charles," he cried in a round and jovial +voice. "I have been telling my up-river good friends that I have the +most topping fellow in all London for my guest, and you will have +company enough anon." + +Sir Charles smiled and bowed. "I hope, sir, that you were successful in +the business that took you to Jamestown?" + +"Fairly so, fairly so. Haines here," with a wave of the hand towards the +man in brown, "had a lot picked out for me to choose from. I have six +negroes and three of those blackguards from Newgate--mighty poor policy +to shoulder ourselves with such gaol sweepings. I doubt we'll repent it +some day. The blacks come by way of Boston, which means that they will +have to be cockered up considerably before they are fit for work. Is +that you, Woodson? How have things gone on?" + +The overseer took his pipe from between his teeth and made an awkward +bow. + +"Glad to see your Honor back," he said deferentially. "Everything's all +right, sir. The last rain helped the corn amazingly, and the tobacco's +prime. The lightning struck a shed, but we got the flames out before +they reached the hogsheads. The Nancy got caught in a squall; lost both +masts and ran aground on Gull Marsh. The tide will take her off at the +full of the moon. Sambo 's been playing 'possum again. Said he'd cut his +foot with his hoe so badly that he couldn't stand upon it. Said I could +see that by the blood on the rag that tied it up. I made him take off +the rag and wash the foot, and there wa'n't no cut there. The blood was +puccoon. If he'd waited a bit he could 'a' had all he wanted to paint +with, for I gave him the rope's end, lively, until Mistress Patricia +heard him yelling and made me stop." + +"All right, Woodson. I reckon the plantation knows by this time that +what Mistress Patricia says is law. Here come the boats with the boxes. +Tell the men to be careful how they handle them." + +After a hearty word or two to tenants and land owners the worthy Colonel +joined his daughter and sister; and together with Sir Charles Carew they +watched the precious boxes conveyed up the slippery steps, the overseer +shouting directions, plentifully sprinkled with selected, unfinable +oaths to the panting boatmen. When all were safely piled upon the wharf +ready to be wheeled to the great house, the empty boats swung off to +make room for others, laden with the colonel's Jamestown purchases. + +One by one the articles climbed the stairs, each as it reached the level +being claimed by the overseer and told off into a lengthening line. Six +were negroes, gaunt and hollow-eyed, but smiling widely. They gazed +around them, at the heap of clams and oysters piled upon the wharf, at +the marshes, alive with wild fowl, at the distant green of waving corn, +the flower-embowered great house, the white quarters from which arose +many little spirals of savory smoke, and a bland and childlike content +took possession of their souls. With eager and obsequious "Yes, Mas'rs" +they obeyed the overseer's objurgatory indications as to their +disposition. + +There next arose above the landing the head of a white man--a +countenance of sullen ferocity, with a great scar running across it, and +framed in elf locks of staring red. The body belonging to this +prepossessing face was swollen and unshapely, and its owner moved with +a limp and a muttered curse towards the place assigned him. He was +followed by a sallow-faced, long-nosed man, with black oily hair and an +affected smirk which twitched the corners of his thin lips. Singling out +his master's family with a furtive glance from a pair of sinister +greenish eyes, he made a low bow and stepped jauntily into line. + +The third man rose above the landing. Sir Charles, standing by Patricia, +laughed. + +"This world is a place of fantastic meetings, cousin," he said, airily. +"Now who would suppose that I would ever again see that chipping from a +London gaol I told you of--my shipmate of cleanly habit and unsocial +nature. Yet there he is." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ITS CARGO + + +The afternoon sunshine lay hot upon the house and garden of Verney +Manor--the leaves drooped motionless, the glare of the white paths hurt +the eye, the flowers seemed all to be red. The odor of rose and +honeysuckle was drowned in the heavy cloying sweetness of the pendant +masses of locust bloom. Down in the garden the bees droned in the vines, +and on the steps the flies buzzed undisturbed about the sleeping hounds. +Above the long, deserted wharf and the green velvet of the marshes +quivered the heated air, while to look upon the water was like gazing +too closely at blue flame. From the tobacco fields floated the notes of +a monotonous many-versed chant, and a soft, uninterrupted cooing came +from the dove cot. Heat and fragrance and drowsy sound combined to give +a pleasant somnolence to the wide sunny scene. + +Deep in the cavernous shade of the porch lounged the master of the +plantation, his body in one chair, his legs in another, and a silver +tankard of sack standing upon a third, over the back of which had been +flung his great peruke and his riding coat of green cloth, discarded +because of the heat. Thin, blue clouds curled up from his long pipe, and +obscured his ruddy countenance. + +His shrewd gray eyes under their tufts of grizzled hair were half +closed in a lazy contentment, born of the hour, the pipe, and the drink. +The world went very well just then in Colonel Verney's estimation. His +crop of the preceding year had been a large and profitable one; this +year it bid fair to be still more satisfactory. During the past few +months he had acquired a number of servants and slaves, and his head +rights would add a goodly number of acres to his already enormous +holdings; land, land, always more land! being the ambition and the +necessity of the seventeenth century Virginia planter. Trader, planter, +magistrate, member of the council of state, soldier, author on occasion, +and fine gentleman all rolled into one, after the fashion of the times; +Cavalier of the Cavaliers, hand in glove with Governor Berkeley, and +possessed of a beautiful daughter, for whose favor one half of the young +gentlemen of the counties of York and Gloucester were ready to draw +rapier on the other half,--Colonel Verney's world was a fair and +stirring one, and gave him plentiful food for meditation on a fine +afternoon. + +Opposite him sat his kinsman and guest, Sir Charles Carew. He was +similarly equipped with pipe and sack, but there the resemblance to his +host ended, Sir Charles Carew being a man who made it a point of honor +to be clad like the lilies of the field on every possible occasion in +life, from the carrying a breach to the ogling a milkmaid. The sultry +afternoon had no power to affect the scrupulous elegance of his attire, +or to alter the careful repose of his manner. In his hand he held a +volume of "Hudibras," but his thoughts were not upon the book, wandering +instead, with those of his kinsman, over the fertile fields of Verney +Manor. + +"You have a princely estate, sir, in this fair, new world," he said at +last, in a sweetly languid voice. + +The planter roused himself from considering at what point of his newly +acquired land he should begin the attack upon the forest. "It's a fair +enough home for a man to end his days in," he said with complacence. + +"We of the court have very erroneous ideas as to Virginia. I confess +that my expectation of finding a courteous and loving kinsman," a +gracious smile and inclination of the head towards the older man, "is +the only one in which I have not been disappointed. I thought to see a +rude wilderness, and I find, to borrow the language of our Roundhead +friends, a very land of Beulah." + +"Ay, ay. D' ye remember what old Drayton sings? + + 'Virginia! + Earth's only paradise!' + +And a paradise it is, with mighty few drawbacks, now that the King has +come to his own again, if you except these d--d canting Quakers and +Anabaptists, and those yelling red devils on the frontier, and the +danger of a servant insurrection, and the fact that his Majesty (God +bless him!) and the Privy Council fleece us more mercilessly than did +old Noll himself. I verily think they believe our tobacco plants made of +gold like those they say Pizarro saw in Peru. But 'tis a sweet land! +Why, look around you!" he cried, warming to his subject. "The waters +swarm with fish, the marshes with wild fowl. In the winter the air rings +with the _cohonk!_ _cohonk!_ of the wild geese. They darken the air when +they come and go. There in the forest stand the deer, waiting for your +bullet; badgers and foxes, bears, wolves, and catamounts are more +plentiful than are hares in England. You taste pleasure indeed when you +ride full tilt through the frosty moonlight, down the ringing glades of +the forest, and hear the hounds in full cry, and see before you, black +against the silver snow, a pack of yelling wolves. Then in summer the +woods are full of singing birds and of such flowers as you in England +only dream of. Strawberries make the ground red, and there are wild +melons and grapes and mulberries, and more nuts than squirrels, which is +saying much for the nuts. Everything grows here. 'Tis the garden of the +world. And what is there fairer than the green of the tobacco and the +golden corn tassels? And the noble rivers, whose head waters no man has +ever found, hidden by the Lord in the Blue Mountains near to the South +Sea! Sir, Virginia is God's country!" + +"You in these lowlands have no trouble with the Indians?" + +"None to speak of since 'forty-four, when Opechancanough came down upon +us. The brush with the Ricahecrians seven years ago was nothing. They +are utterly broken, both here and in Accomac. Further up the rivers the +devil still holds his own, we hearing doleful tales of the butchery of +pioneers with their wives and children; and above the falls of the far +west, in the Monacan country, and towards the Blue Mountains, is his +stronghold and capitol; but here in the lowlands all's safe enough. +There is no fear of the savages. Would we could say as much of the +servants!" + +"Why, what do you fear from them?" + +"It's hard to say; but an uneasy feeling has prevailed for a year or +more. It's this d--d Oliverian element among them. You see, ever since +his Majesty's blessed restoration, gang after gang of rebels have been +sent us--Independents, Muggletonians, Fifth Monarchy men, dour Scotch +Whigamores--dangerous fanatics all! Many are Naseby or Worcester rogues, +Ironsides who worship the memory of that devil's lieutenant, Oliver. All +have the gift of the gab. We disperse them as much as possible, not +allowing above five or six to any one plantation, we of the Council +realizing that they form a dangerous leaven. Should there be trouble, +which heaven forbid! they would be the instigators, restless +mischief-makers and overturners of the established order of things that +they are! Then there are their fellow criminals, the highwaymen, +forgers, cutpurses and bullies of whom we relieve his Majesty's +government. They are few in number, but each is a very plague spot, +infecting honester men. The slaves, always excepting the Portuguese and +Spanish mulattoes from the Indies, who are devils incarnate, have not +brain enough to conspire. But in the actual event of a rising they would +be fiends unchained." + +"A pleasant state of affairs!" + +"Oh, it is not so serious! We who govern the Colony have to take all +possibilities, however unpleasant, into consideration. I myself do not +think the danger imminent, and many in the Council and among the +Burgesses, and well-nigh all outside will not allow that there is danger +at all. We passed more stringent servant laws last year, and we depend +upon them, and upon the great body of indented servants, who are, for +the most part, honest and amenable and know upon which side their bread +is buttered, to repress the unruly element." + +"What will you do with the convicts you brought with you this morning?" + +"Use them in the tobacco fields just now when all hands are needed to +weed and sucker the plants, and afterwards put them to hewing down the +forest. I told Woodson to bring them around to me this afternoon when +they had been decently clothed. I always give the scoundrels a piece of +my mind to begin with. It saves trouble." + +"Do they give you much trouble?" + +"Not on this plantation. Woodson and Haines are excellent overseers." + +The planter refilled his pipe, struck a light with his flint and steel, +and leaning back amidst the fragrant clouds, allowed his eyelids to +droop and his mind to wander over a pleasant sunshiny tract of nothing +in particular. + +Sir Charles tasted his sack, adjusted his ruffles, and resumed his +reading. But even the delectable adventures of the Presbyterian knight, +over whom all London was laughing, palled on such an afternoon, and the +young gentleman, after listlessly turning a page or two, laid the book +across his knee, and with closed eyes commenced the construction of an +air castle of his own. + +He was roused by the sound of approaching footsteps upon the shell path +leading to the back of the house, and by the harsh voice of the +overseer. + +"Here come your hopeful purchases, sir," he said lazily. + +The overseer turned the corner of the house and came forward with the +three convicts at his heels. He doffed his hat to the two gentlemen, +then turned to his charges. "Fall into line, you dogs, and salute his +Honor!" + +The first man, he of the long nose and the twitching lip, smiled +sweetly, and bent so low that his fell of greasy hair well-nigh swept +the steps; the second, with a brow like a thunder cloud, gave a vicious +nod; the third, with as impassive a countenance as Sir Charles's own, +bowed gravely, and stood with folded arms and a quietly attentive mien. + +The planter gathered himself up from his chair and came forward to the +top of the steps, his tall, corpulent figure towering above the men +below much as his fortunes towered above theirs. + +"Now, men," he said, speaking sternly and with slow emphasis. "I have +just one word to say to you. Listen well to it. I am your master; you +are my servants. I reckon myself a good master, it not being my way to +treat those belonging to me, whether white or black, like dumb beasts. +Give me obedience and the faithful work of your hands, and you shall +find me kind. But if you are stubborn or rebellious, by the Lord, you +will rue the day you left Newgate! Whipping-post and branding-irons are +at hand, and death is something closer to a felon in Virginia than in +England. Be careful! Now, Woodson, what have you put these men to?" + +"They'll go into the three-mile field to-morrow morning, your honor, +unless you wish other disposition made of them." + +"No, that will do. Take them away." + +The overseer faced about and was marching off with the recruits for the +three-mile field when his master's voice arrested him. + +"Take those two in front on with you, Woodson, and send me back the +brown-haired one." + +The "brown-haired one" turned as his companions disappeared around a +hedge of privet and came slowly back to the steps. + +"You wished to speak to me, sir?" he said quietly. + +"Yes. You are the man who was tolerably helpful in the squall last +night?" + +"I was so fortunate as to be of some small service, sir." + +"You understand the handling of a boat?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Hum. I will tell Woodson to try you with a sloop when the press of work +in the fields is past. What is your name?" + +"Godfrey Landless." + +"Chevalier d'Industrie and frequenter of the Newgate Ordinary," put in +Sir Charles lazily. "Of the Roundhead persuasion too, if I mistake +not,--from robbery in the large, descended to thievery in the small; +from the murder of a King to knives and a black alley mouth. Commend me +to these grave rogues for real knaves! Pray inform us to what little +mishap we owe the honor of your company. Did you mercifully incline to +relieve weary travelers over Hounslow Heath by disburdening them of +their heavy purses? Or did you mistake your own handwriting for that of +some one else? Or did you woo a mercer's wife a thought too roughly? Or +perhaps--" + +The man shot a fiery upward glance at the slim, elegant figure and +mocking lips of his tormentor, but kept silence. Colonel Verney, who had +returned to his pipe, interposed. "What is all this, Charles? What are +you saying to the man?" + +"Oh, nothing, sir! This gentleman and I were shipmates, and I did but +ask after his health since the voyage." + +"Sir Charles Carew is very good," the man said proudly. "I assure him +that the object of his solicitude is well, and only desires an +opportunity to repay, with interest, those little attentions shown him +by his courteous fellow voyager." + +The planter looked puzzled; Sir Charles laughed. + +"Our liking is mutual, I see," he said coolly. "I--but what is this, +Colonel Verney! Venus descending from Olympus?" + +Out of the doorway fluttered a brilliant vision, all blue and white like +the great butterflies hovering over the clove pinks. Behind it appeared +the faded countenance of Mrs. Lettice, and a group of turbaned heads +peered, grinning, from out the cool darkness of the hall. + +"Papa!" cried the vision. "I want to show you my new dress! Cousin +Charles, you are to tell me if it is all as it should be!" + +Sir Charles bowed, with his hand upon his heart. "Alas, madam! I could +as soon play critic to the choir of angels. My eyes are dazzled." + +"Stand out, child," said her father gazing at her with eyes of love and +pride, "and let us see your finery. D' ye know what the extravagant minx +has upon her back, Charles? Just five hogsheads of prime tobacco!" + +Mistress Lettice struck in: "Well, I'm sure, brother, 'tis much the +prettiest use to put tobacco to, to turn it into lace and brocade and +jewels,--much better, say I, than to be forever using it to accumulate +filthy slaves." + +Patricia floated to the centre of the porch and stood sunning herself +in a stray shaft of light, like a very bird of paradise. The +"tempestuous petticoat," sky-blue and laced with silver, swelled proudly +outwards, the gleaming satin bodice slipped low over the snowy shoulders +and the heaving bosom, and the sleeves, trimmed with magnificent lace +and looped with pearls, showed the rounded arms to perfection. Around +the slender throat was wound a double row of pearls, and the golden +ringlets were partially confined by a snood of blue velvet. She unfurled +a wonderful fan, and lifted her skirts to show the tiny white and silver +shoes and the silken silver-clocked ankles. Her eyes shone like stars, +faint wild roses bloomed in her cheeks, charming half smiles chased each +other across her dainty mouth. Such a picture of radiant youth and +loveliness did she present that the Englishman's pulses quickened, and +he swore under his breath. "Surely," he muttered, "this is the most +beautiful woman in the world, and my lucky stars have sent me to this No +Man's Land to win her." + +"How do you like me?" she cried gayly. "Is 't not worth the five +hogsheads?" + +Her father drew her to him and kissed the smooth forehead. + +"You look just as your mother did, child, the day that we were +betrothed. I could not give you higher praise than that, sweetheart." + +"And does it really lack nothing, cousin?" she cried anxiously. "Is it +in truth such a dress as they wear at Court?" + +"Not at Whitehall, madam, nor at Brussels, nor even at St. Germains have +I seen anything more point device than the dress,--nor as beautiful as +the wearer," he added in a lower voice and with a killing look. + +The girl's face dimpled with pleasure and innocent, gratified vanity. +She swept him a magnificent courtesy, and he bent low over the slender +fingers she gave him. Suddenly he felt them stiffen in his clasp, and +looking up, saw a curious expression of fear and aversion pass like a +shadow across her face. She spoke abruptly. "That man! I did not see +him! What does he here?" + +Sir Charles wheeled. The convict, forgotten by the two gentlemen, had +been left standing at the foot of the steps, and his sombre eyes were +now fixed upon the girl in a look so strange and intent as fully to +explain her perturbation. Through his parted lips the breath came +hurriedly, in his eyes was a mournful exaltation as of one who looks +from a desert into Paradise. He stood absorbed, unconscious of aught +save the splendid vision above him. For a moment she stared at him in +return, her eyes, held by his, slowly widening and the color quite gone +from her face. With a slow, involuntary movement one white arm rose, and +stiffened before her in a gesture of repulsion. The fan fell from her +hand upon the floor with a click of breaking tortoise shell. The sound +broke the spell, and with a strong shudder she turned her eyes away. +"Make him go," she said in a trembling voice. "He frightens me." + +Sir Charles sprang forward with an oath. "Curse you, you dog! Take your +ill-omened eyes from the lady! Colonel Verney, do you not see that the +fellow is annoying your daughter?" + +The planter had fallen into a reverie born of recollections of the +Patricia of his youth, long laid in her grave, but he roused himself at +the words of his guest. + +"What's that?" he cried. "Annoying Patricia!" He walked to the head of +the steps and raised his cane threateningly. + +"Hark ye, sirrah! The servants of Verney Manor, white or black, felon or +indented, need all their eyesight for their work. They have none to +waste in idle gazing at their betters. Begone to your mates!" + +The man who, at Sir Charles's intervention, had started as from a dream, +colored deeply and compressed his lips, then glanced from one to the +other of the group above him. There was pain, humiliation, almost +supplication in the look which he directed to the girl who had brought +this rating upon him. He glanced at his master with a countenance +studiously devoid of expression, at Mistress Lettice with indifference, +at Sir Charles Carew with chill defiance. Then, with a grave inclination +of his head, he turned, and a moment later had disappeared behind the +hedge. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY + + +Three days later the master of Verney Manor gave a dinner party. + +At Jamestown, twenty miles away, the Assembly had just adjourned after a +busy session. A law debarring that "turbulent people" the Quakers from +further admittance into the colony, and providing cold comfort for those +already within its doors, was passed with acclamation, as was another +against Anabaptists, and a third concerning the hue and cry for +absconding servants and slaves. The selling rates for wines and strong +waters were fixed, a proper penalty attached to the planting of tobacco +contrary to the statute, a regulation for the mending of the highways +adopted, a fine imposed for non-attendance at church, the Navigation Act +formally protested against, the trainbands strengthened, an +appropriation made for the erection of new whipping-posts and pillories, +a cruel mistress deprived of the slave she had mistreated, a harborer of +schismatics publicly reproved, and a conciliatory message and present +sent to the up-river Indians--when the Assembly adjourned with the +consciousness of having nobly done its duty. The only measure upon which +there was not unanimity of opinion was one proposing the erection of +school-houses at convenient cross-roads, and the Governor's weight being +thrown into the balance against it, it was promptly quashed. + +The burgesses from the fourteen counties filled the twenty houses that +constituted the town to suffocation. Up-river planters, too, had come +in, choosing the time the Assembly was in session to attend to their +interests in the "city." Several ships were in harbor, and their +captains, professing themselves tired of salt water, threw themselves +upon the hospitality of their friends ashore. The crowded population +overflowed into the houses of the neighboring planters, who, after the +manner of their kind, entertained profusely, giving jovial welcome and +good liquor to all comers. There was a constant jingling of reins along +the bridle paths, a constant passing of white-sailed sloops upon the +river, as gentlemen in riding coats and jack boots, or in laced coats +and silk stockings, fared to and fro between plantation and town. In the +intervals of business the worthy burgesses and their fellow planters +made merry. They were good times--for king's men--and it behooved every +loyal subject to follow (at a respectful distance) his Majesty's +example, and get all possible enjoyment from a laughing world. So there +were horse-races and cock-fights and bear-baitings, as well as dinners +and suppers, at which much sack and aqua vitæ was drunk to king, church, +and reigning beauties. And if a quarrel sprung, full armed, from the +heated brains of young gallants, crossed rapiers did but add a piquancy, +a dash of cayenne, to life. + +Popular with the elder gentlemen because of his excellent Madeira, quick +wit, jovial soul, and friendship with the Governor, and with the younger +by virtue of being father to Mistress Patricia Verney, Colonel Richard +Verney had no difficulty in securing a score of guests for a day's +entertainment at Verney Manor. + +About ten in the morning of the appointed day the guests began to +arrive, some by water, some on horseback, Colonel Verney meeting each +arrival with a stately bow and a high-flown speech of welcome, and +handing him on to the hall where stood Sir Charles Carew and the ladies +of the household. + +Upon a pillion behind her father, Major Miles Carrington, +Surveyor-General to the Colony, came Mistress Betty Carrington, bosom +friend to Mistress Patricia Verney. Her sweetly serious face, pensive +eyes, and smooth, dark hair, with her dress of sober silk and kerchief +of finest lawn, demurely crossed over her bosom, contrasted finely with +Patricia's radiant beauty, decked in shimmering satin and rich lace, and +heightened by a tinge of vermilion upon the smooth cheek, and a long +black patch beneath the left temple. The two met like friends whom weary +years have parted, and indeed they had not seen each other for nearly a +week. + +All the guests, save one, had arrived. Colonel Verney fidgeted, sent a +servant wench to look at the kitchen clock, and dispatched his secretary +to an upstairs window, whence was visible a long stretch of what +courtesy called the highroad. + +The secretary returned and whispered his master. "God be thanked!" +exclaimed the latter. "I feared that his machine had mired in the +Two-Mile Swamp, or had toppled into a gully coming through the Devil's +Strip. Gentlemen, the Governor's coach is in sight. Shall we adjourn to +the porch and there await his Excellency?" + +A mighty straining, jingling and lumbering came with the breeze down the +road and proceeded from a pillar of dust which was approaching the house +with reasonable rapidity. Presently the road changed from a trough of +dust into a ribbon of greensward. The cloud dissipated itself, streaming +away like the tail of a comet, and a ponderous and much begilt coach, +drawn by six horses, their manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and +outriders in gorgeous livery at the heads of each pair, rolled, or +rather bumped into sight. With a seasick motion it undulated over the +green acclivities of the road, and finally drew up beside the great +horse-block at the gate. + +Two lackeys sprang from their perch behind the vehicle, flung open the +door, and lowered a short flight of steps. A very stately gentleman, +richly dressed, with a handkerchief of point in one hand and a jeweled +snuff-box in the other, descended the steps, placing one shapely leg in +its maroon-colored stocking before the other with the mannered grace of +the leader of a Coranto. + +Colonel Verney met him with a low bow and smiling face, after which the +two embraced, for they were old friends. + +"My dear Governor!" + +"My dear Colonel!" + +"I am charmed to welcome your Excellency to my poor house." + +"My dear Colonel, I am charmed to be here. Gad! the possession of the +only chariot in the Colony is a burdensome honor! I thought dinner would +be over, and the stirrup cup in order while I was creeping, like a snail +with his house on his back, over these 'fair and pleasant roads'--as I +call them in my book, eh, Dick! But you have a goodly company, I see; +Ludwell, Fitzhugh, Carey, Anthony Nash, mine ancient enemy Lawrence, +Wormeley, Carrington our Puritan convert and his pretty daughter, young +Peyton, and that pretty fellow, your nephew or cousin, is he? Odzooks! +he is much what I was at his age, begotten of Delilah and Lucifer, hand +of iron in glove of velvet, eh, Dick! I hear he is hail-fellow-well-met +with the King and with Buckingham and Killigrew and their wild set. Ah, +boys will be boys! 'We have heard the chimes at midnight,' eh, Dick?" + +And the Governor in high good humor skipped up the steps with the +agility of youth, bent low with sugared compliments over the hands of +his hostesses and of Mistress Betty Carrington, and gave courteous +greeting to the assembled gentlemen, after which the company flowed back +into the grateful twilight of hall and "great room," where the weather, +the state of the crops, and the last horse-race engaged them until the +announcement of dinner. + +With a flourish of his costly handkerchief, the Governor offered his arm +to the young mistress of the house, and led the way to the dining-room, +where old Humfrey, the butler, marshaled the guests to their seats. +Mistress Betty Carrington had for her cavalier Sir Charles Carew, to +whose honeyed words she listened with a species of awe, wondering in her +innocent soul if all the wild tales they told of this very fine, +smooth-tongued, handsome gentleman could be true. + +Doctor Anthony Nash made a long and fluent grace wherein much latinity +was aired, a neat allusion made to the _jus divinum_, and an anathema +hurled against those "who break down the carved work of the sanctuary." +Then was uncovered the mighty saddle of mutton, reposing in the dish of +honor, the roast pig, the haunch of venison, the sirloin of beef, the +breast of veal, the powdered goose, the noble dish of sheepshead and +bluefish, and the pasty in which was entombed a whole flock of pigeons. +These _pièces de resistance_ were flanked by bowls of oysters, by rows +of wild fowl skewered together, by mince pies and a grand salad, while +upon the outskirts of the damask plain were stationed trenchers piled +with wheat bread, platters of pease and smoking potatoes, cauliflower +and asparagus, and a concoction of rice and prunes, seasoned with mace +and cinnamon and a pinch of assafoetida. A great silver salt-cellar +stood in the centre of the table, and smaller receptacles of the same +metal held pepper and spices. Silver flagons of cider and ale were +placed at intervals, the Madeira, Fayal and Rhenish awaiting upon the +sideboard the moment when, the cloth drawn and the ladies gone, a +gentlemanly carousal should be inaugurated. + +The company drew their Russian leather chairs closer to the table, +spread over their silken knees the fringed damask napkins, and for a +space little was to be heard but the sound of knife and spoon (forks +there were none), for the morning ride had sharpened appetites. The +servants passed from chair to chair; the master, seconded by his +daughter and sister, pricked his guests on to fresh attacks, pressing a +third slice of mutton on one, a fresh helping of capon upon another, +protesting that a third ate as though it were a fast day, and that a +fourth drank as though the October were sea-water. + +When the cloth was drawn and the banquet put on, tongues were loosened. +The Governor quoted passages from his "Lost Lady" to Patricia, lifting +her lovely flushed face from the carving of a tart with wonderfully +constructed towering walls. Behind a second turreted marvel of pastry, +Mistress Lettice and Mr. Frederick Jones sighed and ogled with antique +grace. Sir Charles Carew, fingering his cherries, told a piquant little +court anecdote to Mistress Betty Carrington, and was lazily amused at +the blush and veiled eyelids with which the young lady received it. +Young Mr. Peyton, on her other side, looked very black. + +The wine was put on and the toast to King and Church drunk standing, +after which the ladies dipped their white fingers into the basin of +perfumed water, dried them on the silver-fringed napkin, and sailed to +the door, through which, after the profoundest of courtesies on the one +side and the lowest of bows upon the other, they vanished, leaving the +gentlemen to wine and wassail. + +Colonel Verney drank to the Governor; the Governor to Colonel Verney; +Sir Charles to the author of the "Lost Lady" and the "Discourse and View +of Virginia," so tickling the Governor's vanity thereby that he became +altogether charming. Mr. Peyton toasted Mistress Betty Carrington, and +Mr. Frederick Jones, Mistress Lettice Verney, "fairest and most discreet +of ladies." They drank to Captain Laramore's next voyage, to Mr. +Wormeley's success in vine planting, to Major Carrington's conversion. +They drank confusion to Quakers, Independents, Baptists and infidels, to +the heathen on the frontier and the Papists in Maryland, the Dutch on +the Hudson and the French on the St. Lawrence,--"Quebec in exchange for +Dunkirk!" In short, there were few things in heaven or earth but +justified draughts of Madeira. + +The room filled with a blue and fragrant mist proceeding from twenty +pipe-bowls. Mr. Peyton sang a pretty song of his own composing. The +company applauded. Sir Charles Carew, in a richly plaintive tenor voice, +sang a lyric of Rochester's. Several of the gentlemen looked askance +(the clergyman had left the room with the ladies), but on the Governor's +crying out "Excellent!" they considered themselves over-squeamish, and +clapped loudly. + +Sir Charles, being dry after his song, drank to Hospitality,--"A duty," +he said, smiling, "that you gentlemen make so paramount that you must +wonder at the omission of 'Thou shalt be hospitable' from the +Decalogue." + +"Faith, sir!" cried Mr. Peyton, "God is too good a Virginian not to +consider such a commandment superfluous." + +The Governor commenced a story which all present, but one, had heard a +dozen times. It mattered the less, as it was a good one. Sir Charles +capped it with a better. The Governor told a weird tale of Lunsford's +men, the "babe-eating" regiment. Sir Charles recounted a little +adventure of His Grace of Buckingham with a quack astrologer, a Court +lady, and an orange girl, which made the company die of laughter. + +"Rat me! but you tell a story well, sir!" said the Governor, wiping his +eyes. + +"I serve King Charles the Second, your Excellency." + +"And so have to live by your wit, eh, sir?" + +"Precisely, your Excellency." + +"Emigrate to Virginia, man! to the land of good eating, good drinking, +good fighting, stout men, and pretty women--who make angelic wives." And +the Governor, who loved his own wife with chivalric devotion, kissed a +locket which he wore at his neck. "Come to Virginia where we need loyal +men and true. Lord! we all thought the millennium was come with the +king, but damme! if it doesn't seem as far off as ever! Not that his +Majesty is to blame," he added quickly, as though fearing that his words +might be taken as an aspersion upon Charles's ability to conduct the +millennium single-handed. "The naughty spirit of the age sets itself +against the Lord's Anointed. The Puritan snake is but scotched, not +killed. It's the old prate of freedom of conscience, government by the +people, and the like disgusting stuff (no offense to you, Major +Carrington) that makes the trouble of the times both here and at home. I +sigh for the good old days when, for eleven sweet years, no Parliament +sat to meddle in affairs of state, when Wentworth kept down faction and +the saintly Laud built up the Church which he adorned." And the Governor +buried his woes in the Rhenish. + +"Sir William Berkeley's loyalty is proverbial," said Sir Charles +suavely. "The King knows that while he is at the helm in Virginia, the +colony is on the high road to that era of peace and prosperity which his +majesty so ardently desires--for his tax-paying people. And I have +thought more than once of late that I might do worse than to dispose of +my majority in the 'Blues,' bid the Court adieu, and obtaining from his +Majesty a grant of land, retire here to Virginia to pass my days on my +own land and amid a little court of my own, in the patriarchal fashion +you gentlemen affect. Under certain circumstances it is a course I might +possibly pursue." He glanced at his kinsman, whose countenance showed +high approval of a plan which dovetailed nicely with one of his own +making. + +"Can you guess the 'certain circumstances' which are to give us the +pleasure of his confounded company?" whispered Mr. Peyton to Mr. Carey. + +"An easy riddle, Jack. Damn the insolent, smooth-spoken knave of hearts, +and confound the women! They all drop to a court card." + +"Not Mistress Betty Carrington. _She_ looks below the surface." + +"Humph! What does she see below thine? An empty gourd with a few +madrigals and sonnets, and fine images, conned from the 'Grand Cyrus,' +rattling about like dried seeds?" + +"Hush, thou green persimmon! the Governor is speaking." + +The governor rose with care to his feet. His wig was awry, his cravat of +fine mechlin under one ear. Benevolent smiles played like summer +lightning across his flushed face. He raised his tankard slowly and with +attentive steadiness. "Gentlemen," he said in a high voice, "we have +eaten and we have drunken. Dick Verney's wine is as old as the hills and +as mellow as sunlight. It groweth late, gentlemen, and some of you have +miles to travel, and it takes cool heads to ride the 'planter's pace.' +For William Berkeley, gentlemen, Governor of Virginia by the grace of +God and his Majesty, King Charles the Second, it takes more than Dick +Verney's wine to fluster him. I call a final toast. I drink again to our +loving friend and host, the worshipful Colonel Richard Verney, to his +beauteous daughter and sister, to his man-servant and his maid-servant, +his ox and his ass, and the stranger which is within his gates." He +smiled benignly at a reflection of Sir Charles in a distant mirror. +"Gentlemen, the devil, you see, can quote scripture. Let the cup go +roun', go roun', go roun'." + +The toast was drunk with fervor, and the party broke up. + +The Governor, with Colonel Ludlow and Captain Laramore, was to sleep at +Verney Manor, and Mistress Betty Carrington was left by her father to +bear Patricia company for a day or two. One by one the remainder of the +company rode or sailed away, those who had an even keel beneath them +being in much better case than their brethren on horseback. + +When the last sail showed a white speck in the distance, Patricia and +Betty came out upon the porch and sat them down, one on either side of +the Governor, with whom they were great favorites. Colonel Ludlow and +Captain Laramore were at dice at a table within the hall, and Colonel +Verney had excused himself in order to hear the evening report from his +overseers. Sir Charles Carew, very idle and purposeless-looking, lounged +in a great chair, and studied the miniature upon his snuff-box. The +Governor, whom the wine had mellowed into a genial softness, a kind of +sunset glow, alternately puffed wide rings of smoke into the air, and +paid compliments to the young ladies. The evening breeze had sprung up, +rustling the leaves of the trees, and bringing with it the sound of the +water. In the western sky crimson islets forever shifted shapes in a sea +of gold. A rosy light suffused the earth. In it the water turned to the +pink of a shell, the marshes became ethereal and far away, earth and sky +seemed one. The flashing wings of gull and curlew were like fairy sails +faring to and fro. + +"If I had wings," said Patricia dreamily, her hands clasped over her +knees, "I would fly straight to that highest island of cloud. The one, +Betty, that looks like a field of daffodils, with those beautiful peaks +rising from it, and the violet light in the hollows. I would set up my +standard there, Sir William, and the island should be mine, and I would +rule the fairies that must inhabit it, with a rod of iron--as you rule +Virginia," she ended with a laugh. + +The Governor laughed with her. "You would have no such stiff-necked folk +to deal with, my love, as have I." + +"No, they should all be good Cavaliers and Churchmen--no Roundheads, no +servants--and if Indians on neighboring isles threatened we would pray +for a wind and sail away from them, around and around the bright blue +sky." + +"And when you are gone to take possession of your castle in the air what +will poor Virginia do?" gallantly demanded the governor. + +"Oh, she would still exist! But I am not going to-night. The princess of +the castle in the air is engaged to his Excellency the Governor of +Virginia for a game of chess. In the mean time here comes my father, who +shall entertain your Excellency while Betty and I go for a walk. Come, +Lady-bird." + +The two graceful figures twined arms and moved off down the walk. Sir +Charles looked after them a moment, then, with a "Permit me, sir," to +the Governor, he snapped the lid of his snuff-box and started down the +steps. The Governor laughed. "We will excuse you, sir," he said +graciously. "Dick," to Colonel Verney, as the young gentleman hastened +after the ladies, "that fine spark is to be your son-in-law, eh?" + +"It is the wish of my heart, William." + +"Humph!" + +"He has birth and breeding. His father was my good friend and kinsman, +and as loyal a Cavalier as ever gave life and lands for the blessed +Martyr. He died in my arms at Marston Moor, and with his last breath +commended his son to me. My dear wife was then expecting the birth of +our child, of Patricia. I can see him now as he smiled up at me (he was +ever gay) and said, 'If it's a girl, Dick, marry her to my boy.' Well! +he died, and his brother took the boy, and my wife and I came over seas, +and I never saw the lad from that day to this, when he comes at my +invitation to visit us." + +"Well, he is a very pretty fellow! And what does Patricia say to him?" + +"Patricia is a good daughter," said the Colonel sedately, "and is +possessed of sense beyond the average of womenkind. She knows the +advantages this match offers. Sir Charles Carew can give her a title, +and a name that's as old as her own. He is a man of parts and +distinction, has served the King, is familiar with the courts of Europe. +I do not pin my faith to the tales that are told of him. His father was +a gallant gentleman, and I am not the man to believe ill of his son. +Moreover, if, as he hath half promised, he will come to Virginia, he +will throw off here the vices of the Court, the faults of youth, and +become an honest Virginia gentleman, God-fearing, law-abiding, +reverencing the King, but not copying him too closely--such an one as +thou or I, William. The king should give him large grants of land, and +so, with what Patricia will have when I am gone, there will be laid the +foundation of a great and noble estate, which, please God, will belong +in the fair future of this fair land to a great and noble family sprung +from the union of Verney and Carew. Patricia, trust me, sees all this +with my eyes." + +"Humph!" said the Governor again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BREAKING HEART + + +Sir Charles was up with the two girls before they reached the garden; +and they passed together through the gate and into the spicy wilderness. +The dew was falling, and as they sauntered through the narrow paths, +Betty held back her skirts that the damp leaves of sage and marjoram +might not brush them; but Patricia, gathering larkspur and +sweet-william, was heedless of her finery. At the further end of the +garden was a wicket leading into a grove of mulberries. The three walked +on beneath the spreading branches and the broad, heart-shaped leaves, +until they came to a tree of extraordinary height and girth whose roots +bulged out into great, smooth excrescences like inverted bowls. Patricia +stopped. "Betty is tired," she said kindly, "and she shall sit here and +rest. Betty is a windflower, Sir Charles, a little tender timid flower, +frail and sweet--are you not, Betty?" She sat down upon one of the +bowls, and pulled her friend down beside her. Sir Charles leaned against +the trunk of the tree. "Betty is a little Puritan," continued Patricia; +"she would not wear the set of ribbons I had for her; and that hurt me +very much." + +"O Patricia!" cried Betty, with tears in her eyes. "If I thought you +really cared! But even then I could not wear them!" + +"No, you little martyr," said the other, with a kiss. "You would go to +the stake any day for what you call your 'principles.' And I honor you +for it, you know I do. Cousin Charles, do you know that Betty thinks it +wrong to hold slaves?" + +Sir Charles laughed, and Betty's delicate face flushed. + +"O Patricia!" she cried. "I did not say that! I only said that we would +not like it ourselves." + +"'Pon my soul, I don't suppose we would," said Sir Charles coolly. "But, +Mistress Betty, the negroes have neither thin skins nor nice feelings." + +"I know that," said Betty bravely; "and I know that our divines and +learned men cannot yet decide whether or not they have souls. And, of +course, if they have not, they are as well treated as other animals; but +all the same I am sorry for them, and I am sorry for the servants too." + +"For the servants!" cried Patricia, arching her brows. + +"Yes," said Betty, standing to her guns. "I am sorry for the servants, +for those who must work seven years for another before they can do aught +for themselves. And often when their time is out they are bowed and +broken; and those whom they love at home, and would bring over, are +dead; and often before the seven years have passed they die themselves. +And I am sorry for those whom you call rebels, for the Oliverians; and +for the convicts, despised and outcast. And for the Indians about us, +dispossessed and broken, and--yes, I am sorry for the Quakers." + +"I waste no pity on the under dog," said Sir Charles. "Keep him +down--and with a heavy hand--or he will fly at your throat." + +"Hark!" said Patricia. + +Some one in the distance was singing:-- + + "Gentle herdsman, tell to me + Of courtesy I thee pray, + Unto the town of Walsingham, + Which is the right and ready way? + + "Unto the town of Walsingham + The way is hard for to be gone, + And very crooked are those paths + For you to find out all alone." + +The notes were wild and plaintive, and sounded sadly through the +gathering dusk. A figure flitted towards them between the shadowy tree +trunks. + +"It is Mad Margery," said Patricia. + +"And who is Mad Margery?" asked Sir Charles. + +"No one knows, cousin. She does not know herself. Ten years ago a ship +came in with servants, and she was on it. She was mad then. The captain +could give no account of her, save that when, the day after sailing, he +came to count the servants, he found one more than there should have +been, and that one a woman, stupid from drugs. She had been spirited on +board the ship, that was all he could say. It's a common occurrence, as +you know. She never came to herself,--has always been what she is now. +She was sold to a small planter, and cruelly treated by him. After a +time my father heard her story and bought her from her master. She has +been with us ever since. Her term of service is long out; but there is +nothing that could drive her from this plantation. She wanders about as +she pleases, and has a cabin in the woods yonder; for she will not live +in the quarters. They say that she is a white witch; and the Indians, +who reverence the mad, lay maize and venison at her door." + +The voice, shrill and sweet, rang out close at hand. + + "Thy years are young, thy face is fair, + Thy wits are weak, thy thoughts are green, + Time hath not given thee leave as yet, + For to commit so great a sin." + +"Margery!" called Patricia softly. + +The woman came towards them with a peculiar gliding step, swift and +stealthy. Within a pace or two of them she stopped, and asked, "Who +called me?" in a voice that seemed to come from far away. She was not +old, and might once have been beautiful. + +"I called you, Margery," said Patricia gently. "Sit down beside us, and +tell us what you have been doing." + +The woman came and sat herself down at Patricia's feet. She carried a +stick, or light pole, wound with thick strings of wild hops, which she +laid on the ground. Taking one of the wreaths from around it, she +dropped the pale green mass into Patricia's lap. + +"Take it," she said. "They are flowers I gathered in Paradise, long ago. +They wither in this air; but if you fan them with your sighs, and water +them with your tears, they will revive.... Paradise is a long way from +here. I have been seeking the road all day; but I have not found it yet. +I think it must lie near Bristol Town, Bristol Town, Bristol Town." + +Her voice died away in a long sigh, and she sat plucking at the fragrant +blooms. + +Patricia said softly, "She talks much of Bristol Town, and she is always +seeking the road to Paradise. I think that once some one must have said +to her, 'We will meet in Paradise.'" + +"I know little of Paradise, Margery," said Sir Charles, good-naturedly; +"but Bristol Town is many leagues from here, across the great ocean." + +"Yes, I know. It lieth in the rising of the sun. I have never seen it +except in my dreams. But it is a beautiful place--not like this world of +trees. The church bells are ever ringing there, ... and the children +sing in the streets. It is all fair, and smiling and beautiful, all but +one spot, one black, black, black spot. I will tell you." She sunk her +voice to a whisper and looked fearfully around. "The mouth of the Pit is +there, the Bottomless Pit that the Preacher tells about. It is a small +room, dark, dark, ... and there is a heavy smell in the air, ... and +there are fiends with black cloth over their faces. They hold a draught +of hell to your mouth, and they make you drink it; ... it burns, burns. +And then you go down, down, down, into everlasting blackness." She broke +off, and shuddered violently, then burst into eldritch laughter. + +"Shall I tell you what I found just now while I was looking for +Paradise?" + +"Yes," said Patricia. + +"A breaking heart." + +"A breaking heart!" + +Margery nodded. "Yes," she said. "I thought it would surprise you. I +find many things, looking for Paradise. The other day I found a brown +pixie sitting beneath a mushroom, and he told me curious things. But a +breaking heart is different. I know all about it, for once upon a time +my heart broke; but mine was soft and easy to break. It was as soft and +weak as a baby's wrist, a little, tender, helpless thing, you know, that +melts under your kisses. But this heart that I found will take a long +time to break. Proud anger will strengthen it at first; but one string +will snap, and then another, and another, until, at last--" she swept +her arms abroad with a wild and desolate gesture. + +"What does she mean?" asked Sir Charles. + +"I do not know," answered Patricia. + +Margery rose and took up her leafy staff. + +"Come," she said. "Come and see the breaking heart." + +"O Patricia!" cried Betty, "do not go with her!" + +"Why not?" asked Patricia resolutely. "Come, cousin, let us find out +what she means. We will go with you, Margery; but you must not take us +far. It grows late." + +Margery laughed weirdly. "It is never late for Margery. There is a star +far up in heaven that is sorry for Margery, and it shines for her, +bright, bright, all night long, that she may not miss the road to +Paradise." + +She glided in front of them, and moved rapidly down the dim alley of +trees, her feet seeming scarce to touch the short grass, and the long +green wreaths, stirred by the wind, coiling and uncoiling around her +staff like serpents. Patricia, with Betty and Sir Charles, followed her +closely. She led them out of the mulberry grove, through a small +vineyard, and into a patch of corn, beyond which could be seen the gleam +of water, faintly pink from the faded sunset. + +"She is taking us towards the quarters!" exclaimed Patricia. "Margery! +Margery!" + +But Margery held on, moving swiftly through the waist-deep corn. Betty +looked down with a little sigh at her dainty shoes, which were suffering +by their contact with the dew-laden leaves of pumpkins and macocks. Sir +Charles put aside the long corn blades with his cane, and so made a way +for the girls. He felt mildly curious and somewhat bored. + +Suddenly they emerged upon the banks of the inlet, within a hundred +yards of the quarters. Patricia would have spoken, but Margery put her +finger to her lips and flitted on towards the row of cabins. + +Before them stretched a long, narrow lane, sandy and barren, with a +pine-tree rising here and there. Rude cabins, windowless and with mud +chimneys, faced each other across the lane. Half way down was an open +space, or small square, in the centre of which stood a dead tree with a +board nailed across its trunk at about a man's height from the ground. +In either end of the board was cut a round hole big enough for a man's +hand to be squeezed through, and above hung a heavy stick with leathern +thongs tied to it, the whole forming a pillory and whipping-post, rude, +but satisfactory. + +It was almost dark. The larger stars had come out, and the fireflies +began to sparkle restlessly. The wind sighed in the pines, and a strong +salt smell came from the sea. Overhead a whip-poor-will uttered its +mournful cry. + +The long day's work, from sunrise to sunset, was over, and the +population of the quarter had drifted in from the fields of tobacco and +maize, the boats, the carpenter's shop, the forge, the mill, the +stables, and barns. Hard-earned rest was theirs, and they were prepared +to enjoy it. It was supper-time. In the square a great fire of +brush-wood had been kindled, and around it squatted a ring of negroes, +busy with bowls of loblolly and great chunks of corn bread. They +chattered like monkeys, and one who had finished his mess raised a chant +in which one note was a yell of triumph, the next a long-drawn +plaintive wail. The rich barbaric voice filled the night. A figure, +rising, tossed aside an empty bowl, and began to dance in the red +firelight. + +The white men ate at their cabin doors, sitting upon logs of wood, or in +groups of three or four messed at tables made by stretching planks from +one tree-stump to another. It was meat-day; and they, too, made merry. +From the women's cabins also came shrill laughter. Snatches of song +arose, altercations that suddenly began and as suddenly ceased, a babel +of voices in many fashions of speech. Broad Yorkshire contended with the +thin nasal tones of the cockney; the man from the banks of the Tweed +thrust cautious sarcasms at the man from Galway. A mulatto, the color of +pale amber, spoke sonorous Spanish to an olive-hued piece of drift-wood +from Florida. An Indian indulged in a monologue in a tongue of a faraway +tribe of the Blue Mountains. + +The glare from the fire and from flaring pine-knots played fitfully over +the motley throng, now bringing out in strong relief some one face or +figure, then plunging it into profoundest shadow. It burnished the high +forehead and scalp lock of the Indian, and made to gleam intensely the +gold earring in the ear of the mulatto. The scarlet cloth wound about +the head of a Turk seemed to turn to actual flame. Under the baleful +light vacant faces of dully honest English rustics became malignant, +while the negro, dancing with long, outstretched arms and uncouth +swayings to and fro, appeared a mirthful fiend. + +The three gentlefolk and their mad conductress gazed from out the shadow +and at a safe distance. Sir Charles Carew, a man of taste, felt strong +artistic pleasure in the Rembrandtesque scene before him--the leaping +light, the weird shadows, resolving themselves into figures posed with +savage freedom, the dancing satyr, the sombre pines above, and, beyond +the pines, the stillness of the stars. Betty drew a little shuddering +breath, and her hand went to clasp Patricia's. The latter was looking +steadily upward at the slender crescent moon. + +"Do not look, Betty," she said quietly. "I do not. It is a horror to +me--a horror. I am going back," she said, turning. + +But she had reckoned without Margery, who caught her by the arm. "Come," +she said imperiously. "Come and see the breaking heart!" Patricia +hesitated, then yielded to curiosity and the insistent pressure of the +skeleton fingers. + +The cabins nearest them were deserted, their occupants having joined +themselves to the groups further down the lane where the firelight beat +strongest and the torches were more numerous. With no more sound than a +moth would make, flitting through the dusk, the mad woman led them to +the outermost of these cabins. Within five paces of the door she stopped +and pointed a long forefinger. + +"The breaking heart!" she said in a triumphant whisper. + +A man lay, face downwards, in the coarse and scanty grass. One arm was +bent beneath his forehead, the other was outstretched, the hand +clenched. It was the attitude of one who has flung himself down in dumb, +despairing misery. As they looked, he gave a long gasping sob that shook +his whole frame, then lay quiet. + +A burst of revelry came down the lane. The man raised his head +impatiently, then let it drop again upon his arm. + +Patricia turned and walked quickly back the way they had come. Betty and +Sir Charles followed her; Margery, her whim gratified, had vanished into +the darkness of the pines. + +No one spoke until they were again amidst the wet and rustling corn. +Then said Betty with tears in her voice, "O Patricia, darling! there is +so much misery in the world, fair and peaceful as it looks to-night. +That poor man!" + +"That 'poor man,' Betty," answered Patricia in a hard voice, "is a +criminal, a felon, guilty of some dreadful, sordid thing, a gaol-bird +reclaimed from the gallows and sent here to pollute the air we breathe." + +"It was the convict, Landless, was it not?" asked Sir Charles. + +"Yes." + +"But, Patricia," said the gentle Betty, "whatever he may have done, he +is wretched now." + +"He has sowed the wind; let him reap the whirlwind," said Patricia +steadily. + +They went on to the house and into the great room where the myrtle +candles were burning softly, the dimity curtains shutting out the night. +Mrs. Lettice was at the spinet, with Captain Laramore to turn the leaves +of her song book, and the Governor, with the chess table out and the +pieces in battle array, awaited (he said) the arrival of the Princess of +the Castle in the Air. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD + + +In a far corner of the Three-mile Field Landless bent over tobacco plant +after tobacco plant, patiently removing the little green shoots or +"suckers" from the parent stem. + +His back and limbs ached from the unaccustomed stooping, the fierce +sunshine beat upon his head, the blood pounded behind his temples, his +tongue clave to the roof of his mouth,--and the noontide rest was still +two hours away. As, with a gasp of weariness, he straightened himself, +the endless plain of green rose and fell to his dazzled eyes in misty +billows. The most robust rustic required several months of seasoning +before he and the Virginia climate became friends, and this man was +still weak from privation and confinement in prison and in the noisome +hold of the ship. + +He turned his weary eyes from the vivid gold green of the fields to the +shadows of the forest. It lay within a few yards of him, just on the +other side of a little stream and a rail fence that zigzagged in gray +lines hung with creepers. At the moment he defined happiness as a plunge +into the cool, perfumed darkness, a luxurious flinging of a tired body +upon the carpet of pine needles, a shutting out, forever, of the +sunshine. + +Suddenly he felt that eyes were upon him, and his glance traveled from +the fringe of trees to meet that of an Indian seated upon a log in an +angle of the fence. + +He was a man of gigantic stature, dressed in coarse canvas breeches, and +with a handkerchief of gaudy dye twisted about his head. His bold +features wore the usual Indian expression of saturnine imperturbability, +and he half sat, half reclined upon the log as motionless as a piece of +carven bronze, staring at Landless with large, inscrutable eyes. + +Landless, staring in return, saw something else. The rank growth of +weeds in which the log was sunk moved ever so slightly. There was a +flash as of a swiftly drawn rapier, and something long and mottled hung +for an instant upon the shoulder of the Indian, and then dropped into +its lair again. + +With a sudden lithe twist of his body, the savage flung himself upon it, +and holding it down with one hand, with the other beat the life out with +a heavy stick. The creature was killed by the first stroke, but he +continued to rain vindictive blows upon it until it was mashed to a +pulp. Then, with a serenely impassive mien, he resumed his seat upon the +log. + +Landless sprang across the stream, and went up to him. + +"You are bitten! Is there aught I can do?" + +The Indian shook his head. With one hand he pulled the shoulder forward, +trying, as Landless saw, to meet the wound with his lips; but finding +that it could not be done, he desisted and sat silent, and to all +appearance, unconcerned. + +Landless cried out impatiently, "It will kill you, man! Do you know no +remedy?" + +The Indian grunted. "Snake root grow deep in the forest, a long way off. +Besides, an Iroquois does not die for a little thing like a pale face +or a dog of an Algonquin." + +"Why did you try to reach the sting with your mouth?" + +"To suck out the evil." + +"Is that a cure?" + +The Indian nodded. Landless knelt down and examined the shoulder. "Now," +he said, "tell me if I set about it in the right way," and applied his +lips to the swollen, blue-black spot. + +The Indian gave a grunt of surprise, and his white teeth flashed in a +smile; then he sat silent under the ministrations of the white man who +sucked at the wound, spitting the venom upon the ground, until the dark +skin was drawn and wrinkled like the hand of a washerwoman. + +"Good!" then said the Indian, and pointed to the stream. Landless went +to it, rinsed his mouth, and brought back water in his cap with which he +laved the shoulder of his new acquaintance, ending by binding it up with +the handkerchief from the man's head. + +A guttural sound from the Indian made him look up. At the same instant +the whip of the overseer, descending, cut him sharply across the +shoulders. He sprang to his feet, the veins in his forehead swollen, his +frame tense with impotent anger. The overseer, having gained his +attention, thrust the whip back into his belt. + +"If you don't want to get what will hurt as bad as a snake bite," he +said grimly, "you had best tend to your tobacco and let vagrom Indians +alone. That row is to be suckered before dinner-time or your pork and +beans will go begging. As for you," turning to the Indian, "what are you +doing on this plantation? Where's your pass?" + +The Indian took from his waistband a slip of paper which he handed to +the overseer, who looked at it and gave it back with a grudging--"It's +all right this time, but you'd better be careful. It's my opinion that +Major Carrington lets his servants run about a deal more than's good for +them. Anyhow, you've no business in this field. Clear out!" + +The Indian arose and went his way. But as he passed Landless, suckering +a plant with angry energy, he touched him, as if by accident, with his +sinewy hand. + +"Monakatocka never forgives an enemy," came in a sibilant whisper too +low to be heard by the watchful overseer. "Monakatocka never forgets a +friend. Some day he will repay." + +The red-brown body slipped away through the tall weeds and clumps of +alder, like the larger edition of the thing that had hung upon its +shoulder. The overseer strode off down the field, sending keen glances +to right and left. He was a conscientious man, and earned every pound of +his wages. + +Landless, left alone, worked steadily on, for he had no mind to lose his +midday meal, uninviting as he knew it would prove to be. Moreover, he +was one who did with his might what his hand found to do. His body was +weary, and his heart sick within him, but the green shoots fell thick +and fast. + +"Yon was a kindly thing you did. Pity 'twas in no better cause than the +saving of a worthless natural." + +The speaker, who was at work on the next row of plants, had caught up +with Landless from behind, and now moved his nimble fingers more slowly, +so as to keep pace with the less expert new hand. + +Landless, raising his head, stared at a figure of positively terrifying +aspect. Upon a skeleton body of extraordinary height was set a head bare +of any hair. Scalp, forehead and cheeks were of one dull, ivory hue like +an eastern carving. Upon the smooth, dead surface of the right cheek +sprawled a great red R, branded into the flesh, and through each large +protruding ear went a ragged hole. For the rest, the lips were of iron, +and the small, deep-set eyes were so bright and burning that they gave +the impression that they were red like the great letter. It might have +been the face of a man of sixty years, though it would have been hard to +tell wherein lay the semblance of age, so smooth was the skin and so +brilliant the eyes. + +"The Indian needed help. Why should I not have given it him?" said +Landless. + +"Because it is written, 'Cursed are the heathen who inhabit the land.'" + +Landless smiled. "So you would not help an Indian in extremity. What if +it had been a negro?" + +"Cursed are the negroes! 'Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by the +sword.'" + +"A Quaker?" + +"Cursed are the Quakers! 'Silly doves that have no heart.'" + +Landless laughed. "You have cursed pretty well all the oppressed of the +land. I suppose you reserve your blessings for the powers that be." + +"The powers that be! May the plagues of Egypt light upon them, and the +seven vials rain down their contents upon them! Cursed be they all, from +the young man, Charles Stuart, to that prelatical, tyrannical, noxious +Malignant, William Berkeley! May their names become a hissing and an +abomination! Roaring lions are their princes, ravening wolves are their +judges, their priests have polluted the sanctuary! May their flesh +consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes consume +away in their holes, and their tongues consume away in their mouths, and +may there be mourning among them, even as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in +the valley of Megiddon!" + +"You are a Muggletonian?" + +"Yea, verily am I! a follower of the saintly Ludovick Muggleton, and of +the saintlier John Reeve, of whom Ludovick is but the mouthpiece, even +as Aaron was of Moses. They are the two witnesses of the Apocalypse. +They are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks. To them and to +their followers it is given to curse and to spare not, to prophesy +against the peoples and kindred and nations and tongues whereon is set +the seal of the beast. Wherefore I, Win-Grace Porringer, testify against +the people of this land; against Prelatists and Papists, Presbyterians +and Independents, Baptists, Quakers and heathen; against princes, +governors, and men in high places; against them that call themselves +planters and trample the vineyard of the Lord; against their sons and +their daughters who are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth neck and +wanton eyes, walking and mincing and making a tinkling with their feet. +Cursed be they all! Surely they shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah, even the +breeding of salt-pits and a perpetual desolation!" + +"Your curses seem not to have availed, friend," said Landless. "Curses +are apt to come home to roost. I should judge that yours have returned +to you in the shape of branding-irons." + +The man raised a skeleton hand and stroked the red letter. + +"This," he said coolly, "was given me when I ran away the second time. +The first time I was merely whipped. The third time I was shaven and +this shackle put upon my leg." He raised his foot and pointed to an iron +ring encircling the ankle. "The fourth time I was nailed by the ears to +the pillory, whence come these pretty scars." + +Landless burst into grim laughter. "And after your fifth attempt, what +then?" + +The man gave him a sidelong look. "I have not made my fifth attempt," he +said quietly. + +They worked in silence for a few minutes. Then said Master Win-Grace +Porringer:-- + +"I was sent to the plantations, because, in defiance of the Act of +Uniformity (cursed be it, and the authors thereof), I attended a meeting +of the persecuted and broken remnant of the Lord's people. What was your +offense, friend, for I reckon that you come not here of your free will, +being neither a rustic nor a fool?" + +"I came from Newgate," said Landless, after a pause. "I am a convict." + +The man's hand stopped in the act of pulling off a shoot. He gave a slow +upward look at the figure beside him, let his eyes rest upon the face, +and looked slowly down again with a shake of the head. + +"Humph!" he said. "The society in Newgate must be improved since my +time." + +They worked without speaking until they had nearly reached the end of +the long double row, when said the Muggletonian:-- + +"You are too young, I take it, to have seen service in the wars?" + +"I fought at Worcester." + +"Upon which side?" + +"The Commonwealth's." + +"I thought as much. Humph! You were all, Parliament and Presbytery, +Puritan and Independent, Hampden and Vane and Oliver, in the gall of +bitterness and the bond of iniquity, very far from the pure light in +which walk the followers of the blessed Ludovick. At the last the two +witnesses will speak against you also. But in the mean time it were +easier for the children of light to walk under the rule of the Puritan +than under that of the lascivious house of Jeroboam which now afflicts +England for her sins. But the Lord hath a controversy with them! An east +wind shall come up, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the +wilderness! They shall be moved from their places! They shall lick the +dust like serpents, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the +earth, and be utterly destroyed! Think you not as I do, friend?" he +asked, turning suddenly upon Landless. + +"I think," said Landless, "that you are talking that which, if +overheard, might give you a deeper scar than any you bear." + +"But who is to hear? the tobacco, the Lord in heaven, and you. The +senseless plant will keep counsel, the Lord is not like to betray his +servant, and as for you, friend,--" he looked long and searchingly at +Landless. "Despite the place you come from, I do not think you one to +bring a man into trouble for being bold enough to say what you dare only +think." + +Landless returned the look. "No," he said quietly. "You need have no +fear of me." + +"I fear no one," said the other proudly. + +Presently he craned his long body across the plant between them until +his lips almost touched the ear of the younger man. + +"Shall you try to escape?" he whispered. + +A smile curled Landless's lip. "Very probably I shall," he said dryly. +He looked down the long lines of broad green leaves at the toiling +figures, black and white, dull peasants at best, scoundrels at worst; +and beyond to the huddled cabins of the quarter, and to the great house, +rising fair and white from orchard and garden; seeing, as in a dream, a +man, young in years but old in sorrow, disgraced, outcast, friendless, +alone, creeping down a vista of weary years, day after day of +soul-deadening toil, of association with the mean and the vile, of +shameful submission to whip and finger. Escape! The word had beaten +through brain and heart so long and so persistently, that at times he +feared lest he should cry it aloud. + +Win-Grace Porringer shook his head. + +"It's not an easy thing to escape from a Virginia plantation. With dogs +and with horses they hunt you down, yea, with torches and boats. They +band themselves together against the fleeing sparrow. They call in the +heathen to their aid. And it is a fearful land, for great rivers bar +your way, and forests push you back, and deep quagmires clutch you and +hold you until the men of blood come up. And when you are taken they +cruelly maltreat you, and your term of service is doubled." + +"And yet men have gotten away," said Landless. + +"Yes, but not many. And those that get away are seldom heard of more. +The forest swallows them up, and after a while their skulls roll about +the hills, playthings for wolves, or the deep waters flow over their +bones, or they lie in a little heap of ashes at the foot of some Indian +torture stake." + +"Why did you try to escape?" asked Landless. + +The man gave him another sidelong look. + +"I tried because I was a fool. I am no longer a fool. I know a better +way." + +"A better way!" + +"Hush!" The man looked over his shoulder and then whispered, "Will you +go with me to-night?" + +"Go with you! Where?" + +"To a man I know--a man who gives good advice." + +"Many can do that, friend." + +"Ay, but not show the way to profit by it as doth this man." + +"Who is he?" + +"A servant even as we are servants,--a learned and godly man, albeit not +a follower of the blessed Ludovick. Listen! About the rising of the moon +to-night, slip from your cabin and come to the blasted pine on the shore +of the inlet. There will be a boat there and I will be in it. We will go +to the cabin of the man of whom I speak. He is a cripple, and knowing +that he cannot run away, the godless and roistering Malignant who calls +himself our master hath given him a hut among the marshes, where he +mendeth nets. Come! I may not say more than that it will be worth your +while." + +"If we are caught--" + +"Our skins pay for us. But the Lord will shut the eyes of the overseers +that they see not, and their ears that they hear not, and we will be +safely back before the dawn. You will come?" + +"Yes," said Landless. "I will come." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE HUT ON THE MARSH + + +It was shortly after midnight when the two servants slipped along the +inlet, silently and warily, and keeping their boat well under the shore. +It was a crazy affair, barely large enough for two, and requiring +constant bailing. When they had made half a mile from the quarters, the +Muggletonian, who rowed, turned the boat's head across the inlet, and +ran into a very narrow creek that wound in mazy doubles through the +marshes. They entered it, made the first turn, and the broad bosom of +the inlet, lit by a low, crimson moon, was as if it had never been. On +every side high marsh grass soughed in the night wind,--plains of +blackness with the red moon rising from them. The tide was low. So close +were the banks of wet, black earth, that they heard the crabs scuttling +down them, and Porringer made a jab with his pole at a great sheepshead +lying _perdu_ alongside. The water broke before them into spangles, +glittering phosphorescent ripples. A school of small fish, disturbed by +the oars, rushed past them, leaping from the water with silver flashes. +A turtle plunged sullenly. From the grass above came the sleepy cry of +marsh hens, and once a great white heron rose like a ghost across their +path. It flapped its wings and sailed away with a scream of wrath. + +The boat had wound its tortuous way for many minutes before Porringer +said in a low voice: "We can speak safely now. There is nothing human +moving on these flats unless the witch, Margery, is abroad. Cursed may +she be, and cursed those who give her shelter and food and raiment and +lay offerings at her door, for surely it is written, 'Thou shalt not +suffer a witch to live.'" + +"Is there anything a Muggletonian will not curse?" asked Landless. + +"Yea," answered the other complacently. "There are ourselves, the salt +of the earth. There are a thousand or more of us." + +"And the remainder of the inhabitants of the earth are reprobate and +doomed?" + +"Yea, verily, they shall be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut up +will they be burned in the fire." + +"Then why have you to do with me, and with the man to whom we are +going?" + +"Because it is written: 'Make ye friends of the mammon of +unrighteousness;' and moreover there be degrees even in hell fire. I do +not place you, who have some inkling of the truth, nor the Independents +and Fifth Monarchy men (as for the Quakers they shall be utterly damned) +in the furnace seven times heated which is reserved for the bigoted and +bloody Prelatists who rule the land, swearing strange oaths, foining +with the sword, and delighting in vain apparel; keeping their feast days +and their new moons and their solemn festivals. They are the rejoicing +city that dwells carelessly, that says in her heart, 'I am, and there is +none beside me.' The day cometh when they shall be broken as the +breaking of a potter's vessel, yea, they shall be violently tossed like +a ball into a far country." + +Here they struck a snag, well-nigh capsizing the boat. When she righted, +and Landless had bailed her out with a gourd, they proceeded in silence. +Landless was in no mood for speech. He did not know where they were +going, nor for what purpose, nor did he greatly care. He meant to +escape, and that as soon as his strength should be recovered and he +could obtain some knowledge of the country, and he meant to take no one +into his counsel, not the Muggletonian, whose own attempts had ended so +disastrously, nor the 'man who gave good advice.' As to this midnight +expedition he was largely indifferent. But it was something to escape +from the stifling atmosphere of the cabin where he had tossed from side +to side, listening to the heavy breathing of the convict Turk and +peasant lad with whom he was quartered, to the silver peace of +moon-flooded marsh and lapping water. + +They made another turn, and in front of them shone out a light, gleaming +dully like a will-of-the-wisp. It looked close at hand, but the creek +turned upon itself, coiled and writhed through the marsh, and trebled +the distance. + +The Muggletonian rested on his oar, and turned to Landless. + +"Yonder is our bourne," he said gravely. "But I have a word to say to +you, friend, before we reach it. If, to curry favor with the +uncircumcised Philistines who set themselves over us, thou speakest of +aught thou mayest see or hear there to-night, may the Lord wither thy +tongue within thy mouth, may he smite thee with blindness, may he bring +thee quick into the pit! And if not the Lord, then will I, Win-Grace +Porringer, rise and smite thee!" + +"You may spare your invectives," said Landless coldly. "I am no +traitor." + +"Nay, friend," said the other in a milder tone. "I thought it not of +thee, or I had not brought thee thither." + +He shoved the nose of the boat into the shore, and caught at a stake, +rising, water-soaked and rotten, from below the bank. Landless threw him +the looped end of a rope, and together they made the boat fast, then +scrambled up the three feet of fat, sliding earth to the level above +where the ground was dry, none but the highest of tides ever reaching +it. Fifty yards away rose a low hut. It stood close to another bend in +the creek, and before it were several boats, tied to stakes, and softly +rubbing their sides together. The hut had no window, but there were +interstices between the logs through which the light gleamed redly. + +When the two men had reached it, the Muggletonian knocked upon the heavy +door, after a peculiar fashion, striking it four times in all. There was +a shuffling sound within, and (Landless thought) two voices ceased +speaking. Then some one said in a low voice and close to the door: "Who +is it?" + +"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," answered the Muggletonian. + +A bar fell from the door, and it swung slowly inwards. + +"Enter, friends," said a quiet voice. Landless, stooping his head, +crossed the threshold, and found himself in the presence of a man with a +high, white forehead and a grave, sweet face, who, leaning on a stick, +and dragging one foot behind him, limped back to the settle from which +he had risen, and fell to work upon a broken net as calmly as if he were +alone. Besides themselves he was the only inmate of the room. + +A pine torch, stuck into a cleft in the table, cast a red and +flickering light over a rude interior, furnished with the table, the +settle, a chest and a straw pallet. From the walls and rafters hung +nets, torn or mended. In one corner was a great heap of dingy sail, in +another a sheaf of oars, and a third was wholly in darkness. Lying about +the earthen floor were several small casks to which the man motioned as +seats. + +Leaving Landless near the door, Win-Grace Porringer dragged a keg to the +side of the settle, and sitting down upon it, approached his death mask +of a face close to the face of the mender of nets, and commenced a +whispered conversation. To Landless, awaiting rather listlessly the +outcome of this nocturnal adventure, came now and then a broken +sentence. "He hath not the look of a criminal, but--" "Of Puritan +breeding, sayest thou?" "We need young blood." Then after prolonged +whispering, "No traitor, at least." + +At length the Muggletonian arose and came towards Landless. "My friend +would speak with you alone," he said, "I will stand guard outside." He +went out, closing the door behind him. + +The mender of nets beckoned Landless. "Will you come nearer?" he asked +in a quiet refined voice that was not without a ring of power. "As you +see, I am lame, and I cannot move without pain." + +Landless came and sat down beside the table, resting his elbow upon the +wood, and his chin upon his hand. The mender of nets put down his work, +and the two measured each other in silence. + +Landless saw a man of middle age who looked like a scholar, but who +might have been a soldier; a man with a certain strong, bright sweetness +of look in a spare, worn face, and underlying the sweetness a still and +deadly determination. The mender of nets saw, in his turn, a figure +lithe and straight as an Indian's, a well-poised head, and a handsome +face set in one fixed expression of proud endurance. A determined face, +too, with dark, resolute eyes and strong mouth, the face of a man who +has done and suffered much, and who knows that he will both do and +suffer more. + +"I am told," said the mender of nets, "that you are newly come to the +plantations." + +"I was brought by the ship God-Speed a month ago." + +"You did not come as an indented servant?" + +Landless reddened. "No." + +"Nor as a martyr to principle, a victim of that most iniquitous and +tyrannical Act of Uniformity?" + +"No." + +"Nor as one of those whom they call Oliverians?" + +"No." + +The mender of nets tapped softly against the table with his thin, white +fingers. Landless said coldly:-- + +"These are idle questions. The man who brought me here hath told you +that I am a convict." + +The other looked at him keenly. "I have heard convicts talk before this. +Why do you not assert your innocence?" + +"Who would believe me if I did?" + +There was a silence. Landless, raising his eyes, met those of the mender +of nets, large, luminous, gravely tender, and reading him like a book. + +"I will believe you," said the mender of nets. + +"Then, as God is above us," said the other solemnly, "I did not do the +thing! And He knows that I thank you, sir, for your trust. I have not +found another--" + +"I know, lad, I know! How was it?" + +"I was a Commonwealth's man. My father was dead, my kindred attainted, +and I had a powerful enemy. I was caught in a net of circumstance. And +Morton was my judge." + +"Humph! the marvel is that you ever got nearer to the plantations than +Tyburn. Your name is--" + +"Godfrey Landless." + +"Landless! Once I knew--and loved--a Warham Landless--a brave soldier, a +gallant gentleman, a true Christian. He fell at Worcester." + +"He was my father." + +The mender of nets covered his eyes with his hand. "O Lord! how +wonderful are thy ways!" he said beneath his breath, then aloud, "Lad, +lad, I cannot wholly sorrow to see you here. Wise in counsel, bold in +action, patient, farseeing, brave, was thy father, and I think thou hast +his spirit. Thou hast his eyes, now that I look at thee more closely. I +have prayed for such a man." + +"I am glad you knew my father," said Landless simply. + +After a long silence, in which the minds of both had gone back to other +days, the mender of nets spoke gravely. + +"You have no cause to love the present government?" + +"No," said Landless grimly. + +"You were heart and hand for the Commonwealth?" + +"Yes." + +"You mean to escape from this bondage?" + +"Yes." + +The mender of nets took from his bosom a little worn book. "Will you +swear upon this that you will never reveal what I am about to say to +you, save to such persons as I shall designate? For myself I would take +your simple word, for we are both gentlemen, but other lives than mine +hang in the balance." + +Landless touched the book with his lips. "I swear," he said. + +The man brought his serene, white face nearer. + +"What would you have given," he asked solemnly, "for the cause for which +your father died?" + +"My life," said Landless. + +"Would you give it still?" + +"A worthless gift," said Landless bitterly. "Yea, I would give it, but +the cause is dead." + +The other shook his head. "The cause of the just man dieth not." + +There was a pause broken by the mender of nets. + +"Thou art no willing slave, I trow. The thought of escape is ever with +thee." + +"I shall escape," said Landless deliberately. "And if they track me they +shall not take me alive." + +The mender of nets gave a melancholy smile. "They would track you, never +fear!" He leaned forward and touched Landless with his hand. "What if I +show you a better way?" he asked in a whisper. + +"What way?" + +"A way to recover your liberty, and with it, the liberty of downtrodden +brethren. A way to raise the banner of the Commonwealth and to put down +the Stuart." + +Landless stared. "A miserable hut," he said, "in the midst of a desolate +Virginia marsh, and within it, a brace of slaves, the one a cripple, the +other a convict,--and Charles Stuart on his throne in Whitehall! +Friend, this dismal place hath turned your wits!" + +The other smiled. "My wits are sound," he said, "as sound as they were +upon that day when I gave my voice for the death (a sad necessity!) of +this young man's father. And I do not think to shake England,--I speak +of Virginia." + +"Of Virginia!" + +"Yea, of this goodly land, a garden spot, a new earth where should be +planted the seeds of a mighty nation, strong in justice and simple +right, wise, temperate, brave; an enlightened people, serving God in +spirit and in truth, not with the slavish observance of prelatist and +papist, nor with the indecent familiarity of the Independent; loyal to +their governors, but exercising the God-given right of choosing those +who are to rule over them; a people amongst whom liberty shall walk +unveiled, and to whom Astræa shall come again; a people as free as the +eagle I watched this morning, soaring higher and ever higher, strongly +and proudly, rejoicing in its progress heavenward." + +"In other words, a republic," said Landless dryly. + +"Why not?" answered the other with shining, unseeing eyes. "It is a +dream we dreamed ten years ago, I and Vane and Sidney and Marten and +many others,--but Oliver rudely wakened us. Then it was by the banks of +the Thames, and it was for England. Now, on the shores of Chesapeake I +dream again, and it is for Virginia. You smile!" + +"Have you considered, sir,--I do not know your name." + +"Robert Godwyn is my name." + +"Have you considered, Master Godwyn, that the Virginians do not want a +republic, that they are more royalist and prelatical than are their +brethren at home; that they out-Herod Herod in their fantastic loyalty?" + +"That is true of the class with whom you have come into contact,--of the +masters. But there is much disaffection among the people at large. And +there are the Nonconformists, the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, +even the Quakers, though they say they fight not. To them all, Charles +Stuart is the Pharaoh whose heart the Lord hardened, and William +Berkeley is his task-master." + +"Any one else?" + +"There are those of the gentry who were Commonwealth's men, and who +chafe sorely under the loss of office and disfavor into which they have +fallen." + +"And these all desire a republic?" + +"They desire the downfall of the royalists with William Berkeley at +their head. The republic would follow." + +"And when a handful of Puritan gentlemen, a few hundred Nonconformists, +and the rabble of the colony shall have executed this project, have +usurped the government, dethroning the king, or his governor, which is +the same thing,--then will come in from the mouth of Thames a couple of +royal frigates and blow your infant republic into space." + +"I do not think so. The frigates would come undoubtedly, but I am of +another opinion as to the result of their coming. They would not take us +unprepared as those of the Commonwealth took William Berkeley in +fifty-two. And with a plentiful lack of money and a Dutch war +threatening, Charles Stuart could not send unlimited frigates. Moreover, +if Virginia revolted, Puritan New England would follow her example, and +she would find allies in the Dutch of New Amsterdam." + +"You spin large fancies," said Landless, with some scorn. "I suppose you +are plotting with these gentlemen you speak of?" + +"No," said the man, with a scarcely perceptible hesitation. "No, they +are few in number and scattered. Moreover, they might plot amongst +themselves but never with--a servant." + +"Then you are concerned with the Nonconformists?" + +"The Nonconformists are timid, and dream not that the day of deliverance +is at hand." + +Landless began to laugh. "Do you mean to say," he demanded, "that you +and I, for I suppose you count on my assistance, are to enact a kind of +Pride's Purge of our own? That we are to drive from the land the King's +Governor, Council, Burgesses and trainbands; sweep into the bay Sir +William Berkeley and Colonel Verney, and all those gold-laced planters +who dined with him the other day? That we are to take possession of the +colony as picaroons do of a vessel, and hoisting our flag,--a crutch +surmounted by a ball and chain on a ground sable,--proclaim a republic?" + +"Not we alone." + +"Oh, ay! I forgot the worthy Muggletonian." + +"He is but one of many," said the mender of nets. + +Landless leaned forward, a light growing in his eyes. "Speak out!" he +said. "What is it that will break this chain?" + +The mender of nets, too, bent forward from his settle until his breath +mingled with the breath of the younger man. + +"A slave insurrection," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A MENDER OF NETS + + +"A slave insurrection!" + +Landless, recoiling, struck with his shoulder the torch, which fell to +the floor. The flame went out, leaving only a red gleaming end. "I will +get another," said the mender of nets, and limped to the corner where +the shadow had been thickest. Landless, left in darkness, heard a faint +muttering as though Master Robert Godwyn were talking to himself. It +took some time to find the torch; but at length Godwyn returned with one +in his hand, and kindled it at the expiring light. + +Landless rose from his seat, and strode to and fro through the hut. His +pulses beat to bursting; there was a tingling at his finger-tips; to his +startled senses the hut seemed to expand, to become a cavern, +interminable and unfathomable, wide as the vaulted earth, filled with +awful, shadowy places and strange, lurid lights. The mender of nets +became a far-off sphinx-like figure. + +Godwyn watched him in silence. He had a large knowledge of human nature, +and he saw into the mind and heart of the restless figure. He himself +was a philosopher, and wore his chains lightly, but he guessed that the +iron had entered deeply into the soul of the man before him. The sturdy +peasants, indented servants with but a few short years to serve, better +fed and better clad than their fellows at home, found life on a Virginia +plantation no sweet or easy thing; the political and ecclesiastical +offenders enjoyed it still less, while the small criminal class found +their punishment quite sufficiently severe. To this man the life must be +a slow _peine forte et dure_, breaking his body with toil, crushing his +soul with a hopeless degradation. The thought of escape must be ever +present with him. But escape in the conventional manner, through +pathless forests and over broad streams, was a thing rarely attained to. +Ninety-nine out of a hundred failed; and the last state of the man who +failed was worse than his first. + +Landless strode over to the table, and leaned his weight upon it. + +"Listen!" he said. "God knows I am a desperate man! My attempt to escape +failing, there is naught but His word between me and the deepest pool of +these waters. I am no saint. I hate my enemies. Restore to me my sword, +pit me against them one by one, and I will fight my way to freedom or +die.... A fair fight, too, a rising of the people against oppression; a +challenge to the oppressor to do his worst; a gallant leading of a +forlorn hope.... But a slave insurrection! a midnight butchery! There +was one who used to tell me tales of such risings in the Indies. Murder +and rapine, fire rising through the night, planters cut down at their +very thresholds, shrieking women tortured, children flung into the +flames,--a carnival of blood and horror!" + +"We are not in the Indies," said the other quietly. "There will be no +such devil's work here. Sit down and listen while I put the thing before +you as it is. There are, most iniquitously held as slaves in this +Virginia, some four hundred Commonwealth's men, each one of whom, at +home and in his own station, was a man of mark. Many were Ironsides. And +each one is a force in himself,--cool, determined, intrepid,--and wholly +desperate. With them are many victims of the Act of Uniformity, godly +men, eaten up with zeal. For their freedom they would dare much; for +their faith they would spill every drop of their blood." + +"They are like our friend, the Muggletonian, fanatics all, I suppose," +said Landless. + +"Possibly. Your fanatic is the best fighting machine yet invented. Do +you not see that these two classes form a regiment against which no +trainbands, no force which these planters could raise, would stand?" + +"But they are scattered, dispersed through the colony!" + +"Ay, but they can be brought together! And to that end, seeing how few +there are upon any one plantation, upon the day when they rise, they +must raise with them servants and slaves. Then will they overpower +masters and overseers, and gathering to one point, form there a force +which will beat down all opposition. It is simple enough. We will but do +that which it was proposed to do ten years ago. You know the +instructions given by the Parliament to the four commissioners?" + +"They were to summon the colony to surrender to the Commonwealth. If it +did so, well and good; if not, war was to be declared, and the servants +invited to rise against their masters and so purchase their freedom." + +"Precisely. Berkeley submitted, and there was no rising. This time there +will be no summons, but a rising, and a very great one. It will be, +primarily, a rising of four hundred Oliverians, strong to avenge many +and grievous wrongs; but with them will rise servants and slaves, and to +the banner of the Commonwealth, beneath which they will march, will +flock every Nonconformist in the land, and, when success is assured, +then will come in and give us weight and respectability those (and they +are not a few) of the better classes who long in their hearts for the +good days of the Commonwealth, and yet dare not lift a finger to bring +them back." + +"And the royalists?" + +"If they resist, their blood be upon them! But there shall be no +carnage, no butchery. And if they submit they shall be unmolested, even +as they were ten years ago. There is land enough for all." + +"The servants and slaves?" + +"They that join with us, of whatever class, shall be freed." + +"This insurrection is actually in train?" + +"Let us call it a revolution. Yes, it is in train as far as regards the +Oliverians. We have but begun to sound servants and slaves." + +"And you?" + +"I am, for lack of a better, General to the Oliverians." + +"And you believe yourself able to control these motley forces,--men +wronged and revengeful, fanatics, peasants, brutal negroes, mulattoes +(whom they say are devils), convicts,--to say to them, 'Thus far must +you go, and no farther.' You invoke a fiend that may turn and rend you!" + +Godwyn shaded his eyes with his hand. "Yes," he said at last, speaking +with energy. "I do believe it! I know it is a desperate game; but the +stake! I believe in myself. And I have four hundred able adjutants, men +who are to me what his Ironsides were to Oliver, but none--" he +stretched out his hand, thin, white, and delicate as a woman's, and laid +it upon the brown one resting upon the table. "Lad," he said in a +gravely tender voice, "I have none upon this plantation in whom I can +put absolute trust. There are few Oliverians here, and they are like +Win-Grace Porringer, in whom zeal hath eaten up discretion. Lad, I need +a helper! I have spoken to you freely; I have laid my heart before you; +and why? Because I, who was and am a gentleman, see in you a gentleman, +because I would take your word before all the oaths of all the peasant +servants in Virginia, because you have spirit and judgment; because,--in +short, because I could love you as I loved your father before you. You +have great wrongs. We will right them together. Be my lieutenant, my +confidant, my helper! Come! put your hand in mine and say, 'I am with +you, Robert Godwyn, heart and soul.'" + +Landless sprang to his feet. "It were easy to say that," he said +hoarsely, "for, in all the two years I lay rotting in prison, and in +these weeks of sordid misery here in Virginia, yours is the only face +that has looked kindly upon me, yours the only voice that has told me I +was believed.... But it is a fearful thing you propose! If all go as you +say it will,--why WELL! but if not, Hell will be in the land. I must +have time to think, to judge for myself, to decide--" + +The door swung stealthily inward, and in the opening appeared the dead +white face, with the great letter sprawling over it, of Master Win-Grace +Porringer. + +"There are boats on the creek," he said. "Two coming up, one coming +down." + +Godwyn nodded. "I hold conference to-night with men from this and the +two neighboring plantations. You will stay where you are and see and +hear them. Only you must be silent; for they must not know that you are +not entirely one with us, as I am well assured you will be." + +"They are Oliverians?" + +"All but two or three." + +"I secured the mulatto," interrupted the Muggletonian. + +"Ay," said Godwyn, "I thought it well to have one slave representative +here to-night. These mulattoes are devils; but they can plot, and they +can keep a still tongue. But I shall not trust him or his kind too far." + +The peculiar knock--four strokes in all--sounded upon the door, and +Porringer went to it. "Who is there?" passed on the one side, and "The +sword of the Lord and of Gideon" on the other. The door swung open, and +there entered two men of a grave and determined cast of countenance. +Both had iron-gray hair, and one was branded upon the forehead with the +letter that appeared upon the cheek of the Muggletonian. Again the knock +sounded, the countersign was given, and the door opened to admit a pale, +ascetic-looking youth, with glittering eyes and a crimson spot on each +cheek, who stooped heavily and coughed often. He was followed by another +stern-faced Commonwealth's man, and he in turn by a brace of +broad-visaged rustics and a smug-faced man, who looked like a small +shopkeeper. After an interval came two more Oliverians, grim of eye, +and composed in manner. + +Last of all came the mulatto of the pale amber color and the gold +ear-rings; and with him came the long-nosed, twitching-lipped convict in +whose company Landless had crossed the Atlantic. His name was Trail; and +Landless, knowing him for a villainous rogue, started at finding him +amongst the company. + +His presence there was evidently unexpected. Godwyn frowned and turned +sharply upon the mulatto. "Who gave you leave to bring this man?" he +demanded sternly. + +The mulatto was at no loss. "Worthy Señors all," he said smoothly, +addressing himself to the company in general. "This Señor Trail is a +good man, as I have reason to know. Once we were together in San +Domingo, slave to a villainous cavalier from Seville. With the help of +St. Jago and the Mother of God, we killed him and made our escape. Now, +after many years, we meet here in a like situation. I answer for my +friend as I answer for myself, myself, Luiz Sebastian, the humble and +altogether-devoted servant of you all, worshipful Señors." + +The man with the branded forehead muttered something in which the only +distinguishable words were, "Scarlet woman," and "Papist half-breed," +and the smug-faced man cried out, "Trail is a forger and thief! I +remember his trial at the Bailey, a week before I signed as storekeeper +to Major Carrington." + +This speech of the smug-faced man created something of a commotion, and +one or two started to their feet. The mulatto looked about him with an +evil eye. + +"My friend has been in trouble, it is true," he said, still very +smoothly. "He will not make the worse conspirator for that. And why, +worthy Señors, should you make a difference between him and one other I +see in company? Mother of God! they are both in the same boat!" He fixed +his large eyes on Landless as he spoke, and his thick lips curled into a +tigerish smile. + +Landless half rose, but Godwyn laid a detaining hand upon his arm. "Be +still," he said in a low voice, "and let me manage this matter." + +Landless obeyed, and the mender of nets turned to the assembly, who by +this time were looking very black. + +"Friends," he said with quiet impressiveness, "I think you know me, +Robert Godwyn, well enough to know that I make no move in these great +matters without good and sufficient reason. I have good and sufficient +reason for wishing to associate with us this young man,--yea, even to +make him a leader among us. He is one of us--he fought at Worcester. And +that he is an innocent man, falsely accused, falsely imprisoned, +wrongfully sent to the plantations, I well believe,--for I will believe +no wrong of the son of Warham Landless." + +There was a loud murmur of surprise through the room, and one of the +Oliverians sprung to his feet, crying out, "Warham Landless was my +colonel! I will follow his son were he ten times a convict!" + +Godwyn waited for the buzz of voices to cease and then calmly proceeded, +"As to this man whom Luiz Sebastian hath brought with him, I know +nothing. But it matters little. Sooner or later we must engage his +class,--as well commence with him as with another. He will be faithful +for his own sake." + +The dark faces of his audience cleared gradually. Only the youth with +the hectic cheeks cried out, "I have hated the congregation of evil +doers, and I will not sit with the wicked!" and rose as if to make for +the door. Win-Grace Porringer pulled him down with a muttered, "Curse +you for a fool! Shall not the Lord shave with a hired razor? When these +men have done their work, then shall they be cut down and cast into +outer darkness, until when, hold thy peace!" + +The company now applied itself to the transaction of business. Trail was +duly sworn in, not without a deal of oily glibness and unnecessary +protestation on his part. The man who held the little, worn Bible now +turned to Landless, but upon Godwyn's saying quietly, "I have already +sworn him," the book was returned to the bosom of its owner. + +Each conspirator had his report to make. Landless listened with grave +attention and growing wonder to long lists of plantations and the +servant and slave force thereon; to news from the up-river estates, and +from the outlying settlements upon the Rappahannock and the Pamunkey, +and from across the bay in Accomac; to accounts of secret arsenals +slowly filling with rude weapons; to allusions to the well-affected +sailors on board those ships that were likely to be in harbor during the +next two months;--to the details of a formidable and far-reaching +conspiracy. + +The Oliverians spoke of the hour in which this mine should be sprung as +the great and appointed day of the Lord, the day when the Lord was to +stretch forth his hand and smite the malignants, the day when Israel +should be delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh. The branded man +apostrophized Godwyn as Moses. Their stern and rigid features relaxed, +their eyes glistened, their breath came short and thick. Once the youth +who had wished to avoid the company of the wicked broke into hysterical +sobbing. The two rustics spoke little, but possibly thought the more. To +them the day of the Lord translated itself the day of their obtaining a +freehold. The smug-faced shopkeeper put in his oar now and again, but +only to be swept aside by the torrent of Biblical quotation. The newly +admitted Trail kept a discreet silence, but used his furtive greenish +eyes to good purpose. Luiz Sebastian sat with the stillness of a great, +yellow, crouching tiger cat. + +Godwyn heard all in silence. Not till the last man had had his say did +he begin to speak, approving, suggesting, directing, moulding in his +facile hands the incongruous and disjointed mass of information and +opinion into a rounded whole. The men, listening to him with breathless +attention, gave grim nods of approval. At one point of his discourse the +branded man cried out:-- + +"If the Puritan gentry you talk of would gird themselves like men, and +come forth to the battle, how quickly would the Lord's work be done! +They are the drones within the hive! They expect the honey, but do not +the work." + +"It is so," said Godwyn, "but they have lands and goods and fame to +lose. We have naught to lose--can be no worse off than we are now." + +"If the Laodicean, Carrington,"--began the branded man. + +Godwyn interrupted him. "This is beside the matter. Major Carrington is +a godly man who hath, though in secret, done many kindnesses to us poor +prisoners of the Lord. Let us be content with that." + +A moment later he said, "It waxeth late, friends, and loath would I be +for one of you to be discovered. Come to me again a week from to-night. +The word will be, 'The valley of Jehoshaphat.'" + +The conspirators dropped away, in twos and threes, gliding silently off +in their stolen boats between the walls of waving grass. When, last of +all save Landless and the Muggletonian, Trail and Luiz Sebastian +approached the door, Godwyn stopped them with a gesture. + +"Stay a moment," he said. "I have a word to say to you. We may as well +be frank with you. I distrust you, of course. It is natural that I +should. And you distrust me as much. It is natural that you should. I +would do without the aid of you and the class you represent if I could, +but I cannot. You would do without my aid if you could, but you cannot. +Betray me, and whatever blood money you get, it will not be that freedom +which you want. We are obliged to work together, unequal yoke-fellows as +we are. Do I make myself understood?" + +"To a marvel, Señor," said Luiz Sebastian. + +"Damn my soul, but you're a sharp one!" said Trail. + +Godwyn smiled. "That is enough, we understand one another. Good-night." + +The two glided off in their turn, and Godwyn said to the Muggletonian, +"Friend Porringer, that mended sail must be bestowed in the large boat +before the hut against Haines' coming for it in the morning. Will you +take it to the boat for me? And if you will wait there this young man +shall join you shortly." + +The Muggletonian nodded, piled the heap of dingy sail upon his head and +strode off. The mender of nets turned to Landless. + +"Well," he said. "What do you think?" + +"I think," said Landless, raising his voice, "that the gentleman in the +dark corner must be tired of standing." + +There was a dead silence. Then a piece of shadow detached itself from +the other heavy shadows in the dark corner and came forward into the +torch light, where it resolved itself into a handsome figure of a man, +apparently in the prime of life, and wearing a riding cloak of green +cloth and a black riding mask. Not content with the concealment afforded +by the mask, he had pulled his beaver low over his eyes and with one +hand held the folds of the cloak about the lower part of his face. He +rested the other ungloved hand upon the table and stared fixedly at +Landless. "You have good eyes," he said at last, in a voice as muffled +as his countenance. + +"It is a warm night," said Landless with a smile. "If Major Carrington +would drop that heavy cloak, he would find it more comfortable." + +The man recoiled. "You know me!" he cried incredulously. + +"I know the Carrington arms and motto. _Tenax et Fidelis_, is it not? +You should not wear your signet ring when you go a-plotting." + +The Surveyor-General of the Colony dropped his cloak, and springing +forward seized Landless by the shoulders. + +"You dog!" he hissed between his teeth, "if you dare betray me, I'll +have every drop of your blood lashed out of your body!" + +Landless wrenched himself free. "I am no traitor," he said coldly. + +Carrington recovered himself. "Well, well," he said, still breathing +hastily, "I believe you. I heard all that passed to-night, and I +believe you. You have been a gentleman." + +"Had I my sword, I should be happy to give Major Carrington proof," said +Landless sternly. + +The other smiled. "There, there, I was hasty, but by Heaven! you gave me +a start! I ask your pardon." + +Landless bowed, and the mender of nets struck in. "I was sorry to keep +you so long, Major Carrington, in such an uncomfortable position. But +the arrival of the Muggletonian before he was due, together with your +desire for secrecy, left me no alternative." + +"I surmise, friend Godwyn, that you would not have been sorry had this +young man proclaimed his discovery in full conclave," said Carrington +with a keen glance. + +Godwyn's thin cheek flushed, but he answered composedly, "It is +certainly true that I would like to see Major Carrington committed +beyond withdrawal to this undertaking. But he will do me the justice to +believe that if, by raising my finger, I could so commit him, I would +not do so without his permission." + +"Faith, it is so!" said the other, then turned to Landless with a stern +smile. "You will understand, young man, that Miles Carrington never +attended, nor will attend, a meeting wherein the peace of the realm is +conspired against by servants. If Miles Carrington ever visits Robert +Godwyn, servant to Colonel Verney, 'tis simply to employ him (with his +master's consent) in the mending of nets, or to pass an idle hour +reading Plato, Robert Godwyn having been a scholar of note at home." + +"Certainly," said Landless, answering the smile. "Major Carrington and +Master Godwyn are at present much interested in the philosopher's +pretty but idle conception of a Republic, wherein philosophers shall +rule, and warriors be the bulwark of the state, and no Greek shall +enslave a fellow Greek, but only outer barbarians--all of which is +vastly pretty on paper--but they agree that it would turn the world +upside down were it put into practice." + +"Precisely," said Carrington with a smile. + +"You had best be off, lad," put in Godwyn. "Woodson is an early riser, +and he must not catch you gadding.... You will think on what you have +heard to-night, and will come to me again as soon as you can make +opportunity?" + +"Yes," said Landless slowly. "I will come, but I make no promises." + +He found Porringer seated in their boat, patiently awaiting him. They +cast off and rowed back the way they had come through the stillness of +the hour before dawn. The tide being full, the black banks had +disappeared, and the grass, sighing and whispering, waved on a level +with their boat. When they slid at last into the broader waters of the +inlet, the stars were paling, and in the east there gleamed a faint rose +tint, the ghost of a color. A silver mist lay upon land and water, and +through it they stole undetected to their several cabins. + +Meanwhile the two men, left alone in the hut on the marsh, looked one +another in the face. + +"Are you sure that he can be trusted?" demanded Carrington. + +"I would answer for his father's son with my life." + +"What of these scruples of his? Faith! an unusual conjunction--a convict +and scruples! Will you manage to dispose of them?" + +Godwyn smiled with wise, sad eyes. "Time will dispose of them," he said +quietly. "He is new to the life. Let him taste its full bitterness. It +will plead powerfully against his--scruples. He has as yet no special +and private grievance. Wait until he gets into trouble with Woodson or +his master. When he has done that and has taken the consequences, he +will be ours. We can bide our time." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NEW SECRETARY + + + "Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind, + That from the nunnery + Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind, + To war and arms I flee.... + + "Yet this inconstancy is such + As you too shall adore. + I could not love thee, dear, so much, + Loved I not honor more." + +The rich notes rang higher and higher, filling the languid air, and +drowning the trill of the mockingbirds. Patricia, filling her apron with +midsummer flowers, sang with a careless passion, her mind far away in +the midst of a Whitehall pageant, described to her the night before by +that silver-tongued courtier, Sir Charles Carew. + +Still singing, she went up the steps of the porch and into the cool wide +hall. In her face there was a languorous beauty born of the sunshine +outside; a soft color glowed in her cheeks, her eyes were large and +dreamy, little damp tendrils of gold strayed about her temples. She +threw down her hat, and loosened the kerchief of delicate lawn from +about her warm young throat; then, with the flowers still in her arms, +she raised the latch of the door of a room held sacred to Colonel +Verney, and entered, to find herself face to face with the convict, +Godfrey Landless, who sat at a table covered with papers, busily +writing. + +She started violently, and the mass of flowers fell to the floor, +shattering the petals from the roses and poppies. Landless came forward, +knelt down, and, picking them up, restored them to her without a word. + +"I thank you," she said coldly. "I thought my father was here." + +"Colonel Verney is in the next room, madam." + +She moved to the door leading into the great room with the gait of a +princess, and Landless went back to his work. + +Colonel Verney, on his knees before the richly carven chest containing +his library, looked up from the two score volumes to behold a mass of +brilliant blooms transferred from two white arms to the ground outside +the open window. + +"Well, sweetheart," he said. "What is it?" + +"Papa," she said, coming to his side, and looking down upon him with a +vexed face; "you promised me that you would employ no more convicts in +the house." + +"Why, so I did, my dear," answered her father, comfortably seating +himself upon "Purchas: His Pilgrimmes." "And I meant to keep my word, +but this is the way of it. The day after you went to Rosemead with Betty +Carrington, down comes young Shaw with the fever, and has to be sent +home to his mother. His illness came at a precious inconvenient season, +for the gout was in my fingers again, and I was bent on disappointing +William Berkeley, who hath wagered a thousand pounds of sweet scented +that my 'Statement of the Evil Wrought by the Navigation Laws to His +Majesty's Colony of Virginia' won't be finished in time for the sailing +of the God-Speed. So I told Woodson to find me some one among the men +who knew how to write. He brought me this fellow, and I vow he is an +improvement on young Shaw. He doesn't ask questions, and he is a very +pretty Latinist. The paper will be finished to-day. I was but searching +for a neat quotation to close with. Then the fellow will go back to the +tobacco, and you will be no longer annoyed by his presence in the house. +Now kiss me, sweet chuck, and begone, for I am busied upon affairs of +state." + +Left alone, Colonel Verney pored over his books until he found what he +wanted, when, after rearranging his library in the carved chest, he rose +stiffly to his feet, and went into the next room and up to the +writing-table. Landless rose from his seat, and, resigning it to his +master, stood gravely by while the Colonel looked over the manuscript +upon which he had been employed. + +"Ha!" said the Colonel. "A very fair copy! You have numbered and headed +the pages, I observe. Let me see, let me see, let me see," and he ran +them over between his fingers. "Oppressive Nature of the Act.--Grave +Dissatisfaction.--It advantageth No One save Small Traders at +Home.--Increase of Revenue to His Majesty if 't were repealed.--Dutch +Bottoms.--Trade with Russia.--His Majesty's Poor Planters Throw +Themselves upon His Majesty's Mercy. Very good, very good!" + +"It is nigh finished, sir," said Landless. + +"Ay, ay! By the Lord Harry, William Berkeley will repent his wager! A +pretty paper it is, and containeth many excellent points and much good +Latin, and you have copied it fairly and cleanly. It is a pity, my man," +he added not unkindly, "that you should have lived so evilly as to +bring yourself to this pass, for you have in you the making of an +excellent secretary." + +"Is it your will, sir, that I finish the copy now?" + +"Yes, but take it to the small table within the window there. I myself +will sit here and jot down some ideas for my dedication which you can +afterwards amplify." + +The worthy colonel pulled the big Turkey worked chair closer to the +table, turned back his ruffles and fell to work. Landless retired to the +table within the window, and for a while naught was heard in the quiet +room but the scratching of quills, as master and man drove them across +the whitey-brown sheets. + +At length the master pushed his chair back and stretched himself with a +prodigious yawn. "The Lord be thanked!" he said, addressing the air. +"That's done! And it is time to see to the dressing of that sore upon +Prince Rupert's shoulder; and I remember Haines said that one of the +hounds had been gored by Carrington's bull. Haines can't dress a wound. +Haines is a bungler. But, by the Lord Harry! Richard Verney is as good a +veterinary as he is a statesman." + +He lifted his burly figure from the depths of the chair, and going over +to Landless, dropped upon the table before him a page of hieroglyphics +for him to decipher at his leisure. Then with another word of +commendation for the beauty of the copy, he walked heavily from the +room. A moment later Landless heard him whistle to his dogs, and then +break into a stave of a cavalier drinking song, sung at the top of a +full manly voice, and dying away in the direction of the stables. + +Landless' hand moved to and fro across the paper with a tireless +patience. He did not go back to the central table, for the light was +better in the window, and a vagrant breath of air strayed in now and +then. The window was a deep one, and heavy drugget curtains hung between +it and the rest of the room. + +The door opened and a man's voice said: "This room is darkened into +delicious coolness. Shall we try it, cousin?" + +Patricia entered like a sunbeam, and after her sauntered Sir Charles +Carew, languid, debonair, and perfectly appareled. + +Landless, seeing them plainly, did not realize that in the shadow of the +heavy curtains he was himself unseen. He had grown so accustomed to the +quiet insolence that overlooks the presence of an inferior as it does +that of any other article of furniture, that he did not doubt that the +fine lady and gentleman before him were perfectly aware of the presence +in the room of the slave whom his master's caprice had raised for the +moment to the post of secretary. It was some few minutes before he began +to consider within himself that he might be mistaken. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN INTERRUPTED WOOING + + +Sir Charles pushed forward the big chair for Patricia, and himself +dropped upon a stool at her feet. Taking her fan from her, he began to +play with it, lightly commenting on the picture of the Rape of Europa +with which it was adorned. Suddenly he closed it, tossed it aside, and +leaning forward, possessed himself of her hand. + +"Madam, sweet cousin, divinest Patricia," he exclaimed in a carefully +impassioned tone; "do you not know that I am your slave, the captive of +your bow and spear, that I adore you? I adore you! and you, +flinty-hearted goddess, give no word of encouragement to your prostrate +worshiper. You trample upon the offering of sighs and tears which he +lays at your feet; you will not listen when he would pour into your ear +his aspirations towards a sweeter and richer life than he has ever +known. Will it be ever thus? Will not the goddess stoop from her throne +to make him the happiest of mortals, to win his eternal gratitude, to +become herself forever the object of the most respectful, the most +ardent, the most devoted love?" + +He flung himself upon his knee and pressed her hand to his heart with +passion not all affected. He had come to consider it a piece of +monstrous good luck, that, since he must make a wealthy match, +Providence (or whatever as a Hobbist he put in place of Providence), +had, in pointing him the fortune, pointed also to Patricia Verney. But +the night before, in the privacy of his chamber, he had suddenly sat up +between the Holland sheets with a startled and amused expression upon +his handsome face, swathed around with a wonderful silken night-cap, and +had exclaimed to the carven heads surmounting the bed-posts, "May the +Lard sink me! but I'm in love!" and had lain down again with an +astonished laugh. While sipping his morning draught he made up his mind +to secure the prize that very day, in pursuance of which determination +he made a careful toilet, assuming a suit that was eminently becoming to +his blonde beauty. Also his valet slightly darkened the lower lids of +his eyes, thereby giving him a larger, more languishing and melancholy +aspect. + +Patricia, from the depths of the Turkey worked chair, gazed with calm +amusement upon her kneeling suitor. + +"You talk beautifully, cousin," she said at length. "'Tis as good as a +page from 'Artemène.'" + +Sir Charles bit his lip. "It is a page from my heart, madam; nay, it is +my heart itself that I show you." + +"And would you forsake all those beautiful ladies who are so madly in +love with you?--I vow, sir, you told me so yourself! Let me see, there +was Lady Mary and Lady Betty, Mistress Winifred, the Countess of ---- and +Madame la Duchesse de ----. Will Corydon leave all the nymphs lamenting +to run after a little salvage wench who does not want him?" + +"'S death, madam! you mock me!" cried the baronet, starting to his +feet. + +"Sure, I meant no harm, cousin; I but put in a good word for the poor +ladies at Whitehall. I fear that you are but a recreant wooer." + +"Will you marry me, madam?" demanded Sir Charles, standing before her +with folded arms. + +She slowly shook her head. "I do not love you, cousin." + +"I will teach you to do so." + +"I do not think you can," she said demurely. "Though I am sure I do not +know why I do not. You are a very fine gentleman, a soldier and a +courtier, witty, brave and handsome--and this match"--a sigh--"is my +father's dearest wish. But I do not love you, sir, and I shall not marry +you until I do." + +"Ah!" cried Sir Charles, and sunk again upon his knee. "You give me +hope! I will teach you to love me! I will exhibit towards you such +absolute fidelity, such patient devotion, such uncomplaining submission +to your cruel probation, that you will perforce pity me, and pity will +grow by soft degrees into blessed love. I do not despair, madam!" He +pressed her hand to his lips and cast his fine eyes upward in a killing +look. + +Patricia gave a charming laugh. "As you please, Sir Charles. In the mean +time let us be once more simply good friends and loving cousins. Tell me +as much as you please of Lady Mary's charms, but leave Patricia Verney's +alone." + +Sir Charles rose from his knees, smarting under an amazed sense of +failure, and very angry with the girl who had discarded him, Charles +Carew, as smilingly as if he had been one of the very provincial youths +whom he awed into awkward silence every time they came to Verney Manor. +Without doubt she deserved the condign punishment which it was in his +power to inflict by sailing away upon the next ship which should leave +for England. But he was now obstinately bent upon winning her. If not +to-day, to-morrow; and if not to-morrow, the next day; and if not that, +the day after. He was of the school of Buckingham and Rochester. He +could devote to the capture of a woman all the tireless energy, the +strategic skill, the will, the patience, the daring, of a great general. +He could mine and countermine, could plan an ambuscade here, and lead a +forlorn hope there, could take one intrenchment by storm, and another by +treachery. And victory seldom forsook her perch upon his banners. + +Life in Virginia was pleasant enough, and he could afford to devote +several months to this siege. As to how it would terminate he had not +the slightest doubt. But just now it was the course of wisdom to retreat +upon the position held yesterday, and that as quickly as possible. So he +smoothed his face into a fine calm, modulated his voice into its usual +tone of languor, and said with quiet melancholy:-- + +"You are pleased to be cruel, madam. I submit. I will bide my time until +that thrice happy day when you will have learnt the lesson I would +teach, when Love, tyrannous Love, shall compel your allegiance as he +does mine." + +"A far day!" said Patricia with soft laughter. "You had best return to +Lady Mary. I do not think that I shall ever love." + +She lifted her white arms, and clasping them behind her head, gazed at +him with soft, bright, untroubled eyes and smiling lips. The sunlight, +filtering through the darkened windows in long bright stripes, laid a +shaft of gold athwart her shoulder and lit her hair into a glory. From +out the distance came the colonel's voice:-- + + "In his train see sweet Peace, fairest Queen of the sky, + Ev'ry bliss in her look, ev'ry charm in her eye. + Whilst oppression, corruption, vile slav'ry and fear + At his wished for return never more shall appear. + Your glasses charge high, 'tis in great Charles' praise, + In praise, in praise, 'tis in great Charles' praise." + +Some one outside the door coughed, and then rattled the latch +vigorously. These precautions taken, the door was opened and there +appeared Mistress Lettice, gorgeously attired, and with an extra row of +ringlets sweeping her withered neck, and a deeper tinge of vermilion +upon her cheeks,--for she had waked that morning with a presentiment +that Mr. Frederick Jones would ride over in the course of the day. Sir +Charles rose to hand her to a chair, but she waved him back with a thin, +beringed hand. + +"I thank you, Sir Charles; but I will not trouble you. I am going down +to the summer-house by the road, as I think the air there will cure my +migraine. Patricia, love, I am looking for my 'Clelie,'--the fourth +volume. Have you seen it?" + +"No, Aunt Lettice." + +"It is very strange," said Mrs. Lettice plaintively. "I am sure that I +left it in this room. 'Tis that careless slut of a Chloe who deserves a +whipping. She hides things away like a magpie." + +"Look in the window; you may have left it there," said Patricia. + +Mrs. Lettice approached the window, laid a hand upon the curtain, and +started back with a scream. + +"What is it, madam?" cried the baronet. + +"'Tis a man! a horrid, horrid man hiding there, waiting to cut all our +throats in the dead of night as the Redemptioner did to the family at +Martin-Brandon! Oh! Oh! Oh!" and Mrs. Lettice threw her apron over her +head, and sank into the nearest chair. + +Patricia started up. Sir Charles, striding hastily towards the window, +his hand upon his sword, was met by the emerging figure of Landless. + +The two gazed at each other, Sir Charles' first haughty surprise fast +deepening into passion as he remembered that the man before him had +assisted at the scene of a while before, had witnessed his discomfiture, +had seen him upon his knees, baffled, repulsed, even laughed at! + +He was the first to speak. "Well, sirrah," he said between his teeth, +"what have you to say for yourself?" + +"That I ask your pardon," said Landless steadily. "I should have made +known my presence in the room. But at first I thought you aware of it; +and when I discovered that you were not, I ... it seemed best to remain +silent. I was wrong. I should have made some sign even then. Again, I +beg your pardon." He turned to Patricia, who stood, tall, straight, and +coldly indignant, beside the chair from which she had risen. "Madam," he +said in a voice that faltered, despite himself, "I crave your +forgiveness." + +She bit her coral under lip, and looked at him from under veiled +eyelids. It was a cruel look, very expressive of scorn, abhorrence, and +perhaps of fear. + +"My father hath many unmannerly servants," she said coldly and clearly, +"who often provoke me. But I pardon them because they know no better. It +seems that like allowance cannot be made for you. However," she smiled +icily, "I shall not complain of you to my father, which assurance will +doubtless content you." + +Landless turned from burning red to deadly white. His eyes, fixed upon +the floor, caught the rich shimmer of her skirts as she moved towards +the door; a moment and she was gone, leaving the two men facing each +other. + +Between them there existed a subtle but strong antagonism. Sir Charles +Carew, courtier in a coarse and shameless court masquerading under a +glittering show of outward graces, had taken lazy delight in heaping +quiet insults upon the man who could not resent them. This amusement had +beguiled the tedium of the Virginia voyage; and when chance threw them +together upon a Virginia plantation, where life flowed on in one long, +placid lack of variety, the sport became doubly prized. It had to be +pursued at longer intervals, but pursued it was. Heretofore the +amusement had been all upon one side; now, Sir Charles felt a chagrined +suspicion that it was he who had afforded the entertainment. +Simultaneously with arriving at this conclusion he arrived at a point +where he was coldly furious. + +Landless returned his look coolly and boldly. He considered that he had +made quite sufficient apology for an offense which was largely +involuntary, and he was in no mood for further abasement. + +"You are an insolent rascal," said the baronet smoothly. + +Landless smiled. "Sir Charles Carew should be a good judge of +insolence." + +Sir Charles took a leisurely pinch of snuff, shook the fallen grains +from his ruffles, snapped the lid of the box, looked languishingly at +the miniature that adorned it, replaced the box in his pocket, and +remarked, "Well, I am waiting!" + +"And for what?" + +"To hear your petition that I forbear to bring this matter to the notice +of your master. The lady mercifully gave you her promise. I suppose I +must follow so fair an example." + +"Sir Charles Carew may wait till doomsday to hear that or any other +request made by me to him or to the lady--who does not seem always +mercifully inclined--" he broke off with a slight and expressive smile. + +Sir Charles took another pinch of snuff. "May the Lard blast me," he +drawled, "if they do not teach repartee at Newgate! But I forget that +the tongue is the only weapon of women and slaves." + +"Some day I hope to teach you otherwise." + +The other laughed. "So the slave thinks he can use a sword? Where did he +learn? In Newgate, from some broken captain, as payment for imparting +the trick of stealing by the Book?" + +Landless forced himself to stand quiet, his arms folded, his fingers +tightly clenching the sleeves of his coarse shirt. "Shall I tell Sir +Charles Carew where I first used my sword with good effect?" he said in +an ominously quiet voice. "At Worcester I was but a stripling, but I +fought by the side of my father. I remember that, young as I was, I +disabled a very pretty perfumed and ringleted Cavalier. I think he was +afterwards sold to the Barbadoes. And my father praised my sword play." + +"Your father," said the other, bringing his strong white teeth together +with a click. "Like father, like son. The latter a detected rogue, +gaol-bird, and slave; the former a d--d canting, sniveling Roundhead +hypocrite and traitor, with a text ever at hand to excuse parricide and +sacrilege." + +Landless sprang forward and struck him in the face. + +He staggered beneath the weight of the blow; then, recovering himself, +he whipped out his rapier, but presently slapped it home again. "I am a +gentleman," he said, with an airy laugh. "I cannot fight you." And +stood, slightly smiling, and pressing his laced handkerchief to his +cheek whence had started a few drops of blood. + +Mrs. Lettice, whom curiosity or the search for the fourth volume of +"Clelie" had detained in the room, screamed loudly as the blow fell; and +Colonel Verney, appearing at the door, stopped short, and stared from +one to the other of the two men. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER + + +The hut of the mender of nets stood upon a narrow isthmus connecting two +large tracts of marsh. That to the eastward was partially submerged at +high tide; that to the west, being higher ground, waved its long grass +triumphantly above the reaching waters. Upon this side the marsh was +separated from the mainland of forest and field by a creek so narrow +that the great pines upon one margin cast their shadows across to the +other, and one fallen giant quite spanned the sluggish waters. + +The grass of this marsh was annually cut for hay; for though the great +herds of cattle belonging to the different plantations roamed at large +through all seasons of the year, seeking their sustenance from forest or +marsh, the more provident of the planters were accustomed to make some +slight provision against the winter, which might prove a severe one with +snow and ice. + +It was late afternoon, and the hay was cut. The half dozen mowers threw +themselves down upon the stubble, stretching out tired limbs and +pillowing heated foreheads upon their arms. They had been given until +sunset to do the work. Having no task-master over them, and being hid +from the tobacco-fields by a convenient coppice of pine and cedar, they +had set to work in a fury of diligence, had cut and stacked the grass +in a race with time, and now found themselves possessed of a precious +hour in which to dawdle, and swap opinions and tobacco before the sunset +horn should call them to quarters. + +Three were indented servants, lumbering, honest-visaged youths whose +aims in life were simple and well defined. Their creed had but four +articles: "Do as little as you can consistently with keeping out of the +overseer's black books; get your full share of loblolly and bacon, and +some one else's if you are clever enough; embrace every opportunity for +reasonable mischief that is offered you; honor Church and King, or say +you do, and Colonel Verney will overlook most pranks." Of the others, +one was the Muggletonian, one the mulatto, Luiz Sebastian, and one a +convict, not Trail, but the red-haired, pock-marked, sullen wretch who +had come to the plantation with Trail and Landless, and whose name was +Roach. + +One of the rustics, who seemed more intelligent than his fellows, and +who had a good-humored deviltry in his young face and big blue eyes, +began an excellent imitation of Dr. Nash's exhortation to submission and +obedience delivered upon the last instruction day for servants, and soon +had his audience of two guffawing with laughter. The mulatto and the +convict edged by imperceptible degrees farther and farther away from the +others, until, within the shadow of a stack of grass, they lay side by +side and commenced a muttered conversation. The countenance of the white +man, atrocious villainy written large in every lineament, became +horribly intent as his amber-hued companion talked in fluent low tones, +emphasizing what he had to say by a restless, peculiar, and sinister +motion of his long, yellow fingers. At a little distance lay the +Muggletonian, his elbows on the ground, his ghastly face in his hands, +and his eyes riveted upon the Geneva Bible which he had drawn from his +bosom. + +When he had brought his entertainment to a finish, the blue-eyed youth +rolled himself over and over the stubble to where the Muggletonian lay, +intent upon a chapter of invective. The youth covered the page with one +enormous paw and playfully attempted to insert the little finger of the +other into the hole in Porringer's ear. "What now, old Runaway," he +said, lazily, "hunting up fresh curses to pour on our unfort'net heads?" + +"Cursed be he who makes a mock of age," said the Muggletonian, grimly. +"May he be even as the wicked children who cried to the prophet, 'Go up, +thou baldhead!'" + +The boy laughed. "Tell me when you see brown bear a-coming," quoth he. +"Losh! a bear steak would taste mighty good after eternal bacon!" + +Porringer closed his book and restored it to his bosom. "Tell me," he +said, abruptly, "have you seen aught of the young man called Landless?" + +"'The young man called Landless,'" answered the other, petulantly, "has +a d--d easy berth of it! Yesterday evening I carried water from the +spring to the great house to water Mistress Patricia's posies, and every +time I passes the window of the master's room I see that fellow +a-sitting at his ease in a fine chair before a fine table, writing away +as big as all out of doors. And every time I says to him, says I, 'I +reckon you think yourself as fine as the Lord Mayor of London? A pretty +sec'tary you make!'" + +"Have you seen him to-day?" + +"No, I haven't seen him to-day,--but I see someone else. Mates," he +exclaimed, "Witch Margery's coming down t' other side of creek. I'll call +her over." + +Scrambling to his feet he gave a low halloo through his hands, "Margery! +Margery! Come and find the road to Paradise!" + +Margery waved her hand to signify that she heard and understood, and +presently stepped upon the fallen tree that spanned the stream. It was a +narrow and a slippery bridge, but she flitted across it with the secure +grace of some woodland thing, and, staff in hand, advanced towards the +men. Between them and the western sun she stood still, a dark figure +against a halo of gold light, and threw an intent and searching glance +over the unbroken green of the marsh and the blue of the waters beyond. +Then with a wild laugh she came up to them and cast her staff wreathed +with dark ivy upon the ground. + +"The road is not here," she cried. "Here is all green grass, and beyond +is the weary, weary, weary sea! There is no long, bright, shining road +to Paradise." She sat down beside her staff, and taking her chin into +her hand, stared fixedly at the ground. + +The men gathered around her, with the exception of the Muggletonian, +who, after audibly comparing her to the Witch of Endor, turned on his +side and drew his cap over his eyes as if to shut out the hated sight. +The convict took up the staff and began to pull from it the strings of +ivy. + +"Put it down!" she said quickly. + +The man continued to strip it of its leafy mantle. + +"Put it down, can't you?" said the youth. "She never lets any one touch +it. She says an angel gave it to her to help her on her way." + +With a snarling laugh the convict threw it from him with all his force. +Whirling through the air it struck the water midway from shore to shore. +Margery sprang to her feet with a loud cry. The boy rose also. + +"D--n you!" he said, wrathfully. "I'd like to break it over your +misshapen back! Here, Margery, don't fret. I'll get it for you." + +He ran to the bank, dived into the water, and in three minutes was back +with the dripping mass in his arms. He gave it into Margery's hands, +saying kindly while he shook himself like a large spaniel; "There! it +isn't hurt a mite!" + +With a cry of delight Margery seized the "angel's gift" and kissed the +hand that restored it. Then she turned upon the convict. + +"When I go back to my cabin in the woods," she said, solemnly, and with +her finger up, "I shall whistle all the fairy folk into a ring, all the +elves and the pixies, and the little brown gnomes who burrow in the +leaves and look for all the world like pine cones, and I shall tell them +what you did, and to-night they will come to your cabin, and will pinch +you black and blue, and stick thorns into you, and rub you with the +poison leaf until you are blotched and swelled like the great bull frog +that croaks, croaks, in these marshes." + +There was an uneasy ring in the convict's laugh, full of bravado as he +meant it to be. Margery continued with an ominously extended forefinger. +"And then they will fly to the great house where the master lies +sleeping, and they will whisper to him that you took away the angel's +gift from poor, lost Margery, and he will be angry, for he is good to +Margery, and to-morrow he will make Woodson do to you what he did to-day +to the Breaking Heart." + +"To the Breaking Heart!" exclaimed her auditors. + +Margery nodded. "Yes, the Breaking Heart. You call him Landless." + +The Muggletonian sat up. "What dost thou mean, wretched woman! fit +descendant of the mother of all evil?" + +Margery, offended by his tone, only pursed up her lips and looked wise. + +"What did the master have done to Landless, Margery?" asked the youth. + +Margery threw her worn figure into a singular posture. Standing +perfectly straight, she raised her arms from her sides and spread them +stiffly out, the hands turned inward in a peculiar fashion. Then, still +with extended arms, she swayed slightly forward until she appeared to +lean against, or to be fastened to, some support. Next she threw her +head back and to one side, so that her face might be seen in three +quarter over her shoulder. Her mobile features wreathed themselves in an +expression of pain and rage. Her brows drew downward, her thin lips +curled themselves away from the gleaming teeth, and, at intervals of +half a minute or more, her eyelids quivered, she shuddered, and her +whole frame appeared to shrink together. + +The pantomime was too expressive to be misunderstood by men each of whom +had probably his own reasons for recognizing some one or all of its +features. The convict broke into a yelling laugh, in which he was +joined, though in a subdued and sinister fashion, by Luiz Sebastian. The +rustics looked at each other with slow grins of comprehension, and the +blue-eyed youth uttered a long shrill whistle. The great letter upon the +cheek of the Muggletonian turned a deeper red, and his eyes burned. The +youth was curious. + +"Tell us all about it, Margery," he said, coaxingly, "and when the +millons are ripe, I'll steal you one every night." + +Margery was nothing loth. She had attained the reputation of an +accomplished _raconteuse_, and she was proud of it. Her crazed +imagination peopled the forest with weird uncanny things, and fearful +tales she told of fays and bugaboos, of spectres and awful voices +speaking from out the dank stillness of twilight hollows. Often she sent +quaking to their pallets men who would have heard the war-whoop with +scarcely quickened pulses. And she could tell of every-day domestic +happenings as well as of the doings of the powers of darkness. + +Her audience listened greedily to the instance of plantation economy +which she proceeded to relate. + +"When was this, woman?" demanded the Muggletonian, when she had +finished. + +Margery pointed to the declining sun and then upwards to a spot a little +past the zenith. + +"Just after the nooning," said the Muggletonian, and began to curse. + +Margery stood up, her staff in her hand, and said airily, "Margery must +be going. The sun is growing large and red, and when he has slipped away +behind the woods, the voices will begin to call to Margery from the +hollow where the brook falls into the black pool. She must be there to +answer them." She moved away with a rapid and gliding step, flitted +across the fallen tree, and was lost to sight in the shadow of the pines +beyond. + +As the last flutter of her light robe vanished, a figure appeared, +walking rapidly along the opposite margin of the creek. The youth's +sight was keen. He sent a piercing glance across the intervening +distance and broke into an astonished laugh. "Lord in Heaven! it's the +man himself!" he cried in an awed tone. "Ecod! he must be made of iron!" + +Landless crossed the bridge and came towards the staring group. His face +was white and set, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes, which +had the wide unseeing stare of a sleep-walker. He walked lightly and +quickly, with a free, lithe swing of his body. The men looked at one +another in rough wonder, knowing what was hidden by the coarse shirt. He +passed them without a word, apparently without knowing that they were +there, and went on towards the hut of the mender of nets. Presently they +saw him enter and shut the door. + +The rustics and the convict, after one long stare of amazement at the +distant hut, began to comment freely and with much recondite blasphemy +upon the transaction recorded by Margery. Luiz Sebastian only smiled +amiably, like a lazy and well-disposed catamount, and the boy whistled +long and thoughtfully. But the countenance of Master Win-Grace Porringer +wore an expression of secret satisfaction. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR + + +As Landless entered the hut Godwyn looked up with a pleased smile from +the net he was mending. The two men had not seen each other since the +night upon which Landless had been brought to the hut by the +Muggletonian. Twice had Landless laid his plans for a second visit, only +to be circumvented each time by the watchfulness of the overseer. + +The smile died from Godwyn's face as he observed his visitor more +closely. + +"What is it?" he asked quickly. + +Landless came up to him and held out his hand. "I am with you, Robert +Godwyn, heart and soul," he said steadily. + +The mender of nets grasped the hand. "I knew you would come," he said, +drawing a long breath. "I have needed you sorely, lad." + +"I could not come before." + +"I know: Porringer told me you were prevented. I--" He still held +Landless' hand in both his own, and as he spoke his slender fingers +encircled the young man's wrist. + +"What is the matter with your pulse?" he demanded. "And your eyes! They +are glazing! Sit down!" + +"It is nothing," said Landless, speaking with effort. + +"I have been a physician, young man," retorted the other. "Sit down, or +you will fall." + +He forced him down upon a settle from which he had himself risen, and +stood looking at him, his hand upon his shoulder. Presently his glance +fell to the shoulder, and he saw upon the white cloth where his hand +pressed it against the flesh, a faint red stain grow and spread. + +The face of the mender of nets grew very dark. "So!" he said beneath his +breath. + +He limped across the hut and drew from some secret receptacle above the +fireplace a flask, from which he poured a crimson liquid into an earthen +cup; then hobbled back to Landless, sitting with closed eyes and head +bowed upon the table. + +"Drink, lad," he said with grave tenderness. "'Tis a cordial of mine own +invention, and in the strength it gave me I fled from Cropredy Bridge +though woefully hacked and spent. Drink!" + +He held the cup to the young man's lips. Landless drained it and felt +the blood gush back to his heart and the ringing in his ears to cease. +Presently he raised his head. "Thank you," he said. "I am a man again." + +"How is it that you are here?" + +Landless smiled grimly. "I imagine it's because Woodson thinks me +effectually laid by the heels. When he goes the rounds at supper time he +will be surprised to find my pallet empty." + +"You must be in quarters before then. You must not get into further +trouble." + +"Very well," was the indifferent reply. + +They were silent for a few moments, and then Landless spoke. + +"I am come to tell you, Master Godwyn, that I will join in any plan, +however desperate, that may bring me release from an intolerable and +degrading slavery. You may use me as you please. I will work for you +with hands and head, ay, and with my heart also, for you have been kind +to me, and I am grateful." + +The mender of nets touched him softly upon the hand. "Lad," he said, "I +once had a son who was my pride and my hope. In his young manhood he +fell at the storming of Tredah. But the other night when I talked with +you, I seemed to see him again, and my heart yearned over him." + +Landless held out his hand. "I have no father," he said simply. + +"Now," at length said Godwyn, "to business! I must not keep you now, but +come to me to-morrow night if you can manage it. You may speak to +Win-Grace Porringer, and he will help you. I will then tell you all my +arrangements, give you figures and names, possess you, in short, with +all that I, and I alone, know of this matter. And my heart is glad +within me, for though my broken body is tied to my bench here, I shall +now have a lieutenant indeed. I have conceived; you shall execute. The +son of Warham Landless, if he have a tithe of his father's powers, will +do much, very much. For more than a year I have longed for such an one." + +"Tell me but one thing," said Landless, "and I am content. You have so +planned this business that there shall be no wanton bloodshed? You +intend no harm, for instance, to the family yonder?" with a motion of +his head towards the great house. + +"God forbid!" said the other quickly. "I tell you that not one woman or +innocent soul shall suffer. Nor do I wish harm to the master of this +plantation, who is, after the lights of a Malignant, a true and kindly +man, and a gentleman. This is what will happen. Upon an appointed day +the servants, Oliverian, indented and convict, upon all the plantations +seated upon the bay, the creeks, the three rivers, and over in Accomac, +will rise. They will overpower their overseers and those of their +fellows who may remain faithful to the masters, will call upon the +slaves to follow them, and will march (the force of each plantation +under a captain or captains appointed by me), to an appointed place in +this county. All going well, there should be mustered at that place +within the space of a day and a night a force of some two thousand +men--such an army as this colony hath never seen, an army composed in +large measure of honest folk, and officered by four hundred men who, +bold and experienced, and strong in righteous wrath, should in +themselves be sufficient to utterly deject the adversary. We will make +of that force, motley as it is, a second New Model, as well disciplined +and as irresistible as the first; and who should be its general but the +son of that Warham Landless whom Cromwell loved, and whose old regiment +is well represented here? Then will we fight in honest daylight with +those who come against us--and conquer. And we will not stain our +victory. Your nightmare vision of midnight butchery is naught. There +will be no such thing." + +Through the quiet of the evening came to them the clear, sweet, and +distant winding of a horn. + +"'Tis the call to quarters," said Godwyn. "You must go, lad." + +Landless rose. "I will come to-morrow night if I can. Till then, +farewell,--father." He ended with a smile on his dark, stern face that +turned it into a boy's again. + +"May the Lord bless thee, my son," said the other in his gravely tender +voice. "May he cause His face to shine upon thee, and bring thee out of +all thy troubles." + +As Landless turned to leave the hut the mender of nets had a sudden +thought. "Come hither," he said, "and let me show you my treasure house. +Should aught happen to me, it were well that you should know of it." + +He took up the precious flask from the table, and followed by Landless, +limped across the hut to the fireplace. The logs above it appeared as +solid, gnarled and stained by time as any of the others constituting the +walls of the hut, but upon the pressure of Godwyn's finger upon some +secret spring, a section of the wood fell outwards like the lid of a +box, disclosing a hollow within. + +From this hollow came the dull gleam of gold, and by the side of the +little heap of coin lay several folded papers and a pair of handsomely +mounted pistols. + +Godwyn touched the papers. "The names or the signs of the Oliverians are +here," he said, "together with those of the leaders of the indented +servants concerned with us. It is our solemn League and Covenant--and +our death warrant if discovered. The gold I had with me, hidden upon my +person, when I was brought to Virginia. The pistols were the gift of a +friend. Both may be useful some day." + +"Hide them! Quick!" said Landless in a low voice, and wheeled to face a +man who stood in the doorway, blinking into the semi-darkness of the +room. + +The lid of the hollow swung to with a click, the log assumed its wonted +appearance, and the mender of nets, too, turned upon the intruder. + +It was the convict Roach who had pushed the door open and now stood with +his swollen body and bestial face darkening the glory of the sunset +without. There was no added expression of greed or of awakened curiosity +upon his sullenly ferocious countenance. He might have seen or he might +not. They could not tell. + +"What do you want?" asked Landless sternly. + +"Thought as you might not have heard the horn, comrade, and so might get +into more trouble. So I thought I'd come over and warn you." All this in +a low, hoarse and dogged voice. + +"Don't call me comrade. Yes: I heard the horn. You had best hasten or +you may get into trouble yourself." + +The man received this intimation with a malevolent grin. "Talking big +eases the smart, don't it?" and he broke into his yelling laugh. + +"Get out of this," said Landless, a dangerous light in his eyes. + +The man stopped laughing and began to curse. But he went his way, and +Landless, too, after waiting to give him a start, left the hut and +turned his steps towards the quarters. + +Upon the other side of the creek, sitting beneath a big sweet gum, and +whittling away at a piece of stick weed, he found the boy who, the day +before, had accused him of feeling as fine as the Lord Mayor of London. +He sprang to his feet as Landless approached, and cheerfully remarking +that their paths were the same, strode on side by side with him. + +"I say," he said presently with ingenuous frankness, "I asks your pardon +for what I said to you yesterday. I dessay you make a very good +Sec'tary, and Losh! the Lord Mayor himself mightn't have dared to strike +that d--d fine Court spark. They say he has fought twenty duels." + +"You have my full forgiveness," said Landless, smiling. + +"That's right!" cried the other, relieved. "I hates for a man to bear +malice." + +"I have seen you before yesterday. I forget how they call you." + +"Dick Whittington." + +"Dick Whittington!" + +"Ay. Leastways the parish over yonder," a jerk of his thumb towards +England, "called me Dick, and I names myself Whittington. And why? +Because like that other Dick I runs away to make my fortune. Because +like him I've little besides empty pockets and a hopeful heart. And +because I means to go back some fine day, jingling money, and wearing +gold lace, and become the mayor of Banbury. Or maybe I'll stop in +Virginia, and become a trader and Burgess. I could send for Joyce +Whitbread, and marry her here as well as in Banbury." + +Landless laughed. "So you ran away?" + +"Yes; some four years ago, just after I came to man's estate." (He was +about nineteen.) "Stowed myself away on board the Mary Hart at Plymouth. +Made the Virginny voyage for my health, and on landing was sold by the +captain for my passage money. Time's out in three years, but I may begin +to make my fortune before then, for--" He stopped speaking to give +Landless a sidelong glance from out his blue eyes, and then went on. + +"A voice speaks through the land, from the Potomac to the James, and +from the falls of the Far West to the great bay. What says the voice?" + +Landless answered, "The voice saith, 'Comfort ye, my people, for the +hour of deliverance is at hand.'" + +"It's all right!" cried the boy gleefully. "I thought you was one of us. +We are all in the fun together!" + +"We are in for a desperate enterprise that may hang every man of us," +said Landless sternly. "I do not see the 'fun,' and I think you talk +something loudly for a conspirator." + +The boy was nothing abashed. "There's none to hear us," he said. "I can +be as mum as t' other Dick's cat when there are ears around. As for fun, +Losh! what better fun than fighting!" + +"You seem to have a pretty good time as it is." + +"Lord, yes! Life's jolly enough, but you see there's mighty little +variety in it." + +"I have found variety enough," said Landless. + +"Oh, you've been here only a few weeks. Wait until you've spent years, +and have gone through your experience of to-day half a dozen times, and +you will find it tame enough." + +"I shall not wait to see." + +"Then a man gets tired of working for another man, and hankers for the +time when he can set up for himself, especially if there's a pretty girl +waiting for him." A tremendous sigh. "And then there's the fun of the +rising. Losh! a man must break loose now and then!" + +"For all of which good reasons you have become a conspirator?" + +"Ay, it doesn't pay to run away. You are hunted to death in the first +place, and well nigh whipped to death if you are caught, as you always +are. And then they double your time. This promises better." + +"If it succeeds." + +"Oh, it will succeed! Why shouldn't it with old Godwyn, who is more +cunning than a red fox or a Nansemond medicine-man, at its head? +Besides, if it fails, hanging is the worst that can happen, and we will +have had the fun of the rising." + +"You are a philosopher." + +"What's that?" + +"A wise man. Tell me: If this plot remains undiscovered, and the rising +actually takes place, there will be upon each plantation before we can +get away an interval of confusion and perhaps violence. 'Tis then that +the greatest danger will threaten the planters and their families. You +yourself have no ill feeling towards your master or his family? You +would do them no unprovoked mischief?" + +The boy opened his big blue eyes, and shook his head in a vehement +negative. + +"Lord bless your soul, no!" he cried. "I wouldn't hurt a hair of +Mistress Patricia's pretty head, nor of Mistress Lettice's wig, neither. +As for the master, if he lets us go peaceably, we'll go with three +cheers for him! Bless you! they're safe enough!" + +The sanguine youth next announced that he smelt bacon frying, and that +his stomach cried "Trencher!" and started off in a lope for the +quarters, now only a few yards distant. Landless followed more sedately, +and reached his cabin without being observed by the overseer. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A DARK DEED + + +Three weeks passed, weeks in which Landless saw the mender of nets some +eight times in all, making each visit at night, stealthily and under +constant danger of detection. Thrice he had assisted at conferences of +the Oliverians from the neighboring plantations, who now, by virtue of +his descent, his intimacy with Godwyn, and his very apparent powers, +accepted him as a leader. Upon the first of these occasions he had set +his case before them in a few plain, straightforward words, and they +believed him as Godwyn had done, and he became in their eyes, not a +convict, but, as he in truth was, an Oliverian like themselves, and a +sufferer for the same cause. The remaining interviews had been between +him and Godwyn alone. In the lonely hut on the marsh, beneath starlight +or moonlight, the two had held much converse, and had grown to love each +other. The mender of nets, though possessed of a calm and high serenity +of nature that defied trials beneath which a weaker soul had sunk, was a +man of many sorrows; he had the wisdom, too, of years and experience, +and he sympathized with, soothed, and counseled his younger yoke-fellow +with a parental tenderness that was very grateful to the other's more +ardent, undisciplined, and deeply wounded spirit. + +Upon the night of their eighth meeting they held a long and serious +consultation. Affairs were in such train that little remained to be +done, but to set the day for the rising, and to send notice by many +devious and underground ways to the Oliverian captains scattered +throughout the Colony. Landless counseled immediate action, the firing +of the fuse at once by starting the secret intelligence which would +spread like wildfire from plantation to plantation. Then would the mine +be sprung within the week. There was nothing so dangerous as delay, when +any hour, any moment might bring discovery and ruin. + +Godwyn was of a different opinion. It was then August, the busiest and +most unhealthy season of the year, when the servants and slaves, +weakened by unremitting toil, were succumbing by scores to the fever. It +was the time when the masters looked for disaffection, when the +overseers were most alert, when a general watchfulness pervaded the +Colony. The planters stayed at home and attended to their business, the +trainbands were vigilant, the servant and slave laws were construed with +a harshness unknown at other seasons of the year. There were few ships +in harbor compared with the number which would assemble for their fall +lading a month later, and Godwyn counted largely upon the seizure of the +ships. In a month's time the tobacco would be largely in,--a weighty +consideration, for tobacco was money, and the infant republic must have +funds. The ships would be in harbor, and their sailors ready for +anything that would rid them of their captains; the heat and sickness of +the summer would be abated; the work slackened, and discipline relaxed. +The danger of discovery was no greater now than it had been all along, +and the good to be won by biding their time might be inestimable. The +danger was there, but they would face it, and wait,--say until the +second week in September. + +Landless acquiesced, scarcely convinced, but willing to believe that the +other knew whereof he spoke, and conscious, too, that his own impatience +of the yoke which galled his spirit almost past endurance might incline +him to a reckless and disastrous haste. + +It was past midnight when he rose to leave the hut on the marsh. Godwyn +took up his stick. "I will walk with you to the banks of the creek," he +said. "'Tis a feverish night, and I have an aching head. The air will do +me good, and I will then sleep." + +The young man gave him his arm with a quiet, protecting tenderness that +was very dear to the mender of nets, and leaning upon it, he limped +through the fifty feet of long grass to the border of the creek. + +"Shall I not wait to help you back?" asked Landless. + +"No," said the other, with his peculiarly sweet and touching smile. "I +will sit here awhile beneath the stars and say my hymn of praise to the +Creator of Night. You need not fear for me; my trusty stick will carry +me safely back. Go, lad, thou lookest weary enough thyself, and should +be sleeping after thy long day of toil." + +"I am loth to leave you to-night," said Landless. + +Godwyn smiled. "And I am always loth to see you go, but it were selfish +to keep you listening to a garrulous, wakeful old man, when your young +frame is in sore need of rest. Good-night, dear lad." + +Landless gave him his hands. "Good-night," he said. + +He stood below the other at the foot of the low bank to which was +moored his stolen boat. Godwyn stooped and kissed him upon the forehead. +"My heart is tender to-night, lad," he said. "I see in thee my Robert. +Last night I dreamed of him and of his mother, my dearly loved and +long-lost Eunice, and ah! I sorrowed to awake!" + +Landless pressed his hand in silence, and in a moment the water widened +between them as Landless bent to his oars and the crazy little bark shot +out into the middle of the stream. At the entrance of the first +labyrinthine winding he turned and looked back to see Godwyn standing +upon the bank, the moonlight silvering his thin hair and high serene +brow. In the mystic white light, against the expanse of solemn heaven, +he looked a vision, a seer or prophet risen from beneath the sighing +grass. He waved his hand to Landless, saying in his quiet voice, "Until +to-morrow!" The boat made the turn, and the lonely figure and the hut +beyond it vanished, leaving only the moonlight, the wash and lap of +water, and the desolate sighing of the marsh grass. + +There were many little channels and threadlike streams debouching from +the main creek, and separated from it by clumps and lines of partially +submerged grass, growing in places to the height of reeds. While passing +one of these clumps it occurred to Landless that the grass quivered and +rustled in an unusual fashion. He rested upon his oars and gazed at it +curiously, then stood up, and parting the reeds, looked through into the +tiny channel upon the other side. There was nothing to be seen, and the +rustling had ceased. "A heron has its nest there, or a turtle plunged, +shaking the reeds," said Landless to himself, and went his way. + +Some three hours later he was roused from the heavy sleep of utter +fatigue by the voice of the overseer. Bewildered, he raised himself upon +his elbow to stare at Woodson's grim face, framed in the doorway and lit +by the torch held by Win-Grace Porringer, who stood behind him. "You +there, you Landless!" cried the overseer, impatiently. "You sleep like +the dead. Tumble out! You and Porringer are to go to Godwyn's after that +new sail for the Nancy. Sir Charles Carew has taken it into his head to +run over to Accomac, and he's got to have a spick and span white rag to +sail under. Hurry up, now! He wants to start by sun up, and I clean +forgot to send for it last night. You're to be back within the hour, +d' ye hear? Take the four-oared shallop. There's the key," and the +overseer strode away, muttering something about patched sails being good +enough for Accomac folk. + +Landless and the Muggletonian stumbled through the darkness to the wharf +behind the quarters, where they loosed the shallop, and in it shot +across the inlet towards the mouth of the creek. + +"I will row," said the Muggletonian with grim kindness; "you look worn +out. I suppose you were out last night?" + +Landless nodded, and the other bent to the oars with a will that sent +them rapidly across the sheet of water. A cold and uncertain light began +to stream from the ashen east, and the air was dank and heavy with the +thick mist that wrapped earth and water like a shroud. It swallowed up +the land behind them, and through it the nearer marshes gloomed +indistinctly, dark patches upon the gray surface of the water. The +narrow creek was hard to find amidst the universal dimness. The +Muggletonian rowed slowly, peering about him with small, keen eyes. At +length with a grunt of satisfaction he pointed to a pale streak dividing +two masses of gray, and had turned the boat's head towards it, when +through the stillness they caught the sound of oars. The next moment a +boat glided from the creek and began to skirt the shores of the inlet, +hugging the banks and moving slowly and stealthily. It was still so dark +that they could tell nothing more than that it held one man. + +"Now, who is that?" said the Muggletonian. "And what has he been doing +up that creek?" + +"Hail him," Landless replied. + +Porringer sent a low halloo across the water, but if the man heard he +made no sign. The boat, one of the crazy dugouts of which every +plantation had store, held on its stealthy way, but being over close to +the bank presently ran upon a sand bar. Its occupant was forced to rise +to his feet in order to shove it off. He stood upright but a moment, but +in that moment, and despite the partial darkness, Landless recognized +the misshapen figure. + +"It is the convict, Roach!" he exclaimed. + +"Ay," said the Muggletonian, "and an ill-omened night bird he is! May he +be cursed from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head! May there +be no soundness in him! May--What are you about, friend?" he cried, +interrupting himself. "There's no need of two pair of oars. We have +plenty of time." + +Landless bent to the second pair of oars. "He came down the creek," he +said in a voice that sounded strained and unnatural. + +The other stared at him. "What do you mean?" he demanded. + +"Nothing: but let us hasten." + +Porringer stared, but fell in with the humor of his companion, and the +shallop, impelled by strong arms, shot into the creek and along its mazy +windings with the swiftness of a bird. + +Landless rowed with compressed lips and stony face, a great fear tugging +at his heart. Porringer too was silent. The vapor hung so heavily upon +the plains of marsh level with their heads that they seemed to be +piercing a dense, low cloud. The light was growing stronger, but the +earth still lay like a corpse, livid, dumb, cold and still. There was a +chill stagnant smell in the air. + +Arriving at the stake in the bank below the hut, they fastened the boat +to it, and stepping out, moved through the dense mist to where the hut +loomed indistinctly before them, looking in the blank and awful +stillness like a forlorn wreck drifting upon an infinite sea of +soundless foam. + +"The door is open," said Landless. + +"Ay, I see," answered Porringer. "Does he wish to die before his time of +the fever, that he lets this graveyard mist and stench creep in upon him +in his sleep?" + +They spoke in low tones as though they feared to waken the sleeper whom +they had come to waken. When they reached the hut, they knocked upon the +lintel of the door and called Godwyn by name, once, twice, thrice. There +was no answer. + +"Come on!" said Landless hoarsely, and entered the hut, followed by the +other. The cold twilight, filtering through the low and narrow doorway, +was powerless to dispel the darkness within. Landless groped his way to +the pallet and stooped down. + +"He is not here," he said. + +The Muggletonian stumbled over a sheaf of oars, sending them to the +floor with a noise that in the utter stillness, and to their strained +ears, sounded appalling. + +"It's the darkness of Tophet," muttered Porringer. "If I could find his +flint and steel; there are pine knots, I know, in the corner--God in +Heaven!" + +"What is it? What is the matter?" cried Landless, as he staggered +against him. + +"It's his face!" gasped the other. "There upon the table! I put my hand +upon it. It's cold!" + +Landless rushed to the fireplace where he knew the tinder-box to be +kept, and then groped for and found the heap of pine knots. A moment +more and the fat wood was burning brightly, casting its red light +throughout the hut, and choking back the pale daylight. + +The familiar room with its familiar furnishing of chest and settle and +pallet, of hanging nets and piles of dingy sail, sprung into sight, but +with it sprung into sight something unfamiliar, strange, and dreadful. + +It was the body of the mender of nets, flung face upwards across the +rude table, the head hanging over the edge, and the face, which but a +few short hours before had looked upon Landless with such a bright and +patient serenity, blackened and distorted. Upon the throat were dark +marks, the print of ten murderous fingers. + +With a bitter cry Landless fell upon his knees beside the table, and +pressed his face against the cold hand flung backwards over the head of +the murdered man. Porringer began to curse. With white lips and burning +eyes he hurled anathemas at the murderer. He cursed him by the powers +of light and darkness, by the earth, the sea, and the air; by all the +plagues of the two Testaments. Landless broke the torrent of his +maledictions. + +"Silence!" he said sternly. "_He_ would have forgiven." Presently he +rose from the ground, and taking the body in his arms, placed it upon +the pallet, and reverently composed the limbs. Then he turned to the +fireplace. It was easy to see that the hiding place had been visited. +The spring was broken, and the lid had been struck and jammed into place +by a powerful and hasty hand. Landless wrenched it off. Before him lay +the pistols; but the gold and papers were gone. He turned to the +Muggletonian, standing beside him with staring eyes. + +"Listen!" he said. "There was gold here. The wretch whom we passed but +now knew of it--never mind how--and for it he has murdered the only +friend I had on earth. There will come a day when I will avenge him. +There were papers here, lists with the signatures of Oliverians, +Redemptioners, sailors,--of all classes concerned in this undertaking, +save only the slaves and the convicts. There were letters from Maryland +and New England, and a correspondence which would provide whipping-post +and pillory for other Nonconformists than the Quakers. All these, the actual +proofs of this conspiracy, are in his--that murderer's--hands,--where they +must not stay." + +"What wilt thou do, friend?" said the Muggletonian eagerly. "Wilt thou +take the murderer aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smite +him under the fifth rib, as did Joab to Abner the son of Ner, who slew +his brother Asahel?" + +"God forbid," said Landless. "But I will take them from him before he +knows their contents. One moment, and we will go." + +He crossed to the pallet and stood beside it, looking down on the shell +that lay upon it with a stern and quiet grief. One of the cold white +hands was clenched upon something. He stooped, and with difficulty +unclasped the rigid fingers. The something was a ragged lock of coarse +red hair. + +"You see," he said. + +"Ay," said the Muggletonian grimly. "It's evidence enough. There's but +one man in this county with hair like that. Leave that lock where it is, +and that dead man holds the rope that will hang his murderer." + +"It shall be left where it is," said Landless, and reclosed the fingers +upon it. + +He took a piece of sail-cloth from the floor, and with it covered the +dead man from sight. Next he turned to the hollow above the fireplace, +and took from it the pistols, concealing them in his bosom. "I may need +them," he said. "Come." + +They left the hut and its dead guardian, and rowed back through the +summer dawn. The sky was barred with crimson and gold, the fiery rim of +the sun just lifting above the eastern waters, the mist, a bridal veil +of silver and pearl drawn across the face of a virgin earth. + +They rowed in silence until they neared the wharf, when Porringer said, +"You are leader now." + +The other raised his haggard eyes. "It is a trust. I will go through +with it, God helping me. But I would I were lying dead beside him in +yonder hut." + +They left the boat at the wharf, and went towards the quarters. Meeting +one of the blowzed and slatternly female servants, Landless asked where +they might find the overseer. He had gone to the three-mile field half +an hour ago, after bestowing upon the two dilatory servants a hearty +cursing, and promising to reckon with them at dinner-time. "Where was +the master?" He had gone to the mouth of the inlet with Sir Charles +Carew, who had grown impatient, and had sailed away under the Nancy's +patched sail. The under overseer was in the far corn-field, two miles +off. + +"Are all the men in the fields, Barb?" asked Landless. + +Barb informed him that they were, "as he might very well know, seeing +that the sun was half an hour high." + +"Have you seen the man called Roach?" + +No: Barb had not seen him; but she had heard the overseer tell Luiz +Sebastian to take two men and go to the strip of Orenoko between the +inlet and the third tobacco house, and Luiz Sebastian had been calling +for Roach and Trail. + +Landless thanked her, and moved away without offering to bestow upon her +that which Barb probably thought her information merited. + +"Do you find Woodson," he said to the Muggletonian, "and report this +murder, saying nothing, however, of what we know. I myself will go to +the tobacco house." + +"Had I not best come with thee to hold up thy hands?" said Porringer. "I +would take up my text from the thirty-fifth of Numbers, and from +Revelation, twenty-second, thirteen, and deal mightily with the +murderer." + +"No," answered Landless. "Woodson must be seen at once, or we ourselves +will fall under suspicion. And, friend, ask that thou and I may be the +ones to bury _him_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE + + +The third tobacco house was built upon a point of land jutting into the +larger inlet, and screened off from the wide expanse of fields by a belt +of cedars. It was a lonely, retired spot, and the high, dark, windowless +structure with its heavy, low-browed door had a menacing aspect. +Landless expected to find the men within the building, instead of +outside attending to their work, and he was not disappointed. As he +walked through the doorway into the pungent gloom, the three started up +from the debris of casks, sticks, and pegs, amidst which they had been +squatting, with their heads ominously close together. + +Landless strode up to Roach. "You murderer!" he said. + +The convict recoiled; then with a bestial sound, half snarl, half bellow +of rage, he gathered himself for a rush. Landless awaited him with bent +body and sinewy, outstretched arms; but the mulatto interposed. Laying +his long, beautifully shaped, yellow hands upon Roach, he forced him +back against a cask, and, pinning him there, whispered in his ear. The +face of the wretch gradually resumed its usual expression of low +brutality, though an ugly sweat broke out upon it, and the mouth opened +and shut as though he had been running. He turned upon Landless with a +half threatening, half cringing air. + +"So you've found out what I was about last night, eh, pardner? But +you'll keep a still tongue. You're not one to peach on your comrade as +was in hell or Newgate with you, and as crossed the ocean with you to +this d--d Virginia, and as has always liked you, and has the same spite +as you have against the man what bought us. You say naught, comrade, and +you'll not stand to lose by it." + +"I go from here to give you up to Colonel Verney," said Landless. + +The wretch gave a snarl of rage and fear. Luiz Sebastian laid a soothing +hand upon his shoulder. + +"If I thought that," snarled the convict, "you'd never live to reach +that door." + +"I shall live to see you hanged," said the other coolly. + +Here the mulatto slipped something into Roach's hand. "So you'll give me +up?" said the latter in a peculiar voice. + +"I have said so." + +"Then, by the Lord! I'll be even with you!" Roach cried with savage +triumph. "Do you see this, and this, and this?" fluttering a mass of +folded papers before the other's eyes. "Ah! I was wise, I was, when I +couldn't hide everything about me, to take the papers, and leave the +weapons. I've got you now. Here's the lists that the old fool who is +dead and gone to hell had hidden behind the gold! Here's enough to hang +you and your d--d Cromwellians higher than Haman. There will be more +than one giving up, I'm thinking! I've got you under my thumb, and I'll +squeeze you!" + +"You cannot read; you do not know what those papers contain," said +Landless steadily. + +"But I can," put in Trail smoothly. "I was but just running them over to +our friend whose education has been so sadly neglected, when you came +in." + +Landless drew a pistol from his bosom, cocked it, and leveled it at the +murderer. "You see," he said with an ominously quiet eye and voice, "you +were not altogether wise to leave the weapons. Now, give me those +lists." + +"Damnation!" cried the convict, and Luiz Sebastian glided towards the +door. + +Landless, quick of eye and active of body, saw the movement, and sprang +backwards to the opening before the other could reach it. He covered the +three with his pistol. + +"I will shoot the first of you that stirs," he said sternly. "You, +Roach, lay those papers upon that bit of board, and push them towards me +with your foot." + +"I'll go to hell first," was the sullen reply. + +"As you please. I will give you until I count twenty. If those papers +are not in my hands, then I will shoot you like the dog you are." + +The murderer uttered a dreadful curse. Landless began to count. Roach +made an irresolute motion of the hand that held the lists. Landless +counted on, "fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen--" With another oath +and a grin of rage Roach dropped the papers upon the board at his feet. +"Now push it towards me," said Landless. + +With a brow like midnight the other did as he was bid. Still covering +his men, Landless stooped quickly, and took up the precious papers, +assured himself that they were all there, and placed them in his bosom. + +"Now," he said, leaning his back against the doorpost, and regarding +the three baffled rogues with a grim eye, "I have a few words to say to +you. I speak first to you, Trail, and to you, Luiz Sebastian. These +papers have told you little that you did not know before. It was not the +information that you gained from them that made them so valuable; it was +the possession of them, the possession of actual proofs of this +conspiracy which you might hold over our heads, or, if the notion took +you, might sell to Colonel Verney?" + +"Señor Landless sees the thing as it is," said Luiz Sebastian. + +"Well, you no longer possess these proofs, and are therefore just where +you were yesterday." + +"Listen, Señor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian gloomily. "This plot does +not please us. It is too much in the hands of those who call themselves +soldiers and martyrs, whom our master calls fanatic Oliverians, and whom +I, Luiz Sebastian, call accursed heretics. The servants have no say in +the matter; they are to follow like sheep where these others lead. The +slaves are not even to know of it until the last moment. A handful of us +who have white blood in our veins are let into the secret, that we may +incite the blacks when the time is come; but are we consulted? Are our +opinions asked, our wishes deferred to? I, Luiz Sebastian, who have been +through three insurrections in the Indies, and who know how such things +should be managed; has my advice been craved as to this or that? You +make us promises. Mother of God! how do we know that those promises will +be kept? By St. Jago! the insurrection may arrive, and the planters be +put down, and next year may find us slaves still, with but a change of +masters!" + +"It is too late now for such questions," said Landless steadily. "You +must accept the conspiracy as it is. In liberating themselves, these men +will of necessity free you even as they will free me, who am not, as you +know, of their class. I shall take my chance, as I think you will take +yours." + +The mulatto played with a tobacco peg, striking it against his great, +white teeth. At length he said slowly and with a sinister upward glance +at the figure by the door, "Certainly, Señor Landless, it seems our +best, our only chance, for freedom." + +And with this Landless had perforce to be content. He turned to the +murderer, saying sternly, "Now for my word with you. I hold your life in +my hands, for I heard you last night in the marsh, and Porringer and I +saw you stealing from the creek this morning, and I can swear that you +knew of the gold hidden in the hut. You have it on you at this moment. I +could hold you here with this pistol until the overseer should come and +search you. But I let you go, choosing rather your safety than the +endangerment of that which was dearer than life to the man you murdered. +The unsupported assertion of a murderer as to the contents of papers +which he had not got to show, might not go for much, but I prefer that +you should not make it. I have warned you;--you had best make your +escape at once." + +"If you hold your tongue, there's no reason why I should run." + +"Oh, yes, there is! There is a reason in the hut on the marsh." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that clasped in the hand of the man you murdered is the missing +half of that torn lock upon your forehead." + +With a yell Roach sprang to the door only to be confronted by the muzzle +of Landless' pistol. + +"Wait a moment," he said composedly. "Oh, you need not be afraid! I +intend to let you go. But you don't leave this tobacco house until after +I have left it myself." + +"Curse you!" cried the other, foaming at the lips. + +"You are ungrateful. I not only promise not to witness against you, but +I aid you to escape." + +"For reasons of your own," suggested Trail. + +"Precisely; for reasons of my own. If you are taken, I will hold my +tongue just so long as you hold yours. If you escape now, I will pray +that my day of reckoning will yet come. And it will be a heavy +reckoning." + +"Ay, that it will!" cried the murderer with brutal fury. "You've got the +upper hand now; but wait! Every dog has his day, and I'll have mine! and +when it comes, I'll do for you! I'll smash your beauty! I'll draw more +blood from you than ever the whip of the overseer did! I'll use you +worse than I used that old man last night, who writhed and struggled, +and tried to pray! I'll--" + +With white lips and blazing eyes Landless sprang forward, and clapped +the mouth of the pistol to the ruffian's temple. Roach recoiled, then +sunk upon his knees with an abject whine for mercy. + +Landless let his hand drop, and moved slowly back to the door. "You had +need to cry for mercy," he said in a low, distinct voice, "for you were +never so near to death before. I let you go now, but one day I shall +kill you. Until which day--take care of yourself!" Still with his face +upon them he passed out of the door, then turned and walked away with a +steady step, but with a heart bleeding for the loss of his friend, and +heavy with forebodings for the future. + +In the tobacco house the murderer, the forger, and the mulatto sat +stricken into silence until the last crisp footfall had died away. Then +amidst a torrent of curses Roach made for the door. Trail plucked him +back. "Where are you going?" he cried. + +"I don't know! To the devil!" + +"The bloodhounds will be upon your trail before noon." + +The wretch cried out and struck his hand against the wall with a force +that laid the knuckles bare and bleeding. + +"There is a way," said Luiz Sebastian slowly, "a way that only I know. +You must take to the inlet here, and swim up it until you come to the +mouth of the brook yonder in the forest. You must wade up that brook +until you come to a second, and up that until you come to a third. When +you have gone a mile up that one, leave it, and strike through the +woods, going towards the north. Another mile will bring you to a village +of the Chickahominies upon the Pamunkey.[1] They are at odds with +Governor and Council, and they will hide you. Moreover, I once did their +sachem a service, and they are my friends." + +"I'm off," said Roach, breaking from the detaining grasp. + +"Wait," said Luiz Sebastian. "There is time enough. Woodson will not +come for a long while. When he does, he shall find Señor Trail and +myself busily at work there outside, and we will say that you left us, +and went down the inlet a long time before. But now we want to talk to +you." + +"Be quick then," growled the other, "I've no mind to swing for this +job." + +Luiz Sebastian brought his handsomely malevolent face close to the +other's hideous countenance. + +"Would you not like to ruin that devil who but now robbed you of your +hard-earned property?" + +"Would I not?" cried the murderer with a tremendous oath. "I'd give +everything but life and gold to do it, as that cunning devil well knew. +I'd give my soul!" + +"Would you like to be shown how to get more gold than old Godwyn's +store, twenty times told? To get your freedom? To have some black, sweet +hours in which to work your will on them at the house yonder? To plunge +your arms to the elbow in the master's money chest; to become drunken +with his wine; to strike him down, and that smiling imp his cousin, and +that other devil, Woodson; to hear the women cry for mercy--and cry in +vain? You would like all this?" + +"Show me the way!" cried the brute with a ferocious light in his +bloodshot eyes. "Show me the way to do it safely, and I'll--" He broke +off and threatened the air with malignant fists. + +"Go to the village on the Pamunkey," said Luiz Sebastian with his most +feline expression. "I will come to you there the first night I can slip +away, I and our friend, the Señor Trail. There we will have our little +conference. Mother of God! Señor Landless may find that others can plot +as well as he and his accursed heretics." + +[Footnote 1: The modern York.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION + + +Four nights later, the hour before midnight found Landless walking +steadily through the forest, bound upon a mission which he had had in +his mind since the night after the murder of Godwyn. This was the first +night since that event upon which he had deemed it advisable to leave +the quarters, having no mind to be captured as a runaway by one of the +many search parties which were scouring the peninsula between the two +great rivers for the murderer of Robert Godwyn. But the search was now +trending northward towards Maryland, to which colony runaways usually +turned their steps, and he felt that he might venture. + +There was little undergrowth in the primeval forest, and the rows of +vast and stately trees were as easy to thread as the pillared aisles of +a cathedral. When he came to one of the innumerable streamlets that +caught the land in a net of silver, he removed his coarse shoes and +stockings, and waded it. The great branches overhead shut in a night +that was breathlessly hot and still. He could see the stars only when he +crossed the streams or emerged into one of the many little open glades. +He walked warily, making no sound, and now and then stopping to listen +for the distant halloo, or bark of a dog, which might denote that he was +followed, or that there was a search party abroad, but he heard nothing +save the usual forest sounds,--the dropping of acorns, the sighing +leaves, the cry of some night bird,--sounds that seemed to make the +night more still than silence. + +He was nearing his destination when from out a shadowy clump of alders, +standing upon the bank of the stream which he had just crossed, there +shot a long arm, and the next moment he was wrestling with a dark and +powerful figure whose naked body slipped from his hold as though it had +been greased. But Landless, too, was strong and determined, and the two +swayed and strained backwards and forwards through the darkness, wary +and resolute, neither giving his antagonist advantage. The hand of the +unknown writhed itself from the other's clasp and stole downwards +towards his waist. Landless felt the motion and intercepted it. Then the +figure, with an angry guttural sound, began to put forth its full +strength. The arms encircled Landless with a slowly tightening iron +band; the great dark shoulder came forward with the force of a +battering-ram; the limbs twined like boa-constrictors around the limbs +of the other. Locked together, the two reeled into a little fairy glade, +where the short grass, pearled with dew, lay open to the moon. Here, +borne backwards by the overwhelming force of his assailant, Landless +fell heavily to the ground. The figure falling with him, pinned him to +the earth with its knee upon his breast. In the moonlight he saw the +gleam of the lifted knife. + +He had had but time for a half-uttered, half-thought prayer when the +pressure upon his breast relaxed; the knife fell, indeed, but harmlessly +upon the grass, and the figure rose to its height with an astonished +"Ugh!" + +Landless, rising also, began to think that he recognized the gigantic +form towering through the pale moonlight. + +"Ugh!" said the figure again. "The great Spirit threw us into the light +in time. Monakatocka had been forever shamed had his knife drunk the +life of his friend." + +"Why did you set upon me?" demanded Landless, still breathless from the +struggle, while the Indian was as calmly composed as upon the day of +their first meeting. + +"Monakatocka took you for the man for whom they hunt with dogs through +the forest, scaring the deer from the licks and the partridge from the +fern. Two nights ago Major Carrington said to Monakatocka, 'Find me that +man and kill him, and to the twenty arms' length of roanoke which the +county will pay to Monakatocka, I will add a gun with store of powder, +and with a bullet for every stag between Werowocomico and Machot.' When +he heard you a long way off, moving over the leaves, trying to make no +sound, Monakatocka thought he held the gun of the paleface Major in his +hand. But now--" he waved his hand with a gesture eloquent of +resignation. + +"I am sorry to disappoint you," said Landless, amused at his air of calm +regret. + +"I am glad to have proved the strength of my brother," was the +sententious reply. "Where goes my brother through the woods, which are +full of danger to him to-night? Or has he a pass?" + +"I have business at Rosemead," answered Landless. "I am close to the +house, I think?" + +The Indian pointed through the trees. "It lies twelve bowshots before +you. The overseer with the dogs has gone to the great swamp to look for +the man with the red hair." + +"Thanks for the information, friend," said Landless. "I ask you, +moreover, to say nothing of this encounter. I have no pass." + +"I have but one friend," answered the Indian. "His secret is my secret." + +"Are you, too, then, so lonely?" asked Landless, touched by his tone. + +"Listen," said the Indian, leaning his back against a great oak. "I will +tell my brother who I am.... Many years ago the Conestogas, they whom +the palefaces call the Susquehannocks, came down the great bay and +fought with the palefaces. Monakatocka was then but a lad on his first +warpath. Agreskoi was angry: he hid his face behind a cloud. With their +guns the palefaces beat the Conestogas like fleeing women back to their +village on the banks of a great river, and themselves returned in +triumph to their board wigwams, bearing with them many captives. +Monakatocka, son to a great chief, was one. The palefaces made him to +work like a squaw in their fields of tobacco and maize. When he ran away +they put forth a long arm and plucked him back and beat him. Agreskoi +was angry, for Monakatocka had not any offering to make him. One by one +his fellow captives have dropped away like the leaves that fall in the +moon of Taquetock, until, behold! he is left alone. The palefaces are +his enemies. He thinks of the village beside the pleasant stream, and he +hates them. A warrior of the long house takes no friend from the wigwam +of an Algonquin. Monakatocka is alone." + +He spoke with a wild pathos, his high, stern features working in the +moonlight, and his bold glance softened into an exquisite melancholy. + +"I too am friendless," said Landless, "and bound to a far more degrading +captivity than that you suffer. Our fate is the same." + +The Indian took his hand in his, and raising it, pressed the forefinger +against a certain spot upon his shoulder. "You have a friend," he said. + +"You make too much of a very slight service," said Landless. "But I +embrace your offer of friendship--there's my hand upon it. And now I +must be going upon my way. Good-night!" + +The Indian gave a guttural "Good-night," and Landless strode on through +the thinning woods. Shortly he emerged from the forest and saw before +him tobacco fields and a house, and beyond the house the vast sheet of +the Chesapeake slumbering beneath the moon. There was a beaten path +leading to the house. Landless struck into it and followed it until it +led him beneath a window which (having been once sent with a message to +the Surveyor-General), he knew to belong to the sleeping-chamber of +Major Carrington. Stopping beneath this window he listened for any sound +that might warn him of aught stirring within or without the +mansion,--all was silent, the house and its inmates locked in slumber. + +He took a handful of pebbles from the path and threw them, one by one, +against the wooden shutter, the thud of the last pebble being answered +by a slight noise from within the room. Presently the shutter was opened +and an authoritative voice demanded:-- + +"Who is it? What do you want?" + +Landless came closer beneath the window. "Major Carrington," he said in +a low voice, "It is I, Godfrey Landless. I must have speech with you." + +There was a moment's silence, and then the other said coldly, "'Must' is +a word that becomes neither your lips nor my ears. I know no reason why +Miles Carrington _must_ speak with the servant of Colonel Verney." + +"As you please: Godfrey Landless craves the honor of a word with Major +Carrington." + +"And what if Major Carrington refuses?" said the other sharply. + +"I do not think he will do so." + +The Surveyor-General hesitated a moment, then said:-- + +"Go to the great door. I will open to you in a moment. But make no +noise." + +Landless nodded, and proceeded to follow his directions. Presently the +door swung noiselessly inward, and Carrington, appearing in the opening, +beckoned Landless within, and led the way, still in profound silence, +across the hall to the great room. Here, after softly closing the door, +he lighted candles, saw to it that the heavy wooden shutters were +securely drawn across the windows, and turned to face his visitor in a +somewhat different guise than the riding suit and jack boots, the mask +and broad flapping beaver, in which he had appeared in their encounter +in the hut on the marsh. His stately figure was now wrapped in a +night-gown of dark velvet, his bare feet were thrust into velvet +slippers, and a silken night-cap, half on and half off, imparted a rakish +air to his gravely handsome countenance. He threw himself into a great +armchair and tapped impatiently upon the table. + +"Well!" he said dryly. + +Landless standing before him began to speak with dignity and to the +point. Godwyn, the head of a great conspiracy, was dead, leaving him, +Landless, in some sort his successor. In a conference of the leading +conspirators held but a few nights before the murder, Godwyn had +announced that not only had he given to the son of Warham Landless his +complete confidence, but that in case aught should happen to himself +before the time for action, he would wish the young man to succeed him +in the leadership of the revolt. There had been some demur, but Godwyn's +influence was boundless, and on his advancing reason after reason for +his preference, the Oliverians had acquiesced in his judgment and had +given their solemn promise to respect his wishes. Three nights later, +Godwyn was murdered. Since that dreadful blow, Landless had seen only +such of the conspirators as were in his immediate neighborhood. +Confounded at the turn affairs had taken, and utterly at a loss, they +had turned eagerly to him as to one having authority. For his own +freedom, for the sake of his promise to the dead man, he would do his +utmost. He had come to-night to discover, if possible, Major +Carrington's intentions-- + +Carrington, who had listened thus far with grave attention, frowned +heavily. + +"If my memory serves me, sirrah, I told you once before that Miles +Carrington stirs not hand or foot in this matter. I may wish you well, +but that is all." + +"'Tis a poor friend that cries 'Godspeed!' to one who struggles in a +bog, and gives not his hand to help him out." + +"Your figure does not hold," said the other, dryly. "I have not cried +'Godspeed!' I have said nothing at all, either good or bad. I have +nothing to do with this conspiracy. You are the only man now living +that knows that I am aware that such a thing exists. And I hope, sir, +that you will remember how you gained that knowledge." + +"I am in no danger of forgetting." + +"Very well. Your journey here to-night was a useless as well as a +dangerous one. I have nothing to say to you." + +"Will you tell me one thing?" said Landless, patiently. "What will Major +Carrington have to say to me upon the day when I speak to him as a free +man with free men behind me?" + +"Upon that day," said the other, composedly, "Miles Carrington will +submit to the inevitable with a good grace, having been, as is well +known, a friend to the Commonwealth, and having always, even when there +was danger in so doing, spoken against the cruel and iniquitous +enslavement of men whose only offense was non-conformity, or the having +served under the banners of Cromwell." + +"If he should be offered Cromwell's position in the new Commonwealth, +what then?" + +"Pshaw! no such offer will be made." + +"We must have weight and respectability, must identify ourselves with +that Virginia in which we are strangers, if we are to endure," said +Landless, with a smile. "A fact that we perfectly recognize--as does +Major Carrington. He probably knows who is of, and yet head and +shoulders above, that party in the state upon whose support we must +ultimately rely, who alone could lead that party; who alone might +reconcile Royalist and Puritan;--and to whom alone the offer I speak of +will be made." + +Carrington smiled despite himself. "Well, then, if the offer is made, I +will accept it. In short, when your man is out of the bog I will lend +my aid to cleanse him of the stains incurred in the transit. But he must +pull himself out of the mire. I am safe upon the bank, I will not be +drawn with him into a bottomless ruin. Do I make myself plain?" + +"Perfectly," said Landless, dryly. + +The other flushed beneath the tone. "You think perhaps that I play but a +craven part in this game. I do not. God knows I run a tremendous risk as +it is, without madly pledging life and honor to this desperate +enterprise!" + +"I fail to see the risk," said Landless, coldly. + +The other struck his hand against the table. "I risk a slave +insurrection!" he said. + +A noise outside the door made them start like guilty things. The door +opened softly and a charming vision appeared, to wit, Mistress Betty +Carrington, rosy from sleep and hastily clad in a dressing-gown of +sombre silk. Her little white feet were bare, and her dark hair had +escaped from its prim, white night coif. She started when she saw a +visitor, and her feet drew demurely back under the hem of her gown, +while her hands went up to her disheveled hair; but a second glance +showing her his quality, she recovered her composure and spoke to her +father in her soft, serious voice. + +"I heard a noise, my father, and looking into your room, found it empty, +so I came down to see what made you wakeful to-night." + +"'Tis but a message from Verney Manor, child," said her father. "Get +back to bed." + +"From Verney Manor!" exclaimed Betty. "Then I can send back to-night the +song book and book of plays lent me by Sir Charles Carew, and which, +after reading the first page, I e'en restored to their wrappings and +laid aside with a good book a-top to put me in better thoughts if ever I +was tempted to touch them again. I will get them, good fellow, and you +shall carry them back to their owner with my thanks, if it so be that I +can find words that are both courteous and truthful." + +"Stop, child!" said her father as she turned to leave the room. "The +volumes, which you were very right not to read, may rest awhile beneath +the good book. This is a secret mission upon which this young man has +come. It is about a--a matter of state upon which his master and I have +been engaged. No one here or at Verney Manor must know that he has been +at Rosemead." + +"Very well, my father," said Betty, meekly, "the books can wait some +other opportunity." + +"And," with some sternness, "you will be careful to hold your tongue as +to this man's presence here to-night." + +"Very well, father." + +"You are not to speak of it to Mistress Patricia or to any one." + +"I will be silent, my father." + +"Very well," said the Major. "You are not like the majority of women. I +know that your word is as good as an oath. Now run away to bed, +sweetheart, and forget that you have seen this messenger." + +"I am going now, father," said Betty, obediently. "Is Mistress Patricia +well, good fellow?" + +"Quite well, I believe, madam." + +"She spake of crossing to Accomac with Mistress Lettice and Sir Charles +Carew, when the latter should go to visit Colonel Scarborough. Know you +if she went?" + +"I think not, madam. I think that Sir Charles Carew went alone." + +"Ah! They have fallen out then," said Betty, half to herself, and with a +demure satisfaction in her wild flower face. "I am glad of it, for I +like him not. Thanks, good fellow, for your answering my idle +questions." + +Landless bowed gravely. Betty bent her pretty head, and with a hasty, "I +am going, father!" in answer to an impatient movement on the part of the +Major, vanished from the room. + +Carrington waited until the last light footfall had died away, and then +said, "Our interview is over. Are you satisfied?" + +"At least, I understand your position." + +"Yes," said Carrington, thoughtfully, "it is as well that you should +understand it. It is simple. I wish you well. I am in heart a +Commonwealth's man. I love not the Stuarts. I would fain see this fair +land freed from their rule and returned to the good days of the +Commonwealth. And I may as well acknowledge, since you have found it out +for yourself,"--a haughty smile,--"that I have my ambitions. What man +has not?" He rose and began to pace the room, his hands clasped behind +him, his handsome head bent, his rich robe trailing upon the ground +behind him. + +"I could rule this land more acceptably to the people than can William +Berkeley with his parrot phrases, 'divine right,' and 'passive +obedience.' I know the people and am popular with them, with Royalist +and Churchman as well as with Nonconformist and Oliverian. I know the +needs of the colony--home rule, self taxation, free trade, a more +liberal encouragement to emigrants, religious tolerance, a rod of iron +for the Indians, the establishment of a direct slave trade with Africa +and the Indies. I could so rule this colony that in a twelvemonth's +time, Richard Verney or Stephen Ludlow, hot Royalists though they be, +would be forced to acknowledge that never, since the day Smith sailed up +the James, had Virginia enjoyed a tithe of her present prosperity." + +"'Tis a consummation devoutly to be desired,'" said Landless, dryly. "In +the mean time, like the cat i' the adage--" + +"You are insolent, sirrah!" + +"When a stripling I served under one who took the bitter with the sweet, +the danger as well as the reward, who led the soldiers from whom he took +his throne." + +"Cromwell, sirrah," said Carrington sternly, "led soldiers. You would +require Miles Carrington to lead servants, to place himself, a gentleman +and a master, at the head of a rebellion which, if it failed, would +plunge him into a depth of ignominy and ruin proportionate to the height +from which he fell. He declines the position. When you have won your +freedom he will treat with you. Not before." + +"Then," said Landless slowly, "upon the day on which the flag of the +Commonwealth floats over the Assembly hall at Jamestown, then--" + +"Then I will join myself to you as I have said, and I will bring with me +those without whom your revolution would be but short-lived--the Puritan +and Nonconformist element in the colony, gentle and simple." + +"That is sufficiently explicit," said Landless, "and I thank you." + +"I have trusted you fully, young man," said the other, stopping before +him, "not only because you cannot betray me if you would, seeing that +not one scrap of writing exists to inculpate me in this matter, and that +your word would scarce be taken before mine, but because I believe you +to be trustworthy. I believe also"--graciously--"that Robert Godwyn +(whose death I sincerely mourn) showed his usual wisdom and knowledge of +mankind when he chose you as his confidant and co-worker. I wish you +well through with a dangerous and delicate piece of work and in +enjoyment of your reward, namely, your freedom, and the esteem of the +Commonwealth of Virginia. I will myself see to it that any past offenses +which you are supposed to have committed (for myself, I believe you to +have been harshly used), shall not stand in your light." + +"Major Carrington is very good," said Landless, calmly. "I shall study +to deserve his commendation." + +The other took a restless turn or two through the room, stopping at +length before the younger man. + +"You may tell me one thing," he said in a voice scarcely above a +whisper, and with his eyes bent watchfully upon the other's composed +face. "Had Godwyn set the day?" + +"Yes." + +"And you will adhere to it?" + +"Yes." + +"What day?" + +"The thirteenth of September." + +"Humph! Two weeks off! Well, my tobacco will be largely in, and I shall +send my daughter upon a visit to her Huguenot kindred upon the Potomac. +Good night." + +"Good night," answered Landless. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE + + +Patricia was ennuyée to the last degree. That morning Sir Charles had +ridden to Green Spring with her father; Mistress Lettice was in the +still room decocting a face wash from rose leaves, dew and honey; young +Shaw on his knees in the master's room, disconsolately poring over piles +of musty papers in search of a misplaced deed which the colonel had +ordered him to find against his return. It was a hot and listless +afternoon. Patricia read a page of "The Rival Ladies," tried her spinet, +had a languid romp with her spaniels, and finally sauntered into the +porch, and leaning her white arms upon the railing, looked towards the +dazzling blue waters of the Chesapeake. Presently an idea came to her. +She went swiftly into the hall, and called for Darkeih. When that +handmaiden appeared:-- + +"Darkeih, go down to the quarters, and tell the first man you meet to +find Woodson, and send him to me." + +Darkeih departed, and in half an hour's time the overseer appeared at +the foot of the porch steps, red and heated from his rapid walk from the +Three-Mile field. + +"What's wrong, Mistress Patricia?" he asked quickly. + +Patricia opened her lovely eyes. "Nothing is wrong, Woodson. What +should be? I sent for you, because I want to go to Rosemead." + +"To Rosemead!" exclaimed the overseer. + +"Yes, to Rosemead, and I want a couple of men to take me." + +The overseer gave a short, vexed laugh. "I can't spare the men, Mistress +Patricia. You ought to have known that every man jack on the plantation +is busy cutting. If I had a known this was all that was wanted! Fegs! I +thought something dreadful was the matter." + +"Something dreadful is the matter," said the young lady calmly. "I am +bored to death." + +"Sorry for ye, missy, but I can't spare the men." + +"Oh, yes, you can!" said Patricia with unruffled composure. + +The overseer, knowing his lady, began to weaken. + +"Anyhow, you wouldn't want two men. You might go on a pillion behind old +Abraham. I could spare _him_." + +"I shall not go a-horseback. 'Tis too hot and dusty. I shall go in one +of the sail-boats--the Bluebird, I think." + +"Now, in the name of all that's contrary, what do you want to do that +for, Mistress Patricia?" cried the harassed overseer. "It's twice as far +by water." + +"I'll reach Rosemead before dark. The men can bring the boat back +to-night, and Major Carrington will send me home on a pillion +to-morrow." + +"Have you forgotten that to-morrow is Sunday?" said the overseer +severely, and with a new-born anxiety for the proper observance of the +holy day. "Will you have the Colonel pay a fine for you?" + +"I will go to service with the Carringtons then, and come home on +Monday," said the lady serenely. + +"There's a squall coming up this afternoon." + +"There isn't a cloud in the sky," said his mistress with calm +conviction, looking straight before her at a low, tumbled line of creamy +peaks along the horizon. + +"If the Colonel were here--" + +"He would say, 'Woodson, do exactly as Mistress Patricia tells you.'" +This with great sweetness. + +The overseer gave it up. "I reckon he would, missy," he said with a +grin. "You wind him and all of us around your finger." + +"'Tis all for your good, Woodson," with a soft, bright laugh. Then, +coaxingly, "Am I to have the Bluebird?" + +"I reckon so, Mistress Patricia, seeing that you have set your heart +upon it," said the still reluctant overseer. + +"That's a good Woodson. I want Regulus to be one of the boatmen. You can +send any other you choose. I shall take Darkeih with me." + +"You can't have Regulus, Mistress Patricia," answered the overseer +positively. "He's worth any two men in the field. I can't let him go." + +"Let him be at the wharf in half an hour. I will be ready by then." + +"You can't have him, Missy." + +Patricia stamped her pretty foot. "Am I mistress of this plantation, or +am I not, Woodson?" + +"Lord knows you are!" groaned the overseer. + +"Then when I say I want Regulus, I will have Regulus and no other." + +The overseer sighed resignedly. "Very well, Mistress Patricia, I'll send +for him." + +Patricia danced away, and the overseer strode down the path, viciously +crunching the pebbles and bits of shell beneath his feet. At the wharf +he found a detachment of the infant population of the quarters busily +crabbing; all of whom, save two little Indians who fished stoically on, +scrambled to their feet, and pulled a forelock. The overseer touched one +urchin upon the shoulder with the butt end of his whip. + +"You, Piccaninny, run as fast as your legs will carry you to the field +by the swamp, and tell Regulus to leave his work, and come to the big +wharf. Mistress Patricia wants to go a pleasuring." + +Piccaninny's black shanks and pink heels flew up and out, and he was +away like a flash. The overseer kept on to the end of the wharf, where +were clustered the boats, some tied to the piles, some anchored a little +way out. "Haines was to send a man to caulk a seam in the Nancy," he +muttered. "Whoever he is, he'll have to go in the Bluebird. I'm not +going to take another man from the tobacco. What fools women are! But +they get their way,--the pretty ones at least." He leaned over the +railing, and called,-- + +"You there, in the Nancy!" + +Godfrey Landless looked up from his work. "What is it?" + +The overseer chuckled grimly. "It's that fellow Landless who angered her +once before," he said to himself with a malicious grin. "Well, 't isn't +my business to know which of all the servants on this plantation she +most dislikes to come near her. She'll have to put up with him to-day. +There isn't a better boatman on the place anyhow." + +To Landless he said, "Bring the Bluebird up to the wharf, and see that +she is sweet and clean inside. Mistress Patricia starts for Rosemead in +half an hour, and you and Regulus are to take her. You'll bring the +boat back to-night. Step lively now!" + +Landless brought the Bluebird, a sixteen-foot open boat, up to the +wharf, made the inside, and especially the seat in the stern, spotlessly +clean, put up the sail, and sat down to wait. Presently Regulus appeared +above him, and swung himself down into the boat with a grin of delight, +for he much preferred sailing with "'lil missy" to cutting tobacco. He +had a great burly form and a broad, ebony face, and he was the devoted +slave of Patricia, and of Patricia's maid, Darkeih. Moreover, he enjoyed +the distinction of being the first negro born in the Colony, his parents +having been landed from the Dutch privateer which in 1619 introduced the +slave into Virginia. Viewed through a vista of nigh three hundred years, +he appears a portent, a tremendous omen, a sign from the Eumenides. Upon +that tranquil summer afternoon in the Virginia of long ago he was simply +a good-humored, docile, happy-go-lucky, harmless animal. + +"'Lil Missy's comin'," he remarked, with bonhommie, to his fellow +boatman. + +Darkeih, laden with cushions, appeared at the edge of the wharf. +Landless, standing in the bow below her, relieved her of her burdens, +and taking her by the hands, swung her down into the boat. She thanked +him with a smile that showed every tooth in her comely brown +countenance, and tripped aft, where, with the assistance of Regulus, she +proceeded to arrange a cushioned seat for her mistress. + +Landless waited for the lady of the manor to come forward. In the act of +extending her hands to the boatman, she glanced at him, crimsoned, and +drew back. Landless, interpreting color and action aright, buckled his +armor of studied quiet more closely over a hurt and angry heart. + +"I was ordered to attend you, madam," he said proudly. "But if you so +desire, I will find the overseer and tell him that you wish for some one +else in my place." + +"There is not time," was the cold reply. "And as well you as any other. +Let us be going." + +Landless held out his arms again. She measured with her eyes the +distance between her and the boat. "I do not need any help," she said. +"If you will stand aside, I can spring from here to the prow." + +"And strike the water instead, madam," said Landless, grimly, "when I +would have to touch more than your hand in order to pull you out." + +She colored angrily, but held out her hands. Landless lifted her down +and steadied her to her seat in the stern. She thanked him coldly, and +began at once to talk to Regulus with the playful familiarity of a +child. Regulus grinned delight; he had been "'lil Missy's" slave from +her childhood. Landless untied the boat from the piles and pushed her +off; Regulus, who was to steer, pulled the tiller towards him, and the +little Bluebird glided from the wharf, made a wide and graceful sweep, +and proceeded leisurely down the inlet towards the waters of the great +bay. + +Landless seated himself in the bow, and turned his face away from the +group in the stern. Patricia leaned back amidst her cushions, and opened +a book; Darkeih, upon the other side of the rudder, held a whispered +flirtation with Regulus, squatting at her feet, the tiller in his hand. +There was but little wind, but what there was came from the land, and +the Bluebird moved steadily though listlessly down the inlet, between +the velvet marshes. The water broke against the sides of the boat with a +languid murmur. It was very hot, and the sky above was of a steely, +unclouded blue that hurt the eyes. Only in the southwest the line of +cloud hills was erecting itself into an Alpine range. The glare of the +sun upon the white pages of her book dazzled Patricia's eyes; the heat +and the lazy swaying motion made her drowsy. With a sigh of oppression +she closed her book, and taking her fan from Darkeih, laid it across her +face, and curled herself among her cushions. + +"I will sleep awhile," she said to her handmaiden, and serenely glided +into slumberland. + +She was in a balcony with Sir Charles Carew, looking down upon a +fantastic procession that wound endlessly on, with flaunting banners, +and to the sound of kettle-drums and trumpets, when she was aroused by +Landless' voice. She opened her eyes and looked up from her nest of +cushions to see him standing above her. + +"What is it?" she asked frigidly. + +"I grieve to waken you, madam, but there is a heavy squall coming up." + +She sat up and looked about her. The Bluebird had left the inlet and was +rising and falling with the long oily swell of the vast sheet of water +that stretched before them to a horizon of vivid blue. North and east +the water met the sky; a mile to the westward was the low wooded shore +which they were skirting. + +"The sun is shining," said Patricia, bewildered. "The sky is blue." + +"Look behind you." + +She turned and uttered an exclamation. The Alpine range had vanished, +and a monstrous pall of gray-black cloud was being slowly drawn upward +and across the smiling heaven. Even as she looked, it blotted out the +sun. + +"We had better make for the shore at once," said Landless. "We can reach +it before the storm breaks and can find shelter for you until it is +over." + +Patricia exclaimed: "Why, we cannot be more than three miles from +Rosemead! Surely we can reach it before that cloud overtakes us!" + +"I think not, madam." + +"Regulus!" cried his mistress imperiously. "We can reach Rosemead before +that storm breaks, can we not?" + +Among other amiable qualities, Regulus numbered a happy willingness to +please, even at the expense of truth. + +"Sho-ly, 'lil Missy," he said with emphasis. + +"And it will not be much of a squall, besides, will it, Regulus?" + +"No, 'lil Missy, not much ob squall," answered the obliging Regulus. + +"There is much wind in it," said Landless. "Look at those white clouds +scudding across the black; and these squalls strike with suddenness and +fury. I may put the boat about, madam?" + +"Certainly not. Regulus, who must know the Chesapeake and its squalls +much better than you possibly can, says there is no danger. I have no +mind to be set ashore in these woods with night coming on and Indians or +wolves prowling around." + +"I beg that you will be advised by me, madam." + +She looked at him as she had done that day in the master's room. "Is it +that you are _afraid_ of a Virginia squall? If so, you will have to +conquer your tremor. Regulus, keep the boat as it is." + +Landless went back to his seat in the bow, with tightened lips. The wind +freshened, coming in hot little puffs, and the Bluebird slid more +swiftly over the low hills. The water turned to a livid green and the +air slowly darkened. Across the black pall, looming higher and higher, +shot a jagged streak of fierce gold, followed by a low rumble of +thunder. A mass of gray-white, fantastically piled clouds whirled up +from the eastern horizon to meet the vast blank sullen sheet overhead. +There came a more vivid flash and a louder roll of thunder. + +Landless walked aft and took the tiller from Regulus' hand, motioning +him forward to the place he had himself occupied. The negro stared, but +went with his accustomed docility. Patricia sat upright in indignant +surprise. + +"What are you doing?" + +"I am about to head the boat for the shore," suiting the action to the +word. + +Her eyes blazed. "Did you not hear me say that I wished to proceed to +Rosemead?" + +"Yes, madam, I did." + +"I order you, sir--" + +"And I choose to disobey." + +"I shall report you to Colonel Verney." + +"As you please, madam." + +From the prow, where he had been taking observations, Regulus cried in a +startled voice: "De win 's comin'! De win 's comin' mighty quick!" + +Landless thrust the tiller into Patricia's hands. "Keep it there, just +where it is, for your life!" he cried authoritatively, and bounded +forward to where Regulus was already struggling with the sail. They got +it in and lashed to the mast just in time, for, with the shriek of a +thousand demons, the squall whirled itself upon them. In an instant they +were enveloped in a blinding horror of furious wind and rain, glare of +lightning and incessant, ear-splitting thunder. A leaden darkness, +illuminated only by the lightning, settled around them, and the air grew +suddenly cold. Beneath the whip of the wind the Chesapeake woke from +slumber, stirred, and rose in fury. The Bluebird danced dizzily upon +white crests or swooped into black and yawning chasms. Steadying himself +by the thwarts, Landless went back to Patricia, sitting pale and with +clasped hands, but making no sound. Darkeih, with a moan of fear, had +thrown herself down at her mistress' feet, and was hiding her face in +her skirts. Landless took a scarf from among the pile of cushions, and +wrapped it around Patricia. "'Tis a poor protection against wet and +cold," he said, "but it is better than nothing." + +"Thank you," she said then, with an effort. "Do you think this squall +will last long?" + +"I cannot tell, madam. It is rather a hurricane than a squall. But we +must do the best we can." + +As he spoke there came a fresh access of wind with a glare of +intolerable light. The mast bent like a reed, snapped off clear to the +foot and fell inward, the loosened beam striking Regulus upon the head, +and bearing him down with it. The boat careened violently, and half +filled with water. Darkeih screamed, and Patricia sprang to her feet, +but sat down again at Landless' stern command, "Sit still! She will +right in a moment." + +He lifted and flung overboard the mass of splintered wood and flapping +cloth, then fell to bailing with all his might, for the danger of +swamping was imminent. Presently Patricia touched him upon the arm. "I +will bail if you will see to Regulus," she said, in a low, strained +voice. "I think he is dead." + +Landless resigned the pail into her hands and lifted the negro's head +and shoulders from the water in which he was lying, pillowing them upon +the stern seat. He was unconscious, and bleeding from a cut on the +forehead. + +"He is not dead nor like to die," Landless said. "He will revive before +long." + +The girl gave a long, quivering sigh of relief. Landless finished the +bailing and sat down at her feet. + +Some time later she asked faintly: "Do you not think the worst is over +now?" + +"I am afraid not," he answered gently. "There is a lull now, but I am +afraid the storm is but gathering its forces. But we will hope for the +best--" + +Another flash and crash cut him short. It was followed by rain that +fell, not in drops, but in sheets. The wind, which had been blowing a +heavy gale, rose suddenly into a tornado. With it rose the sea. The +masses of water, hissing and smoking under the furious pelting of the +rain, flung themselves upon the hapless Bluebird, laboring heavily in +the trough of the waves, or staggering over their summits. A constant +glare lit the heaving, tossing world of waters, and the air became one +roar of wind, rain, and thunder. + +Darkeih crouched moaning at her mistress' feet. Regulus lay unconscious, +breathing heavily. Suddenly, with a quick intake of his breath, +Landless seized Patricia, pulled her down into the bottom of the boat, +and held her there. + +"I see," she said in a low, awed voice. "It is Death!" + +Through the glare a long green wall bore down upon them. The Bluebird +leaped to meet it. It lifted her up, up to meet the lightning, then +hurled her into black depths, and passed on, leaving her staggering in +the trough, water-logged and helpless. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FACE IN THE DARK + + +Patricia lifted her white face from her hands. "We rode that dreadful +wave?" she cried incredulously. + +"By God's mercy, yes," said Landless gravely. + +"Is there any hope for us?" + +Landless hesitated. "Tell me the truth," she said imperiously. + +"We are in desperate case, madam. The boat is half filled with water. +Another such sea will sink us." + +"Why do you not bail the boat?" + +"The bucket is gone; the tiller also." + +She shivered, and Darkeih began to wail aloud. Landless laid a heavy +hand upon the latter's shoulder. "Silence!" he said sternly. "Here! I +shall lay Regulus' head in your lap, and you are to watch over him and +not to think of yourself. There's a brave wench!" + +Darkeih's lamentations subsided into a low sobbing, and Landless turned +to her mistress. + +"Try to keep up your courage, madam," he said. "Our peril is great; but +while there is life there is hope." + +"I am not afraid," she said. "I--" The pitching of the boat threw her +against Landless, and he put his arm about her. "You must let me hold +you, madam," he said quietly. She shrank away from his touch, saying +breathlessly, "No, oh no! See! I can hold quite well by the gunwale." He +acquiesced in silence, only lifting her into a more secure position. "I +thank you," she said humbly. + +The storm continued to rage with unabated fury. Flash and detonation +succeeded flash and detonation; the rain poured in torrents; and the +wind whooped on the angry sea like a demon of destruction. The Bluebird +pitched and tossed at the mercy of the great waves that combed above +her. Time passed, and to the darkness of the storm was added the +darkness of the night. The occupants of the boat, drenched by the rain +and the seas she had shipped, shivered with cold. Regulus began to stir +and mutter. "He is coming to himself," Landless cried to Darkeih. "When +you see that he is conscious, make him lie still. He must not move +about." + +"Do you know where we are?" asked Patricia. + +"No, madam; but I fear that the wind is driving us out into the bay." + +"Ah!" + +She said it with a sob, for a sudden vision of home flashed across the +cold and darkness; and presently Landless could hear that she was +weeping. + +The sound went to his heart. "I would God I could help you, madam," he +said gently. "Take comfort! You are in the hands of One who holds the +sea in the hollow of His hand." + +In a little while she was quiet. There passed another long interval of +silent endurance, broken by Patricia's saying piteously, "My hands are +so numbed with cold that I cannot hold to the side of the boat. And my +arms are bruised with striking against it." + +Without a word Landless put his arm around her, and held her steady +amidst the tossings of the boat. "You are shivering with cold!" he said. +"If I had but something to wrap you in!" + +She drooped against him, and the lightning showed him her face, still +and white, with parted lips, and long lashes sweeping her marble cheek. + +"Madam, madam!" he cried roughly. "You must not swoon! You must not!" + +With a strong effort she rallied. "I will try to be brave," she said +plaintively. "I am not frightened,--not very much. But oh! I am cold and +tired!" + +He drew her head down upon his knee. "Let it lie there," he said, +speaking as to a tired child. "I will hold you quite steady. Now shut +your eyes and try to sleep. The storm is no worse than it was; and since +the boat has lived this long in this sea, she may live through the +night. And with morning may come many chances of safety. Try to rest in +that hope." + +Faint and exhausted from cold and terror, she submitted like a child, +and lay with closed eyes in a sort of stupor within his arms. + +There was less lightning now, and the thunder sounded in long booming +peals, instead of short, sharp cannon cracks. The rain, too, had ceased; +but the wind blew furiously, and the sea ran in tremendous waves. +Regulus stirred, groaned, and struggled into a sitting posture. "Lie +down again!" ordered Darkeih. "We 's all on de way to Heaben, but if +nigger shake de boat, we'll get dere befo' de Lawd ready for us. Lie +down!" Regulus, muttering to himself, looked stupidly about him, then +dropped his head back into her lap. In three minutes he was snoring. +Darkeih's whimpering died away, and her turbaned head sank lower and +lower, until it rested upon that of Regulus, and she, too, slept. + +Landless sat very still, holding his burden lightly and tenderly, and +staring into the darkness. Against the steep slope of the sea, a picture +framed itself, melted away, and was followed by others in long +procession. He saw a ruinous, ivy-grown hall, and an old, grave, formal +garden, where, between long box hedges broken by fantastic yews, there +walked a boy, book in hand. A man with a stately figure and a stern, +careworn face met the boy, and they leaned upon a broken dial, and the +father reasoned with the son of Right and Truth and Liberty, and +something touched upon the Tyrannicides of old. The yew trees drooped +their sombre boughs about the figures, and they were gone, and in their +place roared and swelled the Chesapeake.... The sound of the storm +became the sound of a battle-cry. He saw a clanging fight where sword +clashed upon armor, and artillery belched fire and thunder, and horse +and man went down in the melée, and were trampled under foot amidst +shrieks and oaths and stern prayers. The boy who had leaned upon the +dial fought coolly, desperately, drunk with the joy of battle, stung to +fierce effort by his father's eyes. The great banner, blazoned with the +Cross of Saint George, streamed in crimson and azure between the battle +and the lonely watcher in the storm-tossed boat, and the vision was +gone.... The spires of a great city, where men walked with long faces +and church bells made the only music, rose through the gloom, and he saw +a dingy chamber in a dingy stack of buildings, and within it, bending +over great tomes of law, a man, impoverished and orphaned, but young, +strong, and full of hope,--a man well spoken of and allowed to be on the +road to high preferment. The chamber wavered into darkness; but the city +spires flashed light, and the slow ringing changed to mad peals from joy +bells. Some one had been restored--to drop balm upon the bleeding heart +of a nation, to bring light to them that sit in darkness,--so said the +joy bells.... He saw a loathsome prison, and the man who had sat in the +dingy chamber lying therein under accusation of a crime which he had not +committed. He saw him pining there, week after week, month after month, +untried, forgotten, at the mercy of an enemy to his house whose day had +come with the Restored One.... The prison vanished, and the waves that +tossed around him were the waves of the Atlantic. A ship ploughed her +way through them. He saw into her hold,--a horrible place of stench and +filth and darkness,--a place where hounds would not have kenneled. Men +and women were there who cursed and fought for the scanty, worm-eaten +food that was thrown them. Some wore gyves: they were heavy upon the +wrists and ankles of the man of his vision. He saw a face looking down +upon this man, a handsome supercilious face, with insolent amusement in +the languid eyes and in the curves of the lips. The hatches were +battened down upon the cargo of misery, and the ship with its brutal +captain and its handful of gold-laced, dicing, swearing passengers +vanished.... He saw a sandy, grass-grown street, and a row of mean +houses, and a low, brick building with barred windows. There was a crowd +before this building, and a man standing upon the platform of a pillory +was selling human flesh and blood. He saw the boy who had stood beneath +the yews of the old Hall, who had fought at Worcester beneath his +father's eye; the man who had lain in prison and in the noisome hold of +the ship, put up and sold to the highest bidder. He saw him carried away +with other merchandise to the home of his purchaser. He saw a Virginia +plantation lying fair and serene beneath a Virginia heaven; and a wide +porch, and standing therein an angelic vision, all grace and beauty, +vivid youth and splendor. + +The picture vanished into the night that raved about him, and with a +long shaken sigh he let his eyes fall from the watery steeps to the face +of the woman who lay within his arms. He had not looked at her before, +conceiving that she might be awake and feel his glance upon her. Now he +could tell from her breathing that she slept. He gazed upon the pure +pale face with the golden hair falling about it, in a passion of pity +and tenderness. She moaned now and then in her sleep, or turned uneasily +in his arms. Once she spoke a few words, and he bent eagerly to catch +them, thinking that she had awakened and was speaking to him. They +were:-- + +"Ah, your Excellency! where I reign there shall be only good Churchmen +and loyal Cavaliers--no Roundheads, no rebel or convict servants!" and +she laughed in her sleep. + +Landless shrank as from a mortal blow, then broke into a bitter laugh, +and said to himself, "Thou art a fool, Godfrey Landless. It were but too +easy to forget to-night what thou art and what thou must seem to her. +Thou art answered according to thy folly." He sighed impatiently, and +withdrawing his gaze from the sleeping face, fell into a sombre reverie. + +He was roused to active consciousness by a sudden and death-like pause +in the gale. The lightning showed the pall of cloud hanging low, black, +and unbroken; but the wind had sunk into an ominous calm. He looked +anxiously around him, then softly disengaging himself from Patricia, +leaned across her, and shook Regulus awake. The negro started up, stupid +from sleep and from his wound. + +"What is it, massa?" he queried. "Wake mighty early at Rosemead.... Lawd +hab mercy! we 's still on de Chesapeake!" + +"We will be in the Chesapeake in a moment," said Landless sternly, "if +you stagger about in that way. Sit down and pull your wits together. You +are like to need them all directly." He touched Darkeih and said, as her +eyes, wide with alarm, opened upon him, "Listen, my wench! Whatever +happens, you are to trust yourself to Regulus. He is a strong swimmer +and he will take care of you. You hear, Regulus!" + +"What is it?" exclaimed Patricia, as he bent over her. "Why have you +waked Regulus? And oh! has not that dreadful wind died away?" + +"It has stopped, madam, stopped suddenly and utterly," he said gravely. +"But it will come upon us from another quarter, and it will bring the +sea with it." He raised her, and held her with his arm. "Trust yourself +to me when it comes," he said gently. "If I can save you, I will." + +There was no time for more. Above them broke a new and more terrible +storm. A ball of fire shot from the cloud into the sea; it was followed +by a crash that seemed to shake the earth. A cataract of rain descended. +From the northeast there swooped upon them a wind to which the gale of +an hour before seemed a zephyr. It drove the boat before it as if she +had been the bird from which she took her name. It piled wave on wave +until the sea ran in mountains. Athwart the storm came a dull booming +roar, and above the great hills of water appeared a long ridge crested +with white. + +"It is coming," said Landless. + +Patricia looked up at him with great, despairing, courageous eyes. "I +have caused your death," she said. "Forgive me." + +There came a vivid flash, and a loud scream from Darkeih. "De lan'! de +bressed, bressed, lan'!" + +Landless wheeled. Silhouetted against the lit sky he saw a fringe of +pines, and below it a low, shelving shore where the waves were breaking +in foam and thunder. The Bluebird, driven by the wind, was hurrying +towards it in mad bounds. The great wave overtook her, bore her onward +with it, and sunk her within fifty feet of the shore. + +Ten minutes later Landless, breathless and exhausted, staggered from out +the hell of pounding waves and blinding, stinging spray on to the shore. +Unlocking Patricia's arms from about his neck, he laid her gently down +upon the sand and turned to look for the other occupants of the hapless +Bluebird. They were close behind him. In a few minutes the two men, +battling against wind and rain, had borne the women out of reach of the +waves, and had placed them in the shelter of a low bank of sand. As +Landless set his burden down he said reverently, "I thank God, madam." + +"And I thank God," she answered, in the same tone. + +He tried to shield her from the wind with his body. "It is frightful," +he said, "that you should be exposed to such a night. I pray God that +you take no harm." + +"Would it not be more sheltered higher up the shore, under those trees?" + +"Perhaps, but I fear to risk you there with the lightning so near. +Later, when the storm subsides, we will try it." + +He seated himself so as to screen her as much as possible from wind and +rain, and a silence fell upon the party so suddenly snatched from death. +Regulus stretched himself upon the sand and pulled Darkeih down beside +him. Within a few minutes they were both asleep. The white man and woman +sat side by side without speaking, watching the storm. + +By degrees it raved itself out. The rain fell in less and less volume, +the lightning became infrequent, the thunder pealed less loudly, and the +wind died from a hurricane into a breeze. In two hours' time from the +swamping of the boat the booming of the sea, and a ragged mass of cloud, +lit by an occasional flash and slowly falling away from a pale and +watery moon, were the only evidences of the tornado which had raged so +lately. + +"The storm is over," said Patricia, breaking a long silence. + +"Yes," said Landless. "You have nothing to fear now. Would you not like +to walk a little? You must be sadly chilled and weary with long +sitting." + +"Yes, I would," she answered, with a sigh of relief. "Let us walk +towards those trees, and see if forest or water be beyond them." + +He helped her to her feet, and they left the slaves sleeping upon the +ground, and moved slowly, for she was numbed with cold, towards the +fringe of pines. + +Landless walked beside her without speaking. A while ago she had been +simply a woman in danger of death--something for him to protect and to +save. He had well nigh forgotten: he knew that she had quite forgotten. +She was safe now, and was become once more the lady of the manor to +whose soil he was fettered. He had remembered, and she was beginning to +remember, for presently she said timidly and sweetly, but with +condescension in her voice;-- + +"I am not ungrateful for all that you have done for me to-night, for +saving my life. And, trust me, you will not find your mas--my father, +ungrateful either. We will find some way to reward--" + +"I neither merit nor desire reward, madam," said Landless, proudly and +sadly, "for doing but my duty as a man and as your servant." + +"But--" she began kindly, when he interrupted her with sudden passion. + +"Unless you wish to cut me to the heart, to bitterly humiliate me, you +will not speak of payment for any service I may have done you. I have +been a gentleman, madam. For this one night treat me as such." + +"I beg your pardon," she said at once. + +They reached the belt of trees and entered it. Outside, the broken +clouds had permitted an occasional gleam of watery moonshine; within the +shadow of the trees it was gross darkness. Above them the wet branches, +moved by the wind which still blew strongly, clashed together with a +harsh and mournful sound, showering them with heavy raindrops. Their +feet sank deeply in cushions of soaked moss and rotting leaves. + +"There is nothing to be done here," said Landless. "It is better beneath +the open sky." + +There came a last, vivid flash of lightning that for a moment lit the +wood, showing long colonnades of glistening tree trunks, with here and +there a blasted and fallen monster. It showed something more, for within +ten feet of them, from out a tangle of dripping, rain-beaten vines +looked the face of the murderer of Robert Godwyn. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +LANDLESS AND PATRICIA + + +For one moment the parties to this midnight encounter stared at each +other with starting eyeballs; the next, down came the curtain of +darkness between them. + +With a cry of terror Patricia seized and clung to Landless's arm, +trembling violently, and with her breath coming in long, gasping sobs. +Exhausted by the previous terrors of the night, this last experience +completely unnerved her--she seemed upon the point of swooning. Divining +what would soonest calm her, Landless hurried her out of the wood and +down the shore to the bank, beneath which lay the sleeping slaves. Here +she sank upon the sand, her frame quivering like an aspen. "That +dreadful face!" she said in a low, shaken voice. "It is burned upon my +eyeballs. How came it there? Was it--dead?" + +"No, no, madam," Landless said soothingly. "'Tis simple enough. The +murderer is in hiding within these woods, and we stumbled upon his +lair." + +She gazed fearfully around her. "I see it everywhere. And may he not +follow us down here? Oh, horrible!" + +"He is not likely to do that," said Landless, with a smile. "You may +rest assured that he is far from this by now." + +She drew a long breath of relief. "Oh! I hope he is!" she cried +fervently. "It was dreadful! No storm could frighten me as did that +face!" and she shuddered again. + +"Try not to think of it," he said. "It is gone now; try to forget it." + +"I will try," she said doubtfully. + +Landless did not answer, and the two sat in silence, watching out the +dreary night. But not for long, for presently Patricia said humbly:-- + +"Will you talk to me? I am frightened. It is so still, and I cannot see +you, nor the slaves, only that horrid, horrid face. I see it +everywhere." + +Landless came nearer to her, and laid one hand upon the skirt of her wet +robe. "I am here, close to you, madam," he said; "there can nothing harm +you." + +He began to speak quietly and naturally of this and that, of what they +should do when the day broke, of Regulus's wound, of the storm, of the +great sea and its perils. He told her something of these latter, for he +knew the sea; piteous tales of forlorn wrecks, brave tales of dangers +faced and overcome, of heroic endurance and heroic rescue. He told her +tales of a wild, rockbound Devonshire coast with its scattered fisher +villages; of a hidden cave, the resort of a band of desperadoes, half +smugglers, half pirates, wholly villains; of how this cave had been long +and vainly searched for by the authorities; of how, one night, a boy +climbed down a great precipice, scaring the seafowl from their nests, +and lighted upon this cavern with the smugglers in it, and in their +midst a defenseless prisoner whom they were about to murder. How he had +shouted and made wailing, outlandish noises, and had sent rocks hurtling +down the cliffs, until the wretches thought that all the goblins of +land and sea were upon them, and rushed from the cavern, leaving their +work undone. Whereupon, the boy reclimbed the cliff, and hastening to +the nearest village, roused the inhabitants, who hurried to their boats, +and descending upon the long-sought-for cave, surprised the smugglers, +cut them down to a man, and rescued the prisoner. + +The man who told these things told them well. The wild tales ran like a +strain of sombre music through the night. His audience of one forgot her +terror and weariness, and listened with eager interest. + +"Well--" she said, as he paused. + +"That is all. The ruffians were all killed and the prisoner rescued." + +"And the boy?" + +"Oh, the boy! He went back to his books." + +"Did you know him?" + +"Yes, I knew him. See, madam, it has quite cleared. How the moon whitens +those leaping waves!" + +"Yes, it is beautiful. I am glad the prisoner escaped. Was he a +fisherman?" + +"No; an officer of the Excise--a gallant man, with a wife and many +children. Yes, I suppose he prized life." + +"And I am glad that the smugglers were all killed." + +Landless smiled. "Life to them was sweet, too, perhaps." + +"I do not care. They were wicked men who deserved to die. They had +murdered and robbed. They were criminals--" + +She stopped short, and her face turned from white to red and then to +white again, and her eyes sought the ground. + +"I had forgotten," she muttered. + +The hot color rose to Landless's cheek, but he said quietly:-- + +"You had forgotten what, madam?" + +She flashed a look upon him. "You know," she said icily. + +"Yes, I know," he answered. "I know that the perils of this night had +driven from your mind several things. For a little while you have +thought of, and treated me, as an equal, have you not? You could not +have been more gracious to,--let us say, to Sir Charles Carew. But now +you have remembered what I am, a man degraded and enslaved, a felon,--in +short, the criminal who, as you very justly say, should not be let to +live." + +She made no answer, and he rose to his feet. + +"It is almost day, and the moon is shining brightly. You no longer fear +the face in the dark? I will first waken the slaves, and then will push +along the shore, and strive to discover where we are." + +She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Wait," she said, putting out +a trembling hand. "I have hurt you. I am sorry. Who am I to judge you? +And whatever you may have done, however wicked you may have been, +to-night you have borne yourself towards a defenseless maiden as truly +and as courteously as could have done the best gentleman in the land. +And she begs you to forget her thoughtless words." + +Landless fell upon his knee before her. "Madam!" he cried, "I have +thought you the fairest piece of work in God's creation, but harder than +marble towards suffering such as may you never understand! But now you +are a pitying angel! If I swear to you by the honor of a gentleman, by +the God above us, that I am no criminal, that I did not do the thing for +which I suffer, will you believe me?" + +"You mean that you are an innocent man?" she said breathlessly. + +"As God lives, yes, madam." + +"Then why are you here?" + +"I am here, madam," he said bitterly, "because Justice is not blind. She +is only painted so. Led by the gleam of gold she can see well enough--in +one direction. I could not prove my innocence. I shall never be able to +do so. And any one--Sir William Berkeley, your father, your +kinsman--would tell you that you are now listening to one who differs +from the rest of the Newgate contingent, from the coiners and cheats, +the cut-throats and highway robbers in whose company he is numbered, +only in being hypocrite as well as knave. And yet I ask you to believe +me. I am innocent of that wrong." + +The moonlight struck full upon his face as he knelt before her. She +looked at him long and intently, with large, calm eyes, then said softly +and sweetly:-- + +"I believe you, and pity you, sir. You have suffered much." + +He bowed his head, and pressed the hem of her skirt to his lips. + +"I thank you," he said brokenly. + +"Is there nothing?" she said after a pause, "nothing that I can do?" + +He shook his head. "Nothing, madam. You have given me your belief and +your divine compassion. It is all that I ask, more than I dared dream of +asking an hour ago. You cannot help me. I must dree my weird. I would +even ask of your goodness that you say nothing of what I have told you +to Colonel Verney or to any one." + +"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "If I cannot help you, it were wiser not +to speak. I might but make your hard lot harder." + +"Again I thank you." He kissed the hem of her robe once more, and rose +to his feet with a heart that sat lightly on its throne. + +The day began to break. With the first faint flush Landless woke the +slaves, who at length yawned and shivered themselves into consciousness +of their surroundings. "What are we to do now?" demanded Patricia. + +"We had best strike through that belt of woods until we come to some +house, whence we may get conveyance for you to Verney Manor." + +"Very well. But oh! do not let us enter the forest here where we saw +that fearful face. Let us walk along the shore until the light grows +stronger. It is still night within the woods." + +Landless acquiesced with a smile, and the four--he and Patricia in +front, the negroes straying in the rear--set out along the shore. The +air was chill and heavy, but there was no wind, and the unclouded sky +gave promise of a hot day. In the east the rosy flush spread and +deepened, and a pink path stretched itself across the fast subsiding +waters. The wet sand dragged at their feet, and made walking difficult; +moreover Patricia was chilled and weary, so their progress was slow. +There were dark circles beneath her eyes, and her lips had a weary, +downward curve; her golden hair, broken from its fastenings, hung in +damp, rich masses against her white throat and blue-veined temples, and +amidst the enshrouding glory her perfect face looked very small and +white and childlike. The magnificent eyes carried in their clear, brown +depths an expression new to Landless. Heretofore he had seen in them +scorn and dislike; now they looked at him with a grave and wondering +pity. + +As the sun rose, the shipwrecked party left the shore, and entered the +forest. A purple light filled its vast aisles. Far overhead bits of +azure gleamed through the rifts in the foliage, but around them was the +constant patter and splash of rain drops, falling slow and heavy from +every leaf and twig. There was a dank, rich smell of wet mould and +rotting leaves, and rain-bruised fern. The denizens of the woodland were +all astir. Birds sang, squirrels chattered, the insect world whirred +around the yellow autumn blooms and the purpling clusters of the wild +grape; from out the distance came the barking of a fox. The sunlight +began to fall in shafts of pale gold through openings in the green and +leafy world, and to warm the chilled bodies of the wayfarers. + +"It is like a bad dream," said Patricia gayly, as Landless held back a +great, wet branch of cedar from her path. "All the storm and darkness, +and the great hungry waves and the danger of death! Ah! how happy we are +to have waked!" + +Her glance fell upon Landless's face, and there came to her a sudden +realization that there were those in the world, to whom life was not one +sweet, bright gala day. She gazed at him with troubled eyes. + +"I hope you care to live," she said. "Death is very dreadful." + +"I do not think so," he answered. "At least it would be forgetfulness." + +She shuddered. "Ah! but to leave the world, the warm, bright, beautiful +world! To die on your bed, when you are old--that is different. But to +go young! to go in storm and terror, or in horror and struggling as did +that man who was murdered! Oh, horrible!" + +The thought of the murdered man brought another thought into her mind. + +"Do you think," she said, "that we had better tell that we saw the +murderer at the first house to which we come, or had we best wait until +we reach Verney Manor?" + +Landless gave a great start. "You will tell Colonel Verney that?" + +She opened her eyes widely. "Why, of course! What else should we do? Is +not the country being scoured for him? My father is most anxious that he +should be captured. Justice and the weal of the State demand that such a +wretch should be punished." She paused and looked at him gravely as he +walked beside her with a clouded face. "You say nothing! This man is +guilty, guilty of a dreadful crime. Surely you do not wish to shield +him, to let him escape?" + +"Not so, madam," said Landless in desperation. "But--but--" + +"But what?" she asked as he stopped in confusion. + +He recovered himself. "Nothing, madam. You are right, of course. But I +would not speak before reaching Verney Manor." + +"Very well." + +Landless walked on, bitterly perplexed and chagrined. The strife and +danger of the night, the intoxicating sweetness of the morning hours +when he knew himself believed in and pitied by the woman beside him, +had driven certain things into oblivion. He had been dreaming, and now +he had been plucked from a fool's paradise, and dashed rudely to the +ground. Yesterday and the life and thoughts of yesterday, which had but +now seemed so far away, pressed upon him remorselessly. And to-morrow! +He did not want Roach to be taken. Always there would have been danger +to himself and his associates in the capture of the murderer, but now +when the vindictive wretch would assuredly attribute his disaster to the +man to whom the lightning flash had revealed his presence on the shores +of the bay, the danger was trebled. And it was imminent. He had little +doubt that another night would see Roach in custody, and he had no doubt +at all that the scoundrel would make a desperate effort to save his neck +by betraying what he knew of the conspiracy--and thanks to Godwyn's +lists he knew a great deal--to Governor and Council. + +Patricia began to speak again. "It imports much that men should see that +there is no weakness in the arm the law stretches out to seize and +punish offenders. My father and the Governor and Colonel Ludlow believe +that there is afoot an Oliverian plot-- What is the matter?" + +"Nothing, madam." + +"You stood still and caught your breath. Are you ill, faint?" + +"It is nothing, madam, believe me? You were saying?" + +"Oh! the Oliverians! Nothing definite has been discovered as yet, but +there is thunder in the air, my father says, and I know that he and the +Governor and the rest of the council are very watchful just now. But +yesterday my father said that those few hundred men form a greater +menace to the Colony than do all the Indians between this and the South +Sea." + +They walked on in silence for a few moments, and then she broke out. +"They are horrible, those grim, frowning men! They are rebels and +traitors, one and all, and yet they stand by and shake curses on the +heads of true men. They slew the best man, the most gracious sovereign; +they trampled the Church under foot, they made the blood of the noble +and the good to flow like water, and now when they receive a portion of +their deserts, they call themselves martyrs! They, martyrs! Roundhead +traitors!" + +"Madam," interrupted Landless with a curious smile upon his lips, "did +you not know that I was, that I am, what you call a Roundhead?" + +"No," she said, "I did not know," and stood perfectly still, looking +straight before her down the long vista of trees. He saw her face change +and harden into the old expression of aversion. The slaves came up to +them, and Regulus asked if 'lil Missy wanted anything. "No, nothing at +all," she answered, and walked quietly onward. + +Landless, an angry pain tugging at his heart, kept beside her, for they +were passing through a deep hollow in the wood where the gnarled and +protruding roots of cypress and juniper made walking difficult, and +where a strong hand was needed to push aside the wet and pendent masses +of vine. Regulus, fifty yards behind them, began to sing a familiar +broadside ballad, torturing the words out of all resemblance to English. +The rich notes rang sweetly through the forest. Down from the far summit +of a pine flashed a cardinal bird, piercing the gloom of the hollow like +a fire ball thrown into a cavern. Landless held aside a curtain of +glistening leaves that, mingled with purple clusters of fruit, hung +across their path. Patricia passed him, then turned impulsively. "You +think me hard!" she said. "Many people think me so, but I am not so, +indeed.... And there are good Puritans. Major Carrington, they say, is +Puritan at heart, and he is a good man and a gentleman.... And you saved +my life.... At least you are not like those men of whom I spoke. You +would not plot against the good peace which we enjoy! You would not try +to array servant against master?" + +It was a direct question asked with large, straightforward eyes fixed +upon his. He tried to evade it, but she asked again with insistence, and +with a faint doubt lurking in her eyes, "If these men are plotting, +which God forbid! you know nothing of it? You have great wrongs, but you +would take no such dastard way to right them?" + +Landless's soul writhed within him, but he told the inevitable lie that +was none the less a lie that it was also the truth. He said in a low +voice, "I trust, madam, that I will do naught that may misbecome a +gentleman." + +She was quite satisfied. He saw that he had regained the ground lost by +his avowal of a few minutes before, and he cursed himself and cursed his +fate. + +Soon afterwards they emerged from the forest upon a tobacco patch, from +the midst of which rose a rude cabin, in whose doorway stood a woman +serving out bowls of loblolly to half a dozen tow-headed children. + +Half an hour later, Patricia, rested and refreshed, took her seat behind +the oxen, which the owner of the cabin had harnessed up, with much +protestation of his eagerness to serve the daughter of Colonel Verney, +emptied her purse in the midst of the open-mouthed children, and bade +kindly adieu to the good wife. Darkeih curled herself up in the bottom +of the cart, and Landless and Regulus walked beside it. + +In two hours' time they were at Verney Manor, where they found none but +women to greet them, Rendered uneasy by the storm, Woodson had +despatched a messenger to Rosemead, who had returned with the tidings +that no boat from Verney Manor had reached that plantation. The overseer +had ill news with which to greet the Colonel and Sir Charles when at +midnight they arrived unexpectedly from Green Spring. Since then every +able-bodied man had deserted the plantation. There were no boats at the +wharf, no horses in the stables. The master and Sir Charles were gone in +the Nancy, the two overseers on horseback. A Sabbath stillness brooded +over the plantation, until a negro woman recognized the occupants of the +ox-cart lumbering up the road. Then there was noise enough of an +exclamatory, feminine kind. The shrill sounds penetrated to the great +room, where, behind drawn curtains, surrounded by essences, and an odor +of burnt feathers, with Chloe to fan her, and Mr. Frederick Jones to +murmur consolation, reclined Mistress Lettice. As Patricia stepped upon +the porch, Betty Carrington flew down the stairs and through the hall, +and the two met with a little inarticulate burst of cries and kisses. +Mistress Lettice in the great room went into hysterics for the fifth +time that morning. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A CAPTURE + + +At noon the next day returned the search party, dispatched by the +Colonel on receipt of his daughter's information, and headed by Woodson +and Sir Charles Carew. In their midst, bound with ropes, and seated +behind one of the mounted men, was Roach. His clothing hung from him in +tatters, and witnessed, moreover, to the quagmires and mantled pools +through which he had struggled; his arm had been injured, and was tied +with a bloody rag; blood was caked upon his villainous face, scratched +and torn in his breathless bursting through thickets; his red hair fell +over his eyes in matted elf-locks; his lips were drawn back in a snarl +over discolored fangs; he panted like a dog, his thick red tongue +hanging out. He looked hardly human. The man behind whom he rode was +Luiz Sebastian. + +The party dismounted in the small square, in the midst of the quarters. +It being the noon rest, the entire servant population was on hand, and +leaving its cabins and smoking messes of bacon and succotash, it +hastened to a man to the square, where, beneath the dead tree and its +sinister appendage, stood the master, listening to Woodson's account of +the capture, and to Sir Charles's airy interpolations. Roach, dragged +from the horse by a dozen officious hands, staggered with exhaustion. +Luiz Sebastian caught him by the arm and so held him during the ensuing +interview. + +When the unusual bustle, the neighing of the horses, and the excited +voices of the crowd brought the news of the capture to Landless, +sitting, sunk in anxious thought, within his cabin, he rose and began to +pace to and fro in the narrow room. Past his door hurried men, women, +and children on their way to the square. One or two beckoned him to +follow, but he shook his head. "If he betray me," he thought, "my fate +will come to me soon enough. I will not go to meet it." + +In his restless pacing to and fro, he stopped before a shelf where, +beside some coarse eating utensils and the heap of tobacco pegs, the +cutting of which occupied his spare moments, lay a little worn book. It +had been Godwyn's. He opened it at random, and read a few verses. With a +heavy sigh he laid his arm along the shelf and rested his burning +forehead upon it. "'Let not your heart be troubled,'" he said beneath +his breath; and again, "'Let not your heart be troubled.'" He +recommenced his pacing up and down the room. "'Peace I leave with you, +My peace I give unto you.'" Going to the doorway, he leaned against it +and looked out into a world of sunshine, and up to where the topmost +branches of a pine slept against the blue. "There may be peace beyond," +he said. "I have not found it here." + +Down the lane came a murmur of voices; then the overseer's harsh tones; +then a light and mocking laugh. Seized by an uncontrollable impulse he +left the cabin and directed his steps towards the square. As he passed a +cabin some doors from his own, a gaunt figure arose from the doorstep +and joined itself to him. + +"The murderer is here," said the sepulchral voice of Master Win-Grace +Porringer. "Verily the blood hath been taken out of his mouth, and his +abominations from between his teeth. Cursed be the shedder of innocent +blood!" + +"Amen," said Landless; then, "This capture is like to be our ruin. This +wretch will not keep silence." + +"But he has no proofs. Since you destroyed those lists there exists not +a scrap of writing about this affair. And we have covered our tracks as +carefully as if we were the cursed heathen of the land upon the +warpath. Let him say what he will. The Malignants, besotted fools! will +think he lies to save his neck." + +"A week ago they might have thought so," said Landless. "But not now. +Something has gotten abroad. Already Governor and Council think they +smell a plot." + +The Muggletonian caught his breath. "How do you know this?" + +"No matter how: I know it." + +Porringer raised his scarred face to heaven. "God," he said, "we are thy +people! Save us! Let destruction come upon them unawares; let them go +down a dark and slippery way to death; make them to be as blind and deaf +adders that see not the foot of the destroyer! Yea, shake thy hand upon +these Malignants and make them a spoil to their servants!" He turned his +ghastly face and burning eyes upon Landless. "Curse them with me!" he +cried. + +Landless shook his head. "Thou, and I look not alike at things, friend," +he said. + +"Thou art a Laodicean!" cried the other wildly. "Thou hast not an eye +single to the Lord's work as had thy father before thee. Thou wouldst +not smite the Amalekites hip and thigh, root and branch! One damsel +would thou save alive, and for her sake thy heart is soft towards the +whole accursed brood! Look to it lest the Lord spew thee out of His +mouth! Woe, woe, to him that putteth his hand to the plough and looketh +back!" He laughed wildly and tossed out his arms. + +"I think thou hast eaten of the Jamestown weed!" said Landless fiercely. +"Collect thy senses, man! And speak something less loudly, or Roach's +betrayal will be superfluous. As to myself, if I curse not, I act; and +as for my motives for what you call luke-warmness, and I call common +humanity, you will please to let them alone!" + +The excitement faded from the fanatic's face, and he said more quietly, +"You are right, friend. I was mad for a moment, mad to see that freedom +which is so near us so imperiled. I meant not to quarrel with you who +have shown in the conduct of this work the discernment of a young +Daniel, yea, who have so borne yourself, that I have grown to care for +you as I never thought to care again for human being. I have prayed much +that you should be brought from the twilight of Calvinism into the pure +light wherein walk the disciples of the blessed Ludovick." + +They reached the square and mingled with the motly crowd that lined its +sides, leaving the centre occupied only by the murderer, his captors, +and the master. Followed by the Muggletonian, Landless made his way to +where the yellow locks of young Dick Whittington towered above the +crowd. The boy saw him coming, and edging past a knot of blacks, met +him in a little open space, whose only occupants were two or three +women, and an Indian squatting upon the ground. Leaning against a pine, +and fixing his gaze and, to all appearance, his attention upon the +central group where the overseer was just finishing a circumstantial +account of the chase, Landless said quietly:-- + +"You were of the party that took him?" + +"That I was!" answered the boy gleefully. "Losh! but it was fun!" His +blue eyes danced with impish delight; a noiseless laugh showed all his +strong white teeth. "We went straight to the spot where you and Mistress +Patricia saw him by the lightning. There the dogs struck his trail and +the fun commenced. Over streams and fallen trees, and chinquepin ridges; +through bogs and myrtle thickets and miles of grape vines--swounds! but +it was hot work! Just look at the scratches on my face and hands! Joyce +Whitbread wouldn't know me! The Court spark, he wore a mask and saved +his beauty. He's a well-plucked one, though, took the lead and kept it, +and when it was over, treated us to usquebaugh at Luckey Doughty's +store. Well, we run the fox to earth in a Chickahominy village. Lord! +I'm sorry for the half king of the Chickahominies! He'll have to answer +to Governor and Council for letting red fox burrow in his village. Found +him squatted in a sassafras patch. Snarled and fought and tried to bite +like the beast he is. Woodson and the Court spark took him." + +"Do you know what will be done with him now?" + +"He'll be taken on to the gaol at the court-house." + +"That is five miles from here," said Landless. + +"Yes, near to the village where we took him. He'll be kept there until +they can try him. And they'll make short work of him. He'll be food for +crows directly." + +The throng pressed upon them, forcing them nearer to the group beneath +the dead tree. The overseer had finished his account, and the master was +clearing his throat to speak. Landless found himself upon the inner +verge of the mass of spectators, directly opposite the murderer, and +confronted by him with a look so dark, wild and malignant, that he could +not doubt the intention that lay behind those scowling eyes. Luiz +Sebastian, still with the murderer's arm in his grasp, gave him a +peculiar look which he could not translate. In the background he saw +Trail's sinister face peering over the shoulder of an Indian. + +"You dog!" said the planter, addressing himself directly to Roach. "What +have you to say for yourself?" + +The murderer made an uncertain sound with his dry lips, and his +bloodshot eyes roamed around the circle from one staring face to +another, until they returned to rest upon the watchful, amber-hued +countenance beside him. + +"Speak!" said his master sternly. + +"I'll say nothing," was the dogged reply, "until I stands my trial. I +demands a fair trial." + +"Remember that this is your last chance to speak to me, to speak to any +one in authority before you are tried. Of course you will hang for this. +Have you anything to say? Do you wish to speak to me in private?" + +The murderer raised his head, and shaking the tangled hair from about +his face, cast at Landless, standing ten paces beyond the planter, such +a look of deadly and blasting hatred, that for a moment the blood ran +cold in the young man's veins. He set his teeth and braced himself to +meet the blow at plans and hopes and life that should follow such a +look. + +To his astonishment the blow did not fall. Roach changed the basilisk +gaze with which he had regarded him to a vacant stare. + +"I've naught to say," he whined, "except that I hopes your honor will +see that I has a fair trial--no d--d Tyburn or Newgate hocus-pocussing." + +The master beckoned to the overseer. "Take him away," he said. "Take two +or three men and carry him on to the gaol." + +He turned on his heel and walked to where Sir Charles Carew leaned +against a tree, idly flicking the mud from his boots with his riding +cane. Landless standing near and listening with strained ears heard the +master say in answer to the other's lifted brows:-- + +"Nothing to be learnt in that quarter. If there's rebellion brewing, he +knows nothing of it." + +Fresh horses were brought from the stables. "You, Luiz Sebastian, +Taylor, and Mathew," said the overseer, swinging himself into the +saddle. The men designated mounted, and Roach, bound and scowling, was +hoisted to his former seat behind Luiz Sebastian. The cavalcade started. +As the horse that bore the double load passed Landless, the murderer +twisted himself about in his seat, and, with a venomous look, spat at +him. Luiz Sebastian smiled evilly. + +The shaven head and fleshless face of Win-Grace Porringer protruded +themselves over Landless's shoulder. + +"What does it mean?" he muttered. + +"God knows," answered the other. "Come to the trysting place to-night. +We must act, and act quickly." + +That night ten men met in the deserted hut on the marsh, having stolen +with the caution of Indians from their respective plantations. Five were +men who had fought at Edgehill and Naseby and Worcester, or had followed +Cromwell through the breach at Drogheda. Four were victims of the Act of +Uniformity; darker, sterner, more determined if possible, than the +veterans of the New Model. The tenth man was Landless. When, late at +night, he and Porringer crept stealthily back to the quarters, it was +with the conviction that this was the last time they should so steal +through the darkness. The date of the rising had been fixed for the +thirteenth of September; this night, by Landless's advice, it was +brought forward to the tenth--and it was now the sixth. + +Groping his way past the slumbering forms of the three other occupants +of his cabin, Landless threw himself down upon his pallet with a heavy +sigh. + +"Liberty!" he said beneath his breath. "Goddess, whom I and mine have +sought through long years, whom once we thought we held, and waked to +find thee gone,--once I thought thee fairer than aught beside; thought +no price too great to pay for thee. But now!" + +He hid his face in his hands with a stifled groan. When at length he +fell into a troubled sleep, it was to see again a storm-tossed boat, and +a woman's face, set like a star against the blackness of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL + + +At a long, low table stood Mistress Betty Carrington, her slender figure +enveloped in an apron of blue dowlas, her sleeves of fine holland rolled +above her elbows, and her white and rounded arms plunged deep into a +great bowl filled with the purple globes of the wild grape. A row of +children knelt on the brick floor at her feet, busily stripping the +fruit from the stems, and negresses, hard by, strained with sinewy hands +the crimson juice from the pulpy mass into jars of earthenware. To this +group suddenly entered a breathless urchin. + +"Ohé, mistis! de Gov'nor an' Massa Peyton comin' up de road!" + +Betty suspended her operations with a little cry. "The Governor!" she +exclaimed in dismay. "And my father is gone a-processioning;--and my +gown is not seemly;--and he cannot be kept waiting!" She threw off her +apron, dipped her hands into the water the slaves poured for her, and +was at the hall door in time to courtesy to the Governor, as, followed +by a groom, and attended by Mr. Peyton, he rode up to the house. + +With the agility of youth his Excellency sprung from his horse, threw +the reins to the groom, and advanced to greet the lady. A richly laced +riding-suit became his still slight and elegant figure to a marvel; his +gilt-spurred, Spanish leather boots were of the newest, most approved +cut; his periwig was fresh curled, and framed with distinction a +handsome, if somewhat withered, countenance. He doffed his Spanish hat +with a bow and flourish: Betty courtesied profoundly. + +"Welcome to Rosemead, your Excellency." + +"I greet you well, pretty Mistress Betty," said the Governor, and took a +governor's privilege. Mr. Peyton looked as though he would have liked to +follow his Excellency's example, but was fain to content himself with +the lady's hand, resigned to the respectful pressure of his lips with a +charming blush and a dropping of long-fringed eyelids. + +"Where is your father, sweetheart?" demanded the Governor. + +"Ah! your Excellency, he is unfortunate. The vestry hath appointed this +day for the examination of boundaries in this parish, and as his +Majesty's Surveyor-General he leads the procession. But will not your +Excellency await his return? He will be here anon, and with him Colonel +Verney." + +"Then will I wait, pretty one; for I have weighty matters to discuss +both with him and with Dick Verney." + +Betty ushered them into the great room, cool, dark, and fragrant of +roses. + +"If your Excellency will permit me to withdraw, I will order some +refreshment for you after your long ride." + +The Governor sank into an armchair, and smiled graciously. + +"Faith! a bit of pasty comes not amiss after a morning canter. And +prithee see to the sack thyself, Mistress Betty. And a dish of pippins +and cheese," continued the Governor, meditatively, "and a rasher of +bacon." + +"There was a fine comb taken from the hive this morning. Will your +Excellency choose a bit? And there are dates, sent my father by the +captain of the Barbary vessel, and a quince tart--" + +"We will taste of it all," said his Excellency, graciously, "and +afterwards a pipe and a saucer of sweet scented, and your company, my +love. Mr. Peyton, the lady may find the honeycomb too heavy for her +lifting. We will excuse you to her assistance." + +"I am your Excellency's most obedient servant," quoth Mr. Peyton with +due submission, and hastened after his blushing mistress. + +The Governor, left alone, strolled to the window and looked out upon the +Chesapeake, lying blue and unruffled beneath the dazzling sunshine; to +the mantel-piece, and smelt of the roses in the blue china bowl; to the +spinet, and picked out "Here's to Royal Charles" with one finger;--and +finally brought up before a corner cupboard, found the key in the door, +turned it, and came upon the Surveyor-General's library. + +"H'm, what has he here?" soliloquized his Excellency. "'Purchas; His +Pilgrimes,' of course; 'General History of Virginia, New England and the +Summer Isles,' well and good; 'Good News from Virginia,' humph! that +must have been before my time; 'Public Good without Private Interest,' +humph! What's this? 'Areopagitica,' John Milton! John Hypocrite and +Parricide! A pretty author, and a pretty cause he advocates,--I thank +God there are no schools and no printing presses in this colony, nor +are like to be,--and a courageous Surveyor-General to keep by him such +pestilent stuff in the present year of grace. 'Abuses Stript and Whipt,' +'Anglia Rediva,' 'Diary of Nehemiah Wallington,' 'Bastwick's Litany!' +Miles Carrington, Miles Carrington! I have my eye on thee! Thou hadst +need to walk warily! 'Zion's Plea against Prelacy,' damnation! 'Speech +of Mr. Hampden,' death and hell! 'Eikonoklastes,' may the foul fiend fly +away with my soul!" + +And the Governor closed the cupboard door with a bang, and, with a very +red and frowning face, went back to his seat, and there sank into a +reverie, which lasted until the entrance of Mistress Betty and Mr. +Peyton, followed by two slaves bearing an ample repast. + +An hour later came home the Surveyor-General, bringing with him Colonel +Verney, Sir Charles Carew, and Captain Laramore. + +The Surveyor-General made stately apologies to his Excellency for his +unavoidable absence: his Excellency, holding himself very erect, heard +him out, and then said coldly, "Major Carrington may rest at ease. I was +sufficiently amused." + +"Truly the county knows Mr. Peyton's powers of entertainment," said the +Surveyor-General with a bow and smile for that young gentleman. + +"Mr. Peyton had other occupation," said the Governor dryly. "And I fear +that his is too cavalier a wit, and that his sonnets and madrigals savor +too much of loyalty to the Anointed of the Lord and to His Church to +have proved acceptable to the worshipful company with whom I have been +engaged. I have to congratulate his Majesty's Surveyor-General on the +possession of such a library as, I dare swear, is to be found in no +other house in this, his Majesty's _loyal_ dominion of Virginia." + +Carrington glanced towards the cupboard, and bit his lip. + +"I am pleased," he said stiffly, "that your Excellency hath found +wherewithal to pass an idle hour." + +"It is, indeed, a choice collection," said the Governor, with a smooth +tongue, but with an angry light in his eyes. "May I ask by whom it was +chosen; who it was that so carefully culled nightshade and poison oak?" + +"_I_ choose my own reading," said Carrington haughtily. "And I see not +why Sir William Berkeley should concern himself--" + +"This passes!" exclaimed the Governor, giving rein to his fury and +striking his hand against the table. "It doth concern me much, Major +Carrington, both as a true man, and as the Governor of this Colony, the +representative of his blessed Majesty, King Charles the Second, may all +whose enemies, private and open, be confounded! that a gentleman who +holds a high office in this Colony should have in his possession--ay! +and read, too, for 'tis a well-thumbed copy--that foul emanation from a +fouler mind, that malicious, outrageous, damnable, proscribed book, +called 'Eikonoklastes!'" + +"If Sir William Berkeley doubts my loyalty--" began Carrington fiercely. + +"Major Carrington, you are too popular a man!" broke in the Governor as +fiercely. "When, upon that black day, ten years ago, the usurper's +frigates entered the Chesapeake, and taking us unprepared, compelled +(God forgive me!) my submission, who but Miles Carrington welcomed and +entertained the four commissioners (commissioners from a Roundhead +Parliament to a King's Governor!)? Who but Miles Carrington was hand in +glove with the shopkeeper Bennett and the renegade Matthews? Oh! they +used their power mildly, I deny it not! They were gracious and +long-suffering; they left to the loyal gentlemen, their sometime +friends, life and lands; they contented themselves with banishing a +loyal Governor to his own manor-house, and not, as they might have done, +to the wilderness, to perish amongst the savages. O, they were exemplary +despots! What, when a turn of Fortune's wheel brought them up, could +grateful, loyal gentlemen, could a grateful King's Governor do, but +follow the example set them and be civil to the officers of the late +Commonwealth, and something more than civil to the gentleman who so +gracefully avowed that he had but bowed to the times, and that the +restored sovereign had no more faithful subject than he? When his +Majesty was graciously pleased to continue that gentleman (at the +solicitation of his loyal kindred at home) in the office of +Surveyor-General to this colony, sure, we all rejoiced. It is not with +the past of Major Carrington that I quarrel; it is with the present. In +his case, that which should speak loudest for his recovered loyalty is +wanting. Others there are who have that witness. Let Mr. Digges ride +abroad, and from his cabin-door some prick-eared cur cried out, +'Renegade!' (Pardon me, the word is not mine.) The Oliverian and +schismatic servants spit at him. Is it so with Major Carrington? By +G--d, no! These people uncover to him as though he were the arch rebel +himself. Speak of his Majesty's Surveyor-General before an Oliverian, +and the fellow pricks up his ears like a charger that scents the battle. +Nay, I am told that in their conventicles the schismatics pray for him, +that he may be brought back into the fold, and may become a second +Moses, and lead them out of Egypt! Even the Quakers have a good word for +him. Major Carrington asks me if I question his loyalty. I answer that I +know not, but I do know that the discontented and mutinous of the land +do look upon him with too favorable a regard. And his loyalty is of that +tender age that it may well be susceptible to the influence of the evil +eye." The Governor, who was now in a white heat of passion, stopped for +breath. + +"Sir William Berkeley, you shall answer to me for this!" said the +Surveyor-General, with white lips. + +"With all the pleasure in life," said the Governor, clapping his hand to +his rapier. + +Carrington folded his arms. "Not now," he said, with stern courtesy. "I +believe your Excellency sleeps at Verney Manor? I, too, am invited +thither. There, and it please you, we will adjust our little difference. +For the present, you are my guest." + +The Governor choked down his passion, though with difficulty. "Till +to-night then--" he began, when Colonel Verney interposed. + +"Neither to-night, nor at any other time," he said sturdily. "Gadzooks! +have not his Majesty's servants enough on hand without employing their +time in pinking one another? Here are the Chickahominies restive, and +those plaguy Ricahecrians amongst us, and the Nansemond Independents +prophesying the end of the world, and the witches' trial coming on, and +the Quakers to be routed out, and on top of it all this story that +Ludlow brings of a redemptioner's assertion that there is afoot an +Oliverian plot. And his Majesty's Governor, and his Majesty's +Surveyor-General with drawn rapiers! For shame, gentlemen! Major +Carrington, my good friend and neighbor, for whose loyalty to our +present gracious sovereign I would answer for as I would for my own, +forget the hasty words which I am sure Sir William Berkeley already +regrets. Come, Sir William, acknowledge that you were over-choleric." + +"I'll be d--d if I do!" cried the Governor. + +"We meet to-night," said the Surveyor-General. + +The Colonel turned to Sir Charles Carew, who had been a highly amused +spectator of this little scene. + +"Charles," he said impressively, "report hath it that you have figured +in more affairs of honor than any man of your age at court. You should +be a nice judge of such gear. Join me in assuring these gentlemen that +they may be reconciled, and their honor receive not the least taint; and +so avert a duel which would be a scandal to the community, and a menace +to the state." + +Sir Charles glanced from the pacific Colonel to the sternly collected +Surveyor-General, and thence to the fiery Governor, whose white, jeweled +fingers twitched with impatience. + +"Certainly, sir," he said lazily, "you are welcome to my poor opinion, +which is that, considering the nature of the provocation, and the +standing of the parties, there is one way out of the affair with honor." + +"Exactly!" said the Colonel eagerly. + +Sir Charles locked his hands behind his head. "There's a very pretty +piece of ground behind your orchard, sir," he said, dreamily regarding +the ceiling. "I noticed it the other day, and sink me! if I did not +wish for Harry Bellasses with whom I have fought three times. 'Tis ever +a word and a blow with Harry! The light just at sunset is excellent, +though your twilight cometh over soon. May I venture to suggest to your +Excellency that your _riposte_ is more brilliant than safe? Major +Carrington, your parade is somewhat out of fashion. I could teach you +the newest French mode in five minutes." + +"I am obliged for your offer, sir," said the Surveyor-General dryly. +"The other has served my turn, and must do so again." + +"Sir Charles Carew will do me the honor to be my second?" asked the +Governor of that gentleman, who answered with a low bow, and a "The +honor is mine." + +"Captain Laramore?" said the Surveyor-General. + +"At your service, Major," cried the Captain, a dashing, black-a-vised +personage, with large gold rings in his ears, a plume a yard long in his +castor, and a general Drawcansir air. + +"Will Captain Laramore fight?" inquired Sir Charles. "I have had the +honor of changing the date for sailing for several gentlemen of his +profession." + +"Even so accomplished a swordsman as Sir Charles Carew is allowed to be, +hath yet a lesson to learn," said the doughty captain. + +"And that is--" + +"Pride shall have a fall--to-night." + +Sir Charles smiled politely. "The ship that is anchored off yonder point +is yours, is it not? Would you not like to take a last look at her? Or +to leave instructions for your lieutenant and successor? There is time +for you to gallop to the point and back." + +"Am I to have the honor of crossing swords with you, Colonel Verney?" +asked Mr. Peyton. + +"No, sir!" exclaimed the vexed Colonel. "You are not! I wash my hands of +this foolish fray. William Berkeley, I have never scrupled to tell thee +when I thought thee in the wrong. I think so now. Charles, thou art an +impudent fellow! I have it in my mind to wish that the Captain may give +thee the lesson he talks of." + +"Thank you, sir," drawled the gentleman addressed. "Mr. Peyton looks +quite disconsolate. Sink me! if it's not a shame to leave him out in the +cold. If he will wait his turn I will be happy to oblige him when I have +disposed of the Captain." + +"You will do no such thing!" retorted his kinsman. "Mr. Peyton, take +your hand off your sword! At least there shall be two sane men at this +meeting. I suppose, gentlemen, you agree with me that this affair cannot +be kept too private? To that end you had best ride with me to Verney +Manor, and there have it out on this plot of ground Charles talks of. It +is at least retired." + +"'Tis a most sweet spot," said Sir Charles. + +"Good!" quoth the Governor. "And now that this little matter is settled, +I am once more, and for the present, sir, simply your obliged guest and +servant," and he bowed to the Surveyor-General. + +Carrington returned the bow. "We will drink to our better acquaintance +to-night. Pompey! the sack and the aqua vitæ. And, Pompey! a handful of +mint." + +The company fell to drinking, and then to tobacco. The Governor, whose +fits of passion were as short as they were violent, arrived by rapid +degrees at a pitch of high good humor. The company listened gravely for +the fiftieth time to stories of the court of the first James; of +Buckingham's amours, of the beauty of Henrietta Maria, of a visit to +Paris, an interview with Richelieu, a duel with a captain of +Mousquetaires, a kiss imprinted upon the fair hand of Anne of Austria. +The charmed stream of the old courtier's reminiscences flowed on--he +stopped for breath, and Sir Charles took the word and proceeded to +unfold before their dazzled eyes a gorgeous phantasmagoria. The King, +the Duke, Sedley and Buckingham, Mesdames Castlemaine, Stuart and +Gwynne, Dryden and Waller and Lely, the King's house, the Queen's +chapel, the Queen's duennas, the Tityre Tus, Paul's Walk, the Russian +Ambassador, astrologers, orange girls, balls, masques, pageants, duels, +the court of Louis le Grand, the King's hunting parties, Madame +d'Orleans, Olympe di Mancini. + +The Governor listened with dilating nostrils and sparkling eyes; Colonel +Yerney's vexed countenance smoothed itself; Captain Laramore, sitting +with outstretched legs, and head hidden in clouds of tobacco smoke, +rumbled from out that obscurity laughter and strange oaths. Even Mr. +Peyton, after vainly trying to fix his attention upon the construction +of a sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow, succumbed to the enchantment, and +sat with parted lips, drinking in wonders; but the Surveyor-General, +though he listened courteously, listened with forced smiles and with an +attention which was hard to preserve from wandering. + +In the midst of a brilliant account of the nuptials of the Chevalier de +Grammont came an interruption. + +"De horses am fed an' brought roun', massa." + +The Governor started up. "Rat me, if good sack and good stories make +not a man forget all else beside! Colonel Verney, I wish you, as +lieutenant of this shire, to ride with me to this Chickahominy village +where I have promised an audience to the half king of the tribe. Plague +on the unreasonable vermin! Why can they not give way peaceably? If the +colony needs and takes their lands, it leaves them a plenty elsewhere. +Let them fall back towards the South Sea. Sir Charles, I grieve for the +necessity, but we must leave the court and come back to the wilderness. +Gentlemen, will you ride with Verney and me, or shall we part now to +meet at sunset in his orchard?" + +"We had best ride with your Excellency," said Carrington gravely. "I +like not the temper of the Chickahominies, who ever mean most when they +say least. And these roving Ricahecrians, their guests, are of a strange +and fierce aspect. It is as well to go in force." + +"Those vagrants from the Blue Mountains have been here overlong," said +the Governor. "I shall send them packing! Well, gentlemen, since we are +to have the pleasure of your company, boot and saddle is the word!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED + + +The sun had some time passed the meridian when the party saw through the +widening glades of the forest the gleam of a great river, and upon its +bank an Indian village of perhaps fifty wigwams, set in fields of maize +and tobacco, groves of mulberries, and tangles of wild grape. The +titanic laughter of Laramore and the drinking catch which Sir Charles +trolled forth at the top of a high, sweet voice had announced their +approach long before they pushed their horses into the open; and the +population of the village was come forth to meet them with song and +dance and in gala attire. The soft and musical voices of the young women +raised a kind of recitative wherein was lauded to the skies the virtue, +wisdom and power of the white father who had come from the banks of the +Powhatan to those of the Pamunkey to visit his faithful Chickahominies, +bringing (beyond doubt) justice in his hand. The deeper tones of the men +chimed in, and the mob of naked children, bringing up the rear of the +procession, added their shrill voices to the clamor, which, upon the +booming in of a drum and the furious shaking of the conjurer's rattle, +became deafening. + +The chant came to an end, but the orchestra persevered. Ten girls left +the throng, formed themselves into line, and advancing one after the +other with a slow and measured motion, laid at the feet of the Governor +(who had dismounted) platters of parched maize, beans and chinquepins, +with thin maize cakes. They were succeeded by two stalwart youths +bearing, slung upon a pole between them, a large buck which they +deposited upon the ground before the white men. There came a tremendous +crash from the drum, and a discordant scream from a long pipe made of a +reed. The crowd opened, and from out their midst stalked a venerable +Indian. + +"My fathers are welcome," he said gravely. + +"Where is the half king?" demanded the Governor sharply. "I have no time +for these fooleries. Make them stop that infernal racket, and lead us to +your chiefs at once." + +The Indian frowned at this cavalier reception of the village civilities, +but he waved his arm for the music to cease, and proceeded to conduct +the visitors through a lane made by two rows of dusky bodies and staring +faces, to a large wigwam in the centre of the village. Before this hut +stood a mulberry tree of enormous size, and seated upon billets of wood +in the shade of its spreading branches were the half king of the tribe +and the principal men of the village. + +Their faces and the upper portions of their bodies were painted red--the +color of peace. They wore mantles of otter skins, and from their ears +depended strings of pearl and bits of copper. To the earring of the half +king were attached two small, green snakes that twisted and writhed +about his neck; his body had been oiled and then plastered with small +feathers of a brilliant blue, and upon his head was fastened a stuffed +hawk with extended wings. + +To one side of this group stood a band of Indians, two score or more in +number, who differed in appearance and attire from the Chickahominies. +The iron had entered the soul of the latter; they had the bearing of a +subject race. Not so with the former. They were men of great size and +strength, with keen, fierce faces; their clothing was of the scantiest +possible description; ornaments they had, but of a peculiar +kind--necklaces and armlets of human bones, belts in which long tufts of +silk grass were interwoven with a more sinister fibre. They leaned on +great bows, and each sternly motionless figure looked a bronze Murder. + +The chief of the Chickahominies raised his eyes from the ground as the +Governor and his party entered the circle. "My white fathers are +welcome," he said. "Let them be seated," and looked at the ground again. +The "white fathers" took possession of half a dozen billets, and waited +in silence the next move of the game. After a while, the half king +lifted from the log beside him a pipe with a stem a yard long and a bowl +in which an orange might have rested. An Indian, rising, went to where a +fire burned beneath a tripod, and returning with a live coal between his +fingers, calmly and leisurely lighted the pipe. The half king, still in +dead silence, lifted it to his lips, smoked for five minutes, and handed +it to the Indian, who bore it to the Governor. The Governor drew two or +three tremendous whiffs and passed it on to Colonel Verney, who in his +turn transferred it to the Surveyor-General. When the monster pipe had +been smoked by each of the white men, it went the round of the savages. +An Indian summer haze began to settle around the company. Through it the +patient gazing throng on the outskirts of the circle became shadowy, +impalpable; the face of the half king, now hidden in shifting smoke +wreaths, now darkly visible, like that of an eastern idol before whom +incense is burned. There was no sound save the wash of the waters below +them, the sighing of the wind, the drone of the cicadas in the trees. +The Indians sat like statues, but the white men were more restive. The +elders managed to restrain their impatience, but Laramore began to +whistle, and when checked by a look from the Governor, turned to Sir +Charles with a comically disconsolate face and a shrug of the shoulders. +Whereupon the latter drew from his pocket, dice and a handful of gold +pieces. Laramore's face brightened, and the two, screened from +observation by the Colonel's shoulders, which were of the broadest, fell +to playing noiselessly, cursing beneath their breath. Mr. Peyton leaned +his elbow on his knee, and his chin upon his hand, and allowed the +dreamy beauty of the afternoon to overflow a poetic soul. + +At length, and when the patience of the whites was well-nigh exhausted, +the pipe came back to where the half king sat with lowered eyes and +impassive face. He laid it down beside him and rose to his feet, +gathering his mantle around him. + +"My white fathers are welcome," he said in a sonorous voice. "Very +welcome to the Chickahominies is the face of the white father, who rules +in the place of the great white father across the sea. Their corn feast +is not yet, and yet my people rejoice. Our hearts were glad when my +father sent word that he would this day visit his faithful +Chickahominies. Our ears are open: let my father speak." + +"I thank Harquip and his people for their welcome," said the Governor +coldly. "I have ever found them full of words. They profess loyalty to +the great white father beyond the seas, but they forget his good laws +and disobey his officers. I am weary of their words." + +"Tell me," said Harquip, with a sombre face, "are they good laws which +drive us from our hunting grounds? Are they good laws which take from us +our maize fields? Does the great white father love to hear our women cry +for food? or is his heart Indian and longs for the sound of the war +whoop?" + +"That is a threat," the Governor said sternly. + +The Indian waved his hands. "Have we not smoked the peace pipe?" he said +coldly. + +"Humph!" said the Governor then, "I am not come to listen to idle +complaints. Your grievances as to the land shall be laid before the next +Assembly, and it will pass judgment upon them--justly and righteously, +of course." + +"Ugh!" said the Indian. + +"I am here," continued the Governor, "to ask certain questions of the +Chickahominies, and to lay certain commands upon them which they will do +well to obey." + +"Let my father speak," said the Indian calmly. + +"Why did you shelter in your village the man with the red hair? Word was +sent to all the tribes, to the Nansemonds, the Wyanokes, the Cheskiacks, +the Paspaheghs, the Pamunkeys, the Chickahominies, that he should be +delivered up if they found him among them. Why did the Chickahominies +hide him?" + +"In the night time, the red fox came to the village of the +Chickahominies and burrowed there. The eyes of my people were closed: +they saw him not." + +"Humph! Why did you not carry your guns to the Court House when the +tribes were ordered to do so, a fortnight ago, and leave them there, +taking in exchange roanoke and fire-water?" + +"My fathers asked much," said the half king gloomily. "My young men love +their sticks-that-speak. They love to see the deer go down before them +like maize before the hail storm. My fathers asked much." + +"How many guns has your village?" + +"Five," was the prompt reply. + +"Humph! To-morrow you will deliver ten guns to the captain of the +trainband at the court-house. When do these men," pointing to the +stranger band, "return to their tribe?" + +"They are our friends. They wait to dance the corn dance with us. Then +will they return to the Blue Mountains, and will tell the Ricahecrians +of the great things they have seen, and of the wisdom and power of my +white fathers." + +"When is your corn feast?" + +"Seven suns hence." + +"They must be gone to-morrow." + +The face of the half king darkened, and there was a slight, instantly +repressed movement among the circle of braves. + +"My father asks very much," said the half king with emphasis. + +"Not more than I can, and will, enforce," said the Governor sternly, and +getting to his feet as he spoke. "You, Harquip, shall be answerable to +me and to the Council for these men's departure to-morrow. If by sunrise +of the next morning their canoes are far up the river, headed for the +Blue Mountains, if by the same hour the guns which you have retained in +defiance of the express decree of the Assembly, be given up to those at +the Court House, then will I overlook your hiding the man with the red +hair, and the Assembly will listen to your complaints as to your hunting +grounds. Disobey, and my warriors shall come, each with a +stick-that-speaks in his hand. I have spoken," and the Governor beckoned +to the servants who held the horses. + +The half king rose also. "My white father shall be obeyed," he said with +gloomy dignity. "He is stronger than we. Otee has been angry with the +red men for many years. He is gone over to the palefaces and helps their +god against the red men. My young men shall take their guns back to the +palefaces to-morrow, and shall bring back fire-water, and we will drink, +and forget that the days of Powhatan are past and that Otee fights +against us. Also when the Pamunkey is red with to-morrow's sunset, my +brothers from the Blue Mountains shall turn their faces homewards. My +father is content?" + +"I am content," said the Governor. + +"There is a thing which my brothers have to say to my white fathers," +continued the half king. "Will they hear the great chief, Black Wolf?" + +The Governor pulled out a great watch, glanced at it, and sighed +resignedly. "Gentlemen, have patience a moment longer. Harquip, I will +listen to the Ricahecrian until the shadow of that tree reaches the +fire. What says he?" + +The half king spoke to the strangers in their own tongue--their ranks +broke, and an Indian stalked forward to the centre of the circle. His +tall, powerful, nearly nude figure was thickly tatooed with +representations of birds and beasts; he wore an armlet of a dull, +yellow metal ("Gold! by the Eternal!" ejaculated the Governor to Colonel +Verney); over his naked, deeply scarred breast hung three strings of +hideous mementoes of torture stakes; the belt that held tomahawk and +scalping knife was fringed with human hair; beside his streaming +scalplock was stuck the dried hand of an enemy. The face beneath was +cunning, relentless, formidable. He spoke in his own language, and the +half king translated. + +"Black Wolf is a great chief. In his village in the Blue Mountains are +fifty wigwams--the largest is his. There are a hundred braves--he leads +the war parties. The Monacans run like deer, the hearts of the +Tuscaroras become soft, they hide behind their squaws! Black Wolf is a +great chief. Seven moons of cohonks have passed since the Ricahecrians +sharpened their hatchets and came down from the mountains to where the +waters of Powhatan fall over many rocks. There they met the palefaces. +The One above all was angry with his Ricahecrians. They saw for the +first time the guns of the palefaces. They thought they were gods who +spat fire at them and slew them with thunder. Their hearts became soft, +and they fled before the strange gods. Some the palefaces slew, and some +they took prisoner. Black Wolf saw his brother, the great chief Grey +Wolf, fall. The Ricahecrians went back to the Blue Mountains, and their +women raised the death chant for those whom they left stretched out on +the bank of the great river.... Seven times had the maize ripened, when +Black Wolf led a war party against a tribe that dwelt on the banks of +the Pamunkey where a fallen pine might span it. The waters ran red with +blood. When there were no more Monacans to kill, when the fires had +burnt low, Black Wolf looked down the waters of the Pamunkey. He had +heard that it ran into a great water that was salt, whose further bank a +man could not see. He had heard that the palefaces rode in canoes that +had wings, great and white. He thought he would like to know if these +things were true, or if they were but tales of the singing birds. To +find out, Black Wolf and his young men dipped their oars into the water +of the Pamunkey, and rowed towards the moonrise. In the morning they met +twenty men of the Pamunkeys in three canoes. The Pamunkeys lie deep in +the slime of the river; the eels eat them; their scalps shall hang +before the wigwams of Black Wolf and his young men. In the afternoon, +they drove their canoes into the reeds and went into the forest to find +meat. Black Wolf's arrow brought down a buck and they feasted. +Afterwards they caught a hunter who saw only the deer he was chasing. +They tied him to a tree and made merry with him. When he was dead, they +drew their boats from out the reeds, and rowed on down the broadening +river. The next day, at the time of the full sun-power, they came to +this village. Many years before the palefaces came, the Chickahominies +were a great nation, reaching to the foot of the Blue Mountains, and +then were they and the Ricahecrians friends and allies. When Black Wolf +showed them the totem of his tribe upon his breast, they welcomed him +and his young men. That was ten suns ago. Black Wolf and his young men +have seen many things. When they go back to the Blue Mountains, the +Ricahecrians will think they listen to singing birds. They will tell of +the great salt water, of the boats with wings, of the palefaces, of +their fields of maize and tobacco, of the black men who serve them, of +their temples, werowances and women. They will tell of the great white +father who rules, of his power, his wisdom, his open hand--" + +"I thought it would come at last," quoth the Governor. "What does he +want, Harquip?" + +"The Ricahecrian starts for his wigwam in the Blue Mountains to-morrow +as my father commands. He says: 'Shall I not return to my people with a +gift from the great white father in my hand?'" + +The Governor laughed. "Let one of your young men go to the court-house. +I will give him an order for beads, for a piece of red cloth, and yes, +rat me! he shall have a mirror! I hope he is satisfied!" + +The half king's eyes gleamed covetously. "My father gives large gifts. +He has indeed an open hand. But the Ricahecrian desires another thing. +He says: 'Seven years ago, at the falls of the Powhatan, Black Wolf saw +his brother fall before the stick-that-speaks of the palefaces. Grey +Wolf was a great chief. The village in the Blue Mountains mourned very +much. Nicotee, his squaw, went wailing into the land of shadows. His son +hath seen but seven moons of corn, but he dreams of the day when he +shall sharpen the hatchet against the slayers of his father.... The +Chickahominies have told Black Wolf that his brother was wounded and not +slain by the palefaces. They brought him captive to their great board +wigwams. There they tied him not to the torture stake; they knew that a +Ricahecrian laughs at the pine splinters. They tortured his spirit. They +made him a woman. The great chief of the Ricahecrians no longer throws +the tomahawk--the guns of the palefaces are about him. He dances the +corn dance no more--his back is bowed with burdens. His arrow brings +not down the fleeing deer, he tracks not the bear to his den--he toils +like a squaw in the fields of the palefaces. Black Wolf says to the +white father: "Give back the Sagamore to the Ricahecrians, to his son, +to the village by the falling stream in the Blue Mountains. Then will +the Ricahecrians be friends with the palefaces forever." To-morrow Black +Wolf and his young men row towards the sunset; let the captive chief be +in their midst. This is the gift which Black Wolf asks of his white +fathers. He has spoken.'" + +In the midst of a dead silence the half king took his seat and studied +the ground. The Chickahominies, squatted round the circle, stirred not a +finger, and the outer row of spectators, motionless against a background +of interlacing branches patched with vivid blue, seemed a procession in +tapestry. The Ricahecrians and their formidable chief maintained a stony +gloom. Whatever interest they felt in the fate of their captive chief +was carefully concealed. The sun, now hanging, broad and red, low in the +heavens might have been the Gorgon's head and the whole village staring +at it. + +The Governor began to laugh. Sir Charles chimed in musically and +Laramore followed suit. The Surveyor-General frowned, but the Colonel, +after one or two attempts at sobriety of demeanor, succumbed, and the +trio became a quartette. The glades of the forest rang to the jovial +sound--it was as though there were enchantment in the golden afternoon, +or in the ring of dark and frowning countenances before them, for they +laughed as though they would never stop. Even the servants at the +horses' heads were infected, and laughed at they knew not what. + +The Surveyor-General lost patience. "I think the Jamestown weed groweth +in these woods," he said dryly. + +The Governor pulled himself together. "Faith! I believe you are right!" +he said airily. "But rat me! if the impudence of the varlets be not the +most amusing thing since the Quaker's plea for toleration!" + +"The amusement seems to be on our side," said the Surveyor-General. + +The Governor cast a careless glance in the direction indicated by the +other. "Pshaw! a fit of the sulks! They will get over it. Is this +precious captive the giant whom I have seen at Rosemead, Major +Carrington?" + +"Not so, your Excellency. My man is a Susquehannock." + +"I believe I may lay claim to the fellow, Sir William," said the +Colonel, wiping his eyes. + +"Is he the Indian who was whipt the other day?" asked Sir Charles, +taking snuff. + +"For stealing fire-water--yes." + +The Governor began to laugh again. "Of course you will release the +rascal, Colonel? The Blue Mountains threaten war if you do not. Fling +yourself into the breach, and so prevent a 'scandal to the community and +a menace to the State,' to quote your words of this morning. Consistency +is a jewel, Dick the Peacemaker. Wherefore let the savage go." + +"I'll be d--d if I do!" cried the Colonel. + +The Governor, shaking with laughter, got to his feet. At a signal his +groom brought up his horse and held the stirrup for him to mount. His +Excellency swung himself into the saddle and gathered the reins into his +gauntleted hands; the remainder of the company, too, got to horse. The +Governor's steed, a fiery, coal black Arabian, danced with impatience. + +"Selim scents a fray!" cried his Excellency. "Come on, gentlemen! 'T +will be sunset before we reach that sweet piece of earth behind Verney's +orchard." + +The half king rose from his seat, took three measured strides, and stood +side by side with the Ricahecrian chief. + +"My white father will give to the Ricahecrian the gift he asks?" + +A gust of passion took the Governor. "No!" he thundered, turning in his +saddle. "The Ricahecrian may go to the devil and the Blue Mountains +alone!" He struck spurs into his horse's sides. "Gentlemen, we waste +time!" + +The Arabian dashed down one of the winding glades of the forest; the +remainder of the party spurred their horses into the mad gallop known as +the "planter's pace," and in an instant the whole cavalcade had whirled +out of sight. A burst of laughter, made elfin by distance, came back to +the village on the banks of the Pamunkey, then all was quiet again. The +gold-laced, audacious company had vanished like a troop of powerful +enchanters, leaving behind them a sullen throng of native genii, kept +down by a Solomon's Seal which is _not_ always unbreakable. + +Something stirred in the midst of the great mulberry tree, a tree so +vast and leafy that it might have hidden many things. A man swung +himself down with a lithe grace from limb to limb, and finally dropped +into the circle of Indians who stood or sat in a sombre stillness which +might mean much or little. Only on the outskirts the crowd of women, +children and youths, had commenced a low, monotonous, undefined noise +which had in it something sinister, ominous. It was like the sound, dull +and heavy, of the ground swell that precedes the storm. The man who +dropped from the tree was Luiz Sebastian, and his appearance seemed in +no degree to surprise the Indians. There followed a short and +sententious conversation between the mulatto, the half king and the +Ricahecrian chief. Beside the half king lay the still smoking peace +pipe. When the colloquy was ended, he raised it. At a signal an Indian +brought water in a gourd, and into it the half king plunged the glowing +bowl. The fire went out in a cloud of hissing steam. The sound of the +ground swell became louder and more threatening. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE DUEL + + +The trees of the orchard stood out black against a crimson sky. "Faith! +it is a color we shall see more of presently," said Laramore, divesting +himself of his doublet. + +His antagonist, passing a laced handkerchief along a gleaming blade, +smiled politely. "A pretty tint. Wine, the lips of women, Captain +Laramore's blood--Lard! 'tis a color I adore!" + +"Gentlemen!" cried Colonel Verney. "Once more I beg of you to forego +this foolish quarrel. William Berkeley, for the first time in your life, +be reasonable!" + +The Governor turned sharply, his chest, beneath his shirt of finest +holland, swelling, each closely cropped hair upon his head, bared for +action, stiff with injured dignity. + +"Colonel Richard Verney forgets himself," he began angrily; then, +"Confound you, Dick! keep your hands out of this. I don't want to fight +you too! I say not that this gentleman is disloyal, but I do say, and I +will maintain it with the last drop of my blood, that he strives to draw +to himself a party in the State, with what intent he best knows. If he +choose to pocket that assertion and withdraw, I am content." + +"On guard, sir," said Carrington, raising his sword. + +The Colonel shrugged his shoulders, and returned to his post beside Mr. +Peyton. + +"Very well, gentlemen, since you will not be ruled. Are you ready?" + +The rapiers clashed together, and the game began. + +The Governor fenced brilliantly, if a trifle wildly; his antagonist with +a cool steadiness of manner and an iron wrist. Laramore fought with +bull-like ferocity, striving to beat down his opponent's guard, making +mad lunges, stamping, and keeping up a continuous rumble of oaths. Sir +Charles, always smiling, and with an air as if his thoughts were +anywhere but at that particular spot, put aside his thrusts with the +ease with which the toreador avoids the bull. + +Mr. Peyton was moved to reluctant admiration. "When I was in London, +sir," he said in an excited whisper to the Colonel, "I did see Mathews +fight with Westwicke, and thought I had seen fencing indeed, but your +cousin--ah!" + +Laramore's sword described a curve in the air, and lodged in the boughs +of an apple-tree, while its owner staggered forward and fell heavily to +the ground. At the same instant Carrington wounded the Governor in the +wrist. Colonel Verney struck up the weapons. "By the Lord, gentlemen! +you shall go no further! Jack Laramore's down, run through the shoulder! +Major Carrington, you have drawn blood--it is enough." + +"If Sir William Berkeley is content," began Carrington, bowing to his +antagonist. + +"Rat me! I've no choice," said the Governor ruefully. "You've disabled +my sword arm, and the gout has the other." + +"I shall be happy to wait until the wound shall have healed," said the +Surveyor-General, with another bow. + +"No, no," said his Excellency, with a laugh. "We'll cry quits. And rat +me! if now that we have had it out, I do not love thee better, Miles +Carrington, than ever I did before. In the morning when thou goest home, +burn thy library, burn Milton and Bastwick, and Withers, and the rest of +the rogues, forswear such rascally company forever, and rat me! if I +will not maintain that thou art the honestest, as well as the +longest-headed, man in the colony. There's my hand on it, and to-night +we'll have a rouse such as would make old Noll turn in his grave if he +had one." + +Carrington took the proffered hand courteously, if coldly. "I thank your +Excellency for your advice. Your Excellency should have your wound +attended to at once. You are losing a deal of blood." + +"Tut, a trifle!" said the Governor, airily, winding a handkerchief about +the bleeding member. + +"Is there ever a chirurgeon upon the place?" asked Sir Charles in his +most dulcet tones. "If not, I fear that Captain Laramore will very +shortly make his last voyage." + +"Egad! that will never do!" cried the Colonel, dropping upon his knees +beside the wounded man. "A bad thrust! Charles, thou art the very +devil!" + +"Shall I ride for the doctor?" cried Mr. Peyton. + +"No. Anthony Nash is at the house. Run, lad, and fetch him. He is +surgeon as well as divine." + +Mr. Peyton disappeared; and presently there stood in the midst of the +group gathered about the unconscious captain, a man clad in a clerical +dress and of a very dignified and scholarly demeanor. + +"Ha, gentlemen!" he said gravely, looking with bright, dark eyes from +one to the other. "This is a sorry business. Shirts, drawn rapiers, +trampled turf, Sir William bleeding, Captain Laramore senseless upon the +ground! His Excellency the Governor; Major Carrington, the +Surveyor-General; Colonel Verney, the lieutenant of the +shire;--scandalous, gentlemen!" + +"And Anthony Nash who would give his chance of a mitre to have been one +of us," cried the Governor. "Ha! Anthony! dost remember the fight behind +Paul's, three to one,--and the baggage that brought it about?" + +The divine, on his knees beside Laramore, looked up with a twinkle in +his eye from his work of tying laced handkerchiefs into bandages. "That +was in the dark ages, your Excellency. My memory goeth not back so far. +Ha! that is better! He is coming to himself. It is not so bad after +all." + +Laramore groaned, opened his eyes, and struggled into a sitting posture. + +"Blast me! but I am properly spitted. Sir Charles Carew, my compliments +to you. You are a man after my own heart. Ha, your Excellency! I find +myself in good company. Dr. Anthony Nash, I shall have you out! You have +torn the handkerchief Mistress Lettice Verney gave me." + +The Doctor laughed. "You must be got to the house at once, and to bed, +where Mistress Lettice, who is as skillful in healing as in making +wounds, shall help me to properly dress this one." + +Laramore staggered to his feet. "Give me an arm, Doctor; and Peyton, +clap my periwig upon my head, will you? and fetch me my sword from where +I see it, adorning yonder bough. Sir Charles Carew, I am your humble +servant. Damme! it's no disgrace to be worsted by the best sword at +Whitehall." And the gallant captain, supported by the clergyman and Mr. +Peyton, reeled off the ground; the remainder of the party waiting only +to assume doublets and wigs before following him to the house. + +Two hours later Sir Charles Carew rose from the supper-table, and +leaving the gentlemen at wine, passed into the great room, and came +softly up to Patricia, sitting at the spinet. + +"My heart was not there," he said, answering her smile and lifted brows. +"I am come in search of it." + +She laughed, fingering the keys. "Did you leave it on the field of +honor? Fie, sir, for shame! Doctor Nash says that Captain Laramore will +not use his arm for a fortnight." + +"What--" said Sir Charles, dropping his voice and leaning over +her--"what if I had been the wounded one?" + +"I would have made your gruel with great pleasure, cousin." + +She laughed again, and looked at him half tenderly, half mockingly. +There were silver candlesticks upon the spinet and the light from the +tall wax tapers fell with a white radiance over the slender figure in +brocade and lace, the gleaming shoulders, the beautiful face, and the +shining hair. Her eyes were brilliant, her mouth all elusive, mocking, +exquisite curves. + +He raised a wandering lock of gold to his lips. "The King hath written, +commanding me home to England," he said abruptly. + +"Yes, my father told me. He says the King loves you much." + +Sir Charles left her side, twice walked the length of the room, and +came back to her. "Am I to go as I came--alone?" he asked, standing +before her with folded arms. + +"If you so desire, sir?" + +"Will you go with me?" + +"Yes." + +He caught her in his arms; but she cried out and freed herself. + +"No, no, not yet!" she said breathlessly. "Listen to me." + +She moved backwards a step or two, and stood facing him, her hand at her +bosom, a color in her cheek, her eyes like stars. "I do not know that I +love you, Sir Charles Carew. At times I have thought that I did; at +times, not. There is an unrest here," touching her heart, "which has +come to me lately. I do not know--it may be the beginning of love. Last +night my father had much talk with me. It is his dearest wish that you +and I should wed. He has been my very good father always. If you will +take me as I am, not loving you yet, but with a heart free to learn, +why--" Her voice broke. + +Sir Charles flung himself at her feet, and, taking possession of her +hands, covered them with kisses. A voice passed the window, singing +through the night:-- + + "Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow, + And shake the green leaves from the tree; + O gentle death, when wilt thou come? + For of my life I am weary." + +"Margery again?" said Sir Charles, rising. + +"Yes," said Patricia, with a troubled voice. + +The voice began the stanza again:-- + + "Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow, + And shake the green leaves from the tree?" + +"What is the matter?" cried Sir Charles in alarm. + +Patricia stared at him with wide, unseeing eyes. "Martinmas wind," she +said in a low, clear, even voice. "Martinmas wind! The leaves drift in +clouds, yellow and red, red like blood. Look at the river flowing in the +sunshine! And the tall gray crags! Ah!" and she put her hands before her +face. + +"What is it?" cried her suitor. "What is the matter? You are ill!" + +She dropped her hands. "I am well now," she said tremulously. "I do not +know what it was. I had a vision--" she broke into wild laughter. + +"I am fey, I think," she cried. "Let me go to my room; I am better +there." + +He held the door open, and she passed him quickly with lowered eyes. He +watched her run up the stairs, and then threw himself into a chair and +stared thoughtfully at the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN + + +The master of Verney Manor and his guests slept late, for the carouse of +the night before had been deep and prolonged. The master's daughter rose +with the sun, and went down into the garden, and thence through the +wicket into the mulberry grove, where she found Margery sitting on the +ground, tying golden-rod to her staff. "Come and walk with me, Margery," +she said. + +Margery rose with alacrity. "Where shall we go?" she asked in a whisper. +"To the forest? There were eyes in the forest last night, not the great, +still, solemn eyes that stare at Margery every night, but eyes that +glowed like coals, and moved from bush to bush. Margery was afraid, and +she left the forest, and sat by the water side all night, listening to +what it had to say. A star shot, and Margery knew that a soul was on its +way to Paradise, where she would fain go if only she could find the +way.... There are purple flowers growing by the creek between the cedar +wood and the marsh. Let us go gather them, and trim Margery's staff very +bravely." + +"I care not where we go," said her mistress. "There as well as +elsewhere." + +"Come, then," said Margery, and took the lead. + +When they had entered the strip of cedars which lay between the wide +fields and the point of land on which stood the third tobacco house, +Patricia stopped beneath a great tree. "We will go no further, Margery," +she said. + +Margery objected. "The purple flowers grow by the water side." + +"Do you go and gather them then," said Patricia wearily. "I will wait +for you here." + +Margery glided away, and her mistress sat down upon the dark-red earth +at the foot of the tree. There was a cold and sombre stillness in the +wood. The air smelt chill and dank, and the light came through the low, +closely woven roof of foliage, as though it were filtered through crape, +but at the end of the vista of trees shone a glory of sea and sky and +gold-green marsh. Patricia gazed with dreamy eyes. "It is all fair," she +said. "What was it that Dr. Nash read? 'My lines are fallen in pleasant +places.' Riches and honor, and, they say, beauty, and many to love +me.--O Lord God! I wish for happiness!" She laid her cheek against the +cool earth, and the splendor before her wavered into a mist of rose and +azure. "Why should I weep," she said, "that my lines are laid in +pleasant places?" + +Margery with her arms filled with flowers appeared at her side. "Here +are the purple flowers," she said. "Here is farewell-summer for me and a +passion-flower for you." She threw the blooms upon the ground, and +sitting down at her mistress's feet, began to weave them into garlands. +Presently she took up the passion-flower. "This grew beside the tobacco +house, close to the wall. Margery saw it, and ran to pluck it. The door +of the tobacco house was closed, but above the passion-flower was a +great crack between the logs." She began to laugh. "Margery heard a +strange thing, while she was plucking the passion-flower. Shall she tell +it to you?" + +"If you like, Margery," said Patricia indifferently. + +Margery leaned forward, and laid a cold, thin hand upon her mistress' +arm. + +"There were seven men in the tobacco house. One said, 'When the +Malignants are put down, what then?' and another answered, 'Surely we +will possess their lands and their houses, their silver and their gold, +for is it not written, "The Lord hath given them a spoil unto their +servants."' Then the first said, 'Shall we not kill the Malignant, +Verney?' Margery heard no more. She came away." + +Patricia rose to her feet, pale, with brilliant eyes. + +"You heard no more?" + +"No." + +"Margery, show me the place where you listened." + +Margery took up her staff, and led the way to the outskirts of the wood. +"There," she said, pointing with her staff. "There, where the elder +grows." + +Patricia laid her hand on the mad woman's shoulder. "Listen to me, +Margery," she said in a low, distinct voice. "Listen very carefully. Go +quickly to the great house, and to my father, or to Woodson, or to Sir +Charles Carew give the message I am about to give you. Do you +understand, Margery?" + +Margery nodding emphatically, Patricia gave the message, and watched her +flit away through the gloom of the cedars into the sunlight beyond; then +turned and went swiftly and noiselessly across the strip of field to the +tall, dark, windowless tobacco house. As she neared it, there came to +her a low and undistinguishable murmur of voices which rose into +distinctness as she entered the clump of alders. + +Within the tobacco house were assembled the Muggletonian, the man +branded upon the forehead, the youth with the hectic cheek (who acted as +Secretary to the Surveyor-General), two newly purchased servants of +Colonel Verney, Trail and Godfrey Landless. In the uncertain light which +streamed from above through rents in the roof and crevices between the +upper logs the interior of the tobacco house looked mysterious, +sinister, threatening. Here and there tobacco still hung from the poles +which crossed from wall to wall, and in the partial light the long, +dusky masses looked wonderfully like other hanging things. The great +casks beneath had the appearance of shadowy scaffolds, and the men, +sitting or standing against them, looked larger than life. All was dusk, +subdued, save where a stray sunbeam, sifting through a crack in the +opposite wall, lit the ghastly face and shaven crown of the +Muggletonian. + +Landless, leaning against a cask, addressed a man of a grave and +resolute bearing--one of the newly acquired servants of Verney Manor. + +"Major Havisham, you are a wise and a brave man. I will gladly listen to +any counsel you may have to give anent this matter." + +Havisham shook his head. "I have nothing to say. The spirit of the +father lives in the son. Skillful in planning, bold in action was Warham +Landless!" + +"I am but the tool of Robert Godwyn," said Landless. "You approve, then, +of our arrangements?" + +"Entirely. It is a daring enterprise, but if it succeeds--" he drew a +long breath. + +"And if it fails," said Landless, "there is freedom yet." + +The other nodded. "Yes, death hath few terrors for us." + +"What is death?" cried the hectic youth. "A short, dim passage from +darkness into light; the antechamber of the white court of God; the +curtain that we lift; the veil that we tear--and SEE! My soul longeth +for death, yea, even fainteth for the courts of God! But He will not +call His servants until His work is done. Wherefore let us haste to rise +up and slay, to work the Lord's work, and go from hence!" + +"Yea!" cried the Muggletonian. "I fear not death! I fear not the Throne +and the Judgment seat. The Two Witnesses will speak for me! But Death is +not upon us; he passeth by the weak, and seizeth upon the strong. The +Malignants shall die, for the word of the Lord has gone out against +them. 'Thy foot shall be dipped in the blood of thy enemies, and the +tongue of thy dogs into the same! They shall fall by the sword, they +shall be a portion for foxes; as smoke is drawn away so shall they +vanish, as wax melteth before the fire so shall they perish! He that +sitteth in the heavens shall have them in derision. And the righteous +shall rejoice in His vengeance!'" + +"Amen," drawled Trail through his nose. "Verily, we will fatten on the +good things of the land, we will spend our days in ease and +pleasantness! The Malignants shall work for us. They shall toil in our +tobacco fields, their women shall be our handmaidens, we will drink +their wines, and wear their rich clothing, and our pockets shall be +filled with their gold and silver--" + +"Silence!" cried Landless fiercely. "Once more I tell you, mad dreamers +that you are, that there shall be no such devil's work! Major Havisham, +there are not among us many of this ilk. Two thirds of our number are +men of the stamp of Robert Godwyn and yourself. These men rave." + +"I heed them not," said Havisham with a slighting gesture of the hand; +then, "Let us recapitulate. Upon this appointed day we whom they call +Oliverians, and the great majority of the redemptioners, are to rise +throughout the colony. We--" + +"Are to do no damage to property nor offer any unnecessary violence to +masters and overseers," said Landless firmly. + +"We are simply to arm ourselves, seize horses or boats, and resort to +this appointed place." + +"Yes." + +"Calling upon the slaves to follow us?" + +"Which they will do. Yes." + +"And when all are assembled, to oppose any force sent against us?" + +"Yes." + +"And if we conquer, then--" + +"Then the Republic,--Commonwealth,--anything you choose--at any rate, +freedom." + +"It is a desperate plan." + +"We are desperate men." + +"Yes," Havisham said thoughtfully; "it is the best chance for that +escape of which we all dream, and which two of our number, I see, have +attempted in vain. I had set to-morrow night for my own attempt. This +promises better." + +"Yea," said Porringer, "the stars in their courses fight against the +refugee! Four times have I tried, to be retaken, and handled, as you +see. Twice has this man tried and failed. And the murderer of Robert +Godwyn failed." + +"That remains to be seen," said Trail. "Roach has broken gaol." + +The Muggletonian exclaimed, and Landless turned upon the forger. "How +do you know?" he asked sternly. + +"I heard," was the smooth reply. + +"I am sorry for it," said Landless grimly, and stood with a sternly +thoughtful countenance. + +There was a silence in the tobacco house broken by Havisham. + +"And now--for time passes and the overseer may come and find us not at +our tasks--tell me the day upon which we are to rise, and the place to +which all are to resort." + +"Both are close at hand," said Landless slowly. "The day is--" he broke +off and leaned forward, staring through the dusk. + +"What is it?" cried Havisham. + +"My eyes met other eyes. There, behind that great crack between the +logs!" + +The Muggletonian rushed to the door, flung it open, and vanished; the +branded man followed. The remaining occupants of the tobacco house +started to their feet, and Havisham picked from the floor a pole and +broke from it a stout cudgel. Godfrey Landless strode forward into the +broad shaft of sunshine that entered through the opened door and met the +eavesdropper face to face, as, with either arm in the rude grasp of the +fanatics, she crossed the threshold. + +The conspirators, recognizing the lady of the manor, were stricken dumb. +In the three minutes of dead silence which ensued they saw their plans +defeated, their hopes ruined, their cause vanquished, their lives lost. +The graceful figure with white scorn in the beautiful face was death +come upon them. The shadow fell heavy and cold upon their souls, the +very air seemed to darken and grow chill around them The figure of the +woman in their midst gathered up the sunshine, became ethereal, +transplendent, a triumphant white and gold Spirit of Evil. + +Landless was the first to speak. "Unhand her!" he said in a suppressed +voice. + +The men obeyed, but the Muggletonian placed himself between his prisoner +and the door. She saw the movement and said scornfully, "You need not +fear; I shall not run away." Upon her bare, white arms, where they had +been clasped too rudely, were fast darkening marks. She glanced from +them to the scarred face of the Muggletonian. "_They_ will wear out," +she said. + +"Madam," said Landless hoarsely, "how long were you in that place?" + +She flashed upon him a look that was like a blow. "Liar! be silent!" she +said, then turned to the row of faces that frowned upon her from out the +shadow. "To you others I address myself. Traitors, rebellious servants, +base plotters! I hold your lives in my hand." + +"And your own?" said Trail. + +"Cursed daughter of the mother of evil!" cried the Muggletonian, a +baleful light burning in his eyes. "Scarlet woman, whose vain apparel, +whose uncovered hair and bared bosom, whose light songs and laughter +have long been an offense and a stumbling-block to the righteous--thy +cup of iniquity is full, thy life is forfeit, thy hour is come!" He drew +a knife from his bosom and with an unearthly cry flourished it above his +head, then rushed upon her, to be met by Landless, who hurled himself +upon the would-be murderer with a force that sent them both staggering +against the wall. A struggle ensued, which ended in Landless securing +the knife. With it in his hand he sprang to the side of the girl, who +stood unflinching, a pride that was superb in her still white face and +steadfast eyes. + +"Who touches her dies," he said between his teeth. + +Havisham came to his aid. "Men, are you mad? You cannot murder a +defenseless woman! Moreover such a deed would prove our utter ruin." + +"If her body were found, yes!" cried the hectic youth. "But the water is +near, and who is to know that the devil sent her hither?" + +"It is her death or ours," cried the branded man. + +The Muggletonian tossed his arms into the air. + +"The cause! the cause! Cursed be he that putteth his hand to the plough +and finisheth not the furrow! Ride on! Ride on! though it were over the +bodies of a thousand painted Jezebels such as this!" + +"Time presses!" cried the branded man. "Woodson may come!" + +They closed in upon the three who stood at bay. In their dark faces were +a passion and an exaltation--they saw in the woman fallen into their +hands, a sacrifice bound to the altar. Trail alone looked uneasy and +held back, muttering between his teeth. + +Landless stepped in front of Patricia and faced them with a still and +deadly eye, and with the hand that held the knife drawn back against his +breast. Knowing them, he saw no use in any appeal; also he saw that it +was indeed her life or theirs. On the one hand, the downfall of all +their hopes, the death or perpetual enslavement of many, and for himself +surely the gibbet and the rope; on the other-- + +He made a gesture of command. "Thou shalt do no murder!" he cried. + +"It is not murder; it is sacrifice." + +"There must be another way!" cried Havisham. + +"Find it!" + +Havisham turned to the prisoner. "Madam, will you swear to be silent +concerning what you have heard?" + +The Muggletonian laughed wildly. "Who trusts a woman's oath!" + +"You shall have no need," said the lady of the manor calmly. She paused +and her eyes went to the door in an intent and listening gaze, then came +back to the faces about her with a strange light in their depths. "Rebel +servants," she said in a clear, low voice, "I defy you! And you, false +slave, stand from before me. I need not your hateful aid." In the moment +of ominous silence that followed, she swayed towards the door, her hand +at her throat, her soul in her eyes. Suddenly she cried out, "My father! +Charles! help!" + +From without came an answering cry, followed by a rush of men through +the door, and in an instant the room was filled with struggling forms as +the two parties threw themselves upon each other. The newcomers were +half a dozen blacks, the two overseers and Sir Charles Carew. The +overseers had pistols and Sir Charles his sword. With it he met the rush +of the youth with the hectic cheek, who came towards him in long, +hound-like leaps, brandishing a piece of wood above his head, and drove +the blade deep into the chest of the fanatic. The wretched man staggered +and fell, then rose to his knees. Flinging his arms above his head, he +turned his worn face towards the flood of sunshine pouring in through +the door, and cried in a loud voice, "I see!" A stream of blood gushed +from his lips, his arms dropped, and without a groan he fell back, dead. + +Landless, wrestling with the slave Regulus, at length succeeded in +hurling the powerful figure to the ground, where it lay stunned, and +turned to find himself confronted by Woodson's pistol and the point of +Sir Charles's rapier. A glance showed him the remaining conspirators, +overpowered, and in the act of being bound with the ropes that had lain, +coiled for use in packing, in the corners of the tobacco house. The +hectic youth lay, a ghastly spectacle, in a pool of blood across the +doorway. At his feet was the branded man, a bullet through his brain, +and near him the groaning figure of Havisham's mortally wounded +companion. The woman who had brought all this to pass stood unharmed, +white, with tragic, exultant eyes. + +Sir Charles, serene and debonair, lowered his point. "Your hand is +played," he said with a fine smile. Landless's stern, despairing gaze +passed him and went on to the overseer. "I surrender to you," he said +briefly. + +Woodson chuckled grimly and stuck his pistol in his belt. He was in high +good humor, visions of reward and thanks from the Assembly dancing +before his eyes. "I've had my eye on you for some time, young man," he +said almost genially. "I've suspected that you were up to something, but +Lord! to think that a woman's wit should have trapped you at last! +Haines, bring that rope over here." + +Sir Charles went over to Patricia and offered her his arm. "Dearest and +bravest of women!" he said in a caressing whisper. "Come with me from +this place, which must be dreadful to you." + +She did not answer him at once, but stood looking past him at the +picture of laughing water and waving forest framed in the doorway. + +"I thought I should never see the sunshine again," she said dreamily. +"Did Margery give _you_ the message?" + +"Yes, she met me under the mulberries. I would not wait to rouse your +father, but calling the overseers and the blacks from the fields, came +at once." + +"I owe you my life," she said. "You and--" + +Her eyes left the summer outside and came back to the shadowy forms +within the tobacco house. "I will go with you directly, cousin," she +said quietly, "but first I wish to speak to that man." + +He shot a swift glance at her face, but drew back with a bow, and she +walked with a steady step up to Landless. "Fall back a little," she said +with an imperious wave of her hand to the men about him. They obeyed +her. Landless, left standing before her, his arms bound to his sides, +raised his head and looked her in the face. She met his eyes. "You lied +to me," she said in a low, even voice. + +"Once, madam, and to save others," he said proudly, + +"Not once, but twice. Do you think that now I believe that tale you told +me that night, that fairy tale of persecuted innocence? When I think +that I ever believed it I hate myself." + +"Nevertheless, it is true, madam." + +"It is false! Yesterday I thought of you as a gallant gentleman, greatly +wronged ... and I pitied you. To-day I am wiser." + +He held her eyes with his own for a moment, then let them go. "Some day +you will know," he said. + +She turned from him and held out her hands to Sir Charles. He hurried +to her and she clung to him. "Take me away," she said in a whisper. +"Take me home." + +He put his arm about her. "You are faint," he said tenderly. "Come! the +air will revive you." + +Supporting her on his arm, he guided her from the house. As they passed +the body stretched across the threshold, the skirt of her robe touched +the blood in which it was lying. She saw it and shuddered. + +"Blood is upon me!" she said. "It is an omen!" + +"A good one, then," said her companion coolly, "for it is the blood of a +fanatic traitor. Think not of it." He turned at the threshold and cast a +careless glance back into the tobacco house. "Woodson, get rid of this +carrion, and bring these men quietly to the great house, where your +master will deal with them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE QUESTION + + +"We know all but two things, but those are the most important of all," +said the Governor, tapping his jeweled fingers against the table. + +"It is much to be regretted," said the Surveyor-General, "that the +presence of the young lady was so soon discovered. Otherwise--" + +"Otherwise we might have had further information on more than one +subject," said the Governor dryly. + +"We must make the best of what we have," continued Carrington calmly. +"After all, it is enough." + +The Governor rose and began to pace the floor, his head thoughtfully +bent, his unwounded hand tugging at the curls of his periwig. "It is not +enough," he said at length, pausing before the great table around which +the company were seated. "Thanks to the gallant daughter of the gallant +Verneys,"--a bow and smile to Patricia, sitting enthroned in the great +chair in their midst,--"we know much, but it is not enough. These rogues +have set a day upon which to rise; they have appointed a place to which +they are to resort. That day may be to-morrow, that place any point in +any one of a dozen counties." + +"I apprehend that the cockatrice was to be hatched near by," said Sir +Charles. + +"It is the likeliest thing," answered the Governor, "seeing that their +ringleader belongs to this plantation. But we do not know. And there +may not be time to reach the planters, to give them warning, to arrest +these d--d traitors, scattered as they are from the James to +Rappahannock, and from Henricus to the Chesapeake. It might be best to +assemble the trainbands at this cursed spot if it can be found, and to +await their coming in force. But to know neither time nor place--to +start a hue and cry and have the storm burst before it reaches ten +plantations--to guard one point and see fire rise at another a dozen +leagues away--impossible! Gentlemen, we must come at the heart of this +matter!" + +"It is most advisable," said Colonel Verney gravely. "Examine the +prisoners again," suggested Sir Charles. + +"One of them is no wiser than we. You are certain as to this, Mistress +Patricia?" + +"Yes, your Excellency." + +"Humph! one does not know; three are dead; there remain, then, that +shaven and branded runaway and the two convicts." + +"You will learn naught from the runaway, your Excellency!" called out +the overseer from where he stood at a respectful distance from the +company. "He's one of them crazy fanatics that wild horses couldn't draw +truth from. No Indian torture stake could make him speak if he didn't +want to,--nor keep him from it if he did." + +"I know that kind," said the Governor, with a short laugh, "and we will +not waste time upon him, but will try if the convict--he who seems to +have been their leader--be not more amenable. Bring him in, Woodson." + +When the overseer had gone, a silence fell upon the company gathered in +the master's room. The Governor paced to and fro, perplexity in his +face; the Colonel knit his grizzled brows and studied the floor; Dr. +Anthony Nash brought the writing materials displayed upon the table, +closer to him, and held a quill ready poised for dipping into the ink +horn, while the Surveyor-General with a carefully composed countenance +toyed with a pink which he took from the bowl of flowers before him. Sir +Charles leaned back in his seat and looked at Patricia who, seated +between him and her father, stared before her with hard, bright eyes. +Her lips were like a scarlet flower against the absolute pallor of her +face; her hair was a crown of pale gold. In the great chair, her white +arms resting upon the dark wood, her feet upon a carved footstool, she +looked a queen, and the knot of brilliantly dressed gentlemen her +attendant council. + +The door opened and the two overseers appeared with Landless, who +advanced and stood, silent and collected, before the ring of hostile +faces. + +"What is your name, sirrah?" said the Governor, throwing himself into +his chair and frowning heavily. + +"Godfrey Landless." + +"I am told that you are son to one Warham Landless, a so-called colonel +in the rebel army and hand in glove with the usurper himself." + +"I am the son of Colonel Warham Landless of the forces of the +Commonwealth, and friend to his Highness the Lord Protector." + +"Humph! And did you fight in these same forces yourself?" + +"At Worcester, yes." + +"Humph! the son of a traitor and rebel--traitor and rebel yourself--and +convict to boot! A pretty record! On what day was this rising to +occur?" + +No answer. The Governor repeated the question. "On what day was this +precious mine to be sprung? And to what place were you to resort?" + +Landless remaining silent, the Governor's face began to flush and the +veins in his forehead to swell. "Have you lost your tongue?" he said +fiercely. "If so, we will find a way to recover it." + +"I shall not answer those questions," said Landless firmly. + +"It is your one chance for life," said the Governor sternly. "Answer me +truly, and you may escape the gallows. Refuse, and you hang, so surely +as I sit here." + +"I shall not answer them." + +"Sink me if I ever knew a Roundhead so careless of his own interests," +drawled Sir Charles. The Governor whispered to the master of the +plantation, then turned again to the prisoner. + +"I give you one more chance," he said harshly. "When is this day? Where +is this place?" + +"I shall not tell you." + +"We will see about that," said his Excellency with compressed lips. +"Verney, send your daughter from the room. Woodson, you understand this +gear, having been in the Indies. This man is to tell us all that he +knows of this business. Call in a trustworthy slave or two to help you." + +Patricia uttered a low cry, and the Surveyor-General crushed the flower +between his fingers and turned upon the Governor. "Your Excellency! I +protest! This that you would do is not lawful! Surely such harsh +measures are not needed." + +The Governor's fury exploded. "Not needful!" he exclaimed in a high +voice. "Not needful, when upon these questions hang the fortunes of the +Colony! when if we fail, to-morrow may usher in a blacker forty-four! +And not lawful! I am the law in this. State, Major Carrington; I am the +King's representative, and this is my prerogative! and I say that by +fair means or foul this information must be gained. This is no time to +prate of humanity. We are to show humanity to ourselves; we are to stamp +out this lit fuse. Or does Major Carrington wish it to burn on?" + +"No," said Carrington coldly. "I spoke hastily. You are right, of +course, and I will interfere no further." + +An hour later Patricia stood before the hall window looking out upon the +dazzling water and the green velvet of the marshes with wide, unseeing +eyes. Her hands were clenched at her sides and upon each cheek burned a +crimson spot. Beside her crouched Betty Carrington who, upon the first +rumor of trouble at Verney Manor, had ridden over from Rosemead. Their +strained ears caught no sound from the room opposite other than the +occasional sound of the Governor's voice, raised in interrogation. There +came no answering voice. Patricia stood motionless, with eyes that never +wandered from the rich scene without, and with lips pressed together, +but Betty hid her face in the other's skirts and shivered. The door of +the master's room opened and both started violently. The overseer strode +down the hall and had laid his hand upon the latch of the door leading +to the offices, when his mistress called him to her. "Do they know? Has +the man told?" she asked with an effort. + +Woodson shook his head. "He's as dumb as an oyster. Might as well try to +get anything from an Indian. They're going to try t' other--Trail." + +He left the hall, but was back in five minutes' time with the forger. +They entered the master's room, and Patricia, seized by a sudden +impulse, followed them, leaving Betty trembling in the window seat. + +Unnoted by all but one of the company, she slipt to a seat in the shadow +of her father's burly shoulders. He was leaning forward, talking to the +Governor, who sat very erect, his features fixed in an expression of +dogged determination. The Surveyor-General sat well behind the table, +and upon the polished wood before him lay a little heap of torn petals +and broken stems. At the far end of the room and leaning heavily against +the wall was the prisoner whose examination was just finished. + +Sir Charles had seen the entrance of the lady of the manor, and he now +rose from his seat and came to her. "Not a syllable," he whispered in +answer to the question in her eyes. "Roundhead obstinacy! But I think +that this fellow will prove more malleable." + +His prediction was verified. Ten minutes later the Governor rose to his +feet triumphant. "So!" he said, drawing a long breath. "We are, I think, +gentlemen, at the very core at last. The time, day after to-morrow; the +place, Poplar Spring in this county. And now to work! Those of these +d--d Oliverians whom we can reach must be arrested at once. Swift +messengers must be sent to all plantations far and near. The trainbands +must be called out. Time presses, gentlemen!" + +"And these men?" said the Colonel. + +"Must go to Jamestown gaol, where the one shall hang as surely as my +name is William Berkeley. For the other--" + +"Your Excellency has promised me my life," said Trail cringingly, but +with an inscrutable something that was not fear in his sinister green +eyes. + +"An escort must be gotten together," said the Colonel, "and the day is +far advanced. I advise keeping them here until the morning." + +"See that you keep them straitly then," said the Governor. + +"Trust me for that, your Excellency," said the overseer grimly. + +"Then to work, gentlemen," cried the Governor, "for there is much to do +and but little time to do it in. Major Carrington, you with Mr. Peyton +will ride with me to Jamestown. Colonel Verney, you will know what +measures to take for the safety of your shire. Woodson, have the horses +brought around at once." + +The Council broke up in haste and confusion, and its members, talking +eagerly, streamed into the hall. Carrington was the last in line, and he +paused before Landless. The under overseer and the slave Regulus were at +a little distance replacing the cords about Trail's arms. The +Surveyor-General cast a quick glance towards the door, saw that the last +retreating figure was that of Mr. Peyton, and approached his lips close +to Landless's ear. + +"You are a brave man," he said in a low and troubled voice. "From my +soul I honor you! I would have saved you, would save you now if I could. +But I am cruelly placed." + +"I have no hope for this life--and no fear," said Landless calmly. + +Carrington paused irresolute, and a flush rose to his face. "I would +like to hear you say that you do not blame me," he said at last with an +effort. + +"I do not blame you," said Landless. + +Woodson appeared in the doorway. "The Governor is waiting, Major +Carrington." + +"If I can do ought to help you, I will," said Carrington hastily, and +left the room. A moment later came the jingling of reins and the sound +of rapid hoofs quickening into the planter's pace as the Governor and +the Surveyor-General whirled away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A MESSAGE + + +In an unused attic room of the great house lay Godfrey Landless, cords +about his ankles, and his arms bound to his sides by cords and by a +thick rope, one end of which was fastened to a beam on the wall. He was +alone, for the Muggletonian, Havisham and Trail were confined in the +overseer's house. Opposite him was a small window framing a square of +sky. He had watched light clouds drift across it, and the sun pass +slowly and majestically down it, and the sunset turn the clouds into +floating blood-red plumes. He had been there since noon. Thick walls +kept from him all sound in the house below--it might have been a house +of the dead. Through the closed window came the low, incessant hum of +the summer world without, but no unusual noise. He had heard the sunset +horn, and the song of the slaves coming from the fields, and as dusk +began to fall, the cry of a whip-poor-will. + +When the door had closed upon the retreating figures of the men who +brought him there, he had thrown himself upon the floor where he lay, +faint from physical anguish, in a stupor of misery, conscious only of a +sick longing for death. This mood had passed and he was himself again. + +As he lay with his eyes following the fiery, shifting feathers of cloud, +he remembered that the gaol at Jamestown faced the south, and he +thought, "This is the last sunset I shall ever see." He had the strong +abiding faith of his time and party, and he looked beyond the clouds +with an awe and a light in his eyes. Verses learnt at his mother's knee +came back to him; he said them over to himself, and the tender, solemn, +beneficent words fell like balm upon his troubled heart. He thought of +his mother who had died young, and then of scenes and occurrences of his +childhood. All earthly hope was past, there could be no more struggling; +in a little while he would be dead. Dying, his mind reverted, not to the +sordid misery from which death would set him free, but to the long past, +to the child at the mother's knee, to the boy who had climbed down great +cliffs in search of a smuggler's cave. The unearthly light that rests +upon that time so far behind us shone strong for him--he saw every twig +in the rooks' nests in the lofty elms, every ivy leaf about a ruined +oriel, black against a gold sky; the cool, dark smell of the box alleys +filled his nostrils; the sound of the sea came to him; he heard his +mother singing on the terrace. He bowed his face with a sudden rain of +tender, not sorrowful, tears. + +Something crashed in at the window, splintering the coarse glass and +falling upon the floor at a little distance from him. It was a large +pebble, to which was tied a piece of paper. He started up and made for +it, to be brought up within two feet of it by the tug of the rope which +bound him to the wall. He thought a moment, then lay down upon the floor +and found that he could touch the end of the string that tied the paper +to the pebble. He took it between his teeth and slowly drew it towards +him, then, rising to his knees, he strained with all his might at the +cords that bound his arms. They were tightly drawn, but when at length +he desisted, panting, he had so loosened them that he could move one +hand a very little way. With it and with his teeth he disengaged the +paper from the pebble and spread it upon his knee. There was just light +enough to read the sprawling schoolboy hand with which it was covered. +It ran thus:-- + +"I don't know as this will ever reach you. I am doing all I can. Luiz +Sebastian has not let me get at arm's length from him since I overheard +him and the Turk, and a sailor from Captain Laramore's ship and _Roach_ +at the hut on the marsh, two hours ago. They would have killed me there, +but I ran, and he did not catch me until I was almost to the quarters. +He will kill me though in a little while, I know; he has a knife and he +is sitting on the doorstep, and the Turk is with him, and I can not +pass them. He held his hand over my mouth and the knife to my heart when +Woodson went the rounds, and I couldn't make no sound--Lord have mercy +upon me! I write this with my blood, on a leaf from your Bible, while he +sits there whispering to the Turk. He goes to his own cabin directly and +he will take me with him and kill me there, I know he will. He goes to +the stables first and I must go with him. If we pass close enough, and +if I can do it without his seeing me I will throw this in at the window +of the room where I know you are, if not--the Lord help us all!... +Landless, for God's sake! before moonrise to-night the Chickahominies +and the Ricahecrians from the Blue Mountains will come down on the +plantation. With them are leagued Luiz Sebastian, the Turk, Trail, +Roach, and most of the slaves.... When all is over, the Indians will +take the scalps and Grey Wolf and will make for the Blue Mountains; Luiz +Sebastian and the others will seize the boats and put off for the ship +at the Point. Her crew will give her up and they will all turn pirate +together. The women go with them if they can keep them from the Indians; +the men are all to be killed.... I have told you all I heard. For God's +sake, save them if you can,--and remember poor Dick Whittington." + +Dropping the paper, Landless strained with all his might, first at the +cords which bound his arms, and then at the rope which fastened him to +the wall. Again and again he put forth the strength of despair--his +muscles cracked, great beads stood upon his forehead--but the ropes +held. As well as he could with his shackled feet he stamped upon the +floor; he called aloud, but there came no answering voice or sound from +below. He was at the end of the house over unused chambers, and the +walls and flooring were very thick. He clenched his teeth and began +again the battle with the cords which held him. All in vain. He shouted +until he was hoarse--it was crying aloud in a desert. With a groan he +leaned against the wall, gathering strength for another effort. It was +dark now and the moon rose at eleven.... There was a piece of glass upon +the floor, one of the splinters from the shattered window. He remembered +noticing it--a long narrow piece like the blade of a knife. Sinking to +his knees he felt for it, and after a long time found it. He now had a +knife, but he could not move the hand that held it six inches from his +side. Stooping, he took the splinter between his teeth, and making the +rope taut, drew the sharp edge of the glass across it. Again and again +he drew it across, and at length he perceived that a strand was +severed. With a thrill of joy he settled to the slow, laborious and +painful task. Time passed, a long, long time, and yet the rope was but +half severed. As he worked he counted the moments with feverish dread, +his heart throbbed one passionate prayer: "Lord, let me save her!" Now +and then he glanced at the blackness of the night outside with a +terrible fear--though he knew it could not be yet--that he should see it +waver into moonlight. Another interval of toil, and he stood erect, +gathered his forces, made one supreme effort--and was free! There was +not time for the cords about his arms, but he must get rid of those +which fettered his ankles. An endless task it seemed, but hand and +friendly splinter accomplished it at last; and he sprang to the door. It +was locked. He dashed himself against it, once, twice, thrice, and it +crashed outwards, precipitating him into a large, bare room. He crossed +this, managed to open its unlocked door with his free hand, descended a +winding stair and came into the upper hall. It was in darkness, but up +the wide staircase streamed the perfumed light of many myrtle candles, +and with it laughter, and the sound of a man's voice singing to a lute. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE ROAD TO PARADISE + + +The family and guests of Verney Manor were assembled in the great room. +The day had been one of confusion, haste and anxiety; but it was past, +and the stillness and forced inaction of the night was upon them. With +the readiness of those to whom danger is no novelty they seized the hour +and made the most of it. Sufficient unto the morrow was the evil +thereof. + +The Colonel, weary from hard riding, but well satisfied with his +afternoon's work, had sunk into a great chair and challenged Dr. Anthony +Nash to a game of chess. "Everything is in train," he told them, "and +all quiet upon the plantations in this shire at least. I believe the +danger past. God be thanked!" Upon a settle piled with cushions lay +Captain Laramore, with a bandaged shoulder, a long pipe between his +teeth, and at his elbow a tankard of sack and an elderly Hebe in the +person of Mistress Lettice Verney. Patricia, sumptuously clad and +beautiful as a dream, sat in the great window with Betty and Sir +Charles. Her eyes shone with a feverish brilliancy, her white hands were +never still, she laughed and jested with her lover, touching this or +that with light wit. Once or twice she broke into song, rich, +passionate, throbbing through the night. The gentle Betty looked at her +in wonder, but Sir Charles was enchanted. + +Steps sounded on the stairs and in the hall. "Who is that?" cried the +master, taking his hand from his rook. + +"The overseer, probably," said Dr. Nash. "Check to your king." + +A loud scream from Mistress Lettice. The master leaped to his feet, +knocking over the chess-table and sending the pieces rattling into +corners. Sir Charles, drawing his rapier, sprang to his side, the +wounded Captain started up from amidst his pillows and the divine +snatched a brass andiron from the fireplace. + +Framed in the doorway, looking larger than life against the blackness of +the space behind him, stood the arch plotter, the Roundhead, the +convict, the rebellious servant whom the Governor had sworn to hang. +Blood dropped from his face, cut by the glass with which he had severed +the rope, to meet the blood upon his arms and chest, lacerated by his +savage straining at his bonds. For a moment he stood, blinded by the +light, then advanced into the room. His master seized him. "Still +bound!" he cried with an oath. "He is alone then! How did you get here? +What are you doing here? Speak, scoundrel!" + +"I bring you this paper, sir," said Landless hoarsely. "Will you take it +from me. I cannot raise my hands." + +The Colonel snatched the paper, glanced at it, read it with a face from +which all the ruddy color had fled, and held it out to Sir Charles with +a shaking hand. "Read it," he gasped. "Read it aloud," and sank into his +chair breathing heavily. + +Sir Charles read. "Damnation!" he cried, crushing the paper in his hand. +Laramore started up with a roar of "My ship!" and then broke into a +torrent of oaths. Mistress Lettice's screams filled the room until her +brother roughly silenced her by clapping his hand over her mouth. "By +the Lord Harry, Lettice, I will throw you out to them if you do not +hush! Gentlemen, in God's name, what are we to do?" + +"Barricade door and window and hold the house against them," said the +baronet. + +"Send for help to Rosemead and to Fitzhugh and Ludwell!" cried the +divine. + +"Five men and three women to hold this house against a hundred Indians +and negroes! And no help could come for hours and it is now nearly ten! +Moreover, the messenger would have to pass through the savages lying in +the woods,--he would never reach Rosemead with his scalp on!" + +"I will be your messenger," said Nash rising, "and as every moment is +more precious than rubies, I had best start at once." + +"You, Anthony! God forbid!" cried the Colonel "You would go to certain +death." + +"I would stay to certain death, would I not?" retorted the other. "But +my mare, Pixie, and I can shew clean heels to the red villains, were +they as thick as chinquepins. Give me the stable-key, Verney. I know the +way to the jade's stall, and she will follow her master through fire and +water without a whinny. I don't want a light. Not a soul on the place +must know that I have left Verney Manor." + +"Anthony, Anthony, I am loth to see you go, old friend!" cried the +Colonel. + +"Tut, tut, as well leave my scalp in the woods as in Dick Verney's +parlor! but I shall do neither. Hold the house as long as you can, and +look for Carrington, and Fitzhugh, and Ludwell, and myself with a +hundred men at our heels before the dawn. Until then _vale_." + +He was gone. "And now the doors and windows," said Sir Charles. + +"The windows, save those in this room, are secured as they always are at +night. The shutters are heavy and strongly barred, and we have but to +draw the chains across the doors. They will find it hard work to fire +the house, for the logs are wet from this morning's shower. There is +ammunition enough, and the shutters are loopholed. If we were in force, +we might hold out, but, my God! what can we do? Even with the overseers +whom we must manage to call to us, if we can do so without arousing +suspicion, we are not enough to defend one face of the house." + +"Are there no honest servants?" + +"How can I tell the true men from the knaves? To rouse the quarters +would be to show that we know, and to ourselves spring the mine which is +to destroy us. And if we brought men into the house, who are leagued +with the fiends outside, then would their work be done for them. There +are a very few whom I know to be faithful, but how to secure them +without giving the alarm--my God! how helpless we are!" + +"Perhaps I can help you, Colonel Verney," said Landless. + +In the midst of a dead silence the eyes of each occupant of the +room,--the master, the courtier, the wounded captain, the women, +trembling in each other's arms,--were turned upon the speaker who stood +before them, haggard, torn and bleeding, but with a quiet power in his +dark face and steadfast eyes. + +"You?" said the master sternly, "What can you do?" + +"I will tell you," said Landless, "but I must be freed from these bonds +first." + +Another pause, and then Sir Charles, responding to a nod from his +kinsman, walked over to Landless, and with his rapier cut the ropes +which bound him. + +"Now speak!" said the Colonel. + + * * * * * * + +The quarters lay, to all appearance, wrapt in the profoundest +slumber--no movement in the low-browed cabins, or in the lane or square; +no sound other than the croak of the frogs in the marshes, the wail of +the whip-poor-wills, and the sighing of the night wind in the pines. All +was dark save in the east, where the low stars were beginning to pale. +Below them glowed a dull red spark, shining dimly across a long expanse +of black marsh and water, and coming from Captain Laramore's ship, +anchored off the Point. + +One moment it seemed the only light in the wide landscape of darkness; +the next the flame of a torch, streaming sidewise in the wind, cast an +orange glare upon the dead tree in the centre of the square and upon the +windowless fronts of the cabins surrounding it. The torch was in the +hand of the overseer, who went the rounds, striking upon each door, and +summoning the inmates of the cabin to the square. "The master wants a +word with you," was all the answer he vouchsafed to startled, sullen, or +suspicious inquiries. In five minutes the square was thronged. White and +black, servant and slave, rustic, convict, Jew, Turk, Indian, mulatto, +quadroon, coal black, untamed African--the motley crowd pressed and +jostled towards that end of the square at which stood the master, his +kinsman, the overseer, and Godfrey Landless. Behind them on the steps of +the overseer's house were the Muggletonian, Havisham, and Trail. They +had been unbound. In the Muggletonian's scarred face was stolid +indifference, but Trail looked furtively about until he spied Luiz +Sebastian, when he signaled "What is it?" with his eyes. The mulatto +shook his head, and continued to shoulder his way through the press +until he stood in the front row, face to face with the party from the +great house. On one side of him was the Turk, on the other an Indian. + +The master stepped a pace or two in front of his companions, and held up +his hand for silence. When the excited muttering had sunk into a +breathless hush, he beckoned to Landless, and the young man stepped to +his side. There were many streaming lights by now, and men saw each +other, now clearly, now darkly, as the fitful glare rose and fell. + +"Now, my man," said the master in a loud, slow voice, "you will point +out to me, as you have agreed to do, every man concerned in the plot +discovered this morning. And you whom he designates, I command you, in +the name of the King, to surrender peaceably. Your hope of pardon +depends upon your doing so. Now, Landless!" + +"John Havisham," said Landless. + +"Taken redhanded," quoth the master. "Place him here, Woodson, in front +of us. When all are in line, I shall have a word to say to them." + +Havisham advanced with quiet dignity, passing Landless as if unaware of +his presence. "I surrender," he said, raising his voice, "because I have +no choice. And I advise those of our number here present to do the same. +Our plans known, our friends taken, betrayed and deserted by the man in +whom we trusted most, whom we called our leader, we have, indeed, no +choice." + +"Win-Grace Porringer," said Landless. + +The Muggletonian threw up his arms. "Iscariot!" he cried wildly. "Woe, +woe to him by whom offenses come! Well for thee, son of Warham Landless, +hadst thou never been born! By the power given to the Two Witnesses and +to their followers I curse thee! Thou shalt be anathema maranatha! +Famine, thirst, and a violent death be thy portion in this life, and in +the world to come mayest thou burn forever, howling! Amen and amen!" +With a wild laugh he stalked to the side of Havisham, leaving Trail +standing alone upon the doorstep. The eyes of the forger met the eyes of +Luiz Sebastian in another puzzled inquiry, but the latter shook his head +with a frown. Not doubting that his name would be the next called, Trail +had already taken a step forward, but Landless's eyes passed him over, +and rested upon the face of a man standing near Luiz Sebastian. + +"John Robert!" he cried. + +The man, a Baptist preacher suffering under the Act of Uniformity, +turned a gentle, reproachful face upon him, and stepping from the crowd, +joined himself to Havisham and the Muggletonian. + +"James Holt!" said Landless. + +A rustic, standing behind Luiz Sebastian, uttered a dreadful +imprecation. "You may hang me and welcome, your Honor," he cried as he +took his place, "if you'll just let me see this d--d Judas hung +first!" + +Luiz Sebastian fixed his great eyes upon Landless. "If he calls my +name," said the wicked brain behind the blandly smiling face, "shall I, +or shall I not--? It is many minutes to moonrise yet." + +But Landless did not call him. He passed him by as he had passed Trail, +and named another rustic at some little distance from the mulatto, then +a Fifth Monarchy man, then a veteran of Cromwell's, then the plantation +miller and the carpenter, then two more Oliverians, then more peasants. +Each man, as his name was called, stepped forward into the lengthening +line that faced the master and his party, standing with pistols leveled +and cocked; and each man bestowed upon Godfrey Landless a curse, or a +look that was bitterer than a curse. + +"Humfrey Elder!" called Landless. + +The old butler shot from out the crowd, as though impelled from a +catapult. "Your Honor!" he screamed, "the man as says _I_ plot against a +Verney, lies! I that fought with your Honor at Naseby! I that you +brought from home with you when Mistress Patricia was a baby, and that +has poured your wine from that day to this! I plot with these +rapscallions and Roundheads! Your Honor, he lies in his throat!" + +"Fall into line, Humfrey," said his master quietly; "I will hear you out +later, but now, obey me." + +The watchful eyes of Luiz Sebastian were growing very watchful indeed. + +"Regulus!" cried Landless. + +Under cover of a burst of protestation from Regulus, the Turk whispered +to the mulatto, "By Allah! this is the slave you would not approach! You +said he would die for his master." + +"He is not of them," returned the other. "St. Jago! if I understand it! +But what can it matter? The moon will rise in less than an hour." + +"Dick Whittington!" cried Landless. + +There was a moment's silence, broken by the mulatto, who had stepped out +of line, and now stood facing the party from the great house. "I grieve +to say, señors," he said in his silkiest tone, "that the poor Dick was +but now taken with the fever, and lies in a stupor within his cabin. +To-morrow, perhaps, he will be better, and will answer when you call." + +"That is your cabin, just beyond you there, is it not?" demanded +Landless. + +"Assuredly," with a quick glance. "And what then?" + +Landless raised his voice to a shout. "Dick Whittngton!" + +"Mother of God! what do you mean?" exclaimed the mulatto. "Your voice +cannot reach him, deaf and dumb from the fever, lying in his cabin at +the far end of the lane." + +"Dick Whittington!" again loudly called Landless. + +A cry arose from the crowd behind the mulatto and between him and his +cabin. The next instant there broke through them the figure, bound and +gagged, of young Dick Whittington. As he rushed past the mulatto, the +latter, with a snarl of fury, grappled with him, but animated with the +strength of despair, the boy, bound as he was, broke from him and rushed +to Landless, at whose feet he dropped in a dead faint. Upon the crowd +fell a silence so intense that nature herself seemed to have ceased to +breathe. Luiz Sebastian, darting glances here, there, and everywhere, +from eyes in which doubt was last growing into certainty, came upon +something which told its own tale. The women's cabins were at some +distance from the square, and nearer to the great house, and from the +one to the other was passing a hurried line of women and children with +the under overseer at their head. + +With the sight vanished the last remnant of doubt from the mind of the +mulatto.... Landless saw that he saw; saw the intention with which he +slipped out of range of the pistols; saw the wicked light in his face; +saw him beckon to the Indian and point to the forest; saw the glistening +and rolling eyeballs and the working lips of the throng of slaves who +had by imperceptible degrees separated from the whites, and were now +massing together at one side of the square; saw the Turk with a knife in +his hand; saw Trail edging away from the group before the overseer's +cabin--and sprang forward, his powerful figure instinct with +determination, the set calm of the face with which he had met Havisham's +quiet disdain and the imprecations of the other conspirators, broken up +into fire and passion, high and resolved. Blood was upon it still, and +upon his arms and half naked breast; his eyes burned; and as he threw up +his arm in a gesture of command, he looked the very genius of war, and +he seized and held every eye and ear. + +"Men!" he cried, addressing himself to the line he had called into +being. "Havisham, Arnold, Allen, Braxton! we fought in the same cause +once, fought for God and the Commonwealth! To-night we will fight again, +and together; fight for our lives and for the honor of women! Comrades, +I am no traitor! I have not sold you! You have cursed me without cause. +Listen! Colonel Verney, will you repeat the oath you swore to me an hour +ago?" + +The master stepped to his side. "I swear," he cried, in his loud, manly +voice, "by the faith of a Christian, by the honor of a gentleman, that +not one of you whose names have been given by this man, shall in any +way suffer by having been privy to this plot. I will so work with the +Governor and Council that your bodies shall not be touched, nor your +time of service increased. Bygones shall be bygones between us. This +applies to all save this man, the head and front of the conspiracy. Him +I cannot save. He must pay the penalty, but he shall be the scapegoat +for the rest of you. You have my promise, the promise of a man who never +breaks his word for good or evil." + +"In the woods yonder are Indians," cried Landless. "They wait but for +moonrise, for the appointed hour, to fall upon the plantation. You +called me traitor! It is Luiz Sebastian and Trail who are the traitors, +the betrayers! They are leagued with the Indians and with the slaves. +Look at them, and see that I speak truth!" + +The look was sufficient. The dusky mass of slaves had swayed forward +with one low, deep, bestial growl. Crouched for the spring, they were +yet held in leash by the menace of the pistols, leveled upon them and +gleaming in the torchlight, and by the restraining gesture and voice of +Luiz Sebastian. In the crowd of servants, now quite separated from the +slaves, was noise and confusion, and behind the Turk, standing midway +between the parties, was forming a phalanx of villainous white +faces--the dissolute, the convict, the refuse of the plantation,--and at +his side, suddenly as though sprung from the earth, appeared the evil +face and red hair of the murderer of Robert Godwyn. + +The silence of the Oliverians, stricken dumb by this new turn of +affairs, was broken by Havisham's crying to Landless,-- + +"What are we to do, friend?" + +"Make for the house and defend it and our lives," answered Landless, +"but first I call upon all true men among you yonder to leave those +murderers and join yourselves to us." + +"In the name of the King!" cried the Colonel. + +"In the name of God!" said Landless. + +Some seven or eight broke from the opposite throng and with lowered +heads ran to them across the open space. Landless stooped, and lifting +the senseless figure at his feet swung it over his shoulder. + +"We are ready, Colonel Verney. Steady, men! Follow me!" He turned to the +great house, rising vast and dark, two hundred yards away. + +A gigantic, coal black Ashantee chief broke from the throng opposite +and, uttering his war cry, bounded across the space between them. +Another instant and he would have been upon them, and close after him a +yelling pack of hell hounds--the overseer's pistol cracked, and the +black giant fell dead. A yell arose from the crowd, but they stood +irresolute. For firearms, so strictly kept from servants and slaves, so +preeminently pertaining to the dominant class, they had a superstitious +dread. Four pistols meant four lives picked from the foremost to +advance. + +"Let them go," cried the mulatto, with a taunting laugh. "Let them go! +Let them go cage themselves in wooden walls where we will take them all +together--rats in a trap. We will wait for the Chickahominies who have +guns, señors, and for the Ricahecrians whose scalping knives are very +bright. Until moonrise, señors from the great house, and you others who +go with them! Mother of God! look well upon it, for it is the last you +will ever see!" + +Fifteen minutes later saw the house of Verney Manor garrisoned by some +thirty desperate men. They had entered to find a scene of confusion--the +hall and lower rooms filled with frightened women and crying children. +Patricia with white cheeks and brilliant eyes had come forward to meet +her father, carrying a three days' child in her arms. Beyond her was +Betty, bending her sweet, pale face over the mother, caught up from her +pallet and carried to the house in the arms of the under overseer. +Mistress Lettice was alternately wailing that they were all undone and +murdered, and wringing her hands over the obstinacy of Captain Laramore +who, rapier in left hand, would stand guard at the door, instead of +keeping quiet as the Doctor had said he must. The master's stern command +for silence reduced the clamor of women and children to an undertone of +lamentation. "We must to work at once," he said, "and apportion our +forces. There are about thirty men, are there not, Woodson? I shall take +the front with ten; Charles, thou shalt have one side, Woodson the +other, and Haines the back. Laramore, thou must let us fight for thee, +man, though I know thou findest it a bitter pill. Do you marshal the +men, Woodson, and divide them into four parties, one for each face, and +tell the women to leave off their whimpering and prepare to load the +muskets. Haines, have the arms taken down from the racks and distribute +them. Men and women, one and all, you are to remember that you are +fighting for your lives and for more than your lives. You know what you +have to expect if you are taken." + +Sir Charles, followed by Landless, the Muggletonian and some three or +four others, entered the great room, which, with the master's room, +occupied that side of the house allotted to the baronet. The wax +candles still burned upon the spinet, and upon the high mantel, and in +the middle of the floor lay the overturned chess table. Three of the +four windows were closely shuttered, but the fourth was open, and before +it stood a graceful figure, looking out into the darkness. + +Sir Charles strode hurriedly over to it. "Cousin! this is madness! You +know not to what danger you may be exposing yourself. Come away!" + +"I am watching for the moonrise," she said dreamily. "It is very near +now. Look at the white glow above the water, and how pale the stars are! +How beautiful it is, and how cool the wind upon your forehead! Listen! +that was the cry of a jay, surely! and yet why should we hear it at +night?" + +"It is the cry of a jay, sure enough," said the overseer, pausing in his +hurried passage through the room, "but it was made by Indian lips." + +"Come away, for God's sake!" cried the baronet. + +"Look! there is the moon!" she answered. + +Above the level of marsh and water appeared a thin line of silver. It +thickened, rounded, became a glorious orb. The marshes blanched from +black to gray, and across the water, from the dim land to the great +silver globe, stretched a long, bright, shimmering path. + +A knot of women appeared in the doorway, laden with powder-flasks and +platters filled with bullets. One, with only a stick wound with faded +flowers in her hand, left them and glided to the open window. + +"Margery!" said Patricia softly. + +The mad woman, pressing in front of her mistress, looked out into the +night and saw the white shining road cutting through the darkness and +stretching endlessly away. She threw up her arms with a cry of rapture. + +"The road to Paradise! the road to Paradise!" + +An arrow whistled through the window and struck into her bosom--into her +heart--the staff dropped from her hand, and she swayed forward and fell +at her mistress's feet. + +The night, so placid, still and beautiful, was rent and in an instant +made hideous by a sound so long, loud, and dreadful, that it might have +been the shriek of a legion of exultant fiends. It rose to the stars, +sunk to the earth and rose again, unearthly, menacing, curdling the +blood and turning the heart to stone. + +"The war-whoop," said Woodson. "Close the window, quick." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +NIGHT + + +That terrible cadence preluded pandemonium, the hush of horror that +followed it being broken by one deep and awful roar of voices as the +insurgents, red, white, and black, joined forces and swept down upon the +devoted house. + +"They will try the front first," quoth the master from his loophole. +"Steady, men, until I give the word! Now, let them have it with a +wannion!" + +The muskets cracked and a louder yell arose from without. + +"Two," said the master composedly, receiving a fresh musket from his +daughter's hand. + +"They will try to dash in the door, your Honor!" cried the overseer from +his post of observation. "They have the trunk of a pine with them." + +"Let them come," said his master grimly. "They will find a warm +welcome." + +A double line of savages raised the great trunk from the ground and +advanced with it at a run, yelling as they came. They had reached the +steps leading up into the porch when from the loopholed door and window +within there poured a deadly fire. Three fell, but the battering-ram +came on and struck against the door with tremendous force. The door +held, and but twelve of the twenty who had entered the porch returned to +their fellows. + +"They won't try that again," said the master with a short laugh. + +"They are dividing," cried the overseer. "They will surround the house. +Every man to his post!" + +Around the corner of the house to the moonlit sward beneath the great +room windows swept a tide of Indians and negroes with Luiz Sebastian and +the two Ricahecrian brothers at their head. A few of the Indians had +guns; the slaves were armed with axes, scythes, knives--the plunder of +the tool house--or with jagged pieces of old iron, or with oars taken +from the boats and broken into dreadful clubs. They came on with a din +that was terrific, the savages from the eastern hemisphere howling like +the beasts within their native forests, those from the western uttering +at intervals their sterner, more appalling cry. + +Within the great room Sir Charles, languidly graceful as ever, stood +beside the small square opening in the door that led down into the +garden, and fired again and again into the mob without. He fought with +an air as became the fine gentleman of the period, but underneath the +elaborate carelessness of demeanor was a cool precision of action. The +hand that so nonchalantly brushed away the grains of powder from his +white ruffles, was steady enough at the trigger; the eye that turned +from the red death without to cast languishing glances at his mistress +where she stood directing the women, was quick to note the minutest +change in savage tactics. He jested as he fought--once he drew a +tremulous wail of laughter from Mistress Lettice's lips. + +A bullet sung through the aperture and grazed his arm. "The first +blood," he said, with a laugh. + +"There's a man killed in the master's room and two in the hall!" cried +young Whittington, from his post at the far window. + +"And Margery," said Patricia, coming forward with the kerchief from her +neck in her hand. "Let me bind up your wound, cousin." + +He held out his arm with a smile and a few low, caressing words, and she +wound the lawn that was not whiter than her face about it; then moved +back to where the women worked, loading and passing the muskets to the +men who kept up an incessant fire upon the assailants. + +The whole house filled with smoke through which the figures of the +besieged loomed large and indistinct, and the noise--the crack of the +muskets, the loud commands and oaths, the scream of a frightened woman +or child, the groans of the wounded, of whom there were now many--became +deafening. The attack was now general, and the men on each face had +their hands full. Without was horrible clamor, oaths, shots, yells, +crashing blows against door and window; within was noise and confusion, +and fear, stern and controlled, but blanching the lip of the men and +showing in the agony of the women's eyes. + +Sir Charles, turning for a fresh musket, after a highly successful shot +as the yell outside had testified, found Patricia at his elbow. "There +are very few bullets left, cousin, and this is all the powder." + +The baronet drew in his breath. "Peste! we are unfortunate! One of you +men go beg, borrow, or steal from the others." + +Landless left his loophole in charge of the Muggletonian and went +swiftly into the hall, where he found the master, his wig off, his shirt +torn, his face and hands blackened with powder, now firing with his own +hand, now shouting encouragement to the panting men. + +"Powder and shot!" he cried. "God help us! are you out? Not a grain or a +bullet can we spare, for if we keep them not from the great door we are +dead men!" + +Landless went to the overseer. "Two more rounds and _we_ are out," said +Woodson coolly, firing as he spoke. + +"There is no sign that they have had enough," said Landless, as the +clamor outside redoubled, and a man fell heavily back from his loophole +with a bullet through his brain. + +"Enough! Damn them, no!" said the overseer. "When they've had our lives +they will have had enough--not before! They're paying dearly for their +fun though." + +Landless went back to the great room with empty hands. + +"They are all in like case," he said, in answer to Sir Charles's lifted +eyebrows. + +The other shrugged his shoulders. "What will be, will be. If we could +have saved our fire--but we had to keep them from the door! Get to your +post, and we will hold them back as long as may be. Then a short passage +to eternal nothingness!" + +"A short passage!" muttered the Muggletonian at Landless's ear. "Well +for those who find that at the hands of the uncircumcised heathen. +Eternal nothingness! The fool hath said in his heart There is no +God--and he is being dashed headlong upon the judgment bar of the God +who saith, I will repay. Cursed be the Atheist! May he find the passage, +fiery though it be, as nothing to the flames of the avenging God; may +he go to his appointed place where the worm dieth not and the fire is +not quenched; may--" + +The trunk of a tree was dashed against the door with a force that shook +the room. "Dey're comin'!" shouted Regulus, who stood behind Sir +Charles, and raised the axe with which he was armed above his head. +Another crash and the wood splintered. Through the ragged opening was +thrust a red hand--the axe, wielded by Regulus's powerful arms, flashed +downwards, and the hand, severed at the wrist, fell with a dull thud +upon the floor. A yell from without, and another blow, widening the +opening. Landless fired his last bullet into the crowd, and clubbing his +musket sprang to the door, in front of which were now massed all the +defenders of that side of the house. Sir Charles threw down his useless +musket and drew his sword. "Cousin," he said over his shoulder to +Patricia, standing white and erect in the midst of the cowering women, +"you had best betake yourselves to the hall, and that quickly. This will +be no ladies' bower presently." + +"Come," said Patricia to the women, and led the way towards the door +leading into the hall. As she passed Sir Charles she put out her hand, +and he caught it, sunk to his knee, and pressed his lips upon it. + +"I am going to my father," she said steadily, "and I shall pray him as +he loves me to pass his sword through my heart when they break into the +hall. So it is farewell, cousin." + +She drew her hand away and moved towards the door, passing Landless so +closely that her rich skirts brushed him, but without a change in the +white calm of her face. The terrified women had pressed before her into +the hall, only Betty Carrington keeping by her side. Her foot was upon +the threshold, when with loud screams they surged back into the great +room. A thundering crash in the hall was followed by a babel of oaths, +screams, triumphant yells. The voice of the master made itself heard +above all the hubbub, "Charles, Woodson, Haines, they are upon us! +Defend the women to the last, as you are men, all of you!" + +The splintered plank between them in the great room and the murderers +without was dashed inwards. An Indian, naked, horribly painted, +brandishing a tomahawk, sprang through the opening, and Sir Charles ran +him through with his sword. A second followed, and Landless dashed his +brains out with the butt of his musket. A third, and the Muggletonian +struck at him through the wildly flaring light and the drifting smoke +wreaths, and missed his aim. The knife of the savage gleamed high in +air, then, descending, stuck quivering in the breast of the fanatic. He +sunk to his knees, flung up his skeleton arms, and raised his scarred +face, into which a light that was not of earth had come, then cried in a +loud voice, "Turn ye, turn ye to the Stronghold, ye prisoners of Hope!" +His eyes closed and he fell forward upon his face, his blood making the +ground slippery about the feet of the others. + +Landless closed with the Indian, finally slew him, and turned to behold +a stream, impetuous, not to be withstood, of Indians and negroes pouring +through the doorway. From the hall came the clash of weapons and a most +terrific din, and presently there burst into the great room the Colonel, +Laramore, Woodson, and Haines, followed by some fifteen men--making, +with the five in the great room, all that were left of the defenders of +Verney Manor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +MORNING + + +The women crouched in a far corner of the room behind a barricade of +chairs and tables; the men stood between them and the thirsters for +blood, and fought coolly, desperately, with such effect that, fearful as +were the odds, a glimmering of hope came to them. The ammunition on both +sides was exhausted, and it had become a hand to hand struggle in which +the advantage of position and weapons was with the assailed. + +"Damme, but we will beat them yet!" cried Laramore, panting, and leaning +heavily upon his rapier. "They're drawing off; we've tired them out!" + +"They'll never tire while that hellhound of an Indian whoops them on and +that yellow devil, Luiz Sebastian, backs him up," said the overseer. + +"They are gathering for a rush," said Landless. + +The assailants had fallen back to the opposite wall, leaving a space, +cumbered with the dead and slippery with blood, between them and the +defenders of the house. In this space now appeared the lithe figure, and +the watchful, large-eyed, amber countenance of Luiz Sebastian. + +"Ohè!" he cried, "slaves, all of you! Ashantees, Popoes, Angolans, +Fidas, Malimbe, Ambrice! you who are all black! think of the jungle and +the village; think of the wives and the children! think of the slaver +and the slave ship! You from the Indies, you who are like me, Luiz +Sebastian, think of the blood which is the white man's blood and yet the +blood of a slave--and hate the white man as I, Luiz Sebastian, hate him! +Kill them and take the women!" + +The swollen figure and dreadful face of Roach appeared at his side. +"Ay!" cried the murderer, with a tremendous oath. "Kill them! Smash +them, batter them, hear them scream! In the old man's pocket is the key +of his money chest. It is filled with bright yellow gold. Kill him and +get the money, and away to turn pirate and get more!" + +"It grows late!" cried Trail. "We must up sail, and away before the +dawn!" + +The gigantic, horribly painted form of the Ricahecrian chief stalked +into the open space and commenced a harangue in his own tongue. It was +short, but effective. + +"God!" said the Colonel, under his breath, and grasped his bloodstained +sword more closely. + +With one shrill and horrible cry Indians, negroes, mulattoes, and +villainous whites were upon them, breaking their line, forcing them +apart into knots of two and three away from the frail barrier, behind +which cowered the screaming women, striking with knife and tomahawk, axe +and club. Two of the Colonel's men fell, one under the knife of the +seven-year-captive Ricahecrian, the other beaten down by the jagged and +knotted club with which Roach, foaming at the mouth, and swearing +horribly, struck madly to left and right. The Ricahecrian, drawing the +knife from the heart of his victim, rushed on to where Landless and Sir +Charles still maintained, by dint of desperate fighting, their position +before the women, but Luiz Sebastian with Roach and half a dozen negroes +swept between him and his prey. He swerved aside, and, bounding into the +midst of the women, seized the one who chanced to be in his path,--a +young and beautiful girl, newly come over from Plymouth, and a favorite +with the ladies of Verney Manor. The despairing scream which the poor +child uttered rang out above all the tumult. Landless turned, saw, and +darted to her aid--but too late. With one hand the savage gathered up +the loosened hair, with the other he passed the scalping knife around +the young head--when Landless reached them, she who so short time before +had been so fair to see, lay a shocking spectacle, writhing in her death +agony. With white lips and burning eyes Landless swung his gun above his +head, and brought it down upon the shaven crown of Grey Wolf. It cracked +like an egg shell, and the Indian dropped across the body of his victim. + +Landless, springing back to the post he had quitted, found Sir Charles +in desperate case, but as coolly composed as ever, and with the air of +the Court still about him despite his bared head and torn and +bloodstained clothing, treating those who came against him to an +exhibition of swordsmanship such as the New World had probably rarely +witnessed. Landless, striking down a cutpurse from Tyburn, saw him run +the Turk through, and saw behind him the nightmare visage and the raised +club of Roach. He uttered a warning cry, but the club descended, and the +handsome, careless face fell backwards, and the slender debonair figure +swayed and fell. Landless caught him, saw that he was but stunned, and +letting him drop to the floor at his feet, wrenched the sword from his +hand, and stood over him, facing Roach with a stern smile. + +The murderer raised his club again. + +"We've met at last!" he cried with a taunting laugh. "Do you remember +the tobacco house, and what I said? I says: 'Every dog has its day, and +I'll have mine.' It's my day now!" + +"And I said," rejoined Landless, "'I let you go now, but one day I will +kill you.' And _that_ day has come." + +With an oath Roach brought down the club. Landless swerved, and the blow +fell harmlessly; before the arm could be again raised, he caught it, +held it with a grasp of steel, and shortened his sword. The miscreant +saw his death, and screamed for mercy. "Remember Robert Godwyn!" said +Landless, and drove the blade home. + +The sword was a more effective weapon than the gun, and with it he kept +the enemy at bay, while he glanced despairingly around. There were as +many dead as living within the room by this. The floor was piled with +the slain; they made traps for the living who in the wild surging to and +fro stumbled over them, and fell, and were slain before they could rise. +Three fourths of the dead belonged to the insurgents, but the attacked +had suffered severely. Of the thirty men with whom the defense had +commenced there now remained but twelve, and of that number several were +wounded. The Colonel was bleeding from a cut on the head, the under +overseer had a ball through his arm, Sir Charles still lay without +movement at Landless's feet. + +Forced, together with almost all of his party, by the mad rush of the +assailants to the further end of the room, the master had seen with +agony the women left well-nigh defenseless. Followed by Woodson, +Havisham, Regulus, and young Whittington, he had all but cut his way +back to them, when a fresh influx from the hall of slaves and whites who +had been engaged in plundering the house, drove them apart again. + +The newcomers came fresh to the work, maddened, moreover, by the +master's wines. They advanced upon the Colonel and his party with +drunken shouts, some brandishing rude weapons, others silver salvers and +tankards, the spoil of the plate chest. The voice of Luiz Sebastian rang +through the room. "Quick work of them, friends; I smell the morning!" +With a laugh and a scrap of Spanish song upon his lips he came at +Landless with a knife, but a turn of the white man's wrist sent the +weapon hurling through the air. + +"Curse you!" cried the mulatto, springing out of reach of the deadly +point, and holding his arm from which the blood was flowing. "Mother of +God! but I will have you yet!" and bounded towards his weapon. Landless, +steadily watchful, and pointing that fatal sword this way or that +against all comers, cleared for himself and the still senseless man at +his feet a circle into which few cared to intrude, for the fame of that +blade had gone through the room. "Leave him until we have dealt with the +others," said the mulatto between his teeth. "Then will we give him +reason to wish that he had never been born." + +A touch upon his arm, and Landless turned to find Patricia standing +beside him. "Go back," he cried. "Go back!" + +"They are murdering them all over there," she said steadily. "My father +is dead. I saw him fall." + +"Not so, madam. He did but stumble over the dead. See, Woodson fights +them back from him. For God's sake, get back behind the barricade!" + +She shook her head. "He is dead. They will all be dead directly, my +cousin and all. My father cannot help me, and he who lies here cannot +help me. I will not be taken alive by these devils, and I have no knife. +Will you kill me?" + +"My God!" + +"Quick!" she said in the same low, steady tones. "They are coming; they +will beat us down in a moment. Kill me!" + +For answer Landless raised his voice until it rang high above the +uproar, and arrested the attention of the combatants on both sides. +"Fight with a will, men," he cried, "for help is at hand! Do you not +hear the hoofs of the horses?" + +"By God! you are right!" cried the Colonel, suddenly struggling to his +feet. "Hold out, men! Anthony Nash reached Rosemead, and has brought us +aid!" + +"The dog priest!" the mulatto cried fiercely to Trail. "Was he here? +Then they have sent for help, and Mother of God! it is here!" + +"And coming at the planter's pace," answered Trail. "They will be upon +us before we reach the boats." + +The mulatto glanced at the friend with whom he had fled the Indies with +a sinister smile. "Ay," he muttered to himself. "They will be upon us +indeed, before we reach the boats, wherefore Luiz Sebastian goes not to +turn pirate this time. He throws in his lot with the Ricahecrians whose +canoes are close at hand in the inlet that winds into the Pamunkey. +They are very swift, and in the Blue Mountains there is safety. But one +thing first." + +He gave a shrill and peculiar whistle which brought to him half a dozen +Indians. He pointed to the body of Grey Wolf and then to Landless. A +yell burst from the lips of the savages, and they rushed upon the +latter. He met them, ran his sword through the heart of the first, of +the second: Sir Charles moaned, stirred, and struggled to his knees. A +third raised his knife; it would have descended, but Landless darted +between the savage and the half-dazed, utterly helpless man at whom the +blow was aimed, struck up the arm, and plunged his sword into the dark +breast. A broken oar, snatched from the floor by the mulatto, descended +upon his head, and with a woman's scream sounding in his ear, he fell +heavily to the floor, and lay as one dead. + +When he came to himself, it was to find the great room still crowded +with men, and filled with noise and confusion, but the thronging figures +and the excited voices were those of friends--of servants from the +neighboring plantations, of small planters and tenants of Colonels +Ludwell and Fitzhugh, the Surveyor-General, and Dr. Anthony Nash. He saw +the master, panting, bleeding, but exultant, seize Dr. Nash's hands in +his own. He saw Sir Charles smile and extend his box of richly scented +snuff to Colonel Ludwell, and the women leaving their corner of refuge +with hysterical laughter and tears; saw Betty Carrington in her father's +arms, and Mistress Lettice being helped across a heap of dead by Captain +Laramore. Indians, negroes, mulatto, scoundrel whites, were gone. + +"They got off clear--the d--d villains," said Dick Whittington, +appearing beside him, "just before the horses came up. But Woodson has +gone after the slaves and the convicts with a party of Carrington's men. +He'll catch them, I'm thinking, and they'll come to a pirate's +end--that's all the pirating they'll get. The Indians will get clean +away; they're most to the Pamunkey by now, I reckon." + +Landless staggered to his feet, and put his hand to his head, which was +bleeding. "The women are all safe?" he demanded. + +"All but poor Annis," said the boy. "When I saw the poor maid fall, I +thanked the Lord that Joyce Whitbread was safe in her mother's cottage +at Banbury. But none of the others were hurt. There is Mistress Lettice +and Mistress Betty Carrington--I do not see Mistress Patricia." + +The master of Verney Manor, pouring forth a rapid account of the late +affair to the gentlemen who crowded around him, was brought to a dead +stop by the appearance of a man who had burst through the throng, and +now stood before him, half naked, bleeding, with white, drawn face and +wild eyes. + +"What is it? Speak!" cried the master, terror of he knew not what +growing in his eyes. + +"Your daughter, Colonel Verney!" cried Landless. "She is not here. The +Ricahecrians have carried her off." + +With a sound between a groan and a scream the Colonel staggered, and +would have fallen had not Carrington caught him. "Gone! Impossible!" +cried Sir Charles vehemently, all his studied insouciance thrown to the +winds. "She was with the women behind the barrier that we made. She is +here." + +He began to call her by name, loudly, appealingly, but there came no +answering voice. + +"She will not answer," said Landless hoarsely. "She is not here. She was +with the women until just before the last. She saw her father fall, and +thought him dead, and you dead, too, Sir Charles Carew, and she came to +me, and prayed me to kill her. Then we heard the sound of the horses, +and six Indians--Ricahecrians--with Luiz Sebastian, came against me. She +stood at my side while I killed three. Then I was struck down, and I +heard her scream as I fell." + +The master freed himself from Carrington's supporting arm, and raised +from his hands a face that had suddenly become that of an old man. But +the voice was steady with which he said quietly,-- + +"Let them search the room thoroughly, for the child may be laying in a +faint beneath these dead, though my soul doth tell me that it is as this +man says, and that she is gone. But we will after them at once, and, +please God, we will have her back, safe and sound. They have but an +hour's start." + +"Ay," muttered young Whittington to Havisham. "Only an hour. But the +Chickahominies build the swiftest canoes in this corner of the world, +and I have heard that the canoes of the Ricahecrians are to the canoes +of the Chickahominies as swallows are to cranes." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS + + +Great trees, drooping from the banks of the Pamunkey, shadowed into inky +blackness the water below them; but between the lines of darkness slept +a charmed sheet, glassy, fiery red from the sunken sun. Three boats +moved silently and swiftly up the crimson stream, until, rounding a low +point, they came upon an Indian village, nestling amidst vines and +mulberries, and girt with a green ribbon of late maize, when they swung +round from the middle stream and made for the bank. They were rowed by +stalwart servants, and in the foremost sat the master of Verney Manor +and Sir Charles Carew. In the second boat was the Surveyor-General and +Dr. Anthony Nash, and in the third the overseer, and among the rowers of +this last was Godfrey Landless. + +As they neared the bank their occupants saw that the usual sleepy +evening stillness was not upon the village above them. A shrill sound of +wailing from women and children rose and fell through the gathering +dusk, and in the open space round which the bark wigwams were built, +dark figures moved to and fro in a kind of measured dance, slow and +solemn, and marked at intervals by dismal cries. As the boats touched +the shore and the white men sprang out, a boy, stationed as scarecrow +upon the usual scaffold in the midst of the maize fields, raised a +shrill whoop of warning which brought the lamentation of the women and +the dance of the men to a dead stop. The latter rushed down to the river +side, brandishing their weapons, and yelling; but there seemed little +strength in the arms that flourished the tomahawk; the voices sounded +cracked and shrill, and the weak fury and noise died away when a nearer +approach showed the newcomers to be white. A very aged man, with a face +all wrinkles and a chest all scars, stepped from out the throng which +was now augmented by the women and children. + +"My white fathers are far from the salt water. Seldom do the Pamunkeys +see their faces coming up the narrowing stream or through the forest. +They are welcome. Let my fathers tarry and my women shall bring them +chinquepin cakes and tuckahoe, pohickory and succotash, and my young +men--" + +He paused, and a low wailing murmur like the sound of the wind in the +forest rose from the women. + +"Where are your young men, your braves?" demanded the Surveyor-General. +"Here are only the very old and the very young--they who have not seen a +Huskanawing." + +The Indian pointed to the crimson flood below. "There are my young men; +there are my braves. Among them were a werowance and a sagamore. They +two have strings of pearl thicker than the stem of the grape vine; they +are painted with puccoon, and the feathers of the bluebird and the +red-bird are upon them. They have hills of hatchets and of arrow heads, +sharp and clean, and very much tobacco, and they sing and dance in the +great wigwam of Okee, in the home of Kiwassa, in the land beyond the +setting sun. But the rest--they lie deep in the slime of the river; it +is red with their blood; their wives wail for them; their village is +left desolate.... When the time of the full sun power was past the +smoking of three pipes, came up the Pamunkey, swift as the swallow that +skims its waters, the Ricahecrian dogs who, passing down towards the +salt water twelve suns ago, slew the young men of a village that lieth +below us. My young men went out against them, but a cloud came up and +Kiwassa hid his face behind it. They came not back, their boats were +sunk, the Ricahecrians laughed and went their way, swift as swallows." + +"Ask him," said the Colonel huskily. + +"Had they a captive with them--a woman, a paleface woman?" demanded +Carrington. + +"With hair like the sunshine and a white robe. And a man, the color of +the falling sycamore leaf, one of those who work in the fields of the +white fathers. The arms of the woman were bound, but his were not--he +fought with the Ricahecrian dogs." + +"Luiz Sebastian!" said the overseer with a muttered oath. "I thought as +much when we found that he was not with the drunken scoundrels whom we +took before they reached the Point. And we had better have killed him +than all the rest put together, for he is the devil incarnate." + +"Let us get on!" Sir Charles cried impatiently. "We waste time when +every moment is precious." + +The Colonel, who had been speaking to the Surveyor-General, came over to +him. All the jovial life and fire was gone from his face, his eyes were +haggard and bloodshot, he stooped like an old man, but the voice with +which he spoke was steady and authoritative as ever. + +"Ay," he said. "We must on at once, but not all of us. Richard Verney +must not forget the danger of the state, in the danger of his child, nor +let his private quarrel take precedence. I had hoped when we left the +Manor at dawn to have been up with the villains ere now, but it was not +to be. This will be a long chase and a stern one, and how it will end +God only knows. We go into a wilderness from which we may never return. +Behind us in the settlement is turmoil and danger, a conspiracy to be +put down, the Chickahominies to be subdued, the strong hand needed +everywhere. Every man should be at his post, and Richard Verney, +Lieutenant of his shire, and Colonel of the trainbands, is many leagues +from the danger which threatens the colony, and with his face to the +west. He must on, but Major Carrington must go back to do his duty to +the King, and Anthony Nash must not desert his flock. And you, Woodson, +I send back to the Manor to do what you can to repair the havoc there, +and to protect Mistress Lettice. My kinsman will go on with me; is it +not so, Charles?" + +"Assuredly, sir," said the baronet quietly. + +"I'd a sight rather go with your Honor," growled the overseer, "but I'll +do my best both by the plantation and by Mistress Lettice, and I look +for your Honor and Mistress Patricia back in no time at all. We are to +take the small boat, I reckon?" + +"Yes, with four men to row you. We will press a boat and a crew from the +next Pamunkey village. Pick out your men, and let us be gone." + +"Humph! There's one that I reckon had best go back with us. Does your +Honor know that you've got with you the head of all this d--d +Oliverian business, the man that Trail swore was their general--that +they all obeyed as though he were Oliver himself?" + +"No! How came he here?" cried the master, staring at Landless, who stood +at some distance from them with folded arms and compressed lips, gazing +steadily up the glowing reaches of the river. + +"Found him in the boat when I stepped into it myself. I didn't say +anything then, for we were in a mortal hurry and he's a good rower. But +I reckon your Honor will send him back with me? He'll give you the slip +the first chance he gets." + +"Of course he must go back," the master said peremptorily. "He should +never have been brought thus far. A dozen or so of these Oliverians must +swing as an example to the rest, and he, their leader, and a felon to +boot, at their head. The service he did us last night can not help +him--he fought for his own life. The Governor has sworn to hang him, and +I am accountable for his safe delivery at Jamestown. Bind him and take +him back with you, and send him at once to Jamestown under a strong +escort." He turned from the overseer to the two gentlemen who were to go +down the river. "Carrington, Anthony Nash, old friends, farewell--it may +be forever. Anthony, pray that I may find my child safe and spotless." + +They embraced, and he wrung their hands, and, stepping hastily into the +boat, sank down and covered his face with his cloak. The +Surveyor-General stood with a pale and troubled face, and Dr. Anthony +Nash prayed aloud. The rowers took their places and the boat shot out +into the middle stream. + +Landless, seeing the second boat filling, and supposing that the third +would receive its load in a moment, stepped towards it. As he passed the +overseer, standing a little to one side with two servants belonging to +Colonel Fitzhugh, a tenant of Colonel Verney, and an Indian from +Rosemead, Woodson put forth an arm and stopped him. + +"No, no, my man," he said with a grim smile but with a watchful eye, and +nodding to the men to close in around them. "Your way's down, not up." + +"What do you mean?" cried Landless, recoiling. + +"I mean that the Doctor and the Major and I and these men go back to the +settlements to look after things there, and that you are going to renew +your acquaintance with Jamestown gaol." + +For a moment Landless stood, turned to stone, within the other's grasp, +then with a cry he broke from him and rushed to the water's edge. The +boat containing the master had turned her head up stream and was beyond +call; in the second boat the men held the oars poised while Sir Charles, +with one foot upon the gunwale, gave a gravely courteous farewell to the +Surveyor-General and the divine. + +"Sir Charles Carew!" cried Landless. "I pray you to take me with you!" + +Without moving, Sir Charles looked at him coldly, a peculiar smile just +curling his lip. + +"I remember a day," he said, "when you said that I might wait until +doomsday and not hear favor asked of me by you." + +"You are not generous," Landless said slowly, "but I ask the favor. I +ask it on my knees. Let me go with you." + +Sir Charles stepped into the boat and took the seat reserved for him. "I +regret," he said politely, "that it comports not with my duty as a +gentleman and an officer of the King to assist you in your very natural +endeavors to escape the gibbet. Push off, men." + +The boat shot from the shore and up the darkening stream, hastening to +overtake its consort. Sir Charles raised his Spanish hat and fluttered a +lace handkerchief. "To a happier meeting, gentlemen!" The +Surveyor-General and the divine returned the salute, and stood in +silence watching the canoe with its brawny rowers and the slender, +elegant figure in the stern. It caught up with the Colonel's boat and +the two grew smaller and smaller, until they became mere black dots and +the dusk swallowed them up. + +Landless watched them too with a face set like a stone. The overseer, +backed by two of the servants, approached him with caution, but there +was no need,--he submitted to be bound without a word, or struggle, or +change in the expression of his face. He turned mechanically towards the +boat, but the overseer plucked him back. "Not yet," he said. "We are all +dead beat, and we have not the need to hurry that have those who are +gone on. The Major's commander now, and he says sleep here a few hours. +I'll fasten you so that you can't get away, I promise ye! Fegs! it's a +pity that a man who can fight as you fought last night should have to +die a dog's death after all! But you've only yourself to thank for it." + +The red glow died from the river like the scarlet from cooling iron, and +it lay dark and silent, dimly reflecting a myriad of stars. The sloping +bank, the maize fields, tobacco patch and mulberry grove, the plateau +upon which were ranged the wigwams of the Indians, the dark and endless +forest--all the wide, sombre earth--had their stars also--myriads on +myriads of fireflies, restlessly sparkling lanterns swung by legions of +fairies. There was no wind; the cataracts of wild grape descending from +the tops of the tallest trees stirred not a leaf; the pines were +soundless. But the whip-poor-wills wailed on, and once a catamount +screamed, and the deer, coming to a lick close by, made a trampling over +the fern. + +Landless, tightly bound to a great bay tree with thongs of deerskin, +watched the night grow old with hard, despairing eyes. The stars paled +and the moon rose softly above the tree-tops, silvering the world +beneath. By her light he saw the little glade of which the tree to which +he was bound marked the centre, and the recumbent forms of those who +were to return to the settlements stretched on Indian mats laid upon the +short grass. Worn out with the toil of the day and the storm and stress +of the night before, they slumbered heavily. The watcher in their midst +thought, "If I could sleep!" and resolutely closed his eyes, but the +vision of a flying canoe and a brightness of golden hair, which had +vexed him, passing up the reaches of the river over and over and over +again, was with him still, and he opened them and raised them to the +stars, thinking, "She may be above them now." + +How still it was! no air, no breath, no sound--the thongs, that, wound +many times around his body, bound him to the tree, fell at his feet, a +figure slipped from behind the trunk, laid a hand, in which was a knife +that gleamed in the moonlight, upon his arm, and whispering, "Follow," +glided over the grass, past the sleepers and into the forest. + +Swiftly but cautiously Landless went after it. The overseer lay within +ten feet of him; he passed him, passed the unconscious servants, +crossed a strip of moonlight, entered the shadow of a locust, and all +but stumbled over a man lying asleep beneath it. He recoiled, and a twig +snapped beneath his foot. The sleeper stirred, turned upon his side, and +opened his eyes. The moon, now high in the heavens, shone so brightly +that there was soft light even beneath the heavy branches of the trees, +and by this light his Majesty's Surveyor-General and his Majesty's +rebellious, convicted, and condemned servant recognized each other. For +one long minute they stared each at the other, then, without a word or +sign to denote that he was aware that aught stood between him and the +moonlight, Carrington lay down again, pillowed his head upon his arm and +closed his eyes. Landless was passing on with a light and steady step +and the ghost of a smile upon his lips when the apparently slumbering +figure put forth an arm and laid something long and dark across his +pathway. He glanced quickly around, but the Surveyor-General lay +motionless, with closed eyes. Stooping, he took up the object, which +proved to be a richly inlaid musket with flask and pouch. He paused +again, but no sign coming from the quietly breathing form on the grass +he lightly and silently left it and the tiny encampment and entered the +forest, where he found a dark figure leaning against a tree, waiting for +him. Without a word it moved forward into the dense shadow of the +forest, and in the same silence he followed it. They were now in thick +woods, moving beneath interlocking branches and a vast canopy of wild +grape that, stretching from the summit of one lofty tree to that of +another, formed a green and undulating roof upon which beat the +moonbeams that could not penetrate the close darkness of the world +below. They came to a small and sluggish stream, flowing without noise +between the towering trees, and stepping into the water, walked up it +for a long while with giant blacknesses on either hand and above them +the moon. + +All this time the figure had stalked along before Landless without +speaking or turning its head, but now, the trees thinning, and they +coming upon a field of wild flax that lay fair and white beneath the +moon, it quitted the lazy stream, and turning upon Landless as he too +stepped upon the bank, showed him the bronze countenance and the +gigantic form of the Susquehannock to whom he had once done a kindness, +and with whom he had fought on such a night as this, in such a moonlight +space. + +"Monakatocka, I thought it had been you," said Landless quietly. + +With the never failing "Ugh!" the Indian took Landless's hand and with +it touched his own dark shoulder. + +"I too am grateful, and with far more reason," said Landless smiling. "I +will be yet more so if you will bring me out upon the bank of the river +at some distance above yonder encampment." + +"What will my brother do then?" + +"I will go up the river." + +"After the canoes in which sit the palefaces from whom my brother +flees?" + +"After the canoe which those canoes pursue." + +"If my brother wishes to take the warpath against the Algonquin dogs," +said the Indian quietly, "he must not follow the Pamunkey, but the +Powhatan." + +"They passed this village yesterday, going up the Pamunkey!" cried +Landless. + +"A false trail. Let my brother come a little further and I will show +him." + +He stepped in front of the white man, and moving rapidly across the +field of flax, dived into the forest again. Following the stream in its +windings they came to where it debouched into a wide and muddy creek, +which, in its turn, flowed into an expanse of water that lay like molten +silver beyond the fringe of trees. + +"The Pamunkey!" exclaimed Landless. + +The Indian nodded and led the way to a thicket of dwarf willow and alder +that grew upon the very brink of the creek. + +"While the palefaces slept, Monakatocka was busy. Look!" he said, +parting the bushes and pointing. + +Within the thicket, drawn up upon the sloping mud, were two large +canoes, quite empty save for a debris of broken oars. + +Landless gasped. "How do you know them to be the same?" + +The Indian stooped and pointed to dark stains. "Blood. They had wounded +among them. And this." He put something into the other's hand. Landless +looked at it, then thrust it into his bosom. "You are right. It is a +ribbon which the lady wore. But why have they left their boats, and +where are they?" + +The Indian pointed to the side of the larger canoe. "The hatchets of the +Pamunkeys were sharp. They fought like real men. This canoe could go no +further. See, it is wet within--they had to ply the gourd very fast to +keep afloat so far. One canoe would not hold them all, so they hid both +here. They knew the palefaces would follow up the river, so they cared +not to stay upon its banks; the Pamunkeys, too, are their enemies. They +have gone through the forest towards the Powhatan. My brother cannot see +their trail, for the eyes of the palefaces are clouded, but Monakatocka +sees it." + +Landless turned upon him. "Will Monakatocka go with me against the +Ricahecrians?" + +"Monakatocka has dreamt of the village on the pleasant river where he +was born. The arm of the white men cannot reach him here, in these +woods, far from their wigwams and warriors and guns; it cannot pluck him +back to be beaten. He toils no more in their fields. He is a real man +again, a warrior of the long house, a chief of the Conestogas. Let my +white brother go with him, across the great rivers, through the forest, +until they come to the Susquehanna and the village of the Conestogas. +There will the maidens and the young men welcome Monakatocka with song +and dance, and my brother shall be welcome also and shall become a great +chief and shall take the warpath against the Algonquin and against the +paleface at the side of Monakatocka. In the Blue Mountains is Death. Let +us go to the pleasant river, to the hunting grounds of the Conestogas." + +Landless shook his head. "My thanks and good wishes go with you, friend, +but my path lies towards the Blue Mountains. Farewell." + +He put out his hand, but the Indian did not touch it. Instead, he +stooped and examined the ground about him with attention, then, +beckoning the other to follow, he moved rapidly and silently along the +border of the creek. Landless overtook him and laid his hand upon his +arm. "This is my path, but yours lies across the river, to the north." + +"If my brother will not go with me, I will go with my brother," said the +Conestoga. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE BRIDGE OF ROCK + + +For twenty days they had followed the Ricahecrians. At times the trail +lay before them so plain that even Landless's unaccustomed eyes could +read it; at times he saw nothing but untrodden ways--no sign to show +that man had been in that wilderness since the beginning of the +world--but the Susquehannock saw and went steadily onward; at times they +lost it altogether, to find it hours, days afterwards.... It had led +them westward, then south to the banks of the Powhatan, then westward +again. At first they had to avoid an occasional clearing with the cabin +of a pioneer rising from it, or some frontier post, or the village of +one of the Powhatan tribes, but that time had long past. The world of +the white man was far behind them, so far that it might have been +another planet for all it threatened them; the Indian villages were few +and far between and inhabited by tribes whose tongue the Susquehannock +did not know. For the most part they gave these villages a wide berth, +but sometimes in the quiet of the evening they entered one, and were met +by the eldest man and conducted to the stranger's lodging, where slim +brown maidens came to them with platters of maize cakes and nuts and +broiled fish, and the warriors and old men gathered around, marveling at +the color of the one and conversing with the other in stately gesture. +Sometimes, crouched in a tangle of vines or behind the giant bole of +some fallen tree they watched a war party file past, noiseless, like +shadows, disappearing in the blue haze that filled the distant aisles of +the forest. Once a band of five attacked them, coming upon them in their +sleep. Three they killed and the others fled. They dipped into the next +stream that crossed their path and swam up it a long distance, then +emerged and went their way, tolerably confident that they had covered +their trail. Sometimes they struggled for hours through coverts of wild +grape, thick with fruit; sometimes they walked for miles down endless +colonnades of pine trees, where the needle-strewn ground was like ice +for slipperiness, and the blue sky gleamed faintly through the far away +tree tops. The wind in the pines rose and fell in long, measured +cadences. It made the only sound there, for the birds forgot to sing and +the insect world kept silence in those vast and sombre cathedrals. + +On the afternoon of the twentieth day they came to a halt upon the bank +of a small stream that fell purling over a long, smooth slide of +limestone into the river. Mountains had loomed into existence in the +last few days. In the distance they made a vast blue rampart which +seemed to prop the western skies. When the sun sank behind them it was +as though a mighty warrior had entered his fortress. Nearer at hand they +fell into lofty hills, over which the forest undulated in unbroken +green. In front the river made a sudden turn and was lost to sight, +disappearing through a frowning gateway of gray cliffs as completely as +though it had plunged into the bowels of the earth.... Landless sat down +on the bank of the stream above the fall and, chin in hand, gazed at +the mountain-piled horizon. The Indian, leaning against a great sycamore +whose branches trailed in the water, watched him attentively. + +"My brother is tired," he said at last. + +Landless shook his head. The Susquehannock paused, still with his eyes +upon the other's face, and then went on, "We have searched and have +found nothing. There have been five suns since the great rains blotted +out the trail. My brother has done very much. Let him say so and we will +go back to the falls of the far west and thence to the northward, to the +pleasant river, to Monakatocka's people, to the graves of his fathers. +And my brother will be welcome to the Conestogas, and he shall be made +one of them, and become a great warrior, and both he and Monakatocka +will forget the evil days when they were slaves--until they meet a +paleface from the great water. My brother has but to speak." + +"If these hills in front of us," said Landless with gloomy emphasis, +"were higher than the Alps, I would climb them. If behind them there +were another range, and then another, and another, if we looked upon the +nearest wave of an ocean of mountains, I would climb them all. If they +are before us, sooner or later I shall find them. But not to know that +they are before us! To know that they may be to the north of us, may be +to the south of us! that we may even have passed them! it is maddening!" + +"We have not passed them," said his companion slowly, "for--" he stopped +abruptly, broke off a bough from a sumach bush beside him, and falling +on his knees, leaned far out over the stream. There were many tiny +cascades in the brook with little eddies below them where sticks and +leaves circled gaily around before they were drawn on to the next +miniature fall, and into one of these eddies the Indian plunged the +bough. The next moment he drew it carefully towards him, something white +clinging to one of its twigs. It proved to be a fragment of lace--not +more than an inch or two--and it might have been torn from a woman's +kerchief. Landless's hand closed over it convulsively. + +"It came down the stream!" he cried. + +The other nodded. "Monakatocka saw it slip over that fall. It has not +been in the water long." + +"Then--my God!--they are close at hand! They are up this stream!" + +The Indian nodded again with a look of satisfaction upon his bronze +features. Landless raised his eyes to the cloudless blue, and his lips +moved. Then, without a word he turned his face up the mountain stream, +and the Indian followed him. + +For an hour they crept warily onward, following the stream in its +capricious wanderings. A broken trailer of grapevine, a pine cone that +had been crushed under foot, the print of a moccasin on a bit of muddy +ground told them that they had indeed recovered the long lost trail. +They moved silently, sometimes creeping on hands and knees through the +long grass where the bank was barren of bushes, sometimes gliding +swiftly through a friendly covert of alder or sumach. The hills closed +in upon them, and became more precipitous. The stream made another bend, +and they were in a ravine where the water flowed over a rocky bed +between banks too steep to afford them secure foothold. The +Susquehannock swung himself down into the shallow water, and motioned to +his companion to do likewise. "Monakatocka smells fire," he whispered. + +A moment later they rounded an overhanging, fern-clad rock, and came +full upon that at which Landless stared with a sharp intake of his +breath, and which even his impassive guide greeted with a long-drawn +"Ugh!" of amazement. + +Towards them brawled the impetuous stream through a wonderful gorge. The +precipitous hillsides, clothed with a stately growth of oak and +chestnut, changed suddenly into a sheer and awful mass of rock. On +either side of the stream towered up the mighty walls until, two hundred +feet above the water, they swept together, spanning the chasm with a +majestic arch. Great trees crowned it; trailers of grape and clematis +made the span one emerald; below, through the vast opening, shone the +evening sky with little, rosy clouds floating across it. A bird, +flashing downwards from the far-off trees, showed black against the +carnation of the heavens. + +The Indian uttered another "Ugh!" then stole forward a pace or two, +stood still, and waited for the other to come up. "My brother sees," he +said simply. + +From a covert of arbor-vitae they looked directly up the creek and +through the archway. Beneath it, and for a few yards on the hither side, +the water flowed in a narrower channel, leaving a little strip of +boulder-strewn shore. With a leap of his heart Landless saw, rising +from this shore, the blue smoke of a newly kindled fire, and squatting +about it, or flitting from place to place, a dozen or more dark figures. +At a little distance from the fire, close against the wall of rock, had +been hastily constructed a rude shed or arbor. As he gazed at this +frail shelter, he saw the flutter of a white gown pass the opening which +served as door. + +"Night soon," said Monakatocka at his ear. "Then will my brother see one +Iroquois cheat all these Algonquin dogs." + +They drew further back into the dense shade of the overhanging boughs. A +large flat boulder afforded them a secure resting-place, and drawing +their feet from the stream, the two curled themselves up side by side +upon its friendly surface. The Indian took some slices of venison from +his wallet, and they made a slender meal, then set themselves patiently +to await the night and the time for action. The tiny encampment was +hidden from them by the thick boughs, but through the screen of +delicate, aromatic leaves they could see the bridge of rock. Around them +was the stir and murmur of the summer afternoon--the wind in the trees, +the whir of insects, the song of birds, the babble of the water--but far +above, where the great arch cut the sky, the world seemed asleep. The +trees dreamed, resting against the crimson and gold of the heavens. The +Indian's appreciation of the wonders of nature was limited--with a +grunted, "All safe: wake before moonrise," he turned upon his side, and +was asleep. + +His Anglo-Saxon neighbor watched the pensive beauty of the evening with +a softened heart. The glory behind the tremendous rock faded, giving +place to tender tints of pearl and amethyst. Above the distant tree tops +swam the evening star. In the half light the shadowy forest on either +hand blended with the great bridge carved by some mysterious force from +the everlasting hills. Together they made a mountain of darkness +pierced by a titanic gateway through which one looked into heavenly +spaces. The chant of the wind swelled louder. It was like the moan of +distant breakers. The night fell, and the stars came out one by one +until the blue vault was thickly studded. Up and down the sides of the +ravine flickered millions of fireflies. Their restless glimmer wearied +the eyes. Landless raised his to the one star, large, calm and +beautiful, and prayed, then thought of all that star shone upon that +night--most of the white town of his boyhood, lying fair and still like +a dream town, above a measureless, slumberous sea. A great calm was upon +him. Toil and danger were past; passionate hope and settled despair were +past. That he would do what he had come this journey to do, he now had +no doubt,--would not have doubted had there been encamped between him +and the frail shed built against the rock all the Indians this side of +the South Sea. + +The stars that shone through the great archway slowly paled, the stream +became dull silver, and down the towering darkness on either hand fell a +soft and tremulous light like a veil of white gauze. Landless put out +his hand to waken the sleeping Indian, and touched bare rock. A moment +later the branches before him parted. He had heard no sound, but there, +within three feet of him, were the high features and the bold eyes of +the Susquehannock. + +"Monakatocka has been to the great rock," he said in a guttural whisper. +"The Algonquin dogs sleep sound, for they do not know that a Conestoga +is on their trail. They have camped beneath the rock three days, and +they will move on the morrow. They have built a shed for the maiden +against the rock. About it lie the Ricahecrians, the moccasins of one +touching the scalp lock of another. They keep no watch, but they have +scattered dried twigs over all the ground. Tread on them, and the god of +the Algonquins will make them speak very loud. But a Conestoga is +cunning. Monakatocka has found a way." + +"Then let us go," said Landless, rising. + +As they crept from out their leafy covert, the moon appeared over the +tree-tops far above them, flooding the glen with light, and making a +restless shimmer of diamonds of the rushing brook. The two men moved +warily up the stream, setting their feet with care upon the slippery +stones. Once Landless stumbled, but caught at a huge boulder, and saved +himself from falling, sending, however, a stone splashing down into the +water. They drew themselves up within the shadow of the rock, and +listened with straining ears, but there came no answering sound save the +cry of a whip-poor-will, and they went on their way. When they were +within a hundred feet of the encampment, the Indian left the stream, +crossed the strip of earth between it and the cliff, and pointed to a +broken and uneven line that ran at a height of some five feet from the +ground along the face of the cliff. Landless looked and saw a very +narrow ledge, a mere projection here and there of jagged and broken +rock, a pathway perilous and difficult as might well be imagined. So +narrow and insignificant it looked, such a mere seam along the vast +wall, that a white man passing through the ravine might never have +noticed it. + +"It is our path," said the Susquehannock. "It leads above the heads of +these dogs and their crackling twigs, straight to where lies the +maiden." + +Without a word Landless caught at the stem of a cedar projecting from a +fissure in the rock, and swung himself up to the cleft. The Indian +followed, and with silence and caution they commenced their dangerous +journey. Landless was no novice at such work. When a boy, he had often +rounded the face of frowning white cliffs with the sea breaking in +thunder a hundred feet below. Then a bird's nest had been the prize of +high daring, death the penalty of dizziness or a misstep. Now, although +not two yards below him was the solid earth, a misstep would send him +crashing down to a more fearful doom--but the prize! A light was in his +eyes as he crept nearer and nearer to the shed built against the rock. + +They passed the smouldering embers of a large fire, and came full upon +the circle of sleeping Indians. They lay in the moonlight like fallen +statues, their bronze limbs motionless, their high, stern features +impassive as death. From their belts came the glint of tomahawk and +scalping knife, and beside each warrior lay his bow and quiver of +arrows. Only one man had a gun. It lay in the hollow of his arm, its +barrel making a gleaming line against his dark skin. The skin was not so +dark as was that of the other recumbent figures, and the face, flung +back and pillowed on the arm, was not the face of an Indian. It was Luiz +Sebastian. He lay somewhat nearer to the shed than did the Ricahecrians, +and directly in front of the doorway; as Landless paused above him, he +turned and laughed in his sleep. + +Slowly and cautiously Landless swung himself down from the ledge, his +moccasined feet touching ground that was clear of pebbles and beyond the +line of twigs. He glanced back to see the gigantic figure of the +Susquehannock, standing upright against the rock, knife in hand, and +watchful eyes roving from one to the other of the sleeping warriors, +then stepped lightly across the body of the mulatto, and entered the +hut. + +Within it the darkness was gross. Pausing a moment to accustom his eyes +to the blackness, there came to him from without the hoot of an owl. It +was the signal agreed upon between him and his companion, and he wheeled +to face the danger it announced. + +The lithe, yellow figure that had lain in front of the doorway had +waked. As Landless gazed, it rose to its knees, then with a quick, +cat-like grace to its feet, stretched itself, cast a listening look +around the sleeping circle, and laid its gun softly down, then with a +noiseless step and a smile upon its evil face, it too entered the hut. + +Landless waited until the mulatto was well across the threshold, and +then sprang upon him, dragging him to the ground, where he held him with +his knee against his chest. He writhed and struggled, but the white man +was the stronger, and held him down; he tried to cry out, but the +other's hands were at his throat choking the life from him. Putting all +his strength into one hand, Landless felt with the other for his knife. +The movement brought his face forward into the shaft of moonlight that +trembled through the opening. "You!" said the eyes of the mulatto, and +his clutching hands tore at the hand about his throat. The hand pressed +closer, and with the other Landless struck the knife into the yellow +bosom. When the writhing form was quite still, he rose from his knees, +and looked down upon the evil face flung back to meet the moonlight. The +struggle had lasted but a minute, and had been without sound--not a +sleeping savage had stirred. But he now heard frightened breathing +within the hut. By this time his eyes were accustomed to the darkness, +and he made out something white niched into the corner opposite. As he +advanced towards it, it started away, and would have brushed past him, +but he seized it. "Madam!" he whispered. "Do not scream. It is I, +Godfrey Landless." + +In the darkness he felt the rigor of terror leave the form which he +held. It swayed against him, and the head fell back across his arm. He +raised the fainting figure, and stepping across the body of the mulatto +issued from the shed, to find Monakatocka standing beside the entrance, +knife in hand, and watchfully regardful of the sleeping Ricahecrians. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE BACKWARD TRACK + + +Landless turned to the pathway by which they had come, but the Indian +shook his head, and pointing to the stream which, making a sudden turn, +brawled along at their very feet, stepped noiselessly down into the +water, first, however, possessing himself of Luiz Sebastian's gun, which +lay upon the ground beside the hut. Landless, following him in silence, +would have turned his face towards the river, but again the +Susquehannock shook his head and began to make his way slowly and warily +up stream. + +The other knew how to obey. Holding with one arm the unconscious form of +the woman he had come so many leagues to seek, and with the other +steadying himself by boulder and projecting cliff, he followed his +companion past the sleeping Ricahecrians, out of the shadow of the great +arch, into the splendor of the moonlight beyond. It was not until they +had gone a long distance, past vast, scarred cliffs, through close, +dark, scented tunnels formed by the overarching boughs of great +arbor-vitæs, up smooth slides where the water came down upon them in +long, unbroken, glassy green slopes, that Landless said, in a low voice: + +"Why do we go up this stream instead of back to the river? It is their +road we are traveling." + +The faint, reluctant smile of the Indian crossed the Susquehannock's +face. "The white man is very wise except when he is in the woods. Then +he is as if every brook ran fire-water and he had drunk of them all. A +pappoose could trick him. When these Algonquin dogs wake and find the +fawn fled and the yellow slave killed, they will cast about for our +trail, and they will find that we came up from the river. Then, when +they find no backward track, but only that we entered the water there, +before the maiden's hut, they will think that we have gone down the +stream, back to the river. They will go down to the river themselves, +but when they have reached it they will not know what to do. They will +think, 'They who come after the Ricahecrians into the Blue Mountains +must be many, with great hearts and with guns.' They will think, 'They +came in boats, and one of their braves and one Iroquois, stealing up +this stream, came upon the Ricahecrians when Kiwassa had closed their +eyes and their ears, and stole away the fawn that the Ricahecrians had +taken, and killed the man who fled with them from the palefaces.' And it +will take a long time for them to find that there were no boats and that +but two men have followed them into the Blue Mountains, for I covered +our trail where this stream runs into the river very carefully. After a +while they will find it, and after another while they will find that the +chief of the Conestogas and his white brother and the maiden have gone +up the stream, and they will come after us. But that will not be until +after the full sun power, and by then we must be far from here." + +"It is good," said Landless briefly. "Monakatocka has the wisdom of the +woods." + +"Monakatocka is a great chief," was the sententious reply. + +"Do you think they will follow us when they find how greatly we have the +start of them?" + +"They will be upon our track, sun after sun, keen-eyed as the hawk, +tireless as the wild horses, hungry as the wolf, until we reach the +tribes that are friendly to the palefaces. And that will be many suns +from now. I told my brother that we followed Death into the Blue +Mountains. Now Death is upon our trail." + +They came to a rivulet that emptied itself into the larger stream, and +the Susquehannock led the way up its bed. Presently they reached a +gently sloping mass of bare stone, a low hill running some distance back +from the margin of the stream. + +"Good," grunted the Susquehannock. "The moccasin will make no mark here +that the sun will not wipe out." + +They clambered out upon the rock and stood looking down the ravine +through which they had come. "My brother is tired," said the Indian. +"Monakatocka will carry the maiden." + +"I am not tired," Landless answered. + +The Indian looked at the face, thrown back upon the other's shoulder. +"She is fair, and whiter than the flowers the maidens pluck from the +bosom of the pleasant river." + +"She is coming to herself," said Landless, and laid her gently down upon +the rock. + +Presently she opened her eyes quietly upon him as he knelt beside her. +"You came," she said dreamily. "I dreamt that you would. Where are my +father and my cousin?" + +"Seeking you still, madam, I doubt not, though I have not seen them +since the day after you were taken. They went up the Pamunkey and so +missed you. Thanks to this Susquehannock, I am more fortunate." + +She lay and looked at him calmly, no surprise, but only a great peace in +her face. "The mulatto," she said, "I feared him more than all the rest. +When I saw him enter the hut I prayed for death. Did you kill him?" + +"I trust so," said Landless, "but I am not certain, I was in too great +haste to make sure." + +"I do not care," she said. "You will not let him hurt me--if he +lives--nor let the Indians take me again?" + +"No, madam," Landless said. + +She smiled like a child and closed her eyes. In the moonlight which +blanched her streaming robe and her loosened hair that, falling to her +knees, wrapped her in a mantle of spun gold, she looked a wraith, a +creature woven of the mist of the stream below, a Lörelei sleeping upon +her rock. Landless, still upon his knee beside her, watched her with a +beating heart, while the Susquehannock, leaning upon his gun, bent his +darkly impassive looks upon them both. At length the latter said, "We +must be far from here before the dogs behind us awake, and the Gold Hair +cannot travel swiftly. Let us be going." + +"Madam," said Landless. + +She opened her eyes and he helped her to her feet. "We must hasten on," +he said gently. "They will follow us and we must put as many leagues as +possible between us before they find our trail." + +"I did not think of that!" she said, with dilating eyes. "I thought it +was all past--the terror--the horror! Let us go, let us hasten! I am +quite strong; I have learned how to walk through the woods. Come!" + +The Indian glided before them and led the way over the friendly rocks. +They left them and found themselves upon a carpet of pine needles, and +then in a dell where the fern grew rankly and the rich black earth gave +like a sponge beneath their feet. Here the Indian made Landless carry +Patricia, and himself came last, walking backwards in the footprints of +the other, and pausing after each step to do all that Indian cunning +could suggest to cover their trail. They came to more rocky ledges and +walked along them for a long distance, then found and went up a wide and +shallow stream. Slowly the pale light of dawn diffused itself through +the forest. In the branches overhead myriads of birds began to flutter +and chirp, the squirrels commenced their ceaseless chattering, and +through the white mist, at bends of the stream, they saw deer coming +from the fern of the forest to drink. A great hill rose before them, +bare of trees, covered only with a coarse growth of grass and short blue +thistles in which already buzzed a world of bees; they climbed it and +from the summit watched a ball of fire rise into the cloudless blue. The +morning wind, blowing over that illimitable forest, fanned their brows, +and a tide of woodland sound and incense swept up to them from the world +below. Around them were the Blue Mountains--gigantic masses, cloudy +peaks, vast ramparts rising from a sea of mist--mysterious fastnesses, +scarcely believed in and never seen by the settlers of the level land--a +magic country in which they placed much gold and the wandering colonists +of Roanoke, the South Sea, and long-gowned Eastern peoples. + +"Oh, the mountains!" said Patricia. "The dreadful, frowning mountains! +When will we be quit of them? When will we reach the level land and the +blue water?" + +"Before many days, I trust," said Landless. "See, our faces are set to +the east--towards home." + +She stood in silence for a moment, her face lifted, the color slowly +coming back to her cheeks and the light to her eyes, then said +suddenly:-- + +"Did my father send you after me?" + +"No, madam." + +"Then how are you here?" + +He looked at her with a smile. "I broke gaol--and came." + +A shadow crossed her face, but it was gone in a moment. "I am very +grateful," she said. "You have saved me from worse than death." + +"It is I that am thankful," he answered. + +They descended the hill in silence and found the Susquehannock, who had +preceded them, squatted before a fire which he had kindled upon a flat +rock beside one of the innumerable streamlets that wound here and there +over the land. + +"The dogs yonder will need Iroquois eyes to spy out this trail," he said +with grim satisfaction, as they came up to him. "Let my brother and the +Gold Hair rest by the fire, and Monakatocka will go into the forest and +get them something to eat." + +He was gone, his gigantic figure looking larger than life as he moved +through the mist which still filled the hollow between the hills, and +Landless and Patricia sat themselves down beside the fire. Landless +piled upon it the dead wood with which the ground was strewn, and the +flames leaped and crackled, sending up thin blue smoke against the +hillside and reddening the bosom of the placid stream. When he had +finished his task and taken his seat, there fell a silence and +constraint upon the man and woman, brought through so many strange and +wayward paths, through lives so widely differing, to this companionship +in the heart of a waste and savage world. They sat opposite each other +in the ruddy light of the fire, and each, looking into the dark or +glowing hollows, saw there the same thing--the tobacco house and what +had there passed. + +"I wish to believe in you," said Patricia at last, lifting appealing +eyes to the opposite face. "But how can I? You lied to me!" + +Landless raised his head proudly. "Madam, will you listen to me--to my +defense if you will? You are a Royalist: I am a Commonwealth man. Can +you not see, that as ten years ago, in the estimation of you and yours, +it was all that was just and heroic for a Cavalier to plot the downfall +of the Government which then was, both here and at home, so they of the +Commonwealth saw no disgrace in laboring for their cause, a cause as +real and as high and as holy to them, madam, as was that of the Stuart +and the Church to the Cavalier.... And will not the slave fight for his +liberty? Is it of choice, do you think, that men lie rotting in prison, +in the noisome holds of ships, are bought and sold like oxen, are +chained to the oar, to the tobacco field, are herded with the refuse of +the earth, are obedient to the finger, to the whip? We--they who are +known as Oliverians, and they who are felons, and I who am, if you +choose, of both parties, were haled here with ropes. What allegiance did +we owe to them who had cast us out, or to them who bought us as they buy +dumb beasts? As God lives, none! We were no longer regarded as men, we +were chattels, animals, slaves, caged, and chained. And as the caged +beast will break his bars if he can, so we strove to break ours. You +have been a captive, madam. Is not freedom sweet to you? We also longed +for it. We staked our lives upon the throw--and lost. That dream is +over,--let it go!... There is honor among rebels, madam, as among +thieves. That morning after the storm, I had the choice of lying to you +or of becoming a traitor indeed.... But as to what I had before asked +you to believe, that was the truth, is the truth. I know that in your +eyes I am still the rebel to the King, well deserving the doom which +awaits me, but if, after what I say to you, by the faith of a gentleman, +before the God who is above the stillness of these hills, you still +believe me criminal in aught else, you wrong me much, you wrong +yourself!" + +He ceased abruptly, and rising, began to heap more wood upon the fire. +The figure of the Indian, with something dark upon its shoulder, emerged +from the spectral forest, and came towards them through the mist. + +"Monakatocka has found our breakfast," said Landless, forcing himself to +speak with indifference, and without looking at his companion. "I am +glad of it, for you must be faint from hunger." + +"I am very thirsty," she said in a low voice. + +"If you will come to the water's edge, that at least can be quickly +remedied." + +She rose from the rock upon which she had been seated and followed him +down to the brink of the little stream. "I would I had a cup of gold," +he said, "and here is not even a great leaf. Will you drink from my +hands, madam?" + +"Yes," she said; then deliberately, after a pause, "for I well believe +them to be clean hands." + +Her own hand touched his as she spoke, and he put it to his lips in +silence. Kneeling upon the turf by the stream, he raised the water in +his hands and she stooped and drank from them, and then they went back +to the fire and sat beside it without speaking until the arrival of +Monakatocka, laden with a wild turkey. An hour later the Susquehannock +carefully extinguished the fire, raked all the embers and ashes into the +stream, hid beneath great rocks the debris of their morning meal, +obliterated all moccasin prints, and having made the little hollow +between the hills to all appearance precisely as it was a few hours +before, when the foot of man had probably never entered it, stepped into +the stream and announced that they were ready to pursue their journey. +Before midday, the stream winding to the south, they left it, and +plunging into the dark heart of the forest pushed rapidly on with their +faces to the east. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE HUT IN THE CLEARING + + +Five days later saw the wayfarers some thirty leagues to the eastward of +the hollow in the hills. They had traveled swiftly, sleeping but a few +hours of each night and in the daytime pausing for rest only when +Landless, quietly watchful, saw the weariness growing in the eyes of the +woman beside him, or noted her lagging footsteps. They had left the +higher mountains behind them, but still moved through what seemed an +uninhabited territory. No Indian village crowned the hills above the +streams; they encountered no roving bands; no solitary hunter met them; +nowhere was there sign of human life. If their enemies were upon their +track, they knew it not--perfect peace, perfect solitude seemed to +encompass them. Still the Indian was vigilant; covering their trail with +unimaginable ingenuity, taking advantage of every running stream, every +stony hillside, building a fire only in some hidden hollow or fold of +the hills, using his bow and arrow to bring down the deer or wild fowl +which furnished them food--he stalked behind them, or sat bolt upright +against the tree or rock beneath which they had made their resting +place, tireless, watchful, the breathing image of caution. If he slept, +it was a sleep from which the sound of a falling acorn, the sleepy stir +of a partridge in the fern was sufficient to awaken him. Sometimes they +rested by fires, for they heard the wolves through the darkness; upon +the nights when this was necessary the Susquehannock sat with his gun +across his knees, piercing the darkness in every direction with keen and +restless eyes. Nothing worse than the wolves--cowardly as yet, for +though drawing swiftly nearer, winter and famine were still +distant--threatened them; no sound other than the forest sounds +disturbed them; through the scant undergrowth or over the moss and +partridge berry brushed nothing more appalling than bear or badger. But +the Indian watched on. + +Day after day Landless and Patricia walked side by side through the +reddening forest. His hands steadied her over crags or down ravines, or +broke a way for her through vast beds of sassafras or mile-long tangles +of wild grape, and when their way lay along the bed of streams he +carried her. She had no need to complain of fatigue, for he saw when she +was weary, and called a halt. At their rustic meals he waited upon her +with grave courtesy, and when they halted for the night he made her +couch of fallen leaves and wove for it a screen of branches. They spoke +but little and only of the needs of the hour. She bore herself towards +him kindly and gently, thanking him with voice and smile for all that he +did for her, and there was no mistrust in her eyes; but he saw, or +fancied he saw, a shadow in their depths, and thinking, "She does not +forget, and neither must I," he set a watch upon himself, and bounds, +across which he was not to step. + +Upon the afternoon of the sixth day they were passing through a deep and +narrow ravine--a mere crack between two precipitous, heavily wooded +mountains--when the Indian stopped short in his tracks and uttered a +warning "Ugh!" then bent forward in a listening attitude. + +"What is it?" asked Landless in a low voice. "I hear nothing." + +"It is a sound," said the other in the same tone. "I do not know what +yet, for it is far off. But it is in front of us." + +"Shall we go on?" demanded Landless, and the Indian nodded. + +It was late afternoon, and the hills which closed in behind them as the +gorge writhed to left and right hid the sun. Great trees, too, pine and +chestnut, walnut and oak, leaned towards each other from the opposing +banks, and together with the overhanging rocks, mantled with fern, made +a twilight of the pass beneath. Here and there the silver stem of a +birch stood up tall and straight, and looked a ghostly sentinel. "Do you +hear it still?" demanded Landless when they had gone some distance in +dead silence. + +"Yes." + +"And still in front of us?" + +"Yes." + +"Ah, what can it be?" cried Patricia, turning her white face upon +Landless. + +A cold wind, blowing from open spaces beyond, rushed up the ravine. "I +hear a very faint sound," said Landless, "like the tapping of a +woodpecker in the heart of the forest." + +"It is the sound of the axe of the white man," said the Indian. "Some +one is cutting down a tree." + +"There can be no ranger or pioneer within many leagues of us!" exclaimed +Landless. "No white man hath ever come so far. It must be an Indian!" + +The Susquehannock shook his head. "Why should an Indian cut down a tree? +We kill them and let them stand until they are bare and white like the +bones of a man when the wolves have finished with him, and they fall of +themselves." + +"If my father still searches for me," said Patricia in a low voice, "may +it not be his party that we hear? There may be a stream there. They may +make canoes." + +"With all my heart I pray that it be so, madam," said Landless. "But we +will soon know. See, Monakatocka has gone on ahead." + +She did not answer, and they walked on through the gloom of the defile. +Presently their path became rough and broken, blocked with large stones +and heavily shadowed by cedars projecting from the rocks above and +draped with vines. He held out his hands and she took them, and he +helped her across the rough places. He felt her hands tremble in his, +and he thought it was with the ecstasy of the hope which inspired her. + +"If it is indeed so," she said once in a voice so low that he had to +bend to catch the words, "if it is indeed my father, then this is the +last time you will help me thus." + +"Yes," he answered steadily. "The last time." + +They passed the rocks and came to where the ravine widened. The sound +that had perplexed them was now plainly audible; there was no mistaking +the quick, ringing strokes of the axe. They rounded a jutting cliff and +abruptly emerged from the chill darkness of the gorge upon a noble +landscape of hill and valley, autumn woods and flowing water, all bathed +in the golden light of the sinking sun and inestimably bright and +precious of aspect after the gloom through which they had been +traveling. But it was not the beauty of the scene which drew an +exclamation from them both. At a little distance rose a knoll, covered +with short grass and fading golden-rod, and with its base laved by a +crystal stream of some width, and upon the knoll, shaded by a couple of +magnificent maples, and covered with the pale and feathery bloom of the +wild clematis, stood a small, rude hut. Smoke rose from its crazy +chimney, and upon the strip of greensward before the door rolled a +little, half-naked child--a white child. As the travelers stared in +amazement, a woman's voice rang out, freshly and sweetly, in an English +ballad. The trees had been cleared away from around the knoll, and in +their place rose the yellowing stalks of Indian corn. The little mound, +feathered with the gold of the golden-rod and girt with the gold of the +maize, rose like a fairy isle from the limitless sea of forest, and the +apparition of a troop of veritable elves would have astonished the +wanderers less than did the tiny cabin, the romping child, and the clear +song of the woman. + +The Indian glided to their side from behind the trunk of an oak. "Ugh," +he said with emphasis. "He is mad and so he has his scalp still." As he +spoke he pointed to where, at a little distance, a man, with his back +turned to the forest, was busily felling a tree. + +"He dares much," said Landless. "We did not think to see the face of a +white man--pioneer, ranger, trapper or trader--for many a league yet. He +has built his house in the jaws of the wolf." + +Patricia gazed at the hut with wistful eyes. "There is a woman there," +she said, and Landless heard her voice tremble for the first time in +their long, toilsome and painful journey. "There is no need to pass them +by, is there? It looks very fair and peaceful. May we not rest here for +this one night?" + +"Yes," said Landless gently, reading, as he read all her fancies and +desires, her longing for the companionship of a woman, though for so +short a time. The Indian, too, nodded assent. "Good! but Monakatocka +will watch to-night." + +They moved through the checkered light and shade towards the man who +worked at the foot of the knoll. They were quite near him when the +woman, whose voice they had heard, came to the door of the cabin, shaded +her eyes with her hand, looked towards the ravine, and saw the three +figures emerging from it. With a loud cry she snatched up the child at +her feet and rushed down the knoll towards the man, who at the sound of +her voice dropped his axe, caught up a musket which leaned against a +stump beside him, and wheeling, presented the gun at the newcomers. + +"Give me your kerchief, madam," said Landless, and advanced with the +white lawn in his hand. + +"Halt!" cried the man with the gun. + +"We are friends," called Landless. "This lady and I are from the +Settlements. This Indian is not Algonquin, but Iroquois--a +Susquehannock, as you may tell by his size. You need have no fear. We +are quite alone." + +The man slowly lowered his gun. "What, in the name of all the fiends, do +you here?" he said, wiping away with the back of his hand the cold sweat +that had sprung to his forehead. He was a tall man with a sinewy frame +and a dare-devil face, tanned to well-nigh the hue of the Indian. + +"I might ask the same question of you," said Landless, coming up to him +with a smile. "This lady was captured and carried off by a band of +roving Ricahecrians who bore her into the Blue Mountains. We ask your +hospitality for to-night. The lady is very weary, and she has not seen +the face of a woman for many weeks. Your good wife will entreat her +kindly, I know." + +The woman, who now stood beside the man, smiled, but doubtfully; the +man's face too was clouded, and there was an uneasy light in his eyes. +Landless, looking steadily at him, saw upon his forehead a mark which +served to explain his evident perturbation. + +"You need not fear me," he said quietly. "'Tis none of our business how +you come to be here in this wilderness, so far from what has been +counted the furthest outpost." + +The man, feeling his gaze upon him, raised his hand with an involuntary +motion to his forehead, then dropped it, awkwardly enough. + +"I see," said Landless. "I understand. I have been--I am--a servant. A +runaway, too, if you like. I have been in trouble. I would not betray +you if I could: that I cannot, goes without saying. Now, will you +shelter us for this night?" + +"Yes," said the man, his face clearing. "As you say, you couldn't do us +harm if you would, seeing that masters, and d--d overseers, and +bloodhounds are at the world's end for us. We are beyond their reach. +Bring up the lady. Joan, here, will see to her." + +An hour later the woman and Patricia sat side by side upon the doorstep +in the long mountain twilight. At their feet the little child crowed and +clapped its hands, and plucked at the golden-rod growing about the +door. Below them, beside the placid stream, the owner of the hut and +Godfrey Landless paced slowly up and down, now disappearing into the +shadow of the trees, now dimly seen in the open spaces, while the Indian +lay at full length beneath the maples, with his eye upon the blackness +of the ravine down which they had come. + +"It is fair to look upon, and peaceful," Patricia said dreamily, "but +Danger lives in these dreadful mountains. Why did you come here?" + +"We came because we loved," the woman said simply. + +"But why into the very land of the savages, so far from safety, so far +from the Settlements?" + +The woman turned her eyes upon the beautiful face beside her and studied +it in silence. + +"I will tell you," she said at last, "for I believe you are as good as +you are beautiful, and you are as beautiful as an angel. And, though I +can see that you are a lady, yet you are woman too, as I am, and you +have suffered much, as I have, and have loved too, I think, as I have +loved." + +"I have never loved," said Patricia. + +The woman smiled, and shook her head. "There is a look in the eyes that +only comes with that. I know it." She gathered the child to her, and +beating its little hand against her bosom, began her story:-- + +"It is four years since I signed to come to the Plantations, to become +the servant of an up-river planter--and to better myself. It was a hard +life, my lady, a hard life--you cannot guess how hard.... One day a +neighboring planter sent a message to my master, and I (for I served in +the house) took it from the messenger. The messenger was one that I had +known in the village at home, in England. He had left home to make his +fortune, and I had not heard of him for a long time. They used to call +me his sweetheart. When I saw him I cried out, and he caught my hands in +his.... After that we met whenever we could, on Sundays, on Instruction +days, whenever chance offered. He had tried to run away twice before we +met, but he never tried afterwards. His master was a hard man--mine was +worse.... After a while we began to meet in secret--at night.... You are +a lady--that is different--you cannot understand; but I loved him, loved +him as well as any lady in the land could love; better, maybe.... There +came a night when I was followed, and taken, and he with me." She broke +off to smell at the scentless spear of golden-rod which the child held +up, and to say, "Yes, my darling, pretty, pretty, pretty," then went on +with her eyes following the figures walking up and down beside the +stream. "The next night found us in the sheriff's hands, in the gaol at +the court-house. Oh that blank, dreadful, heavy night! I felt the lash +already--I did not mind that--but I saw the platform and the post, and +the gaping crowd beneath. I thought of him, and my heart was sick; I +thought of my mother, and my tears fell like rain.... There was a noise +at the window, and I stood upon my stool to see what it was. It was he! +He had a knife and he worked and wrenched at the bars until he had +wrenched them away, then dragged me through the window and we stood +together beneath the stars--free! Another moment and we were down at the +water side and into a boat which was fastened there. We loosed it and +rowed with all our speed up the river. He had killed the gaoler and +gotten away, bringing with him a musket and an axe. All that night we +rowed, and when morning broke we were well-nigh past the settlements, +for we had been far up river to begin with. That day we hid in the +reeds, but when night came we sped up the stream. We came to the falls +of the far west and left our boat there. For many days we walked through +the woods, hurrying on, day after day, for when we lay down at night, I +saw in my dreams the flash of the torches and heard the baying of the +hounds. After a long while we came to an Indian village not many leagues +from here, and there we found the mercies of the savage kinder than the +mercies of the white man. They may have thought us mad--I do not +know--but they did not harm us. There we dwelt for a time, in the +stranger's wigwam, and there the child was born." She pressed the little +hand which she held, and which she had never ceased to beat against her +bosom, to her lips. "He would have stayed in the village, but in sleep I +still heard the bloodhounds, and we left the friendly Indians and +pressed on. We came upon this knoll on just such an evening as this--the +light in the west, and the stream very still, with a large white star +shining down upon it. We lay down beside it, and that night I slept +without a dream.... We have been here ever since, and here we shall stay +until we die." + +"It is fair now," said Patricia, "but in a little while it will be +winter and very cold." + +"Bitterly cold," said the woman. "The snow lies long in these hills, and +the wind howls down the ravine." + +"And the wolves are bold in winter." + +"Very bold. This scar upon my arm is from the teeth of one which I +fought here, on the very threshold." + +"The Indians threaten always, summer or winter." + +"Ay, sooner or later they will come against us. We shall die that way at +last. But what does it matter--so that we die together?" + +The lady of the manor turned her pure, pale face upon the other with +wonder, and yet with comprehension, written upon it. + +"You are happy!" she said, almost in a whisper. + +"Yes, I am happy," the woman answered, a light that was not from the +faintly crimson west upon her face. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +ATTACK + + +About midnight, Landless, lying upon the dirt floor of the lean-to +attached to the one room of the cabin, felt a hand upon his shoulder and +opened his eyes upon a shadowy figure, blocking up the starlight that +came faintly in at the open door. + +"Hist!" said the figure. "Ricahecrians!" + +Landless sprang to his feet. "My God! You are sure?" + +"They are coming out of the ravine. You will hear the whoop directly." + +The owner of the hut, stirred by the Susquehannock's foot, started up. +Such an alarm being about the least surprising thing that could happen, +he kept his wits, and after the first intake of the breath and +exclamation of, "Indians!" he went about his preparations coolly enough. +Rushing into the cabin where Landless had already waked the women, he +groped for his tinder box, and with a steady hand struck a light and +fired a pine knot which he stuck into a block of wood pierced to receive +it; then jerked from the wall his musket and powder horn. + +"You both have guns," he said coolly. "Good! We'll die fighting." The +woman had flown to the door, had seen that the heavy wooden bars were +drawn across it, and now stood beside him with a resolute face, and an +axe in her hands. + +A moment of silence, and then the quiet night was cleft by the war +whoop--dreadful sound, forerunner of death and torture, concentrating in +its savage cadence all ideas of terror! A moment more, and there came +the sound of many moccasined feet and the hurling of many bodies against +the door. The door held, and the man put the muzzle of his gun in one of +the cracks between the logs and fired. The explosion was followed by a +yell. Shot and cry preluded pandemonium. Without were demoniacal cries, +quick crashing blows against the door, stealthy feet, clambering forms; +within were smoke and the noise of the muskets, the crying of the child, +and a red and flickering light which now brought out each detail of the +rude interior, now plunged all into shadow. + +"We are making it hot for them," cried the owner of the hut, reloading +his musket. "There's some shall go to hell before we do. Joan, my +girl--" + +An arrow, whistling through a crack, pierced his brain and he fell to +the ground with a crash. The shriek that the woman set up was answered +from without by a triumphant yell, and then one voice was heard +speaking. + +"It is the mulatto!" cried Patricia, clasping her hands. + +"Yes," answered Landless grimly. "I thought I had done for that devil, +but it seems not. May I have better luck this time!" + +"Ugh!" said the Indian, and pointed to the roof, which was low and +thatched with dried grass and moss. + +"I see," said Landless. "The cabin is on fire. We must leave it in five +minutes, come what may." + +"We will never leave it alive," the Indian said calmly. "The dogs have +us fast. The Chief of the Conestogas will die in a strange land; his +bones will be a plaything for the wolves of the mountains; his scalp +will hang before the wigwam of an Algonquin dog. He will never see the +village and the pleasant river, never will he smoke the peace pipe, he +and his braves, with the Wyandots and the Lenni Lenape, sitting beneath +the mulberries in front of the lodge. He will never see the cornfeast. +He will never dance the war dance again, nor will he lead the war party. +The sagamore dies, and who will tell his tribe? He falls like a leaf in +the forest, like a pebble that is cast into the water. The leaf is not +seen: the stream closes above the pebble--it is gone!" His voice rose +into a chant, stern and mournful, and his vast form appeared to expand, +to become taller. He threw down his gun and drew his long, bright knife. + +"They are upon us!" cried Landless, and thrust Patricia behind him. + +The rude door, constructed of the trunks of saplings, bound together +with withes, crashed inwards, coming to the floor with a tremendous +noise, and a dozen savages precipitated themselves into the cabin. +Landless fired, bringing one to his knee; then clubbed his musket and +swung it over his shoulder. Between him and the Susquehannock, standing +beside him with bent body and knife drawn back against his breast, and +the invaders, was a space some few feet in width, and in this space +something dreadful now happened. + +On one side lay the body of the man with the woman crouched above it, on +the other a pile of skins upon which lay the little child. It had +sobbed itself into exhaustion and quiet, but terrified afresh by the +savage forms pouring through the doorway, the increased and awful +clamor, the flames which had now seized upon the walls, and the choking +smoke which filled the hut, it now scrambled from the pallet, and with a +weak cry started across the space towards its mother. It crossed the +path of the Ricahecrian chief--he glanced downwards, saw the tiny +tottering figure with its outstretched arms, caught it up, and holding +it by its feet, dashed its head against the ground. The cry which the +child uttered as he raised it reached the until then deaf ears of the +mother. She started up with a shriek that rang high above the yelling of +the savages, and darted forward, only to receive at her very feet the +mangled form of the baby she had sung to sleep but a few hours before. +She caught it to her breast and with another dreadful cry rushed upon +the savage. He met her, seized her free arm, raised it, and plunged his +knife into her bosom. Still clasping the child to her bosom, she fell +without a groan, while the Indian bounded on towards the three who yet +remained alive. + +The Susquehannock met him. "A chief for a chief," he said with a cold +smile, and the two locked together in a deadly embrace. When the +Ricahecrian was dead, the Susquehannock turned to find Landless--one +Indian dead before him, another writhing away like a wounded +snake--confronting across the body at his feet the graceful figure and +the amber-hued, evil, smiling face of Luiz Sebastian. So strong were the +flames by now, and so dense and stifling the smoke, that of the score or +more who had broken into the cabin but few remained within its walls, +which were fast becoming those of a furnace, the majority retreating to +the fresh air outside, whence they whooped on to their devil's work the +bolder spirits within. + +These now bore down _en masse_ upon the devoted three. One threw his +tomahawk; it whistled within half an inch of Landless's head, and stuck +into the wall behind him. Another struck at him with his knife, but he +beat him down with his musket, and turned again to the mulatto, who, +knife in hand, watched his chance to run in upon him. + +"Look to the yellow slave, my brother," cried the Susquehannock, "I will +care for these dogs," and hurled his gigantic form upon them. One went +down before his knife; he broke the back of another, bending him like a +reed across his knee; a third fell, cleft to the brain by his +tomahawk--there was a fresh influx from without, and he was borne down +and knives thrust into him. Struggling to his feet, with one last +superhuman exertion of his vast strength, he shook them off as a stag +shakes off the dogs, and stretching out his arm, cried to Landless, +dimly seen through the ever thickening smoke;-- + +"My brother, farewell! I said we should find Death in the Blue +Mountains.... The Iroquois laughs at the Algonquin dogs, laughs at +Death--dies laughing." + +He broke into wild, unearthly, choking laughter, his figure swaying to +and fro like a pine in a storm. The laughter, an indescribable and most +dreadful sound, became low, choked, a mere rattle in the throat, died +into silence, and the laugher crashed to the ground like a pine for +which the storm has been too much. + +Landless drew a breath that was like a moan, but kept his eyes upon the +yellow menace before him. + +"The Ricahecrians are my good friends," said Luiz Sebastian. "They +promise me a wigwam in their village in the Blue Mountains. I shall lead +to it a bride, and she shall be no Indian girl." + +Landless struck at him over the dead body between them, but the mulatto, +springing back, avoided the blow. + +"It is my hour," he said, still with a smile. + +A portion of the roof fell in, making a barrier of flame between them. A +volume of smoke arose, and through it Landless and Patricia dimly saw +Indians and mulatto making for the doorway, driven forth by the +intolerable heat and the imminent danger of the burning walls and the +remainder of the roof caving in upon them. Beyond Landless was the +square opening leading into the tiny shed in which he had been sleeping +when this midnight visitation came upon them. Raising Patricia in his +arms, he made for it, and they presently found themselves in temporary +security. It was but for a moment, he knew, for the flames were already +taking hold upon the shed, but as he set his burden down he whispered +encouraging words. + +"I know," she answered. "We are in God's hands. I would rather die than +to come into that man's power. But the door to the shed is open and the +way seems clear. Could we not escape even now?" + +"Alas! madam, the flames make it as light as day around the cabin. They +would certainly see us. And yet if we stay, we burn. When the fire +reaches this straw above our heads we will try it." + +"I would rather stay here," said Patricia. + +Behind them the flames roared and crackled, the cabin burning like a +torch, and with the flames rose and fell the triumphant cries of the +savages, who, unaware of the existence of the tiny shed, so covered +with the vines that draped the cabin that it seemed one with it, +congregated in front of the gap in the wall where had been the door, and +waited for their still living victims to emerge from it. + +"Look!" breathed Patricia, grasping Landless's arm. + +They stood facing the open door of the shed, and gazing through it down +the lit slope of the knoll. Into the light, out of the darkness at the +foot of the hill, now glided a man, naked save for the loin cloth, and +painted with horrible devices; in the figure, noiseless and bent +forward, savage cunning; in the eyes, the lust for blood. In his +footsteps came his double, then a third, in all points exactly similar, +then a fourth, a fifth--a long line, creeping as silently as shadows--a +nightmare procession--up through the lurid light. + +Landless drew Patricia further into the shadow. + +"Wait," he said. "They may prove our deliverance." + +The stealthy line reached the summit of the knoll, then broadened into a +disc, and swept past the frail shelter in which stood the fugitives. A +moment, and the war whoop rang out, to be answered by a burst of yells +from the Ricahecrians, and then by prolonged and awful clamor. + +"Now is our time," said Landless. + +Hand in hand they ran from the shed that was now in a light flame, and +down the slope up which had come the band of unconscious Samaritans. + +"The stream!" said Landless. "There is a small raft upon it if they have +not destroyed it." + +They made for the water, found the raft hidden in a clump of reeds and +uninjured, and stepped upon it. In ten minutes' time from the appearance +of the new factor in the sum they were moving steadily, if slowly, down +a stream so wide that in Europe it would have been called a river. The +glare from the burning cabin faded, the flaming mass itself shrunk until +it looked a burning bush, then dwindled to a star. The noise of the +struggle upon the mount was with them longer, but at length it, too, +died away. + +"Which will conquer?" said Patricia at last, from where she crouched at +the feet of Landless, who stood erect, poling. + +"The Ricahecrians were the stronger," he answered. "But they may be so +handled that they will not come at us again. That must be our hope." + +There followed a long silence, broken by Patricia. + +"The baby," she said in a quivering voice, "the poor, pretty, innocent +little thing!" + +"It is well with it," said Landless. "It is spared all toil and +suffering. It is better as it is." + +"The man and woman went together," said Patricia, still with the sob in +her voice. "They would have chosen it so, I think. But the poor +Indian--" + +"He was my friend," said Landless slowly, "and I brought him death." + +"It is I that brought him death!" cried Patricia, tossing up her arms. +"I that shall bring you death!" + +Her voice rose into a cry that echoed drearily from the hills about +them, and she beat her hands against the raft with a sudden passion. + +"You would bring me no unwelcome gift," said Landless steadily, +"provided only that the time when I could serve you with my life were +past." + +She did not answer, and they floated on in silence down the little +river, between banks lined with dwarf willows and sighing reeds. With +the dawn they came to rapids through which they could not pilot their +frail craft. Leaving the water, they turned their faces towards the +rising sun, and pursued their journey through the forest that seemed to +stretch to the end of the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE FALL OF THE LEAF + + +Days passed, and the forest put on a beauty, austere, yet fantastic, +bizarre. Above it hung a pale blue sky; within it, a perpetual, pale +blue haze, through which blazed the scarlet and gold of the trees--great +bonfires which did not warm, flaming pyres which were never consumed. +Morning and evening a shroud of chill, white mist fell upon them, or +they would have mocked the sunrise and the sunset. Along the summit of +low hills ran a comb of fire--the scarlet of the sumach, leaf and berry; +underfoot were crimson vines like trails and splashes of blood; into the +streams from which the wanderers stooped to drink, fell the gold of the +sycamore. From the hills they looked down upon a red and yellow world, a +gorgeous bourgeoning and blossoming that put the spring to shame, a sea +of splendor with here and there a dark-green isle of cedar or of pine. +Day after day saw the same calm blue sky, the same blue haze, the same +slow drifting of crimson and gold to earth. The winds did not blow, and +the murmur of the forest was hushed. All sound seemed muffled and +remote. The deer passed noiseless down the long aisles, the beaver and +the otter slipped noiseless into the stream, the bear rolled its +shambling bulk away from human neighborhood like a shapeless shadow. At +times vast flocks of wild pigeons darkened the air, but they passed like +a cloud. The singing birds were gone. Only at night did sound awake, +for then the wolves howled, and the infrequent scream of the panther +chilled the blood, and the fires which the wanderers must needs build +roared and crackled through the darkness. In the daytime beauty, vast +and melancholy; in the night, shadows and mysteries, the voice of wild +beasts and the stillness of the stars; at all times an enemy, they knew +not how far away or how near at hand, behind them. + +Through this world which seemed more a phantasm than a reality, Landless +and Patricia fared, and were happy. All passion, all fear, all mistrust +and anger slept in that enchanted calm. They never spoke of the past, +they had well-nigh ceased to think of it. When they knelt upon the turf +beside some crystal brook, and drank of the water which seemed red wine +or molten gold according to the nature of the trees above it, it might +have been the water of Lethe. + +In the illimitable forest, too, in the monotony of sunshine and shade, +of glade and dell, of crystal streams and tiny valleys, each the +counterpart of the other, in dense woods and grassy savannahs; in the +yesterday so like to-day, and the to-day so like to-morrow, there was no +hint of the future. It was enchanted ground, where to-morrow must always +be like to-day. They kept their faces to the east, and they walked each +day as many leagues as her strength would permit, and Landless, +imitating as best he could the dead Susquehannock, took all precautions +to cover their trail; but that done all was done, and they put care +behind them. Landless, walking in a dream, knew that it was a dream, and +said to himself, "I must awaken, but not yet. I will dream and be happy +yet a little while." But Patricia dreamt and knew it not. She kept her +wonted state, or, rather, with a quiet insistence he kept it for her. He +never addressed her save as "Madam," and he cared for her comfort, and +in all things bore himself towards her with the formal courtesy he would +have shown a queen. He said to himself, "Godfrey Landless, Godfrey +Landless, thou mayst forget much, perhaps, for a little while; but not +this! If thou dost, thou art no honorable man." + +Master of himself, he walked beside her, cared for her, tended her, +guarded her, served her as if he had been a knight-errant out of a +romance, and she a distressed princess. And she rewarded him with a +delicate kindliness, and a perfectly trustful, childlike dependence upon +his strength, wisdom, and resource. All her bearing towards him was +marked by an inexpressible charm, half-playful, wholly gracious and +womanly. The lady of the manor was gone, and in her place moved the +Patricia Verney of the enchanted forest--a very different creature. + +Thus they fared through the dying summer, and were happy in the present +of soft sunshine, tender haze, fantastic beauty. Sometimes they walked +in silence, too truly companions to feel the need of words; at other +times they talked, and the hours flew past, for they both had wit, +intelligence, quick fancy, high imagination. Sometimes their laughter +rang through the glades of the forest, and set the squirrels in the oaks +to chattering; sometimes in the melancholy grace of the evening when the +purple twilight sank through the trees, and the large stars came out one +by one, they spoke of grave things, of the mysteries of life and death, +of the soul and its hereafter. She had early noticed that he never lay +down at night without having first silently prayed. There had been a +time when she would have laughed at this as Puritan hypocrisy, but now, +one dark night, when the noises of the forest were loud about them, and +the wind rushed through the trees, she came close to him and knelt +beside him. Thenceforward each night, before they lay down beside their +fire, and when from out the darkness came all weird and mournful sounds, +when the owl hooted, and the catamount screamed, and the long howl of +the wolf was answered by its fellow, he stood with bared head, and in a +few short, simple words commended them both to God. "I will both lay me +down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in +safety." + +There came a day when they sat down to rest upon the dark, smooth ground +in a belt of pines, and looked between rows of stately columns to where, +in the distance, the arcade was closed by a broken and confused glory of +crimson oak and yellow maple. Landless told her that it was like gazing +at a rose window down the long nave of a cathedral. + +"I have never seen a cathedral," she said; "I have dreamed of them, +though, of your Milton's 'dim religious light,' and of the rolling +music." + +"I have seen many," he answered. "But none of them are to me what the +abbey at Westminster is. If you should ever see it--" + +Something in her face stopped him; there was a silence, and then he said +quietly:-- + +"When you shall see it, is perhaps better, madam?" + +"Yes," she answered, gazing before her with wide fixed eyes. + +He did not finish his sentence, and neither spoke again until they had +left the pines and were forcing their way through the tall grass and +reeds of a wide savannah. They came to a small, clear stream, dotted +with wild fowl and mirroring the pale blue sky, and he lifted her in his +arms as was his wont and bore her through the shallow water. As he set +her gently down upon the other side, she said in a low voice, "I thought +you knew. Had it not been for that night, that night which sets us here, +you and me,--I should be now in London, at Whitehall, at some masque or +pageant perhaps. I should be all clad in brocade and jewels, not like +this--" She touched her ragged gown as she spoke, then burst into +strange laughter. "But God disposes! And you--" + +"I should be in a place which is never mentioned at Court, madam," said +Landless grimly. "The grave, to wit. Unless indeed his Excellency +proposed hanging me in chains." + +She cried out as though she had been struck. "Don't!" she said +passionately. "Don't speak to me so! I will not bear it!" and ran past +him into the woods beyond the savannah. + +When he came up with her he found her lying on a mossy bank with her +face hidden. + +"Madam," he said, kneeling beside her, "forgive me." + +She lifted a colorless face from her hands. "How far are we from the +Settlements?" she demanded. + +"I do not know, madam. Some twenty leagues, probably, from the frontier +posts." + +"How far from the friendly tribes?" + +"Something less than that distance." + +"Then when we reach them, sir," she said imperiously, "you are to leave +me with them at one of the villages above the falls." + +"To leave you there!" + +"Yes. You will tell them that I am the daughter of one of the paleface +chiefs, of one whom the great white chief calls 'brother,' and then they +will not dare to harm me or to detain me. They will send me down the +river to the nearest post, and the men there will bring me on to +Jamestown, and so home." + +"And why may not I bring you on to Jamestown--and so home?" demanded +Landless with a smile. + +"Because--because--you _know_ that you are lost if you return to the +Settlements." + +"And nevertheless I shall return," he said with another smile. + +She struck her hands together. "You will be mad--mad! If you had not +been their leader!--but as it is, there is no hope. Leave me with the +friendly Indians, then go yourself to the northward. Make for New +Amsterdam. God will carry you through the Indians as he has done so far. +I will pray to him that he do so. Ah, promise me that you will go!" + +Landless took her hand and kissed it. "Were you in absolute safety, +madam," he said gently, "and if it were not for one other thing, I would +go, because you wish it, and because I would save you any pang, however +slight, that you might feel for the fate of one who was, who is, your +servant--your slave. I would go from you, and because it else might +grieve you, I would strive to keep my life through the forest, through +the winter--" + +"Ah, the winter!" she cried. "I had forgotten that winter will come." + +"But to do that which you propose," he continued, "to leave you to the +mercy of fierce and treacherous Indians, but half subdued, friends to +the whites only because they must--it is out of the question. To leave +you at a frontier post among rude trappers and traders, or at some half +savage pioneer's, is equally impossible. What tale would you have to +tell Colonel Verney? 'The Ricahecrians carried me into the Blue +Mountains. There your servant Landless found me and brought me a long +distance towards my home. But at the last, to save his own neck, forfeit +to the State, he left me, still in the wilderness and in danger, and +went his way.' My honor, madam, is my own, and I choose not so to stain +it. Again: I must be the witness to your story. You have wandered for +many weeks in a wilderness, far beyond the ken of your friends. To your +world, madam, I am a rebel, traitor and convict, a wretch capable of any +baseness, of any crime. If I go back with you, throwing myself into the +power of Governor and Council, at least I shall be credited with having +so borne myself towards my master's daughter as to fear nothing from +their hands on that score. The idle and censorious cannot choose but +believe when you say, 'I am come scatheless through weeks of daily and +hourly companionship with this man. Rebel and traitor and gaol-bird +though he be, he never injured me in word, thought, or deed....' For all +these reasons, madam, we must be companions still." + +She had covered her face while he was speaking, and she kept it hidden +when he had finished. The slowly lengthening shadows of the trees had +barred the little glade with black when he spoke again. It was only to +ask in his usual voice if she were rested and ready to continue their +journey. + +She raised her head and looked at him with swimming eyes, then held out +two trembling hands. He took them, helped her to her feet, and before +releasing them, bent and touched them with his lips. Then side by side +and in silence they traveled on through the halcyon calm of the world +around them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +AN ACCIDENT + + +It was early morning, and the mist lay heavy upon the forest and on the +bosom of the James. Landless and Patricia raked together the dying +embers of their fire and heaped fresh wood upon them. The flames leaped +up, warming their chilled bodies and filling the hollow that had been +their camping place with a cheerful light, in which the moisture that +clothed tree bole and fallen log and withered fern glistened like +diamonds. Their breakfast of deer meat and broiled fish, nuts and a few +late clusters of grape, with coldest water from a spring hard by, was +eaten amidst laughter and pleasant talk. When they had lingered through +it and when Landless had carefully extinguished their fire and had seen +to the priming of his gun, they addressed themselves to their journey. + +A bowshot away was the river, and Patricia willed that they walk along +its banks that they might see the white mist lift, and the silver flash +of fish rising from the water, and the swoop of the kingfisher. Landless +agreeing, they went down to the river, and standing upon a rocky spit of +ground which ran far out into the stream, they looked down the misty +expanse, then turned involuntarily and looked up. At that moment the fog +lifted. + +"Ah!" cried Patricia, and shrunk back, cowering almost to the ground. + +Landless seized her in his arms and ran with her across the shingle and +up the bank. Plunging into the woods he made for the little stream which +flowed past their camping place, and entering the water, walked rapidly +up it. + +"Did they see us?" Patricia asked in a low, strained voice. + +"I am afraid so." + +"They turned their boats towards the land. They are in the forest by +now." + +"Yes." + +"And there is no doubt that they are the same. I saw the scarlet +handkerchief upon the head of the mulatto." + +"Yes, they are the same." + +"They were such a little way from us. Oh, they may be upon us at any +moment!" + +"We are in great danger," he answered gravely, "but it is not so +imminent as that. They were nearly a mile above us, and they have to +land, to hide their boats and to find our trail, all of which will take +time. We may count on having an hour's start of them, and we will do all +in our power to increase it by breaking our trail as we are doing now. +Then we cannot be many leagues from the falls, and the post below them, +or we may stumble at any moment upon some Monacan village which will not +need our urging to fly out against the Ricahecrians. Please God, we will +win through them yet." + +Somewhat comforted, she lay within his arms without speaking until they +left the stream, when he set her down, and giving her his hand, ran with +her over the fallen leaves down the long aisles of the forest. + +Red gold showers fell upon them; fiery vines clutched at their feet, or, +swinging from the trees, struck at their faces with vicious tendrils; +the pines made the ground beneath like ice; rotting logs covered with +gorgeous fungi barred their way; dark and poisonous swamps appeared +before them, and had to be skirted--the forest leagued itself with its +children and did them yeoman service. + +The two aliens hastened breathlessly on. The sun climbed above the tree +tops and looked down upon them through the half denuded branches. Midday +came, and the short bright afternoon, and still they went fast through +the woods, and still they heard no other sound than the rustle and sough +of the leaves and the beating of their own hearts. They came to rising +ground, and mounting it, found themselves upon a chinquepin ridge, and +before them an abrupt descent of rain-washed, boulder-strewn earth. It +was so nearly a precipice that Patricia shrunk back with an exclamation +of dismay. + +"I will go first," said Landless. "Give me your hands. So!" + +Half way down, the earth began to slip. Patricia, looking up and over +her shoulder, uttered a cry. A great boulder, imbedded in the earth +directly above them, was dislodging itself, was falling! At her cry +Landless raised his eyes, saw the threatening mass, caught her around +the waist, and with one supreme effort swung her out of the path of the +avalanche which descended the next moment, bearing him with it to the +ground beneath. + +He was recalled to consciousness by the dash of water against his face, +and opened his eyes to behold Patricia bending over him, very white, +with tragic eyes, and lips pressed closely together. She had run to the +river, flowing through the sunshine a hundred yards away, for water, +which she had brought back in his cap, and she had taken the kerchief +from her neck, wet it, and laid it upon his forehead. Her hands were +torn and bleeding. He saw them and uttered an exclamation. "It is +nothing," she said; "I had to move the rock." Scarcely fully conscious +as yet, his eyes glanced from her to the great rock which lay upon one +side, and upon which there were bloodstains. "I have had a bad fall," he +said unsteadily, but with an attempt to speak lightly because of the +trouble in her eyes, "but it is over. Come! we must hurry on. We have no +time to lose." + +As he spoke he strove to rise, but with the effort came a pang of +anguish, and he sank back, faint and sick, upon the ground. + +"Ah! you cannot!" cried Patricia with a great sob in her voice. "It is +your foot. The rock fell upon it." + +After a moment of lying with closed eyes, he sat up and with his knife +began to cut away the moccasin from the wounded limb. Presently he +looked up. "Yes, it is badly crushed. There is no doing anything with +it." + +For many moments they gazed at each other in a despairing silence, +broken by Patricia's low, "What are we to do now?" + +"We must go on," answered Landless. "It is death to stay here." + +Holding by the bank against which he had leaned, he dragged himself up +and stood for an instant with eyes dark with pain; then, setting his +lips, took a step forward. The bronze of his face paled, and beads of +anguish stood upon his brow, but he took another step. Patricia, the +tears running down her cheeks, came to him and put his arm around her +shoulder. "I will be your crutch," she said, striving to smile. "I will +carry the gun, too." + +Before them was a steeply sloping, grass-grown ascent rising to a broken +line of cliffs, scarred and gray, crowned with cedars and hung here and +there with crimson creepers, and with a chance medley of huge gray +boulders scattered about their base. Up this ascent they labored, so +slowly that the crags seemed like the mountain in the Arabian tale, ever +receding as they advanced. Twice Landless staggered and fell to his +knee, but when, after what seemed an eternity of pain and distress, they +reached the summit and Patricia would have had him rest, he shook his +head and motioned with his hand towards the narrow, boulder-strewn +plateau at the foot of the crags. + +With her accustomed unquestioning obedience she turned towards the +rocks, and after another interval of painful toil they found themselves +in a sort of rocky chamber, a natural blockhouse, of which the sheer +cliff formed one wall and boulders of varying height and shape the +others. + +Above them gleamed the blue sky; through the gaps between the rocks they +looked down upon the shining river and the parti-colored woods, and +behind them towered the cliffs. A strong wind was blowing and it sent +red leaves from the vines that draped the rock whirling down upon them. + +"The tall gray crags," said Patricia in a strange voice, "and the +Martinmas wind. The river flowing in the sunshine too." + +Landless sank upon the rocky floor. "I can go no further," he said. "God +help me!" + +"I do not think another man could have come so far," she answered. "What +are we to do now?" + +"You must go on without me." + +She cried out angrily, "What do you mean? I don't understand you." + +"Listen," he said earnestly, dragging himself closer to her. "We can be +but a very few leagues from the falls, still fewer from the Indian +villages above them. Reach one of those villages and you are safe from +these devils at least. We have kept the start of them. They may not +reach this spot for several hours, and when they come, I will keep them +here, God helping me, for more hours than one. This place is a natural +fortress, and they have no guns. They will not take me until my +ammunition is exhausted, and you know there is store of bullets and +powder. They will think that you are with me, hidden behind the rocks--" + +"And I shall be with you!" she cried vehemently. + +"No, no. You must go through this pass in the cliff to the right of us, +and thence down the river with all your speed. Please God, to-morrow +will find you in safety. It is the only way. To stay here is to fall +into their hands. And you must not delay. You must go at once." + +"And you--" she said in a whisper. + +"What does it matter if I lose my life to-day instead of a few weeks +hence? I grieve for this," with a glance at his foot, "because it keeps +me from being with you, from guarding you into perfect safety. Otherwise +it does not matter. You lose time, madam." + +She stood with heaving bosom and foot tapping the ground, an expression +that he could not read in her wonderful eyes. "I am not going," she said +at last. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT + + +"You will not go?" cried Landless. + +"No, I will not!" she answered passionately. "Why should you think such +a thing of me? See! we have been together, you and I, for long weeks! +You have been my faithful guide, my faithful protector. Over and over +again you have saved my life. And now, now when you are the helpless +one, when it is through me that you lie there helpless, when it is +through me that you are in this dreadful forest at all, you tell me to +go! to leave you to the fate I have brought upon you! to save myself! I +will not save myself! But the other day it was dishonor in you to leave +me below the falls--almost in safety. Mine the dishonor if I do what you +bid me do!" + +"Madam, madam, it is not with women as with men!" + +"I care not for women! I care for myself. Never, never, will I leave, +helpless and wounded, the man who dies for me!" + +"Upon my knees I implore you!" Landless cried in desperation. "You +cannot save me, you cannot help me. It is you that would make the +bitterness of my fate. Let me die believing that you have escaped these +fiends, and then, do what they will to me, I shall die happy, blessing +with my last breath the generous woman who lets me give--how proudly and +gladly she will never know--my worthless life in exchange for hers, so +young, bright, innocent. Go, go, before it is too late!" + +He dragged himself a foot nearer, and grasping the hem of her dress, +pressed it to his lips. "Good-bye," he said with a faint smile. "Keep +behind the rocks for some distance, then follow the river. Think kindly +of me. Good-bye." + +"It is too late," she said. "I can see the river through this crack +between the rocks. One of those two canoes has just passed, going down +the river. In it were seven Ricahecrians and the mulatto. I saw him +quite plainly, for they row close to the bank with their faces turned to +the woods. They will land at some point below this and search for our +trail. When they do not find it, they will know that we are between them +and the rest of the band, and they will come upon us from behind. If I +go now, it will be to meet them. Shall I go?" + +"No, no," groaned Landless. "It is too late. God help you! I cannot." + +The large tears gathered in her eyes and fell over her white cheeks. +"Oh, why," she said plaintively, "why did He let you hurt yourself just +now?" She turned her face to the rock against which she was standing, +and hiding it in her arm, broke into a low sobbing. It went to the heart +of the man at her feet to hear her. + +Presently the weeping ceased. She drew a long tremulous sigh, and dashed +the tears from her eyes. Her hands went up to her disheveled hair in a +little involuntary, feminine gesture, and she looked at him with a wan +smile. + +"I did not mean to be so cowardly," she said simply. "I will be brave +now." + +"You are the bravest woman in the world," he answered. + +Below them waved the painted forest flaunting triumphant banners of +crimson and gold. A strong south wind was blowing, and it brought to +them a sound as of the whispering of many voices. The shining river, +too, murmured to its reeds and pebbles, and in the air was the dull +whirr of wings as the vast flocks of wild fowl rose like dark smoke from +the water, or, skimming along its surface, broke it into myriad diamond +sprays. Around the horizon towered heaped-up masses of cloud--Ossa piled +on Pelion--fantastic Jack-and-the-Beanstalk castles, built high above +the world, with rampart and turret and bastion of pearl and coral. Above +rose the sky intensely blue and calm. + +All the wealth, the warmth and loveliness of the world they were about +to leave flowed over the souls of the doomed pair. In their hearts they +each said farewell to it forever. Patricia stood with uplifted face and +clear eyes, looking deep into the azure heaven. "I am trying to think," +she said, "that death is not so bitter after all. To-day is +beautiful--but ours will be a fairer morrow! After to-day we will never +be tired, or fear, or be in danger any more. I am not afraid to die; but +ah! if it could only come to us now, swiftly, silently, out of the blue +yonder; if we could go without the blood--the horror--" she broke off +shuddering. Her eyes closed and she rested her head against the rock. +Landless watched the beautiful, pale face, the quivering eyelids, the +coral underlip drawn between the pearly teeth, in a passion of pity and +despair. Horrid visions of torture flashed through his brain; he saw the +delicate limbs writhing, heard the agonized screams.... If he killed +the mulatto, it might come to that; if the mulatto lived, he knew that +she would kill herself. He had given her the knife that had been +Monakatocka's, and she had it now, hidden in her bosom.... The glory of +the autumn day darkened and went out, the bitter waters of affliction +surged over him, an immeasurable sea; it seemed to him that until then +he had never suffered. A cold sweat broke out upon him, and with an +inarticulate cry of rage and despair he struck at his wounded foot as at +a deadly foe. The girl cried out at the sound of the blow. + +"Oh, don't, don't! What are you doing? You have loosened the bandage, +and it is bleeding afresh." + +Despite his effort to prevent her she readjusted the kerchief which she +had wound about the torn and crushed foot, very carefully and tenderly. +"It must hurt you very much," she said pityingly. + +He took the little ministering hands in his and kissed them. "Oh, madam, +madam!" he groaned. "God knows I would shed every drop of my blood a +thousand times to save you. Death to me is nothing, nor life so fair +that I should care to keep it. The grave is a less dreadful prison than +those on earth, and I think to find in God a more merciful Judge. But +you--so young and beautiful, with friends, love--" + +She stopped him with a gesture full of dignity and sweetness. "That life +is gone forever,--it is thousands of miles and ages on ages away. It is +a world more distant than the stars, and we are nearer to Heaven than to +it.... It is strange to think how we have drifted, you and I, to this +rock. A year ago we had never seen each other's faces, had never heard +each other's names, and yet you were coming to this rock from prison and +over seas, and I was coming to meet you.... And it is our death place, +and we will die together, and to-morrow maybe the little birds will +cover us with leaves as they did the children in the story. They were +brother and sister.... When our time comes I will not be afraid, for I +will be with you ... my brother." + +Landless covered his face with his hands. + +The shadows grew longer and the cloud castles began to flush rosily, +though the sun still rode above the tree tops. A purple light filled the +aisles of the forest, through which a herd of deer, making for some +accustomed lick, passed like a phantom troop. They vanished, and from +out the stillness of the glades came the sudden, startled barking of a +fox. A shadow darted across a sunlit alley from gloom to gloom, paused +on the outskirts of the wood below the crags while one might count ten, +then turned and flitted back into the darkness from whence it came. They +beneath the crags did not see it. + +Suddenly Landless raised his head. Upon his face was the look of one who +has come through much doubt and anguish of spirit to an immutable +resolve. He looked to the priming of his gun and laid it upon the rock +beside him, together with his powderhorn and pouch of bullets. Raising +himself to his knees he gazed long and intently into the forest below. +There was no sign of danger. On the checkered ground beneath two mighty +oaks squirrels were playing together like frolicsome kittens, and +through the clear air came the tapping of a woodpecker. The forest was +silent as to the shadow that had flitted through it. It can keep a +secret very well. + +Landless sank back against the rock. He had lost much blood, and that +and the pain of his mangled foot turned him faint and sick for minutes +at a time. He clenched his teeth and forced back the deadly faintness, +then turned to the woman who stood beside him, her hands clasped before +her, her eyes following the declining sun, her lips sometimes set in +mournful curves, sometimes murmuring broken and inaudible words of +prayer. He called her twice before she answered, turning to him with +eyes of feverish splendor which saw and yet saw not. "What is it?" she +asked dreamily. + +"Come back to earth, madam," he said. "There is that that I wish to say +to you. Listen to me kindly and pitifully, as to a dying man." + +"I am listening," she answered. "What is it?" + +"It is this, madam: I love you. For God's sake don't turn away! Oh, I +know that I should have been strong to the end, that I should not vex +you thus! It is the coward's part I play, perhaps, but I must speak! I +cannot die without. I love you, I love you, I love you!" + +His voice rose into a cry; in it rang long repressed passion, hopeless +adoration, fierce joy in having broken the bonds of silence. He spoke +rapidly, thickly, with a stammering tongue, now throwing out his hands +in passionate appeal, now crushing between his fingers the dried moss +and twigs with which the ground was strewn. "I loved you the day I first +saw you. I have loved you ever since. I love you now. My God! how I love +you! Die for you? I would die for you ten thousand times! I would _live_ +for you! Oh, the day I first saw you! I was in hell and I looked at you +as lost Dives might have looked at the angel on the other side of the +gulf.... I never thought to tell you this. I know that never, never, +never.... But this is the day of our death. In a few hours we shall be +gone. Do not leave the world in anger with me. Say that you pity, +understand, forgive.... Speak to me, madam!" + +The sun sank lower and the shadows lengthened and deepened, and still +Patricia stood silent with uplifted and averted face, and fingers +tightly locked together. With a moan of mortal weakness Landless dragged +himself nearer until he touched with his forehead the low pedestal of +rock upon which she stood. "I understand," he said quietly. "After all, +there is nothing to be said, is there? Try to forget my--madness. Think +of it, if you will, as the raving of one at death's door. Let it be as +it was between us." + +Patricia turned--her beautiful face transfigured. Roses bloomed in her +cheeks, her eyes were fathomless wells of splendor, an exquisite smile +played about her lips; with her nimbus of golden hair she looked a rapt +mediæval saint. Her slender figure swayed towards Landless, and when she +spoke her voice was like the tone of a violin, soft, rich, caressing, +tremulous. + +"There was no boat," she said. + +"No boat!" he cried. "What do you mean?" + +"The canoe going down the river. I told you that it held seven Indians +and the mulatto. I lied to you. There were no Indians, no mulatto, no +canoe. The shadows of the clouds have been upon the river, and the wild +fowl, and once a fish-hawk plunged. I have seen nothing else." + +Landless gazed at her with staring eyeballs. "You have thrown away your +life," he said at last in a voice that did not seem his own. + +"Yes, I have thrown away my life." + +"But why--why--" + +The rich color surged over her face and neck. She swayed towards him +with the grace of a wind-bowed lily, her breath fanning his forehead, +and her hand touching his, softly, flutteringly, like a young bird. + +"Can you not guess why?" she said with an enchanting smile. + +All the anguish of a little while back, all the terror of the fate that +hung over her, all the white calm of despair was gone. The horror that +moved nearer and nearer, moment by moment, through the painted forest, +was forgotten. She looked at him shyly from under her long lashes and +with another wonderful blush. + +Landless gazed at her, comprehension slowly dawning in his eyes. For +five minutes there was a silence as of the dead beneath the crags. Then +with a great cry he caught her hands in his and drew her towards him. +"Is it?" he cried. + +"Yes," she answered with laughter trembling on her lips. "Death hath +enfranchised us, you and me. Give me my betrothal kiss, my only love." + +For them one moment of Paradise, of bliss ineffable and supreme. The +next, the crags behind them rang to the sound of the war whoop. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE LAST FIGHT + + +Out from the forest rushed the remnant of that band which had smoked the +peace pipe with the Governor one sunny afternoon on the banks of the +Pamunkey. Tall and large of limb, painted with all fantastic and ghastly +devices, and decorated with hideous mementoes of nameless deeds; with +the lust of blood written large in every fierce lineament and dark and +rolling eye; with raised hands grasping knife and tomahawk, and lips +uttering cries that seemed not of earth--a more appalling vision could +not have issued from out the beautiful, treacherous forest, a more +crashing discord have come into the music of the golden evening. + +For the two in their rocky fortress beneath the crags the apparition had +no terrors. All the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness of the world was +passing from them--the cry that swelled through the forest was its +knell. They smiled to hear it, and with raised faces looked beyond the +many-tinted evening skies into clear spaces where Love was all. The +intoxication of the moment when hidden and despairing love became love +triumphant and acknowledged abode with them. In the very grasp of death +ineffable bliss possessed them. Their countenances changed; the lines of +care and pain, the marks of tears, were all gone and the beauty of the +happy soul shone out. For that brief space of time transcendent youth +and loveliness was theirs. About them, as about the sun now sinking +behind the low hills, there breathed a glory, a dying splendor as bright +as it was fleeting. They felt, too, a lightness and gaiety of +spirit--they had drunk of the nectar of the gods, and no leaden weight +of care, no heavy sorrow, could ever touch them, ever drag them down +again to the sad earth. + +"You are beautiful," said Landless, gazing at her, even in the act of +raising his gun to his shoulder; "as beautiful as you were the day I +first saw you. I hear the drone of the bees in the vines at Verney +Manor. I smell the roses. I look up and see the Rose of the World. My +eyes were dazzled then, are dazzled now, my Rose of the World." + +"That day I wore brocade and lace, and there were pearls around my +throat," she said with a laugh of pure delight. "There was rouge upon my +cheeks, too, sir, and my eyes were darkened. To-day I go a beggar maid, +in rags, burnt by the sun--" + +"The nut-brown maid," he said. + +"Ay," she answered, "the nut-brown maid--'For in my mind of all +mankind'--you may e'en finish it yourself, sir." + +The Ricahecrians had paused at the foot of the ascent to hold a council. +It was soon over. With another burst of cries they rushed up the steep +and upon the rocks, behind which were hidden their victims. Landless, +kneeling to one side of the gap between the boulders by which he and +Patricia had entered, fired, and the foremost of the savages threw up +his arms, uttered a dreadful cry, and fell across the path of his +fellows. For one moment the rush was checked, the next on they came, +yelling furiously and brandishing their weapons. Landless fired and +missed, fired again and pierced the thigh of a gigantic warrior, +bringing him crashing to the ground. The line wavered, paused, then +turning, swept to one side and so passed out of sight. + +"They have found this pass too formidable," said Landless. "They will +try now to force an entrance from the side. Do you watch the front, my +queen, while I face them, coming over the rocks." + +"I looked only at the mulatto," she said. "The others are shadows to +me." + +"His time is come," said Landless. "Do not fear him, sweetheart." + +"I fear not," she answered. "I have the perfect love." + +Along the top of a tall boulder to their right appeared a dark red +line--the arm of a savage, with clutching fingers. Above it, very slowly +and cautiously, there rose first an eagle's feather, then a coarse black +scalp lock, then a high forehead and fierce eyes. The echo of Landless's +shot reverberated through the cliffs, and when the smoke cleared only +the bare gray boulder faced him. But from behind it came a derisive +yell. + +"Thou wilt think me a poor marksman, my dear," he said, smiling, as he +reloaded his musket. "I have missed again." + +"It is because you are wounded," she said. "I would I had thy wounds." + +"I had a wounded heart, but you have healed it," he said, and looked at +her with shining eyes. + +The sun sank and the long twilight of the hills set in. The evening star +was brightening through the pale amethyst of the sky when Landless said +quietly: "The last charge," and emptied it into an arm which for one +incautious moment had waved above the rocks. + +"It is the end, then," said Patricia. + +"Yes, it is the end. We have beaten them back for the moment, but +presently they will find that all we could do we have done, and then--" + +She left her post beside the gap in the front, and came and knelt beside +him, and he took her in his arms. + +"It is not Death before us, but Life," she said in a low voice. + +"It is God and Love, naught else," he answered. "But the river between +will be bitter for you to cross, sweetheart." + +"We cross it together," she said, "and so--" She raised her head that he +might see her radiant smile, and their lips met. + +"Hark!" she said directly with her hand on his. "What is that sound?" + +He shook his head. "The wind has risen, and the forest rustles and +sighs. There is nothing more." + +"It is far off," she answered, "but it is like the dip of oars. Ah!" + +Over against them, framed in the narrow opening between the rocks, his +lithe, half-nude figure dark against the crimson west, and with a smile +upon his evil lips and in his evil eyes, stood Luiz Sebastian. In the +dead silence that succeeded he looked with a smiling; countenance from +the musket, now useless and thrown aside, to his enemy, wounded and +unarmed save for a knife, and to the woman in that enemy's arms; then, +without turning, he said a few words in an Indian tongue. From the dusky +mass behind him came one short, wild cry of savage triumph, followed by +another dead silence. + +Still holding Patricia in one arm, Landless rose from his knee, and +stood confronting him. + +"We are met again, Señor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian smoothly. +Receiving no answer, he spoke again with a tigerish expansion of his +thick lips. "You have had an accident, I see. Mother of God! that foot +must pain you! But you will forget it presently in the pleasure of the +pine splinters." + +"I will forget it in the pleasure of this," said Landless, releasing +Patricia, and springing upon the mulatto with a suddenness and violence +that sent them both staggering through the opening between the rocks, +out upon the narrow plateau and into the ring of Ricahecrians. Luiz +Sebastian was strong, with the easy masked strength of the panther, but +Landless had the strength of despair. The mulatto, thrown heavily to the +ground, and pinned there by his adversary's knee, saw the gleam of the +lifted knife, and would have seen nothing more in this life, but that a +woman's cry rang out and saved him. Landless heard, turned, saw Patricia +dragged from the shelter of the rocks, leaped to his feet, leaving his +work undone, and rushed upon the knot of savages with whom she was +struggling. A moment saw him beside her with the Indian who had held her +dead at his feet. Behind them was the great boulder which had formed the +front wall of their chamber of defense. He put his arm around her, and +drew her back with him until they stood against this rock, then faced +the advancing savages with uplifted knife. + +So determined was his attitude, so terribly had they proved his power, +so certain it was that before he should be taken one at least of their +number would taste that knife, that the Ricahecrians paused, swaying to +and fro, yelling, working themselves into a fury that should send them +on like maddened brutes, blind and deaf to all things but their lust for +blood. + +"I hear a sound of footsteps over the leaves," said Patricia. + +"The wind rustles in them, or the deer pass," answered Landless. "Oh, my +life! are you content?" + +She answered with a low, clear laugh. "I hold happiness fast," she said. +"It cannot escape us now." + +"They are coming," he said. "The last kiss, heart of my heart." + +Their lips met, and their eyes with a smile in them met, and then he put +her gently behind him, and turned to again face Luiz Sebastian. + +With his eyes fixed upon the yellow face, he had raised his hand to +strike at the yellow breast, spotted and barred with the black of the +war paint, when an Indian, gliding between, struck up his arm, and sent +the knife tinkling down upon the rocks. With a yell of triumph the +savage snatched up the weapon, and brandished it, showing it to his +fellows, who, seeing their work accomplished, and the two whom they had +tracked so far actually in their hands, made the forest ring with their +exultant shouts. A few closed in around the devoted pair, directing at +them fiendish cries and no less fiendish laughter, and menacing them +with knife and tomahawk, but the majority streamed down the steep and +into the forest at its base. + +"They go to gather wood," said the still smiling Luiz Sebastian. "By and +by we are to have a bonfire. Señor Landless has often carried wood, I +think, in those old times when he was a slave, and when the pretty +mistress behind him there treated him as such--unless she gave him +favors in secret. But, Mother of God! now that she has made him master, +we must carry the wood for him!" + +Landless, standing with folded arms, looked at him with quiet scorn. "It +is the nature of the viper to use his venom," he said calmly. "Such a +thing cannot anger me." + +"At the same time it is as well to crush the viper," said a voice at his +elbow. + +The speaker, who was Sir Charles Carew, had come from behind the +boulders which ran in a straggling line down the hillside toward the +river. He had his drawn sword in his hand, and as he spoke, he ran the +mulatto through the body. The wretch, his oath of rage and astonishment +still upon his lips, fell to the ground without a groan, writhed there a +moment or two, and then lay still forever. + +From the forest below rose a loud confusion of shouts and cries, +followed by a volley of musketry. At the sound the half dozen savages +upon the plateau turned and plunged down the hillside, to be met before +they reached the bottom by the upward rush of a portion of the rescuing +party. For a short while the twilight glades, low hills and frowning +crags rang to the sound of a miniature battle, to the quick crack of +muskets, the clear shouts of the whites, and the whoops of the savages. +But by degrees these latter became fainter, further between, died +away--a short ten minutes, and there were no warriors left to return to +the village in the Blue Mountains. Fierce shedders of blood, they were +paid in their own coin. + +On the hilltop Sir Charles shot his rapier into its scabbard, and +strode over to Patricia, standing white and still against the rock. "I +was in time," he said. "Thank God!" + +She made no motion to meet his extended hands, but stood looking past +him at Landless. Her face was like marble, her eyes one dumb question. +Landless met their gaze, and in his own she read despair, renunciation, +strong resolve--and a long farewell. + +"You are come in time, Sir Charles Carew," he said. "A little more, and +we should have been beyond your reach. You will find the lady safe and +well, though shaken, as you see, by this last alarm. She will speak for +me, I trust, will tell you that I have used her with all respect, that I +have done for her all that I could do.... Madam, all danger is past. +Will you not collect yourself and speak to your kinsman and savior?" + +He spoke with a certain calm stateliness of voice and manner, as of one +who has passed beyond all emotion, whether of hope or fear, and in his +eyes which he kept fixed upon her there was a command. + +"Speak to me, my cousin; tell me that I am welcome," said Sir Charles, +flinging himself upon his knee before her. + +With a strong shudder she looked away from the still, white, and sternly +composed face opposite to the darkening river and the evening star +shining calmly down upon a waste world. + +At length she spoke. "I was all but beyond this world, cousin, so pardon +me if I seem to come back to it somewhat tardily. You have my thanks, of +course--my dear thanks--for saving my life--my life which is so precious +to me." + +She gave him her hand with a strange smile, and he pressed his lips +upon it. "Your father is below, dearest cousin. Shall we descend to meet +him? As to this--gentleman," turning with a smile that was like a frown +to Landless, "I regret that circumstances combine to prevent our +rewarding him as the guardian (a trusty one, I am sure) of so precious a +jewel should be rewarded. But Colonel Verney will do--I will do--all +that is possible. In the mean time I observe with regret that he is +wounded. If he will allow me, I will send him my valet, who is below, +and is the best barber surgeon in the three kingdoms. Come, dearest +madam." + +He bowed low and ceremoniously to Landless, who returned the salute with +grave courtesy, and gave his hand to Patricia. For one moment she looked +at Landless with wide, dark eyes, then, her spirit obedient to his +spirit, she turned and went from him without one word or backward look. + +The color had quite faded from the west, and the stars were thickening +when Landless became conscious that the overseer was standing beside +him. "You are the hardest one to hold that ever I saw," said that worthy +grimly, and yet with a certain appreciation of the qualities that made +the man at his feet hard to hold showing in his tone, "but I fancy we've +got you at last. You've gone and put yourself in bilboes." + +Landless smiled. "This time you may keep me. I shall not interfere. But +tell me how you come here. You were sent back to the Plantations." + +"Ay," said the other, "and there was the devil to pay, I can tell you, +when I had to report you missing to Sir William. But Major Carrington +stood my friend, and I got off with a tongue-drubbing. Well, after about +three weeks or so, during which time the dogs and the searchers brought +back most all of the runaway niggers, and Mistress Lettice had hysterics +every day, back comes the Colonel and Sir Charles with ten of the twenty +men who had rowed them up the Pamunkey. The rest had fallen in a brush +with the Monacans. They hadn't come up with the Ricahecrians, hadn't +seen hair nor hide of them, had but one report from the Indian villages +along the river, and that was that no Ricahecrians had passed that way. +So after a while they were forced to believe that they were upon a false +scent, and back they comes post haste to the Plantations to get more +men, and go up the Rappahannock. Well, they went up the Rappahannock, +and found nothing to their purpose, so back they came again to try the +James and the country above the Falls. This time they found the +Settlements, which had been before like an overturned hive, pretty +quiet, the ringleaders of your precious plot having all been strung up, +and the rest made as mild as sheep with branding and whipping and +doubling of times. So, the tobacco being in and the plantation quiet, +things were left to Haines, and I came along with the Colonel. Major +Carrington, too, who they say is in the Governor's black books, though +Lord knows he was active enough in stamping out this insurrection, asked +to be allowed to join in the search for his old friend's daughter, and +so he's down in the woods yonder. And Mr. Cary is there, and Mr. Peyton +(Mistress Betty Carrington made _him_ come) and Mr. Jaclyn Carter. Fegs! +half the young gentry in the colony pressed their services on the +Colonel. It got to be the fashion to volunteer to run their heads into +the wolf's mouth for Mistress Patricia. But Sir Charles choked most of +them off. 'Gentlemen,' he says, says he, 'despite the saying that there +cannot be too much of a good thing, I beg to remind you that the +disastrous fortunes of those who first struggled with the forest and the +Indians in this western paradise are attributed to the fact that they +were two thirds gentlemen. Wherefore let us shun the rock upon which +they split'--" + +"How many of my fellow conspirators were put to death?" interrupted +Landless. + +"All the principal ones--them that Trail denounced as leaders. The rest +we pardoned after giving them a lesson they won't soon forget. We let +bygones be bygones with the redemptioners and slaves--all but those +devils who got away that night at Verney Manor, and with Trail at their +head, made for Captain Laramore's ship which was going to turn pirate. +Well, they got to the boats, and one lot got off safe to the ship which +hoisted the black flag, and sailed away to the Indies, and is sailing +there, murdering and ruining, to this day, I reckon. But the other boat +was over full, and the steersman was drunken, and she capsized before +she got to the middle of the channel. Some were drowned, and those that +got ashore we hung next morning. But Trail was in the first boat." + +"When do you--do we--start down the river?" + +"At midnight. And it's the Colonel's orders that until then you stay +here among the rocks and not show yourself to the men below. He'll see +you before we start. In the mean time I'll keep you company." And the +overseer took out his pipe and tobacco pouch, filled the former, lighted +it, and leaning back against the rock fell to smoking in contented +silence. + +Landless too sat in silence, with his head thrown back against the rock +and his face uplifted to the growing splendor of the skies. The night +wind, blowing mournfully around the bare hill and the broken crag, +struck upon his brow with a hint of winter in its touch. With it came +the tide of forest sounds--the sough of the leaves, the dull creaking of +branch against branch, the wash of the water in the reeds, the whirr of +wings, the cries of night birds--all the low and stealthy notes of the +earth chant which had become to him as old and tenderly familiar as the +lullabies of his childhood. Below him, at the foot of the hill, a square +of dark and stately pines was irradiated by a great fire which burnt +redly, casting flickering shadows far across the smooth brown earth, and +around which sat or moved many figures. Laughter and jest, oaths and +scraps of song floated up to the lonely watcher upon the hilltop. He +heeded them not--he was above that world--and no sound came from that +other and smaller fire blazing at some distance from the first--and the +tree trunks between were so many and so thick that he could see naught +but the light. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +VALE + + +The overseer knocked the ashes from his pipe and stuck it in his belt. +"The master," he said curtly, getting to his feet as three cloaked +figures, followed by a negro bearing a torch, came up the hillside and +into the waste of stones beneath the crags. Advancing to meet them, he +took the torch from Regulus's hand and fired a mass of dead and leafless +vine depending from the cliff. In the bright light which sprang up, +filling the rocky chamber and burnishing the face of the crags into the +semblance of a cataract of fire, the parties to the interview gazed at +one another in silence. + +Colonel Verney was the first to speak. "I am sorry to see that you are +wounded," he said gravely. + +"I thank you, sir,--it is nothing." + +The Colonel walked the length of the plateau twice, then came back to +his prisoner's side. "My daughter has told me all," he said somewhat +huskily. "That you and the Susquehannock sought for her and found her; +that you fought for her bravely more than once; that after the Indian +was slain you guided and protected her through the forest; that you have +in all things borne yourself towards her faithfully and reverently, not +injuring her by word, thought or deed. My daughter is very dear to +me--dearer than life, I am not ungrateful. I thank you very heartily." + +"Mistress Patricia Verney is dear to me also," said Sir Charles, coming +forward to stand beside his kinsman. "I too thank the man who restores +her to her friends--to her lover." + +"And I would to God," said the third figure, advancing, "that we could +save the brave man to whom so much is owed. If I were Governor of +Virginia--" + +"You could do naught, Carrington," broke in the Colonel impatiently. +"The man is convict--outside the pale! A convict, and the head of an +Oliverian plot! Scarce the King himself could pardon him! And if he did, +how long d' ye think the walls of the gaol at Jamestown would keep him +from the rabble--and the nearest tree? No, no, William Berkeley does but +his duty. And yet--and yet--" + +He began to pace the rocks again, frowning heavily, and pulling at the +curls of his periwig. "You are a brave man," he said at last, stopping +before Landless and speaking with energy, "and from my soul I wish I +could save you. I would gladly overlook all that is over and done with, +would gladly free you, aid you, help you, so far as might be, to +retrieve your past--but I cannot. My hands are tied; it is +impossible--you must see for yourself that it is impossible." + +"None can see that so clearly as myself, Colonel Verney," Landless said +steadily. "I thank you for the will none the less." + +"To take you back with me," the other continued, beginning to stride up +and down again, "is to take you back, bound, to certain death. And there +is but one alternative--to leave you here in the wilderness. Your +presence here is known only to those upon whose discretion I can depend. +They would hold their tongues, and none need ever be the wiser. But the +Settlements will be barred to you forever, and hundreds of leagues +stretch between this spot and the Dutch or the New Englanders. Moreover, +your description hath been sent to the authorities of each colony. And +you are wounded, and winter is at hand. It may be but a choice of +deaths! I would to God there were some other way--but there is none! You +must choose." + +In the dead silence that ensued the Colonel moved back to the side of +the Surveyor-General, and the two stood, thoughtfully regardant of the +prisoner. The light from the partially consumed vines beginning to wane, +the overseer motioned to Regulus to collect and apply his torch to a +quantity of the fagots with which the ground was strewn. The negro +obeyed, and stood behind the light flame and curling smoke which he had +evoked, like the genie of an Arabian tale. Sir Charles, left standing in +the centre of the rocky chamber, hesitated a moment, then walked with +his usual languid grace over to where Landless leaned against a boulder, +his eyes, shaded by his hand, fixed upon the ground. + +"Whichever you choose--Scylla or Charybdis--" said Sir Charles in his +most dulcet tones, "this is probably the last time you and I will ever +speak together. There have been passages between us in the past, which, +in the light of after event, I cannot but regret. You have just rendered +me an inestimable service. I have learnt, too, that you saved my life +the night of the storming of the Manor House. I beg to apologize to you, +sir, for any offense I may have given you by word or deed." And he held +out his hand with his most courtly smile. + +"It becomes a dying man to be in charity with the world he leaves," said +Landless, somewhat coldly, but with a smile too, "and so I do that which +I never thought to do," and he touched the other's fingers with his own. + +Sir Charles looked at him curiously. "You make a good enemy," he said +lightly. "Had it not been predestined that we were to hate each other, I +could find it in my heart to desire you for a friend. You remain in the +forest, I dare swear?" + +"Yes," answered Landless, with his eyes upon the light in the glade +below. "I choose the easier fate." + +"The easier for all concerned," said the other with a peculiar +intonation. + +Landless glanced at him keenly, but the courtier face and the +inscrutable smile told nothing. "The easier for myself, whom alone it +concerneth," said Landless sternly. + +Dragging himself up by the rock behind him, he turned to the two elder +men. "I have decided, Colonel Verney," he said slowly, "I will stay +here, an it please you." + +"You shall have all that we can leave you," said the Colonel eagerly and +with some emotion. "Ammunition in plenty, food, blankets, an axe--it's +little enough I can do, God knows, but I do that little most willingly." + +"Again I thank you," said Landless wearily. + +Sir Charles caught the inflection. "You stand in need of rest," he said +courteously, "and, this matter settled, our farther intrusion upon you +is as unnecessary as it must be unwelcome. Had we not best descend, +gentlemen?" + +"Ay," said the Colonel. "We have done all we could." Then, to Landless, +"With the moonrise we drop down the river--from out your sight forever. +I have told you frankly there is no hope for you amongst your kind in +the world to which we return. I believe there to be none. But have you +thought of what we must needs leave you to? Humanly speaking, it is +death, and death alone, in the winter forest." + +"I have thought," said Landless. + +"From my soul I wish that some miracle may occur to save you yet!" + +"An ill wish!" said the other, smiling, "with but little chance, +however, of its fulfillment." + +"I fear not," said the Colonel with something like a groan, "but I wish +it, nevertheless. Here is my hand, and with it my heartfelt thanks for +your service to my daughter. And I wish you to believe that I deeply +deplore your fate, and that I would have saved you if I could." + +"I believe it," Landless said simply. + +The Colonel took and wrung his hand, then turned sharply away, and +beckoning the overseer to follow, strode out of the circle of rocks. + +Sir Charles raised his feathered hat. "We have been foes," he said, "but +the strife is over--and when all is said, we are both Englishmen. I +trust we bear each other no ill will." + +"I bear none," said Landless. + +Sir Charles, his eyes still fixed upon the pale quiet of the other's +face, passed out of the opening between the rocks, and his place was +taken by the Surveyor-General. + +"I would have saved you if I could," he said in a low and troubled +voice. "I bow to a brave man and a gallant gentleman," and he too was +gone. + +In the glade below, the movement, the laughter and the song sank +gradually into silence as the gentlemen adventurers, the rangers, Indian +guides, and servants composing the rescuing party threw themselves down, +one by one, beside the blazing fires for a short rest before moonrise +and the long pull down the river. + +Among the crags, high above the twinkling watch-fires and the wash of +the dark river, there was the stillness of the stars, of the white frost +and the bare cliffs. In the northern heavens played a soft light, and +now and then a star shot. The man who marked its trail across the +studded skies thought of himself as of one as far withdrawn as it from +the world of lower lights in the forest at his feet. Already he felt a +prescience of the loneliness of the morrow, and the morrow, and the +morrow, of the slow drift of the days in the waning forest, the hopeless +nights, the terror of that great solitude--and felt, too, a feverish +desire to hasten that approach, to embrace that which was to be +henceforth bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. He wished for the +dash of oars in the dark stream below and for the rise of the moon which +was to shine coldly down upon him, companionless, immured in that vast +fortress from which he might never hope to escape. + +The sound of cautious footsteps among the rocks brought his sick and +wandering fancy back to the present. Raising himself upon his elbow and +peering intently into the darkness, he made out two figures, one tall +and large, the other much slighter, advancing towards him. Presently the +larger figure stopped short, and, seating itself upon a flat rock at the +brink of the hill, turned its face towards the fires in the woods below. +The other came on lightly and hurriedly--another moment, and rising to +his knees, he clasped her in his arms and laid his head upon her bosom. + +"I never thought to see you again," he said at last. + +"I made Regulus bring me," she answered. "The others do not know--they +think me asleep." + +She spoke in a low, even, monotonous voice, and the hand which she laid +upon his forehead was like marble. "My heart is dead, I think," she +said. "I wish my body were so too." + +He drew her closer to him and covered her face and hands with kisses. +"My love, my lady," he said. "My white rose, my woodland dove!" + +She clung to him, trembling. "Down there I was going mad," she +whispered. "But now--now--I feel as though I could weep." He felt her +tears upon his face, but in a moment she was calm again. "Do you +remember the bird we found the other day, all numbed with cold?" she +said. "It had been gay and free and light of heart, but it had not +strength to flutter when I took it in my hands and tried to warm it--and +could not. I am like that bird. The world is very gray and cold, and my +heart--it will never be warm again." + +"God comfort you," he said brokenly. + +"They have told me that at moonrise we leave this place--and you. They +say that it is all they can do for you--to leave you here. All!--Oh, my +God!" + +"They have done what they could," he said gravely. "I recognize that. +And I wish you to do so too, sweetheart." + +She looked at him wildly. "I have been silent," she said, pressing her +clasped hands against her bosom. "I have not told them. I have obeyed +what I read in your eyes. But was it well? Oh, my dear, let me speak!" + +He took her hands from her breast and laid them against his own. "No," +he said with a smile, "I love you too well for that." + +From the woods across the river came the crying of wolves, then a +silence as of the grave; then a whisper arose in the long dry grass and +the leafless vines, and a cold breeze lifted the hair from their +foreheads. The whisper grew into a murmur, prolonged and deep, a sound +as of a distant cataract, or of the dash of surf upon a far away +shore--the voice of the wind in the world of trees. A star shot, leaving +a stream of white fire to fade out of the dark blue sky. From the forest +came again the cry of the wolves. In the camp below there seemed some +stir, and the figure seated on the rock turned its head towards them and +lifted a warning hand. + +"You must go," said Landless. "It was madness for you to venture here. +See, the light is growing in the east." + +With a low, desolate moaning sound she wrung the hands he released and +raised her face to his. He kissed her upon the brow, the eyes and the +mouth. "Good-by, my life, my love, my heart," he said. "We were happy +for an hour. Good-by!" + +"I will be brave," she answered. "I will live my life out. I will pray +to God. And, Godfrey, I will be ever true to you. I shall never see you +again, my dear, never hear of you more, never know till my latest day +whether you are of this world still, or whether you have waited for me a +long time, up there beyond those lights. If it--if death--should come +Boon, wait for me--beyond--in perfect trust, my dear, for I will come +to you--I will come to you as I am, Godfrey." + +He bowed his face upon her hands. + +The breeze freshened, and the sound of the surf became the sound of +breakers. In the east the pale light strengthened. The figure below them +stood up and beckoned. + +"The moon is coming," said Patricia. "Once before I watched for it--in +terror, with pride and anger in my heart. Then, when I thought of you, I +hated you. It is strange to think of that now. Kiss me good-by." + +"I too will be strong," he said. "I will await the pleasure of the Lord. +Until His good time, my bride!" + +Rising to his feet he held her in his arms, then kissed her upon the +lips and put her gently from him. For a moment she stood like a statue, +then with a lifted face and hands clasped at her bosom, she turned, and +slowly, but without a backward look, left the circle of rocks. Through +the opening he saw the slave come up to her, and saw her motion to him +to fall behind--another moment, and both dark figures had sunk below the +brow of the hill. + +Stronger and stronger blew the wind, louder and louder swelled the voice +of the forest. Below, the wash of the river in its reeds, the dull +groaning of branch grating against branch, the fall of leaf and acorn, +the loud sighing of the pines, the cries of the owl, the panther, and +the wolf--above, the vast dome of the heavens and the fading stars. An +effulgence in the east; a silver crest, like the white rim of a giant +wave, upon the eastern hills; a pale splendor mounting slowly and calmly +upward--a dead world,--all her passion, all her pain, all toil and +strife over and done with,--shining down upon a sadder earth. + +From beneath the shadowy banks there shot out into the middle of the +broad moonlit stream a long canoe, followed by a second and a third, and +turning, went swiftly down that long, bright, shimmering, rippling path. + +In the last and smallest of the three boats a man rose from his seat in +the stern, and with his eyes upon the line of moon-whitened cliffs above +him, raised his plumed hat with a courteous gesture, then bent and spoke +to a cloaked and hooded figure sitting, still and silent, between him +and a burlier form. This canoe was rowed by negroes, and as they rowed +they sang. The wild chant--half dirge, half frenzy--that they raised was +suited to that waste which they were leaving. + +The black lines upon the silver flood became mere dots, and the wailing +notes came up the stream faintly and more faintly still. For a while the +echoes rolled among the folded hills and the tall gray crags, but at +length they died away forever. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +[Transcriber's note: added omitted word "time" in "By this time his eyes" +on line 9427, original page 304, of this text.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONERS OF HOPE *** + +***** This file should be named 21886-8.txt or 21886-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/8/21886/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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. diff --git a/21886-8.zip b/21886-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0854fa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/21886-8.zip diff --git a/21886-h.zip b/21886-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70fce0b --- /dev/null +++ b/21886-h.zip diff --git a/21886-h/21886-h.htm b/21886-h/21886-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3768907 --- /dev/null +++ b/21886-h/21886-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12284 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + <!-- + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + h2 {text-align: center; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 2em; clear: both;} + h3 {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; font-weight: normal; clear: both;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .blkquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} + p.titlepage {text-align: center; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0;} + h2.toc {margin-top: 1em;} + hr.major {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.minor {width: 40%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + .caption {font-size: 80%;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + h2.loi {margin-top: 1em;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: x-small; + font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; + text-indent: 0; color: silver; background-color: inherit;} + a.pagenum:after {border: 1px solid silver; padding: 1px 3px; content: attr(title);} + h1 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + .footnote {font-size: 90%;} + .footnote .label {float:left; text-align:left; width:2em;} + .footnote a {text-decoration:none;} + + ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston + +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: Prisoners of Hope + A Tale of Colonial Virginia + +Author: Mary Johnston + +Release Date: June 21, 2007 [EBook #21886] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONERS OF HOPE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width:400px"> +<a name="illus-000" id="illus-000"></a> +<img src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" alt=""WHY ARE YOU SO EAGER?" (Page 2)" title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption">"WHY ARE YOU SO EAGER?" (Page 2)</span> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; width: 400px;" summary=""><tr><td> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 220%; margin-bottom:30px; margin-top:40px">PRISONERS OF HOPE</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 150%; margin-bottom:50px;">A Tale of Colonial Virginia</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom:30px;">BY</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 150%; margin-bottom:5px;">MARY JOHNSTON</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%;">AUTHOR OF "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD,"</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%; margin-bottom:50px;">"AUDREY," ETC.</p> +<div style='text-align: center'> + <img alt='emblem' src='images/illus-emb.png' /> +</div> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; margin-top:50px;">NEW YORK</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; ">GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom:40px;">PUBLISHERS</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<table style="margin: auto; width: 400px;" summary=""><tr><td> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%; margin-top: 50px; margin-bottom:30px;">COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY MARY JOHNSTON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 80%; margin-bottom:50px;">ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINTH THOUSAND</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<table style="margin: auto; width: 400px;" summary=""><tr><td> +<p class="titlepage" style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom:10px;">TO MY FATHER</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<h2 class="toc"><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2> +<table border="0" width="600" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<col style="width:15%;" /> +<col style="width:5%;" /> +<col style="width:70%;" /> +<col style="width:10%;" /> +<tr> + <td align="right">I</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A SLOOP COMES IN</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_SLOOP_COMES_IN_85">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">II</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">ITS CARGO</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#ITS_CARGO_490">15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">III</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_COLONIAL_DINNER_PARTY_849">27</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">IV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE BREAKING HEART</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_BREAKING_HEART_1236">40</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">V</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#IN_THE_THREE-MILE_FIELD_1564">50</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">VI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE HUT ON THE MARSH</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_HUT_ON_THE_MARSH_1908">60</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">VII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A MENDER OF NETS</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_MENDER_OF_NETS_2294">71</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">VIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE NEW SECRETARY</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_NEW_SECRETARY_2739">86</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">IX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">AN INTERRUPTED WOOING</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#AN_INTERRUPTED_WOOING_2891">91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">X</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LANDLESS_PAYS_THE_PIPER_3169">100</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LANDLESS_BECOMES_A_CONSPIRATOR_3410">108</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A DARK DEED</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_DARK_DEED_3713">117</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#IN_THE_TOBACCO_HOUSE_4064">129</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XIV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_MIDNIGHT_EXPEDITION_4331">137</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_WATERS_OF_CHESAPEAKE_4757">150</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XVI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE FACE IN THE DARK</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_FACE_IN_THE_DARK_5148">162</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XVII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">LANDLESS AND PATRICIA</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LANDLESS_AND_PATRICIA_5465">173</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XVIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A CAPTURE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_CAPTURE_5844">185</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XIX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_LIBRARY_OF_THE_SURVEYOR-GENERAL_6089">193</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#WHEREIN_THE_PEACE_PIPE_IS_SMOKED_6451">205</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE DUEL</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_DUEL_6856">219</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_TOBACCO_HOUSE_AGAIN_7090">226</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE QUESTION</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_QUESTION_7519">239</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXIV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">A MESSAGE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#A_MESSAGE_7762">247</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE ROAD TO PARADISE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_ROAD_TO_PARADISE_7887">252</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXVI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">NIGHT</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#NIGHT_8345">267</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXVII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">MORNING</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#MORNING_8533">273</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXVIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#BREAD_CAST_UPON_THE_WATERS_8800">282</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXIX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE BRIDGE OF ROCK</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_BRIDGE_OF_ROCK_9170">295</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXX</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE BACKWARD TRACK</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_BACKWARD_TRACK_9466">306</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXXI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE HUT IN THE CLEARING</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_HUT_IN_THE_CLEARING_9736">315</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXXII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">ATTACK</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#ATTACK_10056">326</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXXIII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE FALL OF THE LEAF</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_FALL_OF_THE_LEAF_10319">335</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXXIV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">AN ACCIDENT</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#AN_ACCIDENT_10536">343</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXXV</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_BOAT_THAT_WAS_NOT_10730">349</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXXVI</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">THE LAST FIGHT</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#THE_LAST_FIGHT_10968">357</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right">XXXVII</td> + <td></td> + <td align="left">VALE</td> + <td align="right"><a href="#VALE_11322">369</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class='major' /> + + + +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_1" id="page_1" title="1"></a> +<a name="A_SLOOP_COMES_IN_85" id="A_SLOOP_COMES_IN_85"></a> +<h1>PRISONERS OF HOPE</h1> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<h3>A SLOOP COMES IN</h3> +</div> + +<p>"She will reach the wharf in half an hour."</p> + +<p>The speaker shaded her eyes with a great fan of carved ivory and painted +silk. They were beautiful eyes; large, brown, perfect in shape and +expression, and set in a lovely, imperious, laughing face. The divinity +to whom they belonged was clad in a gown of green dimity, flowered with +pink roses, and trimmed about the neck and half sleeves with a fall of +yellow lace. The gown was made according to the latest Paris mode, as +described in a year-old letter from the court of Charles the Second, and +its wearer gazed from under her fan towards the waters of the great bay +of Chesapeake, in his Majesty's most loyal and well beloved dominion of +Virginia.</p> + +<p>The object of her attention was a large sloop that had left the bay and +was sailing up a wide inlet or creek that pierced the land, cork-screw +fashion, until it vanished from sight amidst innumerable green marshes. +The channel, indicated by a deeper blue in the midst of an expanse of +shoal water, was narrow, and wound like a gleaming snake in and out +among the interminable succession of marsh islets. The vessel, following +its curves, tacked continually,<a class="pagenum" name="page_2" id="page_2" title="2"></a> its great sail intensely white against +the blue of inlet, bay and sky, and the shadeless green of the marshes, +zigzagging from side to side with provoking leisureliness. The girl who +had spoken watched it eagerly, a color in her cheeks, and one little +foot in its square-toed, rosetted shoe tapping impatiently upon the +floor of the wide porch in which she stood.</p> + +<p>Her companion, lounging upon the wooden steps, with his back to a +pillar, looked up with an amused light in his blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"Why are you so eager, cousin?" he drawled. "You cannot be pining for +your father when 'tis scarce five days since he went to Jamestown. Do +the Virginia ladies watch for the arrival of a new batch of slaves with +such impatience?"</p> + +<p>"The slaves! No, indeed! But, sir, in that boat there are three cases +from England."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that accounts for it! And what may these wonderful cases contain?"</p> + +<p>"One contains the dress in which I shall dance with you at the party at +Green Spring which the governor is to give in your honor—if you ask me, +sir. Oh, I take it for granted that you will, so spare us your +protestations. 'Tis to have a petticoat of blue tabby and an overdress +of white satin trimmed with yards and yards of Venice point. The +stockings are blue silk, and come from the French house in Covent +Garden, as doth the scarf of striped gauze and the shoes, gallooned with +silver. Then there are my combs, gloves, a laced waistcoat, a red satin +bodice, a scarlet taffetas mantle, a plumed hat, a pair of clasped +garters, a riding mask, a string of pearls, and the latest romances."</p> + +<p>"A pretty list! Is that all?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_3" id="page_3" title="3"></a></p> + +<p>"There are things for aunt Lettice, petticoats and ribbons, a gilt +stomacher and a China monster, and for my father, lace ruffles and +bands, a pair of French laced boots, a periwig, a new scabbard for his +rapier, and so on."</p> + +<p>The young man laughed. "'Tis a curious life you Virginians lead," he +said. "The embroidered suits and ruffles, the cosmetics and perfumes of +Whitehall in the midst of oyster beds and tobacco fields, savage Indians +and negro slaves."</p> + +<p>The girl put on a charming look of mock offense. "We <i>are</i> a little bit +of England set down here in the wilderness. Why should we not clothe +ourselves like gentlefolk as well as our kindred and friends at home? +And sure both England and Virginia have had enough of sad colored +raiment. Better go like a peacock than like a horrid Roundhead."</p> + +<p>Her companion laughed musically and sang a stave of a cavalier love +song. He was a slender, well-made man, dressed in the extreme of the +mode of the year of grace sixteen hundred and sixty-three, in a richly +laced suit of camlet with points of blue ribbon, and the great scented +periwig then newly come into fashion. The close curled rings of hair +descending far over his cravat of finest Holland framed a handsome, +lazily insolent face, with large steel-blue eyes and beautifully cut, +mocking lips. A rapier with a jeweled hilt hung at his side, and one +white hand, half buried in snowy ruffles, held a beribboned cane with +which, as he talked, he ruthlessly decapitated the pink and white +morning-glories with which the porch was trellised.</p> + +<p>The house to which the porch belonged was long and low, built of wood, +with many small windows,<a class="pagenum" name="page_4" id="page_4" title="4"></a> and at either end a great brick chimney. From +the porch to the water, a hundred yards away, stretched a walk of +crushed shells bisecting an expanse of green turf dotted with noble +trees—the cedar and the cypress predominating. Diverging from this +central walk were two narrower paths which, winding in and out in +eccentric figures, led, on the one hand, to a rustic summer-house +overgrown with honeysuckle and trumpet-vine, and on the other to a tiny +grotto constructed of shells and set in a tangle of periwinkle. Along +one side of the house, and protected by a stout locust paling overrun +with grape-vines, lay the garden, where flowers and vegetables +flourished contentedly side by side, the hollyhocks and tall white +lilies, the hundred-leaved roses and scarlet poppies showing like gilded +officers amidst the rank and file of sober esculents. Behind the house +were clustered various offices, then came an orchard where the June +apples and the great red cherries were ripening in the hot sunshine, +then on the shore of a second and narrower creek rose the quarters for +the plantation servants, white and black—a long double row of cabins, +dominated by the overseer's house and shaded by ragged yellow pines. +Along one shore of this inlet was planted the Indian corn prescribed by +law, and from the other gleamed the soft yellow of ripening wheat, but +beyond the water and away to the westward stretched acre after acre of +tobacco, a sea of vivid green, broken only by an occasional shed or +drying house, and merging at last into the darker hue of the forest. +Over all the fair scene, the flashing water, the velvet marshes, the +smiling fields, the fringe of dark and mysterious woodland, hung a +Virginia heaven, a cloudless blue, soft, pure, intense. The<a class="pagenum" name="page_5" id="page_5" title="5"></a> air was +full of subdued sound—the distant hum of voices from the fields of +maize and tobacco, the faint clink of iron from the smithy, the wash and +lap of the water, the drone of bees from the hives beneath the eaves of +the house. Great bronze butterflies fluttered in the sunshine, brilliant +humming-birds plunged deep into the long trumpet-flowers; from the +topmost bough of a locust, heavy with bloom, came the liquid trill of a +mock-bird.</p> + +<p>It was a fair domain, and a wealthy. The Englishman thought of certain +appalling sums lost to Sedley and Roscommon, and there flitted through +his brain a swift little calculation as to the number of hogsheads of +Orenoko or sweet-scented it would take to wipe off the score. And the +girl beside him was beautiful enough to take Whitehall by storm, to be +berhymed by Waller, and to give to Lely a subject above all flattery. He +set his lips with the air of a man who has made up his mind, and turned +to his companion, who was absorbed in watching the white sail grow +slowly larger.</p> + +<p>"How long, now, cousin?"</p> + +<p>"But a few minutes unless the wind should fail."</p> + +<p>"And then you will have your treasures. But, madam, when you have +assumed all the panoply your sex relies on to increase its charms 'twill +be but to 'gild refined gold or paint the lily.' The Aphrodite of this +western ocean needs no adornment."</p> + +<p>The girl looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "You make me too many +pretty speeches, cousin," she said demurely. "We know the value of the +fine things you court gallants are perpetually saying."</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul, madam, I swear—"</p> + +<p>"Do you know the amount of the fine for swearing,<a class="pagenum" name="page_6" id="page_6" title="6"></a> Sir Charles? See how +large the sail has grown! When the boat rounds the long marsh she will +come more quickly. We will soon be able to see my father wave his +handkerchief."</p> + +<p>The young man bit his lip. "You are pleased to be cruel to-day, madam, +but I am your slave and I obey. We will look together for Colonel +Verney's handkerchief. How many black slaves does he bring you?"</p> + +<p>She laughed. "But half a dozen blacks, but there will be several +redemptioners if you prefer to be numbered with them."</p> + +<p>"Redemptioners! Ah, yes! the English servants who are sold for their +passage money. I thank you, madam, but <i>my</i> servitude is for life."</p> + +<p>"The men my father will bring may not be the ordinary servants who come +here to better their condition. He may have obtained them from a batch +of felons from Newgate who have been kept in gaol in Jamestown until +word could be got to the planters around. I am sure I wish the ship +captains and the traders would stop bringing in the wretches. It is +different with the negroes: we can make allowance for the poor silly +things that are scarce more than animals, and they grow attached to us +and we to them, and the simple indented servants are well enough too. +There are among them many honest and intelligent men. But these gaol +birds are dreadful. It sickens me to look at them. Thieves and murderers +every one!"</p> + +<p>"I should not think the colony served by their importation."</p> + +<p>"It is not indeed, and we have hopes that it will cease. I beg my father +not to buy them, but he says<a class="pagenum" name="page_7" id="page_7" title="7"></a> that one man cannot stop an abuse—that as +long as his fellow-planters use them he might as well do so too."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles Carew delicately smothered a yawn. "The ship that brought me +over a fortnight ago," he said lazily, "had a consignment of such +rascals. It was amusing to watch their antics, crowded together as they +were in the hold. There were two wild Irishmen whom we used to have on +deck to dance for us. Gad! what figures they cut! The captain and I had +a standing wager of five of the new guineas as to which of the rascals +could hold out longest, promising a measure of rum to the victorious +votary of Terpsichore. When I had lost a score of guineas I found that +the captain was in the habit of priming his man before he came upon +deck. Naturally, being filled with Dutch courage, he won."</p> + +<p>"Poor Sir Charles! What did you do?"</p> + +<p>"Sent the captain a cartel and fought him on his own deck. There was one +man in the villainous company whom, I protest, I almost pitied, though +of course the rogue had but his deserts."</p> + +<p>"What was he?"</p> + +<p>"A man of about thirty. A fellow with a handsome face and a lithe +well-made figure which he managed with some grace. He had the air of one +who had seen better days. I remember, one day when the captain was +bestowing upon him some especially choice oaths, seeing him clap his +hand to his side as though he expected to touch a rapier hilt. He was +cleanly too; kept his rags of clothing as decent as circumstances +allowed, and looked less like a wild beast in a litter of foul straw +than did his fellows. But he was an ill-conditioned dog. We had some +passages together,<a class="pagenum" name="page_8" id="page_8" title="8"></a> he and I. He took it upon himself to defend what he +was pleased to call the honor of one of his precious company. It was +vastly amusing.... After that I fell into the habit of watching him +through the open hatches. A little thing provides entertainment at sea, +Mistress Patricia. He would sit or stand for hours looking past me with +a perfectly still face. The other wretches were quick to crowd up, +whining to me to pitch them half pence or tobacco, but try as I would, I +could not get word or look from him. Sink me! if he didn't have the +impudence to resent my being there!"</p> + +<p>"It was cruel to stare at misery."</p> + +<p>"Lard, madam! such vermin are used to being stared at. In London, +Newgate and Bridewell are theatres as well as the Cockpit or the King's +House, and the world of <i>mode</i> flock to the one spectacle as often as to +the other. But see! the sloop has passed the marsh and has a clean sweep +of water between her and the wharf."</p> + +<p>"Yes, she is coming fast now."</p> + +<p>"What is coming?" asked a voice from the doorway.</p> + +<p>"The Flying Patty, Aunt Lettice," the girl answered over her shoulder. +"Get your hood and come with us to the wharf."</p> + +<p>Mistress Lettice Verney emerged from the hall, two red spots burning in +her withered cheeks, and her tall thin figure quivering with excitement.</p> + +<p>"I am all ready, child," she quavered. "But, mark my words, Patricia, +there will be something wrong with my paduasoy petticoat, or Charette +will not have sent the proper tale of green stockings or Holland smocks. +Did you not hear the screech owl last night?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_9" id="page_9" title="9"></a></p> + +<p>"No, Aunt Lettice."</p> + +<p>"It remained beneath my window the entire night. I did not sleep a wink. +And this morning Chloe upset the salt cellar, and the salt fell towards +me." Mistress Lettice rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed +lugubriously. Patricia laughed.</p> + +<p>"I dreamed of flowers last night, Aunt Lettice; miles and miles of them, +waxen and cold and sweet, like those they strew over the dead."</p> + +<p>Mistress Lettice groaned. "'Tis a dreadful sign. Captain Norton's wife +(she that was Polly Wilson) dreamed of flowers the night before the +massacre of 'forty-four. The only thing the poor soul said when the +war-whoop wakened them in the dead of the night and the door came +crashing in, was, 'I told you so.' They were her last words. Then Martha +Westall dreamed of flowers, and two days later her son James stepped on +a stingray over at Dale's Gift. And I myself dreamed of roses the week +before those horrid Roundhead commissioners with the rebel Claiborne at +their head and a whole fleet at their back, compelled us to surrender to +their odious Commonwealth."</p> + +<p>"At least that evil is past," said the girl with a gay laugh. "And ill +fortune will never come to me aboard the Flying Patty, so I shall go +down to the wharf to see her in. Darkeih! my scarf!"</p> + +<p>A negress appeared in the doorway with a veil of tissue in her hand. Sir +Charles took it from her and flung it over Patricia's golden head, then +offered his arm to Mistress Lettice.</p> + +<p>The wharf was but a stone's throw from the wooden gates, and they were +soon treading the long stretch of gray, weather-beaten boards. Others +were before them, for the news that the sloop was coming in had<a class="pagenum" name="page_10" id="page_10" title="10"></a> drawn a +small crowd to the wharf to welcome the master.</p> + +<p>The dozen or so of boatmen, white and black, who had been tinkering +about in the various barges, shallops and canoes tied to the mossy +piles, left their employments and scrambled up upon the platform, and a +trio of youthful darkies, fishing for crabs with a string and a piece of +salt pork, allowed their lines to fall slack and their intended victims +to walk coolly off with the meat, so intense was their interest in the +oncoming sail. A knot of negro women had left the great house kitchen +and stood, hands on hips, chatting volubly with a contingent from the +quarters, their red and yellow turbans nodding up and down like +grotesque Dutch tulips. The company was made up by an overseer with a +broadleafed palmetto hat pulled down over his eyes and a clay pipe stuck +between his teeth, a pale young man who acted as secretary to the master +of the plantation, and by three or four small land-owners and tenants +for whom Colonel Verney had graciously undertaken various commissions in +Jamestown, and who were on hand to make their acknowledgments to the +great man.</p> + +<p>They all made deferential way for the two ladies and Sir Charles Carew. +Mistress Lettice commenced a condescending conversation with one of the +tenants, Darkeih added a white tulip to the red and yellow ones, and +Patricia, followed by Sir Charles, walked to the edge of the wharf, and +leaning upon the rude railing looked down the glassy reaches of the +water to the approaching boat.</p> + +<p>The wind had sunk into a fitful breeze and the white sail moved very +slowly. The tide was in, and the water lapped with a cooling sound +against the<a class="pagenum" name="page_11" id="page_11" title="11"></a> dark green piles. In the distance the blue of the bay +melted into the blue of the sky, while the nearer waters mirrored every +passing gull, the masts of the fishing boats, the tall marsh grass, the +dead twigs marking oyster beds—each object had its double. On a point +of marshy ground stood a line of cranes, motionless as soldiers on +parade, until, taking fright as the great sail glided past, they whirred +off, uttering discordant cries and with their legs sticking out like +tail feathers. Slowly, and keeping to the middle of the channel, the +boat came on. Upon the long low deck men were preparing to lower the +sail, and a portly gentleman standing in the bow was vigorously waving +his handkerchief. The sail came down with a rush, the anchor swung +overboard, and half a dozen canoes and dugouts shot from under the +shadow of the wharf and across the strip of water between it and the +sloop. The gentleman with the handkerchief, followed by a man plainly +dressed in brown, sprang into the foremost; the others waited for their +lading of merchandise.</p> + +<p>Before the boat had touched the steps the master of the plantation began +to call out greetings to his expectant family.</p> + +<p>"Patricia, my darling, are you in health? Charles, I am happy to see you +again! Sister Lettice, Mr. Frederick Jones sends you his humble +services."</p> + +<p>"La, brother! and how is the dear man?" screamed Mistress Lettice.</p> + +<p>"As well as 'tis in nature to be, with his heart at Verney Manor and his +body at Flowerdieu Hundred."</p> + +<p>The boat jarred against the piles and the planter stepped out, grasping +Sir Charles's extended hand.</p> + +<p>"Again, I am happy to see you, Charles," he cried<a class="pagenum" name="page_12" id="page_12" title="12"></a> in a round and jovial +voice. "I have been telling my up-river good friends that I have the +most topping fellow in all London for my guest, and you will have +company enough anon."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles smiled and bowed. "I hope, sir, that you were successful in +the business that took you to Jamestown?"</p> + +<p>"Fairly so, fairly so. Haines here," with a wave of the hand towards the +man in brown, "had a lot picked out for me to choose from. I have six +negroes and three of those blackguards from Newgate—mighty poor policy +to shoulder ourselves with such gaol sweepings. I doubt we'll repent it +some day. The blacks come by way of Boston, which means that they will +have to be cockered up considerably before they are fit for work. Is +that you, Woodson? How have things gone on?"</p> + +<p>The overseer took his pipe from between his teeth and made an awkward +bow.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see your Honor back," he said deferentially. "Everything's all +right, sir. The last rain helped the corn amazingly, and the tobacco's +prime. The lightning struck a shed, but we got the flames out before +they reached the hogsheads. The Nancy got caught in a squall; lost both +masts and ran aground on Gull Marsh. The tide will take her off at the +full of the moon. Sambo 's been playing 'possum again. Said he'd cut his +foot with his hoe so badly that he couldn't stand upon it. Said I could +see that by the blood on the rag that tied it up. I made him take off +the rag and wash the foot, and there wa'n't no cut there. The blood was +puccoon. If he'd waited a bit he could 'a' had all he wanted to paint +with, for I gave him the rope's end, lively,<a class="pagenum" name="page_13" id="page_13" title="13"></a> until Mistress Patricia +heard him yelling and made me stop."</p> + +<p>"All right, Woodson. I reckon the plantation knows by this time that +what Mistress Patricia says is law. Here come the boats with the boxes. +Tell the men to be careful how they handle them."</p> + +<p>After a hearty word or two to tenants and land owners the worthy Colonel +joined his daughter and sister; and together with Sir Charles Carew they +watched the precious boxes conveyed up the slippery steps, the overseer +shouting directions, plentifully sprinkled with selected, unfinable +oaths to the panting boatmen. When all were safely piled upon the wharf +ready to be wheeled to the great house, the empty boats swung off to +make room for others, laden with the colonel's Jamestown purchases.</p> + +<p>One by one the articles climbed the stairs, each as it reached the level +being claimed by the overseer and told off into a lengthening line. Six +were negroes, gaunt and hollow-eyed, but smiling widely. They gazed +around them, at the heap of clams and oysters piled upon the wharf, at +the marshes, alive with wild fowl, at the distant green of waving corn, +the flower-embowered great house, the white quarters from which arose +many little spirals of savory smoke, and a bland and childlike content +took possession of their souls. With eager and obsequious "Yes, Mas'rs" +they obeyed the overseer's objurgatory indications as to their +disposition.</p> + +<p>There next arose above the landing the head of a white man—a +countenance of sullen ferocity, with a great scar running across it, and +framed in elf locks of staring red. The body belonging to this +prepossessing face was swollen and unshapely, and its owner<a class="pagenum" name="page_14" id="page_14" title="14"></a> moved with +a limp and a muttered curse towards the place assigned him. He was +followed by a sallow-faced, long-nosed man, with black oily hair and an +affected smirk which twitched the corners of his thin lips. Singling out +his master's family with a furtive glance from a pair of sinister +greenish eyes, he made a low bow and stepped jauntily into line.</p> + +<p>The third man rose above the landing. Sir Charles, standing by Patricia, +laughed.</p> + +<p>"This world is a place of fantastic meetings, cousin," he said, airily. +"Now who would suppose that I would ever again see that chipping from a +London gaol I told you of—my shipmate of cleanly habit and unsocial +nature. Yet there he is."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_15" id="page_15" title="15"></a> +<a name="ITS_CARGO_490" id="ITS_CARGO_490"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<h3>ITS CARGO</h3> +</div> + +<p>The afternoon sunshine lay hot upon the house and garden of Verney +Manor—the leaves drooped motionless, the glare of the white paths hurt +the eye, the flowers seemed all to be red. The odor of rose and +honeysuckle was drowned in the heavy cloying sweetness of the pendant +masses of locust bloom. Down in the garden the bees droned in the vines, +and on the steps the flies buzzed undisturbed about the sleeping hounds. +Above the long, deserted wharf and the green velvet of the marshes +quivered the heated air, while to look upon the water was like gazing +too closely at blue flame. From the tobacco fields floated the notes of +a monotonous many-versed chant, and a soft, uninterrupted cooing came +from the dove cot. Heat and fragrance and drowsy sound combined to give +a pleasant somnolence to the wide sunny scene.</p> + +<p>Deep in the cavernous shade of the porch lounged the master of the +plantation, his body in one chair, his legs in another, and a silver +tankard of sack standing upon a third, over the back of which had been +flung his great peruke and his riding coat of green cloth, discarded +because of the heat. Thin, blue clouds curled up from his long pipe, and +obscured his ruddy countenance.</p> + +<p>His shrewd gray eyes under their tufts of grizzled<a class="pagenum" name="page_16" id="page_16" title="16"></a> hair were half +closed in a lazy contentment, born of the hour, the pipe, and the drink. +The world went very well just then in Colonel Verney's estimation. His +crop of the preceding year had been a large and profitable one; this +year it bid fair to be still more satisfactory. During the past few +months he had acquired a number of servants and slaves, and his head +rights would add a goodly number of acres to his already enormous +holdings; land, land, always more land! being the ambition and the +necessity of the seventeenth century Virginia planter. Trader, planter, +magistrate, member of the council of state, soldier, author on occasion, +and fine gentleman all rolled into one, after the fashion of the times; +Cavalier of the Cavaliers, hand in glove with Governor Berkeley, and +possessed of a beautiful daughter, for whose favor one half of the young +gentlemen of the counties of York and Gloucester were ready to draw +rapier on the other half,—Colonel Verney's world was a fair and +stirring one, and gave him plentiful food for meditation on a fine +afternoon.</p> + +<p>Opposite him sat his kinsman and guest, Sir Charles Carew. He was +similarly equipped with pipe and sack, but there the resemblance to his +host ended, Sir Charles Carew being a man who made it a point of honor +to be clad like the lilies of the field on every possible occasion in +life, from the carrying a breach to the ogling a milkmaid. The sultry +afternoon had no power to affect the scrupulous elegance of his attire, +or to alter the careful repose of his manner. In his hand he held a +volume of "Hudibras," but his thoughts were not upon the book, wandering +instead, with those of his kinsman, over the fertile fields of Verney +Manor.<a class="pagenum" name="page_17" id="page_17" title="17"></a></p> + +<p>"You have a princely estate, sir, in this fair, new world," he said at +last, in a sweetly languid voice.</p> + +<p>The planter roused himself from considering at what point of his newly +acquired land he should begin the attack upon the forest. "It's a fair +enough home for a man to end his days in," he said with complacence.</p> + +<p>"We of the court have very erroneous ideas as to Virginia. I confess +that my expectation of finding a courteous and loving kinsman," a +gracious smile and inclination of the head towards the older man, "is +the only one in which I have not been disappointed. I thought to see a +rude wilderness, and I find, to borrow the language of our Roundhead +friends, a very land of Beulah."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay. D' ye remember what old Drayton sings?</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<tr><td>'Virginia!</td></tr> +<tr><td>Earth's only paradise!'</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And a paradise it is, with mighty few drawbacks, now that the King has +come to his own again, if you except these d—d canting Quakers and +Anabaptists, and those yelling red devils on the frontier, and the +danger of a servant insurrection, and the fact that his Majesty (God +bless him!) and the Privy Council fleece us more mercilessly than did +old Noll himself. I verily think they believe our tobacco plants made of +gold like those they say Pizarro saw in Peru. But 'tis a sweet land! +Why, look around you!" he cried, warming to his subject. "The waters +swarm with fish, the marshes with wild fowl. In the winter the air rings +with the <i>cohonk!</i> <i>cohonk!</i> of the wild geese. They darken the air when +they come and go. There in the forest stand the deer, waiting for your +bullet;<a class="pagenum" name="page_18" id="page_18" title="18"></a> badgers and foxes, bears, wolves, and catamounts are more +plentiful than are hares in England. You taste pleasure indeed when you +ride full tilt through the frosty moonlight, down the ringing glades of +the forest, and hear the hounds in full cry, and see before you, black +against the silver snow, a pack of yelling wolves. Then in summer the +woods are full of singing birds and of such flowers as you in England +only dream of. Strawberries make the ground red, and there are wild +melons and grapes and mulberries, and more nuts than squirrels, which is +saying much for the nuts. Everything grows here. 'Tis the garden of the +world. And what is there fairer than the green of the tobacco and the +golden corn tassels? And the noble rivers, whose head waters no man has +ever found, hidden by the Lord in the Blue Mountains near to the South +Sea! Sir, Virginia is God's country!"</p> + +<p>"You in these lowlands have no trouble with the Indians?"</p> + +<p>"None to speak of since 'forty-four, when Opechancanough came down upon +us. The brush with the Ricahecrians seven years ago was nothing. They +are utterly broken, both here and in Accomac. Further up the rivers the +devil still holds his own, we hearing doleful tales of the butchery of +pioneers with their wives and children; and above the falls of the far +west, in the Monacan country, and towards the Blue Mountains, is his +stronghold and capitol; but here in the lowlands all's safe enough. +There is no fear of the savages. Would we could say as much of the +servants!"</p> + +<p>"Why, what do you fear from them?"</p> + +<p>"It's hard to say; but an uneasy feeling has prevailed<a class="pagenum" name="page_19" id="page_19" title="19"></a> for a year or +more. It's this d—d Oliverian element among them. You see, ever since +his Majesty's blessed restoration, gang after gang of rebels have been +sent us—Independents, Muggletonians, Fifth Monarchy men, dour Scotch +Whigamores—dangerous fanatics all! Many are Naseby or Worcester rogues, +Ironsides who worship the memory of that devil's lieutenant, Oliver. All +have the gift of the gab. We disperse them as much as possible, not +allowing above five or six to any one plantation, we of the Council +realizing that they form a dangerous leaven. Should there be trouble, +which heaven forbid! they would be the instigators, restless +mischief-makers and overturners of the established order of things that +they are! Then there are their fellow criminals, the highwaymen, +forgers, cutpurses and bullies of whom we relieve his Majesty's +government. They are few in number, but each is a very plague spot, +infecting honester men. The slaves, always excepting the Portuguese and +Spanish mulattoes from the Indies, who are devils incarnate, have not +brain enough to conspire. But in the actual event of a rising they would +be fiends unchained."</p> + +<p>"A pleasant state of affairs!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is not so serious! We who govern the Colony have to take all +possibilities, however unpleasant, into consideration. I myself do not +think the danger imminent, and many in the Council and among the +Burgesses, and well-nigh all outside will not allow that there is danger +at all. We passed more stringent servant laws last year, and we depend +upon them, and upon the great body of indented servants, who are, for +the most part, honest and amenable and know upon which side their bread +is buttered, to repress the unruly element."<a class="pagenum" name="page_20" id="page_20" title="20"></a></p> + +<p>"What will you do with the convicts you brought with you this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Use them in the tobacco fields just now when all hands are needed to +weed and sucker the plants, and afterwards put them to hewing down the +forest. I told Woodson to bring them around to me this afternoon when +they had been decently clothed. I always give the scoundrels a piece of +my mind to begin with. It saves trouble."</p> + +<p>"Do they give you much trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Not on this plantation. Woodson and Haines are excellent overseers."</p> + +<p>The planter refilled his pipe, struck a light with his flint and steel, +and leaning back amidst the fragrant clouds, allowed his eyelids to +droop and his mind to wander over a pleasant sunshiny tract of nothing +in particular.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles tasted his sack, adjusted his ruffles, and resumed his +reading. But even the delectable adventures of the Presbyterian knight, +over whom all London was laughing, palled on such an afternoon, and the +young gentleman, after listlessly turning a page or two, laid the book +across his knee, and with closed eyes commenced the construction of an +air castle of his own.</p> + +<p>He was roused by the sound of approaching footsteps upon the shell path +leading to the back of the house, and by the harsh voice of the +overseer.</p> + +<p>"Here come your hopeful purchases, sir," he said lazily.</p> + +<p>The overseer turned the corner of the house and came forward with the +three convicts at his heels. He doffed his hat to the two gentlemen, +then turned to his charges. "Fall into line, you dogs, and salute his +Honor!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_21" id="page_21" title="21"></a></p> + +<p>The first man, he of the long nose and the twitching lip, smiled +sweetly, and bent so low that his fell of greasy hair well-nigh swept +the steps; the second, with a brow like a thunder cloud, gave a vicious +nod; the third, with as impassive a countenance as Sir Charles's own, +bowed gravely, and stood with folded arms and a quietly attentive mien.</p> + +<p>The planter gathered himself up from his chair and came forward to the +top of the steps, his tall, corpulent figure towering above the men +below much as his fortunes towered above theirs.</p> + +<p>"Now, men," he said, speaking sternly and with slow emphasis. "I have +just one word to say to you. Listen well to it. I am your master; you +are my servants. I reckon myself a good master, it not being my way to +treat those belonging to me, whether white or black, like dumb beasts. +Give me obedience and the faithful work of your hands, and you shall +find me kind. But if you are stubborn or rebellious, by the Lord, you +will rue the day you left Newgate! Whipping-post and branding-irons are +at hand, and death is something closer to a felon in Virginia than in +England. Be careful! Now, Woodson, what have you put these men to?"</p> + +<p>"They'll go into the three-mile field to-morrow morning, your honor, +unless you wish other disposition made of them."</p> + +<p>"No, that will do. Take them away."</p> + +<p>The overseer faced about and was marching off with the recruits for the +three-mile field when his master's voice arrested him.</p> + +<p>"Take those two in front on with you, Woodson, and send me back the +brown-haired one."</p> + +<p>The "brown-haired one" turned as his companions<a class="pagenum" name="page_22" id="page_22" title="22"></a> disappeared around a +hedge of privet and came slowly back to the steps.</p> + +<p>"You wished to speak to me, sir?" he said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. You are the man who was tolerably helpful in the squall last +night?"</p> + +<p>"I was so fortunate as to be of some small service, sir."</p> + +<p>"You understand the handling of a boat?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Hum. I will tell Woodson to try you with a sloop when the press of work +in the fields is past. What is your name?"</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Landless."</p> + +<p>"Chevalier d'Industrie and frequenter of the Newgate Ordinary," put in +Sir Charles lazily. "Of the Roundhead persuasion too, if I mistake +not,—from robbery in the large, descended to thievery in the small; +from the murder of a King to knives and a black alley mouth. Commend me +to these grave rogues for real knaves! Pray inform us to what little +mishap we owe the honor of your company. Did you mercifully incline to +relieve weary travelers over Hounslow Heath by disburdening them of +their heavy purses? Or did you mistake your own handwriting for that of +some one else? Or did you woo a mercer's wife a thought too roughly? Or +perhaps—"</p> + +<p>The man shot a fiery upward glance at the slim, elegant figure and +mocking lips of his tormentor, but kept silence. Colonel Verney, who had +returned to his pipe, interposed. "What is all this, Charles? What are +you saying to the man?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing, sir! This gentleman and I were<a class="pagenum" name="page_23" id="page_23" title="23"></a> shipmates, and I did but +ask after his health since the voyage."</p> + +<p>"Sir Charles Carew is very good," the man said proudly. "I assure him +that the object of his solicitude is well, and only desires an +opportunity to repay, with interest, those little attentions shown him +by his courteous fellow voyager."</p> + +<p>The planter looked puzzled; Sir Charles laughed.</p> + +<p>"Our liking is mutual, I see," he said coolly. "I—but what is this, +Colonel Verney! Venus descending from Olympus?"</p> + +<p>Out of the doorway fluttered a brilliant vision, all blue and white like +the great butterflies hovering over the clove pinks. Behind it appeared +the faded countenance of Mrs. Lettice, and a group of turbaned heads +peered, grinning, from out the cool darkness of the hall.</p> + +<p>"Papa!" cried the vision. "I want to show you my new dress! Cousin +Charles, you are to tell me if it is all as it should be!"</p> + +<p>Sir Charles bowed, with his hand upon his heart. "Alas, madam! I could +as soon play critic to the choir of angels. My eyes are dazzled."</p> + +<p>"Stand out, child," said her father gazing at her with eyes of love and +pride, "and let us see your finery. D' ye know what the extravagant minx +has upon her back, Charles? Just five hogsheads of prime tobacco!"</p> + +<p>Mistress Lettice struck in: "Well, I'm sure, brother, 'tis much the +prettiest use to put tobacco to, to turn it into lace and brocade and +jewels,—much better, say I, than to be forever using it to accumulate +filthy slaves."</p> + +<p>Patricia floated to the centre of the porch and stood<a class="pagenum" name="page_24" id="page_24" title="24"></a> sunning herself +in a stray shaft of light, like a very bird of paradise. The +"tempestuous petticoat," sky-blue and laced with silver, swelled proudly +outwards, the gleaming satin bodice slipped low over the snowy shoulders +and the heaving bosom, and the sleeves, trimmed with magnificent lace +and looped with pearls, showed the rounded arms to perfection. Around +the slender throat was wound a double row of pearls, and the golden +ringlets were partially confined by a snood of blue velvet. She unfurled +a wonderful fan, and lifted her skirts to show the tiny white and silver +shoes and the silken silver-clocked ankles. Her eyes shone like stars, +faint wild roses bloomed in her cheeks, charming half smiles chased each +other across her dainty mouth. Such a picture of radiant youth and +loveliness did she present that the Englishman's pulses quickened, and +he swore under his breath. "Surely," he muttered, "this is the most +beautiful woman in the world, and my lucky stars have sent me to this No +Man's Land to win her."</p> + +<p>"How do you like me?" she cried gayly. "Is 't not worth the five +hogsheads?"</p> + +<p>Her father drew her to him and kissed the smooth forehead.</p> + +<p>"You look just as your mother did, child, the day that we were +betrothed. I could not give you higher praise than that, sweetheart."</p> + +<p>"And does it really lack nothing, cousin?" she cried anxiously. "Is it +in truth such a dress as they wear at Court?"</p> + +<p>"Not at Whitehall, madam, nor at Brussels, nor even at St. Germains have +I seen anything more point device than the dress,—nor as beautiful as +the wearer," he added in a lower voice and with a killing look.<a class="pagenum" name="page_25" id="page_25" title="25"></a></p> + +<p>The girl's face dimpled with pleasure and innocent, gratified vanity. +She swept him a magnificent courtesy, and he bent low over the slender +fingers she gave him. Suddenly he felt them stiffen in his clasp, and +looking up, saw a curious expression of fear and aversion pass like a +shadow across her face. She spoke abruptly. "That man! I did not see +him! What does he here?"</p> + +<p>Sir Charles wheeled. The convict, forgotten by the two gentlemen, had +been left standing at the foot of the steps, and his sombre eyes were +now fixed upon the girl in a look so strange and intent as fully to +explain her perturbation. Through his parted lips the breath came +hurriedly, in his eyes was a mournful exaltation as of one who looks +from a desert into Paradise. He stood absorbed, unconscious of aught +save the splendid vision above him. For a moment she stared at him in +return, her eyes, held by his, slowly widening and the color quite gone +from her face. With a slow, involuntary movement one white arm rose, and +stiffened before her in a gesture of repulsion. The fan fell from her +hand upon the floor with a click of breaking tortoise shell. The sound +broke the spell, and with a strong shudder she turned her eyes away. +"Make him go," she said in a trembling voice. "He frightens me."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles sprang forward with an oath. "Curse you, you dog! Take your +ill-omened eyes from the lady! Colonel Verney, do you not see that the +fellow is annoying your daughter?"</p> + +<p>The planter had fallen into a reverie born of recollections of the +Patricia of his youth, long laid in her grave, but he roused himself at +the words of his guest.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" he cried. "Annoying Patricia!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_26" id="page_26" title="26"></a> He walked to the head of +the steps and raised his cane threateningly.</p> + +<p>"Hark ye, sirrah! The servants of Verney Manor, white or black, felon or +indented, need all their eyesight for their work. They have none to +waste in idle gazing at their betters. Begone to your mates!"</p> + +<p>The man who, at Sir Charles's intervention, had started as from a dream, +colored deeply and compressed his lips, then glanced from one to the +other of the group above him. There was pain, humiliation, almost +supplication in the look which he directed to the girl who had brought +this rating upon him. He glanced at his master with a countenance +studiously devoid of expression, at Mistress Lettice with indifference, +at Sir Charles Carew with chill defiance. Then, with a grave inclination +of his head, he turned, and a moment later had disappeared behind the +hedge.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_27" id="page_27" title="27"></a> +<a name="A_COLONIAL_DINNER_PARTY_849" id="A_COLONIAL_DINNER_PARTY_849"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<h3>A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY</h3> +</div> + +<p>Three days later the master of Verney Manor gave a dinner party.</p> + +<p>At Jamestown, twenty miles away, the Assembly had just adjourned after a +busy session. A law debarring that "turbulent people" the Quakers from +further admittance into the colony, and providing cold comfort for those +already within its doors, was passed with acclamation, as was another +against Anabaptists, and a third concerning the hue and cry for +absconding servants and slaves. The selling rates for wines and strong +waters were fixed, a proper penalty attached to the planting of tobacco +contrary to the statute, a regulation for the mending of the highways +adopted, a fine imposed for non-attendance at church, the Navigation Act +formally protested against, the trainbands strengthened, an +appropriation made for the erection of new whipping-posts and pillories, +a cruel mistress deprived of the slave she had mistreated, a harborer of +schismatics publicly reproved, and a conciliatory message and present +sent to the up-river Indians—when the Assembly adjourned with the +consciousness of having nobly done its duty. The only measure upon which +there was not unanimity of opinion was one proposing the erection of +school-houses at convenient cross-roads, and the Governor's weight being +thrown into the balance against it, it was promptly quashed.<a class="pagenum" name="page_28" id="page_28" title="28"></a></p> + +<p>The burgesses from the fourteen counties filled the twenty houses that +constituted the town to suffocation. Up-river planters, too, had come +in, choosing the time the Assembly was in session to attend to their +interests in the "city." Several ships were in harbor, and their +captains, professing themselves tired of salt water, threw themselves +upon the hospitality of their friends ashore. The crowded population +overflowed into the houses of the neighboring planters, who, after the +manner of their kind, entertained profusely, giving jovial welcome and +good liquor to all comers. There was a constant jingling of reins along +the bridle paths, a constant passing of white-sailed sloops upon the +river, as gentlemen in riding coats and jack boots, or in laced coats +and silk stockings, fared to and fro between plantation and town. In the +intervals of business the worthy burgesses and their fellow planters +made merry. They were good times—for king's men—and it behooved every +loyal subject to follow (at a respectful distance) his Majesty's +example, and get all possible enjoyment from a laughing world. So there +were horse-races and cock-fights and bear-baitings, as well as dinners +and suppers, at which much sack and aqua vitæ was drunk to king, church, +and reigning beauties. And if a quarrel sprung, full armed, from the +heated brains of young gallants, crossed rapiers did but add a piquancy, +a dash of cayenne, to life.</p> + +<p>Popular with the elder gentlemen because of his excellent Madeira, quick +wit, jovial soul, and friendship with the Governor, and with the younger +by virtue of being father to Mistress Patricia Verney, Colonel Richard +Verney had no difficulty in securing a score of guests for a day's +entertainment at Verney Manor.<a class="pagenum" name="page_29" id="page_29" title="29"></a></p> + +<p>About ten in the morning of the appointed day the guests began to +arrive, some by water, some on horseback, Colonel Verney meeting each +arrival with a stately bow and a high-flown speech of welcome, and +handing him on to the hall where stood Sir Charles Carew and the ladies +of the household.</p> + +<p>Upon a pillion behind her father, Major Miles Carrington, +Surveyor-General to the Colony, came Mistress Betty Carrington, bosom +friend to Mistress Patricia Verney. Her sweetly serious face, pensive +eyes, and smooth, dark hair, with her dress of sober silk and kerchief +of finest lawn, demurely crossed over her bosom, contrasted finely with +Patricia's radiant beauty, decked in shimmering satin and rich lace, and +heightened by a tinge of vermilion upon the smooth cheek, and a long +black patch beneath the left temple. The two met like friends whom weary +years have parted, and indeed they had not seen each other for nearly a +week.</p> + +<p>All the guests, save one, had arrived. Colonel Verney fidgeted, sent a +servant wench to look at the kitchen clock, and dispatched his secretary +to an upstairs window, whence was visible a long stretch of what +courtesy called the highroad.</p> + +<p>The secretary returned and whispered his master. "God be thanked!" +exclaimed the latter. "I feared that his machine had mired in the +Two-Mile Swamp, or had toppled into a gully coming through the Devil's +Strip. Gentlemen, the Governor's coach is in sight. Shall we adjourn to +the porch and there await his Excellency?"</p> + +<p>A mighty straining, jingling and lumbering came with the breeze down the +road and proceeded from a pillar of dust which was approaching the house +with<a class="pagenum" name="page_30" id="page_30" title="30"></a> reasonable rapidity. Presently the road changed from a trough of +dust into a ribbon of greensward. The cloud dissipated itself, streaming +away like the tail of a comet, and a ponderous and much begilt coach, +drawn by six horses, their manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and +outriders in gorgeous livery at the heads of each pair, rolled, or +rather bumped into sight. With a seasick motion it undulated over the +green acclivities of the road, and finally drew up beside the great +horse-block at the gate.</p> + +<p>Two lackeys sprang from their perch behind the vehicle, flung open the +door, and lowered a short flight of steps. A very stately gentleman, +richly dressed, with a handkerchief of point in one hand and a jeweled +snuff-box in the other, descended the steps, placing one shapely leg in +its maroon-colored stocking before the other with the mannered grace of +the leader of a Coranto.</p> + +<p>Colonel Verney met him with a low bow and smiling face, after which the +two embraced, for they were old friends.</p> + +<p>"My dear Governor!"</p> + +<p>"My dear Colonel!"</p> + +<p>"I am charmed to welcome your Excellency to my poor house."</p> + +<p>"My dear Colonel, I am charmed to be here. Gad! the possession of the +only chariot in the Colony is a burdensome honor! I thought dinner would +be over, and the stirrup cup in order while I was creeping, like a snail +with his house on his back, over these 'fair and pleasant roads'—as I +call them in my book, eh, Dick! But you have a goodly company, I see; +Ludwell, Fitzhugh, Carey, Anthony Nash, mine ancient enemy Lawrence, +Wormeley, Carrington our Puritan<a class="pagenum" name="page_31" id="page_31" title="31"></a> convert and his pretty daughter, young +Peyton, and that pretty fellow, your nephew or cousin, is he? Odzooks! +he is much what I was at his age, begotten of Delilah and Lucifer, hand +of iron in glove of velvet, eh, Dick! I hear he is hail-fellow-well-met +with the King and with Buckingham and Killigrew and their wild set. Ah, +boys will be boys! 'We have heard the chimes at midnight,' eh, Dick?"</p> + +<p>And the Governor in high good humor skipped up the steps with the +agility of youth, bent low with sugared compliments over the hands of +his hostesses and of Mistress Betty Carrington, and gave courteous +greeting to the assembled gentlemen, after which the company flowed back +into the grateful twilight of hall and "great room," where the weather, +the state of the crops, and the last horse-race engaged them until the +announcement of dinner.</p> + +<p>With a flourish of his costly handkerchief, the Governor offered his arm +to the young mistress of the house, and led the way to the dining-room, +where old Humfrey, the butler, marshaled the guests to their seats. +Mistress Betty Carrington had for her cavalier Sir Charles Carew, to +whose honeyed words she listened with a species of awe, wondering in her +innocent soul if all the wild tales they told of this very fine, +smooth-tongued, handsome gentleman could be true.</p> + +<p>Doctor Anthony Nash made a long and fluent grace wherein much latinity +was aired, a neat allusion made to the <i>jus divinum</i>, and an anathema +hurled against those "who break down the carved work of the sanctuary." +Then was uncovered the mighty saddle of mutton, reposing in the dish of +honor, the roast pig, the haunch of venison, the sirloin of beef, the +breast of veal, the powdered goose, the noble dish of sheepshead<a class="pagenum" name="page_32" id="page_32" title="32"></a> and +bluefish, and the pasty in which was entombed a whole flock of pigeons. +These <i>pièces de resistance</i> were flanked by bowls of oysters, by rows +of wild fowl skewered together, by mince pies and a grand salad, while +upon the outskirts of the damask plain were stationed trenchers piled +with wheat bread, platters of pease and smoking potatoes, cauliflower +and asparagus, and a concoction of rice and prunes, seasoned with mace +and cinnamon and a pinch of assafœtida. A great silver salt-cellar +stood in the centre of the table, and smaller receptacles of the same +metal held pepper and spices. Silver flagons of cider and ale were +placed at intervals, the Madeira, Fayal and Rhenish awaiting upon the +sideboard the moment when, the cloth drawn and the ladies gone, a +gentlemanly carousal should be inaugurated.</p> + +<p>The company drew their Russian leather chairs closer to the table, +spread over their silken knees the fringed damask napkins, and for a +space little was to be heard but the sound of knife and spoon (forks +there were none), for the morning ride had sharpened appetites. The +servants passed from chair to chair; the master, seconded by his +daughter and sister, pricked his guests on to fresh attacks, pressing a +third slice of mutton on one, a fresh helping of capon upon another, +protesting that a third ate as though it were a fast day, and that a +fourth drank as though the October were sea-water.</p> + +<p>When the cloth was drawn and the banquet put on, tongues were loosened. +The Governor quoted passages from his "Lost Lady" to Patricia, lifting +her lovely flushed face from the carving of a tart with wonderfully +constructed towering walls. Behind a second turreted marvel of pastry, +Mistress Lettice<a class="pagenum" name="page_33" id="page_33" title="33"></a> and Mr. Frederick Jones sighed and ogled with antique +grace. Sir Charles Carew, fingering his cherries, told a piquant little +court anecdote to Mistress Betty Carrington, and was lazily amused at +the blush and veiled eyelids with which the young lady received it. +Young Mr. Peyton, on her other side, looked very black.</p> + +<p>The wine was put on and the toast to King and Church drunk standing, +after which the ladies dipped their white fingers into the basin of +perfumed water, dried them on the silver-fringed napkin, and sailed to +the door, through which, after the profoundest of courtesies on the one +side and the lowest of bows upon the other, they vanished, leaving the +gentlemen to wine and wassail.</p> + +<p>Colonel Verney drank to the Governor; the Governor to Colonel Verney; +Sir Charles to the author of the "Lost Lady" and the "Discourse and View +of Virginia," so tickling the Governor's vanity thereby that he became +altogether charming. Mr. Peyton toasted Mistress Betty Carrington, and +Mr. Frederick Jones, Mistress Lettice Verney, "fairest and most discreet +of ladies." They drank to Captain Laramore's next voyage, to Mr. +Wormeley's success in vine planting, to Major Carrington's conversion. +They drank confusion to Quakers, Independents, Baptists and infidels, to +the heathen on the frontier and the Papists in Maryland, the Dutch on +the Hudson and the French on the St. Lawrence,—"Quebec in exchange for +Dunkirk!" In short, there were few things in heaven or earth but +justified draughts of Madeira.</p> + +<p>The room filled with a blue and fragrant mist proceeding from twenty +pipe-bowls. Mr. Peyton sang a<a class="pagenum" name="page_34" id="page_34" title="34"></a> pretty song of his own composing. The +company applauded. Sir Charles Carew, in a richly plaintive tenor voice, +sang a lyric of Rochester's. Several of the gentlemen looked askance +(the clergyman had left the room with the ladies), but on the Governor's +crying out "Excellent!" they considered themselves over-squeamish, and +clapped loudly.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles, being dry after his song, drank to Hospitality,—"A duty," +he said, smiling, "that you gentlemen make so paramount that you must +wonder at the omission of 'Thou shalt be hospitable' from the +Decalogue."</p> + +<p>"Faith, sir!" cried Mr. Peyton, "God is too good a Virginian not to +consider such a commandment superfluous."</p> + +<p>The Governor commenced a story which all present, but one, had heard a +dozen times. It mattered the less, as it was a good one. Sir Charles +capped it with a better. The Governor told a weird tale of Lunsford's +men, the "babe-eating" regiment. Sir Charles recounted a little +adventure of His Grace of Buckingham with a quack astrologer, a Court +lady, and an orange girl, which made the company die of laughter.</p> + +<p>"Rat me! but you tell a story well, sir!" said the Governor, wiping his +eyes.</p> + +<p>"I serve King Charles the Second, your Excellency."</p> + +<p>"And so have to live by your wit, eh, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely, your Excellency."</p> + +<p>"Emigrate to Virginia, man! to the land of good eating, good drinking, +good fighting, stout men, and pretty women—who make angelic wives." And +the Governor, who loved his own wife with chivalric devotion, kissed a +locket which he wore at his neck.<a class="pagenum" name="page_35" id="page_35" title="35"></a> "Come to Virginia where we need loyal +men and true. Lord! we all thought the millennium was come with the +king, but damme! if it doesn't seem as far off as ever! Not that his +Majesty is to blame," he added quickly, as though fearing that his words +might be taken as an aspersion upon Charles's ability to conduct the +millennium single-handed. "The naughty spirit of the age sets itself +against the Lord's Anointed. The Puritan snake is but scotched, not +killed. It's the old prate of freedom of conscience, government by the +people, and the like disgusting stuff (no offense to you, Major +Carrington) that makes the trouble of the times both here and at home. I +sigh for the good old days when, for eleven sweet years, no Parliament +sat to meddle in affairs of state, when Wentworth kept down faction and +the saintly Laud built up the Church which he adorned." And the Governor +buried his woes in the Rhenish.</p> + +<p>"Sir William Berkeley's loyalty is proverbial," said Sir Charles +suavely. "The King knows that while he is at the helm in Virginia, the +colony is on the high road to that era of peace and prosperity which his +majesty so ardently desires—for his tax-paying people. And I have +thought more than once of late that I might do worse than to dispose of +my majority in the 'Blues,' bid the Court adieu, and obtaining from his +Majesty a grant of land, retire here to Virginia to pass my days on my +own land and amid a little court of my own, in the patriarchal fashion +you gentlemen affect. Under certain circumstances it is a course I might +possibly pursue." He glanced at his kinsman, whose countenance showed +high approval of a plan which dovetailed nicely with one of his own +making.<a class="pagenum" name="page_36" id="page_36" title="36"></a></p> + +<p>"Can you guess the 'certain circumstances' which are to give us the +pleasure of his confounded company?" whispered Mr. Peyton to Mr. Carey.</p> + +<p>"An easy riddle, Jack. Damn the insolent, smooth-spoken knave of hearts, +and confound the women! They all drop to a court card."</p> + +<p>"Not Mistress Betty Carrington. <i>She</i> looks below the surface."</p> + +<p>"Humph! What does she see below thine? An empty gourd with a few +madrigals and sonnets, and fine images, conned from the 'Grand Cyrus,' +rattling about like dried seeds?"</p> + +<p>"Hush, thou green persimmon! the Governor is speaking."</p> + +<p>The governor rose with care to his feet. His wig was awry, his cravat of +fine mechlin under one ear. Benevolent smiles played like summer +lightning across his flushed face. He raised his tankard slowly and with +attentive steadiness. "Gentlemen," he said in a high voice, "we have +eaten and we have drunken. Dick Verney's wine is as old as the hills and +as mellow as sunlight. It groweth late, gentlemen, and some of you have +miles to travel, and it takes cool heads to ride the 'planter's pace.' +For William Berkeley, gentlemen, Governor of Virginia by the grace of +God and his Majesty, King Charles the Second, it takes more than Dick +Verney's wine to fluster him. I call a final toast. I drink again to our +loving friend and host, the worshipful Colonel Richard Verney, to his +beauteous daughter and sister, to his man-servant and his maid-servant, +his ox and his ass, and the stranger which is within his gates." He +smiled benignly at a reflection of Sir Charles in a distant mirror. +"Gentlemen, the devil, you see, can quote scripture. Let the cup go +roun', go roun', go roun'."<a class="pagenum" name="page_37" id="page_37" title="37"></a></p> + +<p>The toast was drunk with fervor, and the party broke up.</p> + +<p>The Governor, with Colonel Ludlow and Captain Laramore, was to sleep at +Verney Manor, and Mistress Betty Carrington was left by her father to +bear Patricia company for a day or two. One by one the remainder of the +company rode or sailed away, those who had an even keel beneath them +being in much better case than their brethren on horseback.</p> + +<p>When the last sail showed a white speck in the distance, Patricia and +Betty came out upon the porch and sat them down, one on either side of +the Governor, with whom they were great favorites. Colonel Ludlow and +Captain Laramore were at dice at a table within the hall, and Colonel +Verney had excused himself in order to hear the evening report from his +overseers. Sir Charles Carew, very idle and purposeless-looking, lounged +in a great chair, and studied the miniature upon his snuff-box. The +Governor, whom the wine had mellowed into a genial softness, a kind of +sunset glow, alternately puffed wide rings of smoke into the air, and +paid compliments to the young ladies. The evening breeze had sprung up, +rustling the leaves of the trees, and bringing with it the sound of the +water. In the western sky crimson islets forever shifted shapes in a sea +of gold. A rosy light suffused the earth. In it the water turned to the +pink of a shell, the marshes became ethereal and far away, earth and sky +seemed one. The flashing wings of gull and curlew were like fairy sails +faring to and fro.</p> + +<p>"If I had wings," said Patricia dreamily, her hands clasped over her +knees, "I would fly straight to that highest island of cloud. The one, +Betty, that looks like a field of daffodils, with those beautiful peaks<a class="pagenum" name="page_38" id="page_38" title="38"></a> +rising from it, and the violet light in the hollows. I would set up my +standard there, Sir William, and the island should be mine, and I would +rule the fairies that must inhabit it, with a rod of iron—as you rule +Virginia," she ended with a laugh.</p> + +<p>The Governor laughed with her. "You would have no such stiff-necked folk +to deal with, my love, as have I."</p> + +<p>"No, they should all be good Cavaliers and Churchmen—no Roundheads, no +servants—and if Indians on neighboring isles threatened we would pray +for a wind and sail away from them, around and around the bright blue +sky."</p> + +<p>"And when you are gone to take possession of your castle in the air what +will poor Virginia do?" gallantly demanded the governor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she would still exist! But I am not going to-night. The princess of +the castle in the air is engaged to his Excellency the Governor of +Virginia for a game of chess. In the mean time here comes my father, who +shall entertain your Excellency while Betty and I go for a walk. Come, +Lady-bird."</p> + +<p>The two graceful figures twined arms and moved off down the walk. Sir +Charles looked after them a moment, then, with a "Permit me, sir," to +the Governor, he snapped the lid of his snuff-box and started down the +steps. The Governor laughed. "We will excuse you, sir," he said +graciously. "Dick," to Colonel Verney, as the young gentleman hastened +after the ladies, "that fine spark is to be your son-in-law, eh?"</p> + +<p>"It is the wish of my heart, William."</p> + +<p>"Humph!"</p> + +<p>"He has birth and breeding. His father was my good friend and kinsman, +and as loyal a Cavalier as<a class="pagenum" name="page_39" id="page_39" title="39"></a> ever gave life and lands for the blessed +Martyr. He died in my arms at Marston Moor, and with his last breath +commended his son to me. My dear wife was then expecting the birth of +our child, of Patricia. I can see him now as he smiled up at me (he was +ever gay) and said, 'If it's a girl, Dick, marry her to my boy.' Well! +he died, and his brother took the boy, and my wife and I came over seas, +and I never saw the lad from that day to this, when he comes at my +invitation to visit us."</p> + +<p>"Well, he is a very pretty fellow! And what does Patricia say to him?"</p> + +<p>"Patricia is a good daughter," said the Colonel sedately, "and is +possessed of sense beyond the average of womenkind. She knows the +advantages this match offers. Sir Charles Carew can give her a title, +and a name that's as old as her own. He is a man of parts and +distinction, has served the King, is familiar with the courts of Europe. +I do not pin my faith to the tales that are told of him. His father was +a gallant gentleman, and I am not the man to believe ill of his son. +Moreover, if, as he hath half promised, he will come to Virginia, he +will throw off here the vices of the Court, the faults of youth, and +become an honest Virginia gentleman, God-fearing, law-abiding, +reverencing the King, but not copying him too closely—such an one as +thou or I, William. The king should give him large grants of land, and +so, with what Patricia will have when I am gone, there will be laid the +foundation of a great and noble estate, which, please God, will belong +in the fair future of this fair land to a great and noble family sprung +from the union of Verney and Carew. Patricia, trust me, sees all this +with my eyes."</p> + +<p>"Humph!" said the Governor again.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_40" id="page_40" title="40"></a> +<a name="THE_BREAKING_HEART_1236" id="THE_BREAKING_HEART_1236"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h3>THE BREAKING HEART</h3> +</div> + +<p>Sir Charles was up with the two girls before they reached the garden; +and they passed together through the gate and into the spicy wilderness. +The dew was falling, and as they sauntered through the narrow paths, +Betty held back her skirts that the damp leaves of sage and marjoram +might not brush them; but Patricia, gathering larkspur and +sweet-william, was heedless of her finery. At the further end of the +garden was a wicket leading into a grove of mulberries. The three walked +on beneath the spreading branches and the broad, heart-shaped leaves, +until they came to a tree of extraordinary height and girth whose roots +bulged out into great, smooth excrescences like inverted bowls. Patricia +stopped. "Betty is tired," she said kindly, "and she shall sit here and +rest. Betty is a windflower, Sir Charles, a little tender timid flower, +frail and sweet—are you not, Betty?" She sat down upon one of the +bowls, and pulled her friend down beside her. Sir Charles leaned against +the trunk of the tree. "Betty is a little Puritan," continued Patricia; +"she would not wear the set of ribbons I had for her; and that hurt me +very much."</p> + +<p>"O Patricia!" cried Betty, with tears in her eyes. "If I thought you +really cared! But even then I could not wear them!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_41" id="page_41" title="41"></a></p> + +<p>"No, you little martyr," said the other, with a kiss. "You would go to +the stake any day for what you call your 'principles.' And I honor you +for it, you know I do. Cousin Charles, do you know that Betty thinks it +wrong to hold slaves?"</p> + +<p>Sir Charles laughed, and Betty's delicate face flushed.</p> + +<p>"O Patricia!" she cried. "I did not say that! I only said that we would +not like it ourselves."</p> + +<p>"'Pon my soul, I don't suppose we would," said Sir Charles coolly. "But, +Mistress Betty, the negroes have neither thin skins nor nice feelings."</p> + +<p>"I know that," said Betty bravely; "and I know that our divines and +learned men cannot yet decide whether or not they have souls. And, of +course, if they have not, they are as well treated as other animals; but +all the same I am sorry for them, and I am sorry for the servants too."</p> + +<p>"For the servants!" cried Patricia, arching her brows.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Betty, standing to her guns. "I am sorry for the servants, +for those who must work seven years for another before they can do aught +for themselves. And often when their time is out they are bowed and +broken; and those whom they love at home, and would bring over, are +dead; and often before the seven years have passed they die themselves. +And I am sorry for those whom you call rebels, for the Oliverians; and +for the convicts, despised and outcast. And for the Indians about us, +dispossessed and broken, and—yes, I am sorry for the Quakers."</p> + +<p>"I waste no pity on the under dog," said Sir Charles. "Keep him +down—and with a heavy hand—or he will fly at your throat."<a class="pagenum" name="page_42" id="page_42" title="42"></a></p> + +<p>"Hark!" said Patricia.</p> + +<p>Some one in the distance was singing:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<tr><td>"Gentle herdsman, tell to me</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>Of courtesy I thee pray,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>Unto the town of Walsingham,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>Which is the right and ready way?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td></td></tr> +<tr><td>"Unto the town of Walsingham</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>The way is hard for to be gone,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>And very crooked are those paths</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>For you to find out all alone."</span></td></tr> +</table> + + +<p>The notes were wild and plaintive, and sounded sadly through the +gathering dusk. A figure flitted towards them between the shadowy tree +trunks.</p> + +<p>"It is Mad Margery," said Patricia.</p> + +<p>"And who is Mad Margery?" asked Sir Charles.</p> + +<p>"No one knows, cousin. She does not know herself. Ten years ago a ship +came in with servants, and she was on it. She was mad then. The captain +could give no account of her, save that when, the day after sailing, he +came to count the servants, he found one more than there should have +been, and that one a woman, stupid from drugs. She had been spirited on +board the ship, that was all he could say. It's a common occurrence, as +you know. She never came to herself,—has always been what she is now. +She was sold to a small planter, and cruelly treated by him. After a +time my father heard her story and bought her from her master. She has +been with us ever since. Her term of service is long out; but there is +nothing that could drive her from this plantation. She wanders about as +she pleases, and has a cabin in the woods yonder; for she will not live +in the quarters. They say that she is a white witch; and the Indians, +who reverence the mad, lay maize and venison at her door."<a class="pagenum" name="page_43" id="page_43" title="43"></a></p> + +<p>The voice, shrill and sweet, rang out close at hand.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<tr><td>"Thy years are young, thy face is fair,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>Thy wits are weak, thy thoughts are green,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>Time hath not given thee leave as yet,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>For to commit so great a sin."</span></td></tr> +</table> + + +<p>"Margery!" called Patricia softly.</p> + +<p>The woman came towards them with a peculiar gliding step, swift and +stealthy. Within a pace or two of them she stopped, and asked, "Who +called me?" in a voice that seemed to come from far away. She was not +old, and might once have been beautiful.</p> + +<p>"I called you, Margery," said Patricia gently. "Sit down beside us, and +tell us what you have been doing."</p> + +<p>The woman came and sat herself down at Patricia's feet. She carried a +stick, or light pole, wound with thick strings of wild hops, which she +laid on the ground. Taking one of the wreaths from around it, she +dropped the pale green mass into Patricia's lap.</p> + +<p>"Take it," she said. "They are flowers I gathered in Paradise, long ago. +They wither in this air; but if you fan them with your sighs, and water +them with your tears, they will revive.... Paradise is a long way from +here. I have been seeking the road all day; but I have not found it yet. +I think it must lie near Bristol Town, Bristol Town, Bristol Town."</p> + +<p>Her voice died away in a long sigh, and she sat plucking at the fragrant +blooms.</p> + +<p>Patricia said softly, "She talks much of Bristol Town, and she is always +seeking the road to Paradise. I think that once some one must have said +to her, 'We will meet in Paradise.'"</p> + +<p>"I know little of Paradise, Margery," said Sir Charles, good-naturedly; +"but Bristol Town is many leagues from here, across the great ocean."<a class="pagenum" name="page_44" id="page_44" title="44"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. It lieth in the rising of the sun. I have never seen it +except in my dreams. But it is a beautiful place—not like this world of +trees. The church bells are ever ringing there, ... and the children +sing in the streets. It is all fair, and smiling and beautiful, all but +one spot, one black, black, black spot. I will tell you." She sunk her +voice to a whisper and looked fearfully around. "The mouth of the Pit is +there, the Bottomless Pit that the Preacher tells about. It is a small +room, dark, dark, ... and there is a heavy smell in the air, ... and +there are fiends with black cloth over their faces. They hold a draught +of hell to your mouth, and they make you drink it; ... it burns, burns. +And then you go down, down, down, into everlasting blackness." She broke +off, and shuddered violently, then burst into eldritch laughter.</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you what I found just now while I was looking for +Paradise?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Patricia.</p> + +<p>"A breaking heart."</p> + +<p>"A breaking heart!"</p> + +<p>Margery nodded. "Yes," she said. "I thought it would surprise you. I +find many things, looking for Paradise. The other day I found a brown +pixie sitting beneath a mushroom, and he told me curious things. But a +breaking heart is different. I know all about it, for once upon a time +my heart broke; but mine was soft and easy to break. It was as soft and +weak as a baby's wrist, a little, tender, helpless thing, you know, that +melts under your kisses. But this heart that I found will take a long +time to break. Proud anger will strengthen it at first; but one string +will snap, and then another, and another, until, at<a class="pagenum" name="page_45" id="page_45" title="45"></a> last—" she swept +her arms abroad with a wild and desolate gesture.</p> + +<p>"What does she mean?" asked Sir Charles.</p> + +<p>"I do not know," answered Patricia.</p> + +<p>Margery rose and took up her leafy staff.</p> + +<p>"Come," she said. "Come and see the breaking heart."</p> + +<p>"O Patricia!" cried Betty, "do not go with her!"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Patricia resolutely. "Come, cousin, let us find out +what she means. We will go with you, Margery; but you must not take us +far. It grows late."</p> + +<p>Margery laughed weirdly. "It is never late for Margery. There is a star +far up in heaven that is sorry for Margery, and it shines for her, +bright, bright, all night long, that she may not miss the road to +Paradise."</p> + +<p>She glided in front of them, and moved rapidly down the dim alley of +trees, her feet seeming scarce to touch the short grass, and the long +green wreaths, stirred by the wind, coiling and uncoiling around her +staff like serpents. Patricia, with Betty and Sir Charles, followed her +closely. She led them out of the mulberry grove, through a small +vineyard, and into a patch of corn, beyond which could be seen the gleam +of water, faintly pink from the faded sunset.</p> + +<p>"She is taking us towards the quarters!" exclaimed Patricia. "Margery! +Margery!"</p> + +<p>But Margery held on, moving swiftly through the waist-deep corn. Betty +looked down with a little sigh at her dainty shoes, which were suffering +by their contact with the dew-laden leaves of pumpkins and macocks. Sir +Charles put aside the long corn blades<a class="pagenum" name="page_46" id="page_46" title="46"></a> with his cane, and so made a way +for the girls. He felt mildly curious and somewhat bored.</p> + +<p>Suddenly they emerged upon the banks of the inlet, within a hundred +yards of the quarters. Patricia would have spoken, but Margery put her +finger to her lips and flitted on towards the row of cabins.</p> + +<p>Before them stretched a long, narrow lane, sandy and barren, with a +pine-tree rising here and there. Rude cabins, windowless and with mud +chimneys, faced each other across the lane. Half way down was an open +space, or small square, in the centre of which stood a dead tree with a +board nailed across its trunk at about a man's height from the ground. +In either end of the board was cut a round hole big enough for a man's +hand to be squeezed through, and above hung a heavy stick with leathern +thongs tied to it, the whole forming a pillory and whipping-post, rude, +but satisfactory.</p> + +<p>It was almost dark. The larger stars had come out, and the fireflies +began to sparkle restlessly. The wind sighed in the pines, and a strong +salt smell came from the sea. Overhead a whip-poor-will uttered its +mournful cry.</p> + +<p>The long day's work, from sunrise to sunset, was over, and the +population of the quarter had drifted in from the fields of tobacco and +maize, the boats, the carpenter's shop, the forge, the mill, the +stables, and barns. Hard-earned rest was theirs, and they were prepared +to enjoy it. It was supper-time. In the square a great fire of +brush-wood had been kindled, and around it squatted a ring of negroes, +busy with bowls of loblolly and great chunks of corn bread. They +chattered like monkeys, and one who had finished his mess raised a chant +in which one note was<a class="pagenum" name="page_47" id="page_47" title="47"></a> a yell of triumph, the next a long-drawn +plaintive wail. The rich barbaric voice filled the night. A figure, +rising, tossed aside an empty bowl, and began to dance in the red +firelight.</p> + +<p>The white men ate at their cabin doors, sitting upon logs of wood, or in +groups of three or four messed at tables made by stretching planks from +one tree-stump to another. It was meat-day; and they, too, made merry. +From the women's cabins also came shrill laughter. Snatches of song +arose, altercations that suddenly began and as suddenly ceased, a babel +of voices in many fashions of speech. Broad Yorkshire contended with the +thin nasal tones of the cockney; the man from the banks of the Tweed +thrust cautious sarcasms at the man from Galway. A mulatto, the color of +pale amber, spoke sonorous Spanish to an olive-hued piece of drift-wood +from Florida. An Indian indulged in a monologue in a tongue of a faraway +tribe of the Blue Mountains.</p> + +<p>The glare from the fire and from flaring pine-knots played fitfully over +the motley throng, now bringing out in strong relief some one face or +figure, then plunging it into profoundest shadow. It burnished the high +forehead and scalp lock of the Indian, and made to gleam intensely the +gold earring in the ear of the mulatto. The scarlet cloth wound about +the head of a Turk seemed to turn to actual flame. Under the baleful +light vacant faces of dully honest English rustics became malignant, +while the negro, dancing with long, outstretched arms and uncouth +swayings to and fro, appeared a mirthful fiend.</p> + +<p>The three gentlefolk and their mad conductress gazed from out the shadow +and at a safe distance. Sir Charles Carew, a man of taste, felt strong +artistic<a class="pagenum" name="page_48" id="page_48" title="48"></a> pleasure in the Rembrandtesque scene before him—the leaping +light, the weird shadows, resolving themselves into figures posed with +savage freedom, the dancing satyr, the sombre pines above, and, beyond +the pines, the stillness of the stars. Betty drew a little shuddering +breath, and her hand went to clasp Patricia's. The latter was looking +steadily upward at the slender crescent moon.</p> + +<p>"Do not look, Betty," she said quietly. "I do not. It is a horror to +me—a horror. I am going back," she said, turning.</p> + +<p>But she had reckoned without Margery, who caught her by the arm. "Come," +she said imperiously. "Come and see the breaking heart!" Patricia +hesitated, then yielded to curiosity and the insistent pressure of the +skeleton fingers.</p> + +<p>The cabins nearest them were deserted, their occupants having joined +themselves to the groups further down the lane where the firelight beat +strongest and the torches were more numerous. With no more sound than a +moth would make, flitting through the dusk, the mad woman led them to +the outermost of these cabins. Within five paces of the door she stopped +and pointed a long forefinger.</p> + +<p>"The breaking heart!" she said in a triumphant whisper.</p> + +<p>A man lay, face downwards, in the coarse and scanty grass. One arm was +bent beneath his forehead, the other was outstretched, the hand +clenched. It was the attitude of one who has flung himself down in dumb, +despairing misery. As they looked, he gave a long gasping sob that shook +his whole frame, then lay quiet.</p> + +<p>A burst of revelry came down the lane. The man<a class="pagenum" name="page_49" id="page_49" title="49"></a> raised his head +impatiently, then let it drop again upon his arm.</p> + +<p>Patricia turned and walked quickly back the way they had come. Betty and +Sir Charles followed her; Margery, her whim gratified, had vanished into +the darkness of the pines.</p> + +<p>No one spoke until they were again amidst the wet and rustling corn. +Then said Betty with tears in her voice, "O Patricia, darling! there is +so much misery in the world, fair and peaceful as it looks to-night. +That poor man!"</p> + +<p>"That 'poor man,' Betty," answered Patricia in a hard voice, "is a +criminal, a felon, guilty of some dreadful, sordid thing, a gaol-bird +reclaimed from the gallows and sent here to pollute the air we breathe."</p> + +<p>"It was the convict, Landless, was it not?" asked Sir Charles.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"But, Patricia," said the gentle Betty, "whatever he may have done, he +is wretched now."</p> + +<p>"He has sowed the wind; let him reap the whirlwind," said Patricia +steadily.</p> + +<p>They went on to the house and into the great room where the myrtle +candles were burning softly, the dimity curtains shutting out the night. +Mrs. Lettice was at the spinet, with Captain Laramore to turn the leaves +of her song book, and the Governor, with the chess table out and the +pieces in battle array, awaited (he said) the arrival of the Princess of +the Castle in the Air.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_50" id="page_50" title="50"></a> +<a name="IN_THE_THREE-MILE_FIELD_1564" id="IN_THE_THREE-MILE_FIELD_1564"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<h3>IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD</h3> +</div> + +<p>In a far corner of the Three-mile Field Landless bent over tobacco plant +after tobacco plant, patiently removing the little green shoots or +"suckers" from the parent stem.</p> + +<p>His back and limbs ached from the unaccustomed stooping, the fierce +sunshine beat upon his head, the blood pounded behind his temples, his +tongue clave to the roof of his mouth,—and the noontide rest was still +two hours away. As, with a gasp of weariness, he straightened himself, +the endless plain of green rose and fell to his dazzled eyes in misty +billows. The most robust rustic required several months of seasoning +before he and the Virginia climate became friends, and this man was +still weak from privation and confinement in prison and in the noisome +hold of the ship.</p> + +<p>He turned his weary eyes from the vivid gold green of the fields to the +shadows of the forest. It lay within a few yards of him, just on the +other side of a little stream and a rail fence that zigzagged in gray +lines hung with creepers. At the moment he defined happiness as a plunge +into the cool, perfumed darkness, a luxurious flinging of a tired body +upon the carpet of pine needles, a shutting out, forever, of the +sunshine.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he felt that eyes were upon him, and his glance traveled from +the fringe of trees to meet that<a class="pagenum" name="page_51" id="page_51" title="51"></a> of an Indian seated upon a log in an +angle of the fence.</p> + +<p>He was a man of gigantic stature, dressed in coarse canvas breeches, and +with a handkerchief of gaudy dye twisted about his head. His bold +features wore the usual Indian expression of saturnine imperturbability, +and he half sat, half reclined upon the log as motionless as a piece of +carven bronze, staring at Landless with large, inscrutable eyes.</p> + +<p>Landless, staring in return, saw something else. The rank growth of +weeds in which the log was sunk moved ever so slightly. There was a +flash as of a swiftly drawn rapier, and something long and mottled hung +for an instant upon the shoulder of the Indian, and then dropped into +its lair again.</p> + +<p>With a sudden lithe twist of his body, the savage flung himself upon it, +and holding it down with one hand, with the other beat the life out with +a heavy stick. The creature was killed by the first stroke, but he +continued to rain vindictive blows upon it until it was mashed to a +pulp. Then, with a serenely impassive mien, he resumed his seat upon the +log.</p> + +<p>Landless sprang across the stream, and went up to him.</p> + +<p>"You are bitten! Is there aught I can do?"</p> + +<p>The Indian shook his head. With one hand he pulled the shoulder forward, +trying, as Landless saw, to meet the wound with his lips; but finding +that it could not be done, he desisted and sat silent, and to all +appearance, unconcerned.</p> + +<p>Landless cried out impatiently, "It will kill you, man! Do you know no +remedy?"</p> + +<p>The Indian grunted. "Snake root grow deep in the forest, a long way off. +Besides, an Iroquois does<a class="pagenum" name="page_52" id="page_52" title="52"></a> not die for a little thing like a pale face +or a dog of an Algonquin."</p> + +<p>"Why did you try to reach the sting with your mouth?"</p> + +<p>"To suck out the evil."</p> + +<p>"Is that a cure?"</p> + +<p>The Indian nodded. Landless knelt down and examined the shoulder. "Now," +he said, "tell me if I set about it in the right way," and applied his +lips to the swollen, blue-black spot.</p> + +<p>The Indian gave a grunt of surprise, and his white teeth flashed in a +smile; then he sat silent under the ministrations of the white man who +sucked at the wound, spitting the venom upon the ground, until the dark +skin was drawn and wrinkled like the hand of a washerwoman.</p> + +<p>"Good!" then said the Indian, and pointed to the stream. Landless went +to it, rinsed his mouth, and brought back water in his cap with which he +laved the shoulder of his new acquaintance, ending by binding it up with +the handkerchief from the man's head.</p> + +<p>A guttural sound from the Indian made him look up. At the same instant +the whip of the overseer, descending, cut him sharply across the +shoulders. He sprang to his feet, the veins in his forehead swollen, his +frame tense with impotent anger. The overseer, having gained his +attention, thrust the whip back into his belt.</p> + +<p>"If you don't want to get what will hurt as bad as a snake bite," he +said grimly, "you had best tend to your tobacco and let vagrom Indians +alone. That row is to be suckered before dinner-time or your pork and +beans will go begging. As for you," turning to the Indian, "what are you +doing on this plantation? Where's your pass?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_53" id="page_53" title="53"></a></p> + +<p>The Indian took from his waistband a slip of paper which he handed to +the overseer, who looked at it and gave it back with a grudging—"It's +all right this time, but you'd better be careful. It's my opinion that +Major Carrington lets his servants run about a deal more than's good for +them. Anyhow, you've no business in this field. Clear out!"</p> + +<p>The Indian arose and went his way. But as he passed Landless, suckering +a plant with angry energy, he touched him, as if by accident, with his +sinewy hand.</p> + +<p>"Monakatocka never forgives an enemy," came in a sibilant whisper too +low to be heard by the watchful overseer. "Monakatocka never forgets a +friend. Some day he will repay."</p> + +<p>The red-brown body slipped away through the tall weeds and clumps of +alder, like the larger edition of the thing that had hung upon its +shoulder. The overseer strode off down the field, sending keen glances +to right and left. He was a conscientious man, and earned every pound of +his wages.</p> + +<p>Landless, left alone, worked steadily on, for he had no mind to lose his +midday meal, uninviting as he knew it would prove to be. Moreover, he +was one who did with his might what his hand found to do. His body was +weary, and his heart sick within him, but the green shoots fell thick +and fast.</p> + +<p>"Yon was a kindly thing you did. Pity 'twas in no better cause than the +saving of a worthless natural."</p> + +<p>The speaker, who was at work on the next row of plants, had caught up +with Landless from behind, and now moved his nimble fingers more slowly, +so as to keep pace with the less expert new hand.</p> + +<p>Landless, raising his head, stared at a figure of<a class="pagenum" name="page_54" id="page_54" title="54"></a> positively terrifying +aspect. Upon a skeleton body of extraordinary height was set a head bare +of any hair. Scalp, forehead and cheeks were of one dull, ivory hue like +an eastern carving. Upon the smooth, dead surface of the right cheek +sprawled a great red R, branded into the flesh, and through each large +protruding ear went a ragged hole. For the rest, the lips were of iron, +and the small, deep-set eyes were so bright and burning that they gave +the impression that they were red like the great letter. It might have +been the face of a man of sixty years, though it would have been hard to +tell wherein lay the semblance of age, so smooth was the skin and so +brilliant the eyes.</p> + +<p>"The Indian needed help. Why should I not have given it him?" said +Landless.</p> + +<p>"Because it is written, 'Cursed are the heathen who inhabit the land.'"</p> + +<p>Landless smiled. "So you would not help an Indian in extremity. What if +it had been a negro?"</p> + +<p>"Cursed are the negroes! 'Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by the +sword.'"</p> + +<p>"A Quaker?"</p> + +<p>"Cursed are the Quakers! 'Silly doves that have no heart.'"</p> + +<p>Landless laughed. "You have cursed pretty well all the oppressed of the +land. I suppose you reserve your blessings for the powers that be."</p> + +<p>"The powers that be! May the plagues of Egypt light upon them, and the +seven vials rain down their contents upon them! Cursed be they all, from +the young man, Charles Stuart, to that prelatical, tyrannical, noxious +Malignant, William Berkeley! May their names become a hissing and an +abomination!<a class="pagenum" name="page_55" id="page_55" title="55"></a> Roaring lions are their princes, ravening wolves are their +judges, their priests have polluted the sanctuary! May their flesh +consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes consume +away in their holes, and their tongues consume away in their mouths, and +may there be mourning among them, even as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in +the valley of Megiddon!"</p> + +<p>"You are a Muggletonian?"</p> + +<p>"Yea, verily am I! a follower of the saintly Ludovick Muggleton, and of +the saintlier John Reeve, of whom Ludovick is but the mouthpiece, even +as Aaron was of Moses. They are the two witnesses of the Apocalypse. +They are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks. To them and to +their followers it is given to curse and to spare not, to prophesy +against the peoples and kindred and nations and tongues whereon is set +the seal of the beast. Wherefore I, Win-Grace Porringer, testify against +the people of this land; against Prelatists and Papists, Presbyterians +and Independents, Baptists, Quakers and heathen; against princes, +governors, and men in high places; against them that call themselves +planters and trample the vineyard of the Lord; against their sons and +their daughters who are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth neck and +wanton eyes, walking and mincing and making a tinkling with their feet. +Cursed be they all! Surely they shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah, even the +breeding of salt-pits and a perpetual desolation!"</p> + +<p>"Your curses seem not to have availed, friend," said Landless. "Curses +are apt to come home to roost. I should judge that yours have returned +to you in the shape of branding-irons."<a class="pagenum" name="page_56" id="page_56" title="56"></a></p> + +<p>The man raised a skeleton hand and stroked the red letter.</p> + +<p>"This," he said coolly, "was given me when I ran away the second time. +The first time I was merely whipped. The third time I was shaven and +this shackle put upon my leg." He raised his foot and pointed to an iron +ring encircling the ankle. "The fourth time I was nailed by the ears to +the pillory, whence come these pretty scars."</p> + +<p>Landless burst into grim laughter. "And after your fifth attempt, what +then?"</p> + +<p>The man gave him a sidelong look. "I have not made my fifth attempt," he +said quietly.</p> + +<p>They worked in silence for a few minutes. Then said Master Win-Grace +Porringer:—</p> + +<p>"I was sent to the plantations, because, in defiance of the Act of +Uniformity (cursed be it, and the authors thereof), I attended a meeting +of the persecuted and broken remnant of the Lord's people. What was your +offense, friend, for I reckon that you come not here of your free will, +being neither a rustic nor a fool?"</p> + +<p>"I came from Newgate," said Landless, after a pause. "I am a convict."</p> + +<p>The man's hand stopped in the act of pulling off a shoot. He gave a slow +upward look at the figure beside him, let his eyes rest upon the face, +and looked slowly down again with a shake of the head.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" he said. "The society in Newgate must be improved since my +time."</p> + +<p>They worked without speaking until they had nearly reached the end of +the long double row, when said the Muggletonian:—</p> + +<p>"You are too young, I take it, to have seen service in the wars?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_57" id="page_57" title="57"></a></p> + +<p>"I fought at Worcester."</p> + +<p>"Upon which side?"</p> + +<p>"The Commonwealth's."</p> + +<p>"I thought as much. Humph! You were all, Parliament and Presbytery, +Puritan and Independent, Hampden and Vane and Oliver, in the gall of +bitterness and the bond of iniquity, very far from the pure light in +which walk the followers of the blessed Ludovick. At the last the two +witnesses will speak against you also. But in the mean time it were +easier for the children of light to walk under the rule of the Puritan +than under that of the lascivious house of Jeroboam which now afflicts +England for her sins. But the Lord hath a controversy with them! An east +wind shall come up, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the +wilderness! They shall be moved from their places! They shall lick the +dust like serpents, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the +earth, and be utterly destroyed! Think you not as I do, friend?" he +asked, turning suddenly upon Landless.</p> + +<p>"I think," said Landless, "that you are talking that which, if +overheard, might give you a deeper scar than any you bear."</p> + +<p>"But who is to hear? the tobacco, the Lord in heaven, and you. The +senseless plant will keep counsel, the Lord is not like to betray his +servant, and as for you, friend,—" he looked long and searchingly at +Landless. "Despite the place you come from, I do not think you one to +bring a man into trouble for being bold enough to say what you dare only +think."</p> + +<p>Landless returned the look. "No," he said quietly. "You need have no +fear of me."</p> + +<p>"I fear no one," said the other proudly.<a class="pagenum" name="page_58" id="page_58" title="58"></a></p> + +<p>Presently he craned his long body across the plant between them until +his lips almost touched the ear of the younger man.</p> + +<p>"Shall you try to escape?" he whispered.</p> + +<p>A smile curled Landless's lip. "Very probably I shall," he said dryly. +He looked down the long lines of broad green leaves at the toiling +figures, black and white, dull peasants at best, scoundrels at worst; +and beyond to the huddled cabins of the quarter, and to the great house, +rising fair and white from orchard and garden; seeing, as in a dream, a +man, young in years but old in sorrow, disgraced, outcast, friendless, +alone, creeping down a vista of weary years, day after day of +soul-deadening toil, of association with the mean and the vile, of +shameful submission to whip and finger. Escape! The word had beaten +through brain and heart so long and so persistently, that at times he +feared lest he should cry it aloud.</p> + +<p>Win-Grace Porringer shook his head.</p> + +<p>"It's not an easy thing to escape from a Virginia plantation. With dogs +and with horses they hunt you down, yea, with torches and boats. They +band themselves together against the fleeing sparrow. They call in the +heathen to their aid. And it is a fearful land, for great rivers bar +your way, and forests push you back, and deep quagmires clutch you and +hold you until the men of blood come up. And when you are taken they +cruelly maltreat you, and your term of service is doubled."</p> + +<p>"And yet men have gotten away," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not many. And those that get away are seldom heard of more. +The forest swallows them up, and after a while their skulls roll about +the hills, playthings for wolves, or the deep waters flow over their<a class="pagenum" name="page_59" id="page_59" title="59"></a> +bones, or they lie in a little heap of ashes at the foot of some Indian +torture stake."</p> + +<p>"Why did you try to escape?" asked Landless.</p> + +<p>The man gave him another sidelong look.</p> + +<p>"I tried because I was a fool. I am no longer a fool. I know a better +way."</p> + +<p>"A better way!"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" The man looked over his shoulder and then whispered, "Will you +go with me to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Go with you! Where?"</p> + +<p>"To a man I know—a man who gives good advice."</p> + +<p>"Many can do that, friend."</p> + +<p>"Ay, but not show the way to profit by it as doth this man."</p> + +<p>"Who is he?"</p> + +<p>"A servant even as we are servants,—a learned and godly man, albeit not +a follower of the blessed Ludovick. Listen! About the rising of the moon +to-night, slip from your cabin and come to the blasted pine on the shore +of the inlet. There will be a boat there and I will be in it. We will go +to the cabin of the man of whom I speak. He is a cripple, and knowing +that he cannot run away, the godless and roistering Malignant who calls +himself our master hath given him a hut among the marshes, where he +mendeth nets. Come! I may not say more than that it will be worth your +while."</p> + +<p>"If we are caught—"</p> + +<p>"Our skins pay for us. But the Lord will shut the eyes of the overseers +that they see not, and their ears that they hear not, and we will be +safely back before the dawn. You will come?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Landless. "I will come."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_60" id="page_60" title="60"></a> +<a name="THE_HUT_ON_THE_MARSH_1908" id="THE_HUT_ON_THE_MARSH_1908"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<h3>THE HUT ON THE MARSH</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was shortly after midnight when the two servants slipped along the +inlet, silently and warily, and keeping their boat well under the shore. +It was a crazy affair, barely large enough for two, and requiring +constant bailing. When they had made half a mile from the quarters, the +Muggletonian, who rowed, turned the boat's head across the inlet, and +ran into a very narrow creek that wound in mazy doubles through the +marshes. They entered it, made the first turn, and the broad bosom of +the inlet, lit by a low, crimson moon, was as if it had never been. On +every side high marsh grass soughed in the night wind,—plains of +blackness with the red moon rising from them. The tide was low. So close +were the banks of wet, black earth, that they heard the crabs scuttling +down them, and Porringer made a jab with his pole at a great sheepshead +lying <i>perdu</i> alongside. The water broke before them into spangles, +glittering phosphorescent ripples. A school of small fish, disturbed by +the oars, rushed past them, leaping from the water with silver flashes. +A turtle plunged sullenly. From the grass above came the sleepy cry of +marsh hens, and once a great white heron rose like a ghost across their +path. It flapped its wings and sailed away with a scream of wrath.</p> + +<p>The boat had wound its tortuous way for many minutes<a class="pagenum" name="page_61" id="page_61" title="61"></a> before Porringer +said in a low voice: "We can speak safely now. There is nothing human +moving on these flats unless the witch, Margery, is abroad. Cursed may +she be, and cursed those who give her shelter and food and raiment and +lay offerings at her door, for surely it is written, 'Thou shalt not +suffer a witch to live.'"</p> + +<p>"Is there anything a Muggletonian will not curse?" asked Landless.</p> + +<p>"Yea," answered the other complacently. "There are ourselves, the salt +of the earth. There are a thousand or more of us."</p> + +<p>"And the remainder of the inhabitants of the earth are reprobate and +doomed?"</p> + +<p>"Yea, verily, they shall be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut up +will they be burned in the fire."</p> + +<p>"Then why have you to do with me, and with the man to whom we are +going?"</p> + +<p>"Because it is written: 'Make ye friends of the mammon of +unrighteousness;' and moreover there be degrees even in hell fire. I do +not place you, who have some inkling of the truth, nor the Independents +and Fifth Monarchy men (as for the Quakers they shall be utterly damned) +in the furnace seven times heated which is reserved for the bigoted and +bloody Prelatists who rule the land, swearing strange oaths, foining +with the sword, and delighting in vain apparel; keeping their feast days +and their new moons and their solemn festivals. They are the rejoicing +city that dwells carelessly, that says in her heart, 'I am, and there is +none beside me.' The day cometh when they shall be broken as the +breaking of a potter's vessel, yea, they shall be violently tossed like +a ball into a far country."<a class="pagenum" name="page_62" id="page_62" title="62"></a></p> + +<p>Here they struck a snag, well-nigh capsizing the boat. When she righted, +and Landless had bailed her out with a gourd, they proceeded in silence. +Landless was in no mood for speech. He did not know where they were +going, nor for what purpose, nor did he greatly care. He meant to +escape, and that as soon as his strength should be recovered and he +could obtain some knowledge of the country, and he meant to take no one +into his counsel, not the Muggletonian, whose own attempts had ended so +disastrously, nor the 'man who gave good advice.' As to this midnight +expedition he was largely indifferent. But it was something to escape +from the stifling atmosphere of the cabin where he had tossed from side +to side, listening to the heavy breathing of the convict Turk and +peasant lad with whom he was quartered, to the silver peace of +moon-flooded marsh and lapping water.</p> + +<p>They made another turn, and in front of them shone out a light, gleaming +dully like a will-of-the-wisp. It looked close at hand, but the creek +turned upon itself, coiled and writhed through the marsh, and trebled +the distance.</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian rested on his oar, and turned to Landless.</p> + +<p>"Yonder is our bourne," he said gravely. "But I have a word to say to +you, friend, before we reach it. If, to curry favor with the +uncircumcised Philistines who set themselves over us, thou speakest of +aught thou mayest see or hear there to-night, may the Lord wither thy +tongue within thy mouth, may he smite thee with blindness, may he bring +thee quick into the pit! And if not the Lord, then will I, Win-Grace +Porringer, rise and smite thee!"</p> + +<p>"You may spare your invectives," said Landless coldly. "I am no +traitor."<a class="pagenum" name="page_63" id="page_63" title="63"></a></p> + +<p>"Nay, friend," said the other in a milder tone. "I thought it not of +thee, or I had not brought thee thither."</p> + +<p>He shoved the nose of the boat into the shore, and caught at a stake, +rising, water-soaked and rotten, from below the bank. Landless threw him +the looped end of a rope, and together they made the boat fast, then +scrambled up the three feet of fat, sliding earth to the level above +where the ground was dry, none but the highest of tides ever reaching +it. Fifty yards away rose a low hut. It stood close to another bend in +the creek, and before it were several boats, tied to stakes, and softly +rubbing their sides together. The hut had no window, but there were +interstices between the logs through which the light gleamed redly.</p> + +<p>When the two men had reached it, the Muggletonian knocked upon the heavy +door, after a peculiar fashion, striking it four times in all. There was +a shuffling sound within, and (Landless thought) two voices ceased +speaking. Then some one said in a low voice and close to the door: "Who +is it?"</p> + +<p>"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," answered the Muggletonian.</p> + +<p>A bar fell from the door, and it swung slowly inwards.</p> + +<p>"Enter, friends," said a quiet voice. Landless, stooping his head, +crossed the threshold, and found himself in the presence of a man with a +high, white forehead and a grave, sweet face, who, leaning on a stick, +and dragging one foot behind him, limped back to the settle from which +he had risen, and fell to work upon a broken net as calmly as if he were +alone. Besides themselves he was the only inmate of the room.</p> + +<p>A pine torch, stuck into a cleft in the table, cast a<a class="pagenum" name="page_64" id="page_64" title="64"></a> red and +flickering light over a rude interior, furnished with the table, the +settle, a chest and a straw pallet. From the walls and rafters hung +nets, torn or mended. In one corner was a great heap of dingy sail, in +another a sheaf of oars, and a third was wholly in darkness. Lying about +the earthen floor were several small casks to which the man motioned as +seats.</p> + +<p>Leaving Landless near the door, Win-Grace Porringer dragged a keg to the +side of the settle, and sitting down upon it, approached his death mask +of a face close to the face of the mender of nets, and commenced a +whispered conversation. To Landless, awaiting rather listlessly the +outcome of this nocturnal adventure, came now and then a broken +sentence. "He hath not the look of a criminal, but—" "Of Puritan +breeding, sayest thou?" "We need young blood." Then after prolonged +whispering, "No traitor, at least."</p> + +<p>At length the Muggletonian arose and came towards Landless. "My friend +would speak with you alone," he said, "I will stand guard outside." He +went out, closing the door behind him.</p> + +<p>The mender of nets beckoned Landless. "Will you come nearer?" he asked +in a quiet refined voice that was not without a ring of power. "As you +see, I am lame, and I cannot move without pain."</p> + +<p>Landless came and sat down beside the table, resting his elbow upon the +wood, and his chin upon his hand. The mender of nets put down his work, +and the two measured each other in silence.</p> + +<p>Landless saw a man of middle age who looked like a scholar, but who +might have been a soldier; a man with a certain strong, bright sweetness +of look in a spare, worn face, and underlying the sweetness a still<a class="pagenum" name="page_65" id="page_65" title="65"></a> and +deadly determination. The mender of nets saw, in his turn, a figure +lithe and straight as an Indian's, a well-poised head, and a handsome +face set in one fixed expression of proud endurance. A determined face, +too, with dark, resolute eyes and strong mouth, the face of a man who +has done and suffered much, and who knows that he will both do and +suffer more.</p> + +<p>"I am told," said the mender of nets, "that you are newly come to the +plantations."</p> + +<p>"I was brought by the ship God-Speed a month ago."</p> + +<p>"You did not come as an indented servant?"</p> + +<p>Landless reddened. "No."</p> + +<p>"Nor as a martyr to principle, a victim of that most iniquitous and +tyrannical Act of Uniformity?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Nor as one of those whom they call Oliverians?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>The mender of nets tapped softly against the table with his thin, white +fingers. Landless said coldly:—</p> + +<p>"These are idle questions. The man who brought me here hath told you +that I am a convict."</p> + +<p>The other looked at him keenly. "I have heard convicts talk before this. +Why do you not assert your innocence?"</p> + +<p>"Who would believe me if I did?"</p> + +<p>There was a silence. Landless, raising his eyes, met those of the mender +of nets, large, luminous, gravely tender, and reading him like a book.</p> + +<p>"I will believe you," said the mender of nets.</p> + +<p>"Then, as God is above us," said the other solemnly, "I did not do the +thing! And He knows that I thank you, sir, for your trust. I have not +found another—"<a class="pagenum" name="page_66" id="page_66" title="66"></a></p> + +<p>"I know, lad, I know! How was it?"</p> + +<p>"I was a Commonwealth's man. My father was dead, my kindred attainted, +and I had a powerful enemy. I was caught in a net of circumstance. And +Morton was my judge."</p> + +<p>"Humph! the marvel is that you ever got nearer to the plantations than +Tyburn. Your name is—"</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Landless."</p> + +<p>"Landless! Once I knew—and loved—a Warham Landless—a brave soldier, a +gallant gentleman, a true Christian. He fell at Worcester."</p> + +<p>"He was my father."</p> + +<p>The mender of nets covered his eyes with his hand. "O Lord! how +wonderful are thy ways!" he said beneath his breath, then aloud, "Lad, +lad, I cannot wholly sorrow to see you here. Wise in counsel, bold in +action, patient, farseeing, brave, was thy father, and I think thou hast +his spirit. Thou hast his eyes, now that I look at thee more closely. I +have prayed for such a man."</p> + +<p>"I am glad you knew my father," said Landless simply.</p> + +<p>After a long silence, in which the minds of both had gone back to other +days, the mender of nets spoke gravely.</p> + +<p>"You have no cause to love the present government?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Landless grimly.</p> + +<p>"You were heart and hand for the Commonwealth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You mean to escape from this bondage?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>The mender of nets took from his bosom a little<a class="pagenum" name="page_67" id="page_67" title="67"></a> worn book. "Will you +swear upon this that you will never reveal what I am about to say to +you, save to such persons as I shall designate? For myself I would take +your simple word, for we are both gentlemen, but other lives than mine +hang in the balance."</p> + +<p>Landless touched the book with his lips. "I swear," he said.</p> + +<p>The man brought his serene, white face nearer.</p> + +<p>"What would you have given," he asked solemnly, "for the cause for which +your father died?"</p> + +<p>"My life," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Would you give it still?"</p> + +<p>"A worthless gift," said Landless bitterly. "Yea, I would give it, but +the cause is dead."</p> + +<p>The other shook his head. "The cause of the just man dieth not."</p> + +<p>There was a pause broken by the mender of nets.</p> + +<p>"Thou art no willing slave, I trow. The thought of escape is ever with +thee."</p> + +<p>"I shall escape," said Landless deliberately. "And if they track me they +shall not take me alive."</p> + +<p>The mender of nets gave a melancholy smile. "They would track you, never +fear!" He leaned forward and touched Landless with his hand. "What if I +show you a better way?" he asked in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"What way?"</p> + +<p>"A way to recover your liberty, and with it, the liberty of downtrodden +brethren. A way to raise the banner of the Commonwealth and to put down +the Stuart."</p> + +<p>Landless stared. "A miserable hut," he said, "in the midst of a desolate +Virginia marsh, and within it, a brace of slaves, the one a cripple, the +other a convict,—and Charles Stuart on his throne in Whitehall! +Friend,<a class="pagenum" name="page_68" id="page_68" title="68"></a> this dismal place hath turned your wits!"</p> + +<p>The other smiled. "My wits are sound," he said, "as sound as they were +upon that day when I gave my voice for the death (a sad necessity!) of +this young man's father. And I do not think to shake England,—I speak +of Virginia."</p> + +<p>"Of Virginia!"</p> + +<p>"Yea, of this goodly land, a garden spot, a new earth where should be +planted the seeds of a mighty nation, strong in justice and simple +right, wise, temperate, brave; an enlightened people, serving God in +spirit and in truth, not with the slavish observance of prelatist and +papist, nor with the indecent familiarity of the Independent; loyal to +their governors, but exercising the God-given right of choosing those +who are to rule over them; a people amongst whom liberty shall walk +unveiled, and to whom Astræa shall come again; a people as free as the +eagle I watched this morning, soaring higher and ever higher, strongly +and proudly, rejoicing in its progress heavenward."</p> + +<p>"In other words, a republic," said Landless dryly.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" answered the other with shining, unseeing eyes. "It is a +dream we dreamed ten years ago, I and Vane and Sidney and Marten and +many others,—but Oliver rudely wakened us. Then it was by the banks of +the Thames, and it was for England. Now, on the shores of Chesapeake I +dream again, and it is for Virginia. You smile!"</p> + +<p>"Have you considered, sir,—I do not know your name."</p> + +<p>"Robert Godwyn is my name."</p> + +<p>"Have you considered, Master Godwyn, that the<a class="pagenum" name="page_69" id="page_69" title="69"></a> Virginians do not want a +republic, that they are more royalist and prelatical than are their +brethren at home; that they out-Herod Herod in their fantastic loyalty?"</p> + +<p>"That is true of the class with whom you have come into contact,—of the +masters. But there is much disaffection among the people at large. And +there are the Nonconformists, the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, +even the Quakers, though they say they fight not. To them all, Charles +Stuart is the Pharaoh whose heart the Lord hardened, and William +Berkeley is his task-master."</p> + +<p>"Any one else?"</p> + +<p>"There are those of the gentry who were Commonwealth's men, and who +chafe sorely under the loss of office and disfavor into which they have +fallen."</p> + +<p>"And these all desire a republic?"</p> + +<p>"They desire the downfall of the royalists with William Berkeley at +their head. The republic would follow."</p> + +<p>"And when a handful of Puritan gentlemen, a few hundred Nonconformists, +and the rabble of the colony shall have executed this project, have +usurped the government, dethroning the king, or his governor, which is +the same thing,—then will come in from the mouth of Thames a couple of +royal frigates and blow your infant republic into space."</p> + +<p>"I do not think so. The frigates would come undoubtedly, but I am of +another opinion as to the result of their coming. They would not take us +unprepared as those of the Commonwealth took William Berkeley in +fifty-two. And with a plentiful lack of money and a Dutch war +threatening, Charles Stuart could not send unlimited frigates. Moreover, +if Virginia revolted, Puritan New England would follow<a class="pagenum" name="page_70" id="page_70" title="70"></a> her example, and +she would find allies in the Dutch of New Amsterdam."</p> + +<p>"You spin large fancies," said Landless, with some scorn. "I suppose you +are plotting with these gentlemen you speak of?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the man, with a scarcely perceptible hesitation. "No, they +are few in number and scattered. Moreover, they might plot amongst +themselves but never with—a servant."</p> + +<p>"Then you are concerned with the Nonconformists?"</p> + +<p>"The Nonconformists are timid, and dream not that the day of deliverance +is at hand."</p> + +<p>Landless began to laugh. "Do you mean to say," he demanded, "that you +and I, for I suppose you count on my assistance, are to enact a kind of +Pride's Purge of our own? That we are to drive from the land the King's +Governor, Council, Burgesses and trainbands; sweep into the bay Sir +William Berkeley and Colonel Verney, and all those gold-laced planters +who dined with him the other day? That we are to take possession of the +colony as picaroons do of a vessel, and hoisting our flag,—a crutch +surmounted by a ball and chain on a ground sable,—proclaim a republic?"</p> + +<p>"Not we alone."</p> + +<p>"Oh, ay! I forgot the worthy Muggletonian."</p> + +<p>"He is but one of many," said the mender of nets.</p> + +<p>Landless leaned forward, a light growing in his eyes. "Speak out!" he +said. "What is it that will break this chain?"</p> + +<p>The mender of nets, too, bent forward from his settle until his breath +mingled with the breath of the younger man.</p> + +<p>"A slave insurrection," he said.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_71" id="page_71" title="71"></a> +<a name="A_MENDER_OF_NETS_2294" id="A_MENDER_OF_NETS_2294"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<h3>A MENDER OF NETS</h3> +</div> + +<p>"A slave insurrection!"</p> + +<p>Landless, recoiling, struck with his shoulder the torch, which fell to +the floor. The flame went out, leaving only a red gleaming end. "I will +get another," said the mender of nets, and limped to the corner where +the shadow had been thickest. Landless, left in darkness, heard a faint +muttering as though Master Robert Godwyn were talking to himself. It +took some time to find the torch; but at length Godwyn returned with one +in his hand, and kindled it at the expiring light.</p> + +<p>Landless rose from his seat, and strode to and fro through the hut. His +pulses beat to bursting; there was a tingling at his finger-tips; to his +startled senses the hut seemed to expand, to become a cavern, +interminable and unfathomable, wide as the vaulted earth, filled with +awful, shadowy places and strange, lurid lights. The mender of nets +became a far-off sphinx-like figure.</p> + +<p>Godwyn watched him in silence. He had a large knowledge of human nature, +and he saw into the mind and heart of the restless figure. He himself +was a philosopher, and wore his chains lightly, but he guessed that the +iron had entered deeply into the soul of the man before him. The sturdy +peasants, indented servants with but a few short years to serve,<a class="pagenum" name="page_72" id="page_72" title="72"></a> better +fed and better clad than their fellows at home, found life on a Virginia +plantation no sweet or easy thing; the political and ecclesiastical +offenders enjoyed it still less, while the small criminal class found +their punishment quite sufficiently severe. To this man the life must be +a slow <i>peine forte et dure</i>, breaking his body with toil, crushing his +soul with a hopeless degradation. The thought of escape must be ever +present with him. But escape in the conventional manner, through +pathless forests and over broad streams, was a thing rarely attained to. +Ninety-nine out of a hundred failed; and the last state of the man who +failed was worse than his first.</p> + +<p>Landless strode over to the table, and leaned his weight upon it.</p> + +<p>"Listen!" he said. "God knows I am a desperate man! My attempt to escape +failing, there is naught but His word between me and the deepest pool of +these waters. I am no saint. I hate my enemies. Restore to me my sword, +pit me against them one by one, and I will fight my way to freedom or +die.... A fair fight, too, a rising of the people against oppression; a +challenge to the oppressor to do his worst; a gallant leading of a +forlorn hope.... But a slave insurrection! a midnight butchery! There +was one who used to tell me tales of such risings in the Indies. Murder +and rapine, fire rising through the night, planters cut down at their +very thresholds, shrieking women tortured, children flung into the +flames,—a carnival of blood and horror!"</p> + +<p>"We are not in the Indies," said the other quietly. "There will be no +such devil's work here. Sit down and listen while I put the thing before +you as it is. There are, most iniquitously held as slaves in this +Virginia,<a class="pagenum" name="page_73" id="page_73" title="73"></a> some four hundred Commonwealth's men, each one of whom, at +home and in his own station, was a man of mark. Many were Ironsides. And +each one is a force in himself,—cool, determined, intrepid,—and wholly +desperate. With them are many victims of the Act of Uniformity, godly +men, eaten up with zeal. For their freedom they would dare much; for +their faith they would spill every drop of their blood."</p> + +<p>"They are like our friend, the Muggletonian, fanatics all, I suppose," +said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Possibly. Your fanatic is the best fighting machine yet invented. Do +you not see that these two classes form a regiment against which no +trainbands, no force which these planters could raise, would stand?"</p> + +<p>"But they are scattered, dispersed through the colony!"</p> + +<p>"Ay, but they can be brought together! And to that end, seeing how few +there are upon any one plantation, upon the day when they rise, they +must raise with them servants and slaves. Then will they overpower +masters and overseers, and gathering to one point, form there a force +which will beat down all opposition. It is simple enough. We will but do +that which it was proposed to do ten years ago. You know the +instructions given by the Parliament to the four commissioners?"</p> + +<p>"They were to summon the colony to surrender to the Commonwealth. If it +did so, well and good; if not, war was to be declared, and the servants +invited to rise against their masters and so purchase their freedom."</p> + +<p>"Precisely. Berkeley submitted, and there was no rising. This time there +will be no summons, but a<a class="pagenum" name="page_74" id="page_74" title="74"></a> rising, and a very great one. It will be, +primarily, a rising of four hundred Oliverians, strong to avenge many +and grievous wrongs; but with them will rise servants and slaves, and to +the banner of the Commonwealth, beneath which they will march, will +flock every Nonconformist in the land, and, when success is assured, +then will come in and give us weight and respectability those (and they +are not a few) of the better classes who long in their hearts for the +good days of the Commonwealth, and yet dare not lift a finger to bring +them back."</p> + +<p>"And the royalists?"</p> + +<p>"If they resist, their blood be upon them! But there shall be no +carnage, no butchery. And if they submit they shall be unmolested, even +as they were ten years ago. There is land enough for all."</p> + +<p>"The servants and slaves?"</p> + +<p>"They that join with us, of whatever class, shall be freed."</p> + +<p>"This insurrection is actually in train?"</p> + +<p>"Let us call it a revolution. Yes, it is in train as far as regards the +Oliverians. We have but begun to sound servants and slaves."</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"I am, for lack of a better, General to the Oliverians."</p> + +<p>"And you believe yourself able to control these motley forces,—men +wronged and revengeful, fanatics, peasants, brutal negroes, mulattoes +(whom they say are devils), convicts,—to say to them, 'Thus far must +you go, and no farther.' You invoke a fiend that may turn and rend you!"</p> + +<p>Godwyn shaded his eyes with his hand. "Yes," he said at last, speaking +with energy. "I do believe it!<a class="pagenum" name="page_75" id="page_75" title="75"></a> I know it is a desperate game; but the +stake! I believe in myself. And I have four hundred able adjutants, men +who are to me what his Ironsides were to Oliver, but none—" he +stretched out his hand, thin, white, and delicate as a woman's, and laid +it upon the brown one resting upon the table. "Lad," he said in a +gravely tender voice, "I have none upon this plantation in whom I can +put absolute trust. There are few Oliverians here, and they are like +Win-Grace Porringer, in whom zeal hath eaten up discretion. Lad, I need +a helper! I have spoken to you freely; I have laid my heart before you; +and why? Because I, who was and am a gentleman, see in you a gentleman, +because I would take your word before all the oaths of all the peasant +servants in Virginia, because you have spirit and judgment; because,—in +short, because I could love you as I loved your father before you. You +have great wrongs. We will right them together. Be my lieutenant, my +confidant, my helper! Come! put your hand in mine and say, 'I am with +you, Robert Godwyn, heart and soul.'"</p> + +<p>Landless sprang to his feet. "It were easy to say that," he said +hoarsely, "for, in all the two years I lay rotting in prison, and in +these weeks of sordid misery here in Virginia, yours is the only face +that has looked kindly upon me, yours the only voice that has told me I +was believed.... But it is a fearful thing you propose! If all go as you +say it will,—why <span class="smcap">WELL</span>! but if not, Hell will be in the land. I must +have time to think, to judge for myself, to decide—"</p> + +<p>The door swung stealthily inward, and in the opening appeared the dead +white face, with the great letter sprawling over it, of Master Win-Grace +Porringer.<a class="pagenum" name="page_76" id="page_76" title="76"></a></p> + +<p>"There are boats on the creek," he said. "Two coming up, one coming +down."</p> + +<p>Godwyn nodded. "I hold conference to-night with men from this and the +two neighboring plantations. You will stay where you are and see and +hear them. Only you must be silent; for they must not know that you are +not entirely one with us, as I am well assured you will be."</p> + +<p>"They are Oliverians?"</p> + +<p>"All but two or three."</p> + +<p>"I secured the mulatto," interrupted the Muggletonian.</p> + +<p>"Ay," said Godwyn, "I thought it well to have one slave representative +here to-night. These mulattoes are devils; but they can plot, and they +can keep a still tongue. But I shall not trust him or his kind too far."</p> + +<p>The peculiar knock—four strokes in all—sounded upon the door, and +Porringer went to it. "Who is there?" passed on the one side, and "The +sword of the Lord and of Gideon" on the other. The door swung open, and +there entered two men of a grave and determined cast of countenance. +Both had iron-gray hair, and one was branded upon the forehead with the +letter that appeared upon the cheek of the Muggletonian. Again the knock +sounded, the countersign was given, and the door opened to admit a pale, +ascetic-looking youth, with glittering eyes and a crimson spot on each +cheek, who stooped heavily and coughed often. He was followed by another +stern-faced Commonwealth's man, and he in turn by a brace of +broad-visaged rustics and a smug-faced man, who looked like a small +shopkeeper. After an interval came two more Oliverians, grim of eye, +and composed in manner.<a class="pagenum" name="page_77" id="page_77" title="77"></a></p> + +<p>Last of all came the mulatto of the pale amber color and the gold +ear-rings; and with him came the long-nosed, twitching-lipped convict in +whose company Landless had crossed the Atlantic. His name was Trail; and +Landless, knowing him for a villainous rogue, started at finding him +amongst the company.</p> + +<p>His presence there was evidently unexpected. Godwyn frowned and turned +sharply upon the mulatto. "Who gave you leave to bring this man?" he +demanded sternly.</p> + +<p>The mulatto was at no loss. "Worthy Señors all," he said smoothly, +addressing himself to the company in general. "This Señor Trail is a +good man, as I have reason to know. Once we were together in San +Domingo, slave to a villainous cavalier from Seville. With the help of +St. Jago and the Mother of God, we killed him and made our escape. Now, +after many years, we meet here in a like situation. I answer for my +friend as I answer for myself, myself, Luiz Sebastian, the humble and +altogether-devoted servant of you all, worshipful Señors."</p> + +<p>The man with the branded forehead muttered something in which the only +distinguishable words were, "Scarlet woman," and "Papist half-breed," +and the smug-faced man cried out, "Trail is a forger and thief! I +remember his trial at the Bailey, a week before I signed as storekeeper +to Major Carrington."</p> + +<p>This speech of the smug-faced man created something of a commotion, and +one or two started to their feet. The mulatto looked about him with an +evil eye.</p> + +<p>"My friend has been in trouble, it is true," he said, still very +smoothly. "He will not make the worse conspirator for that. And why, +worthy Señors, should you make a difference between him and one other I<a class="pagenum" name="page_78" id="page_78" title="78"></a> +see in company? Mother of God! they are both in the same boat!" He fixed +his large eyes on Landless as he spoke, and his thick lips curled into a +tigerish smile.</p> + +<p>Landless half rose, but Godwyn laid a detaining hand upon his arm. "Be +still," he said in a low voice, "and let me manage this matter."</p> + +<p>Landless obeyed, and the mender of nets turned to the assembly, who by +this time were looking very black.</p> + +<p>"Friends," he said with quiet impressiveness, "I think you know me, +Robert Godwyn, well enough to know that I make no move in these great +matters without good and sufficient reason. I have good and sufficient +reason for wishing to associate with us this young man,—yea, even to +make him a leader among us. He is one of us—he fought at Worcester. And +that he is an innocent man, falsely accused, falsely imprisoned, +wrongfully sent to the plantations, I well believe,—for I will believe +no wrong of the son of Warham Landless."</p> + +<p>There was a loud murmur of surprise through the room, and one of the +Oliverians sprung to his feet, crying out, "Warham Landless was my +colonel! I will follow his son were he ten times a convict!"</p> + +<p>Godwyn waited for the buzz of voices to cease and then calmly proceeded, +"As to this man whom Luiz Sebastian hath brought with him, I know +nothing. But it matters little. Sooner or later we must engage his +class,—as well commence with him as with another. He will be faithful +for his own sake."</p> + +<p>The dark faces of his audience cleared gradually. Only the youth with +the hectic cheeks cried out, "I have hated the congregation of evil +doers, and I will<a class="pagenum" name="page_79" id="page_79" title="79"></a> not sit with the wicked!" and rose as if to make for +the door. Win-Grace Porringer pulled him down with a muttered, "Curse +you for a fool! Shall not the Lord shave with a hired razor? When these +men have done their work, then shall they be cut down and cast into +outer darkness, until when, hold thy peace!"</p> + +<p>The company now applied itself to the transaction of business. Trail was +duly sworn in, not without a deal of oily glibness and unnecessary +protestation on his part. The man who held the little, worn Bible now +turned to Landless, but upon Godwyn's saying quietly, "I have already +sworn him," the book was returned to the bosom of its owner.</p> + +<p>Each conspirator had his report to make. Landless listened with grave +attention and growing wonder to long lists of plantations and the +servant and slave force thereon; to news from the up-river estates, and +from the outlying settlements upon the Rappahannock and the Pamunkey, +and from across the bay in Accomac; to accounts of secret arsenals +slowly filling with rude weapons; to allusions to the well-affected +sailors on board those ships that were likely to be in harbor during the +next two months;—to the details of a formidable and far-reaching +conspiracy.</p> + +<p>The Oliverians spoke of the hour in which this mine should be sprung as +the great and appointed day of the Lord, the day when the Lord was to +stretch forth his hand and smite the malignants, the day when Israel +should be delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh. The branded man +apostrophized Godwyn as Moses. Their stern and rigid features relaxed, +their eyes glistened, their breath came short and thick. Once the youth +who had wished to avoid the company of<a class="pagenum" name="page_80" id="page_80" title="80"></a> the wicked broke into hysterical +sobbing. The two rustics spoke little, but possibly thought the more. To +them the day of the Lord translated itself the day of their obtaining a +freehold. The smug-faced shopkeeper put in his oar now and again, but +only to be swept aside by the torrent of Biblical quotation. The newly +admitted Trail kept a discreet silence, but used his furtive greenish +eyes to good purpose. Luiz Sebastian sat with the stillness of a great, +yellow, crouching tiger cat.</p> + +<p>Godwyn heard all in silence. Not till the last man had had his say did +he begin to speak, approving, suggesting, directing, moulding in his +facile hands the incongruous and disjointed mass of information and +opinion into a rounded whole. The men, listening to him with breathless +attention, gave grim nods of approval. At one point of his discourse the +branded man cried out:—</p> + +<p>"If the Puritan gentry you talk of would gird themselves like men, and +come forth to the battle, how quickly would the Lord's work be done! +They are the drones within the hive! They expect the honey, but do not +the work."</p> + +<p>"It is so," said Godwyn, "but they have lands and goods and fame to +lose. We have naught to lose—can be no worse off than we are now."</p> + +<p>"If the Laodicean, Carrington,"—began the branded man.</p> + +<p>Godwyn interrupted him. "This is beside the matter. Major Carrington is +a godly man who hath, though in secret, done many kindnesses to us poor +prisoners of the Lord. Let us be content with that."</p> + +<p>A moment later he said, "It waxeth late, friends, and loath would I be +for one of you to be discovered.<a class="pagenum" name="page_81" id="page_81" title="81"></a> Come to me again a week from to-night. +The word will be, 'The valley of Jehoshaphat.'"</p> + +<p>The conspirators dropped away, in twos and threes, gliding silently off +in their stolen boats between the walls of waving grass. When, last of +all save Landless and the Muggletonian, Trail and Luiz Sebastian +approached the door, Godwyn stopped them with a gesture.</p> + +<p>"Stay a moment," he said. "I have a word to say to you. We may as well +be frank with you. I distrust you, of course. It is natural that I +should. And you distrust me as much. It is natural that you should. I +would do without the aid of you and the class you represent if I could, +but I cannot. You would do without my aid if you could, but you cannot. +Betray me, and whatever blood money you get, it will not be that freedom +which you want. We are obliged to work together, unequal yoke-fellows as +we are. Do I make myself understood?"</p> + +<p>"To a marvel, Señor," said Luiz Sebastian.</p> + +<p>"Damn my soul, but you're a sharp one!" said Trail.</p> + +<p>Godwyn smiled. "That is enough, we understand one another. Good-night."</p> + +<p>The two glided off in their turn, and Godwyn said to the Muggletonian, +"Friend Porringer, that mended sail must be bestowed in the large boat +before the hut against Haines' coming for it in the morning. Will you +take it to the boat for me? And if you will wait there this young man +shall join you shortly."</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian nodded, piled the heap of dingy sail upon his head and +strode off. The mender of nets turned to Landless.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said. "What do you think?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_82" id="page_82" title="82"></a></p> + +<p>"I think," said Landless, raising his voice, "that the gentleman in the +dark corner must be tired of standing."</p> + +<p>There was a dead silence. Then a piece of shadow detached itself from +the other heavy shadows in the dark corner and came forward into the +torch light, where it resolved itself into a handsome figure of a man, +apparently in the prime of life, and wearing a riding cloak of green +cloth and a black riding mask. Not content with the concealment afforded +by the mask, he had pulled his beaver low over his eyes and with one +hand held the folds of the cloak about the lower part of his face. He +rested the other ungloved hand upon the table and stared fixedly at +Landless. "You have good eyes," he said at last, in a voice as muffled +as his countenance.</p> + +<p>"It is a warm night," said Landless with a smile. "If Major Carrington +would drop that heavy cloak, he would find it more comfortable."</p> + +<p>The man recoiled. "You know me!" he cried incredulously.</p> + +<p>"I know the Carrington arms and motto. <i>Tenax et Fidelis</i>, is it not? +You should not wear your signet ring when you go a-plotting."</p> + +<p>The Surveyor-General of the Colony dropped his cloak, and springing +forward seized Landless by the shoulders.</p> + +<p>"You dog!" he hissed between his teeth, "if you dare betray me, I'll +have every drop of your blood lashed out of your body!"</p> + +<p>Landless wrenched himself free. "I am no traitor," he said coldly.</p> + +<p>Carrington recovered himself. "Well, well," he said, still breathing +hastily, "I believe you. I heard<a class="pagenum" name="page_83" id="page_83" title="83"></a> all that passed to-night, and I +believe you. You have been a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Had I my sword, I should be happy to give Major Carrington proof," said +Landless sternly.</p> + +<p>The other smiled. "There, there, I was hasty, but by Heaven! you gave me +a start! I ask your pardon."</p> + +<p>Landless bowed, and the mender of nets struck in. "I was sorry to keep +you so long, Major Carrington, in such an uncomfortable position. But +the arrival of the Muggletonian before he was due, together with your +desire for secrecy, left me no alternative."</p> + +<p>"I surmise, friend Godwyn, that you would not have been sorry had this +young man proclaimed his discovery in full conclave," said Carrington +with a keen glance.</p> + +<p>Godwyn's thin cheek flushed, but he answered composedly, "It is +certainly true that I would like to see Major Carrington committed +beyond withdrawal to this undertaking. But he will do me the justice to +believe that if, by raising my finger, I could so commit him, I would +not do so without his permission."</p> + +<p>"Faith, it is so!" said the other, then turned to Landless with a stern +smile. "You will understand, young man, that Miles Carrington never +attended, nor will attend, a meeting wherein the peace of the realm is +conspired against by servants. If Miles Carrington ever visits Robert +Godwyn, servant to Colonel Verney, 'tis simply to employ him (with his +master's consent) in the mending of nets, or to pass an idle hour +reading Plato, Robert Godwyn having been a scholar of note at home."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Landless, answering the smile. "Major Carrington and +Master Godwyn are at present<a class="pagenum" name="page_84" id="page_84" title="84"></a> much interested in the philosopher's +pretty but idle conception of a Republic, wherein philosophers shall +rule, and warriors be the bulwark of the state, and no Greek shall +enslave a fellow Greek, but only outer barbarians—all of which is +vastly pretty on paper—but they agree that it would turn the world +upside down were it put into practice."</p> + +<p>"Precisely," said Carrington with a smile.</p> + +<p>"You had best be off, lad," put in Godwyn. "Woodson is an early riser, +and he must not catch you gadding.... You will think on what you have +heard to-night, and will come to me again as soon as you can make +opportunity?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Landless slowly. "I will come, but I make no promises."</p> + +<p>He found Porringer seated in their boat, patiently awaiting him. They +cast off and rowed back the way they had come through the stillness of +the hour before dawn. The tide being full, the black banks had +disappeared, and the grass, sighing and whispering, waved on a level +with their boat. When they slid at last into the broader waters of the +inlet, the stars were paling, and in the east there gleamed a faint rose +tint, the ghost of a color. A silver mist lay upon land and water, and +through it they stole undetected to their several cabins.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the two men, left alone in the hut on the marsh, looked one +another in the face.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure that he can be trusted?" demanded Carrington.</p> + +<p>"I would answer for his father's son with my life."</p> + +<p>"What of these scruples of his? Faith! an unusual conjunction—a convict +and scruples! Will you manage to dispose of them?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_85" id="page_85" title="85"></a></p> + +<p>Godwyn smiled with wise, sad eyes. "Time will dispose of them," he said +quietly. "He is new to the life. Let him taste its full bitterness. It +will plead powerfully against his—scruples. He has as yet no special +and private grievance. Wait until he gets into trouble with Woodson or +his master. When he has done that and has taken the consequences, he +will be ours. We can bide our time."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_86" id="page_86" title="86"></a> +<a name="THE_NEW_SECRETARY_2739" id="THE_NEW_SECRETARY_2739"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<h3>THE NEW SECRETARY</h3> +</div> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<tr><td>"Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>That from the nunnery</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>To war and arms I flee....</span></td></tr> +<tr><td></td></tr> +<tr><td>"Yet this inconstancy is such</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>As you too shall adore.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>I could not love thee, dear, so much,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>Loved I not honor more."</span></td></tr> +</table> + + +<p>The rich notes rang higher and higher, filling the languid air, and +drowning the trill of the mockingbirds. Patricia, filling her apron with +midsummer flowers, sang with a careless passion, her mind far away in +the midst of a Whitehall pageant, described to her the night before by +that silver-tongued courtier, Sir Charles Carew.</p> + +<p>Still singing, she went up the steps of the porch and into the cool wide +hall. In her face there was a languorous beauty born of the sunshine +outside; a soft color glowed in her cheeks, her eyes were large and +dreamy, little damp tendrils of gold strayed about her temples. She +threw down her hat, and loosened the kerchief of delicate lawn from +about her warm young throat; then, with the flowers still in her arms, +she raised the latch of the door of a room held sacred to Colonel +Verney, and entered, to find herself face to face with the convict, +Godfrey Landless, who sat at a table covered with papers, busily +writing.<a class="pagenum" name="page_87" id="page_87" title="87"></a></p> + +<p>She started violently, and the mass of flowers fell to the floor, +shattering the petals from the roses and poppies. Landless came forward, +knelt down, and, picking them up, restored them to her without a word.</p> + +<p>"I thank you," she said coldly. "I thought my father was here."</p> + +<p>"Colonel Verney is in the next room, madam."</p> + +<p>She moved to the door leading into the great room with the gait of a +princess, and Landless went back to his work.</p> + +<p>Colonel Verney, on his knees before the richly carven chest containing +his library, looked up from the two score volumes to behold a mass of +brilliant blooms transferred from two white arms to the ground outside +the open window.</p> + +<p>"Well, sweetheart," he said. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Papa," she said, coming to his side, and looking down upon him with a +vexed face; "you promised me that you would employ no more convicts in +the house."</p> + +<p>"Why, so I did, my dear," answered her father, comfortably seating +himself upon "Purchas: His Pilgrimmes." "And I meant to keep my word, +but this is the way of it. The day after you went to Rosemead with Betty +Carrington, down comes young Shaw with the fever, and has to be sent +home to his mother. His illness came at a precious inconvenient season, +for the gout was in my fingers again, and I was bent on disappointing +William Berkeley, who hath wagered a thousand pounds of sweet scented +that my 'Statement of the Evil Wrought by the Navigation Laws to His +Majesty's Colony of Virginia' won't be finished in time for the sailing +of the God-Speed. So I told<a class="pagenum" name="page_88" id="page_88" title="88"></a> Woodson to find me some one among the men +who knew how to write. He brought me this fellow, and I vow he is an +improvement on young Shaw. He doesn't ask questions, and he is a very +pretty Latinist. The paper will be finished to-day. I was but searching +for a neat quotation to close with. Then the fellow will go back to the +tobacco, and you will be no longer annoyed by his presence in the house. +Now kiss me, sweet chuck, and begone, for I am busied upon affairs of +state."</p> + +<p>Left alone, Colonel Verney pored over his books until he found what he +wanted, when, after rearranging his library in the carved chest, he rose +stiffly to his feet, and went into the next room and up to the +writing-table. Landless rose from his seat, and, resigning it to his +master, stood gravely by while the Colonel looked over the manuscript +upon which he had been employed.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" said the Colonel. "A very fair copy! You have numbered and headed +the pages, I observe. Let me see, let me see, let me see," and he ran +them over between his fingers. "Oppressive Nature of the Act.—Grave +Dissatisfaction.—It advantageth No One save Small Traders at +Home.—Increase of Revenue to His Majesty if 't were repealed.—Dutch +Bottoms.—Trade with Russia.—His Majesty's Poor Planters Throw +Themselves upon His Majesty's Mercy. Very good, very good!"</p> + +<p>"It is nigh finished, sir," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay! By the Lord Harry, William Berkeley will repent his wager! A +pretty paper it is, and containeth many excellent points and much good +Latin, and you have copied it fairly and cleanly. It is a pity, my man," +he added not unkindly, "that you<a class="pagenum" name="page_89" id="page_89" title="89"></a> should have lived so evilly as to +bring yourself to this pass, for you have in you the making of an +excellent secretary."</p> + +<p>"Is it your will, sir, that I finish the copy now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but take it to the small table within the window there. I myself +will sit here and jot down some ideas for my dedication which you can +afterwards amplify."</p> + +<p>The worthy colonel pulled the big Turkey worked chair closer to the +table, turned back his ruffles and fell to work. Landless retired to the +table within the window, and for a while naught was heard in the quiet +room but the scratching of quills, as master and man drove them across +the whitey-brown sheets.</p> + +<p>At length the master pushed his chair back and stretched himself with a +prodigious yawn. "The Lord be thanked!" he said, addressing the air. +"That's done! And it is time to see to the dressing of that sore upon +Prince Rupert's shoulder; and I remember Haines said that one of the +hounds had been gored by Carrington's bull. Haines can't dress a wound. +Haines is a bungler. But, by the Lord Harry! Richard Verney is as good a +veterinary as he is a statesman."</p> + +<p>He lifted his burly figure from the depths of the chair, and going over +to Landless, dropped upon the table before him a page of hieroglyphics +for him to decipher at his leisure. Then with another word of +commendation for the beauty of the copy, he walked heavily from the +room. A moment later Landless heard him whistle to his dogs, and then +break into a stave of a cavalier drinking song, sung at the top of a +full manly voice, and dying away in the direction of the stables.<a class="pagenum" name="page_90" id="page_90" title="90"></a></p> + +<p>Landless' hand moved to and fro across the paper with a tireless +patience. He did not go back to the central table, for the light was +better in the window, and a vagrant breath of air strayed in now and +then. The window was a deep one, and heavy drugget curtains hung between +it and the rest of the room.</p> + +<p>The door opened and a man's voice said: "This room is darkened into +delicious coolness. Shall we try it, cousin?"</p> + +<p>Patricia entered like a sunbeam, and after her sauntered Sir Charles +Carew, languid, debonair, and perfectly appareled.</p> + +<p>Landless, seeing them plainly, did not realize that in the shadow of the +heavy curtains he was himself unseen. He had grown so accustomed to the +quiet insolence that overlooks the presence of an inferior as it does +that of any other article of furniture, that he did not doubt that the +fine lady and gentleman before him were perfectly aware of the presence +in the room of the slave whom his master's caprice had raised for the +moment to the post of secretary. It was some few minutes before he began +to consider within himself that he might be mistaken.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_91" id="page_91" title="91"></a> +<a name="AN_INTERRUPTED_WOOING_2891" id="AN_INTERRUPTED_WOOING_2891"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<h3>AN INTERRUPTED WOOING</h3> +</div> + +<p>Sir Charles pushed forward the big chair for Patricia, and himself +dropped upon a stool at her feet. Taking her fan from her, he began to +play with it, lightly commenting on the picture of the Rape of Europa +with which it was adorned. Suddenly he closed it, tossed it aside, and +leaning forward, possessed himself of her hand.</p> + +<p>"Madam, sweet cousin, divinest Patricia," he exclaimed in a carefully +impassioned tone; "do you not know that I am your slave, the captive of +your bow and spear, that I adore you? I adore you! and you, +flinty-hearted goddess, give no word of encouragement to your prostrate +worshiper. You trample upon the offering of sighs and tears which he +lays at your feet; you will not listen when he would pour into your ear +his aspirations towards a sweeter and richer life than he has ever +known. Will it be ever thus? Will not the goddess stoop from her throne +to make him the happiest of mortals, to win his eternal gratitude, to +become herself forever the object of the most respectful, the most +ardent, the most devoted love?"</p> + +<p>He flung himself upon his knee and pressed her hand to his heart with +passion not all affected. He had come to consider it a piece of +monstrous good luck, that, since he must make a wealthy match, +Providence<a class="pagenum" name="page_92" id="page_92" title="92"></a> (or whatever as a Hobbist he put in place of Providence), +had, in pointing him the fortune, pointed also to Patricia Verney. But +the night before, in the privacy of his chamber, he had suddenly sat up +between the Holland sheets with a startled and amused expression upon +his handsome face, swathed around with a wonderful silken night-cap, and +had exclaimed to the carven heads surmounting the bed-posts, "May the +Lard sink me! but I'm in love!" and had lain down again with an +astonished laugh. While sipping his morning draught he made up his mind +to secure the prize that very day, in pursuance of which determination +he made a careful toilet, assuming a suit that was eminently becoming to +his blonde beauty. Also his valet slightly darkened the lower lids of +his eyes, thereby giving him a larger, more languishing and melancholy +aspect.</p> + +<p>Patricia, from the depths of the Turkey worked chair, gazed with calm +amusement upon her kneeling suitor.</p> + +<p>"You talk beautifully, cousin," she said at length. "'Tis as good as a +page from 'Artemène.'"</p> + +<p>Sir Charles bit his lip. "It is a page from my heart, madam; nay, it is +my heart itself that I show you."</p> + +<p>"And would you forsake all those beautiful ladies who are so madly in +love with you?—I vow, sir, you told me so yourself! Let me see, there +was Lady Mary and Lady Betty, Mistress Winifred, the Countess of —— and +Madame la Duchesse de ——. Will Corydon leave all the nymphs lamenting +to run after a little salvage wench who does not want him?"</p> + +<p>"'S death, madam! you mock me!" cried the baronet, starting to his +feet.<a class="pagenum" name="page_93" id="page_93" title="93"></a></p> + +<p>"Sure, I meant no harm, cousin; I but put in a good word for the poor +ladies at Whitehall. I fear that you are but a recreant wooer."</p> + +<p>"Will you marry me, madam?" demanded Sir Charles, standing before her +with folded arms.</p> + +<p>She slowly shook her head. "I do not love you, cousin."</p> + +<p>"I will teach you to do so."</p> + +<p>"I do not think you can," she said demurely. "Though I am sure I do not +know why I do not. You are a very fine gentleman, a soldier and a +courtier, witty, brave and handsome—and this match"—a sigh—"is my +father's dearest wish. But I do not love you, sir, and I shall not marry +you until I do."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried Sir Charles, and sunk again upon his knee. "You give me +hope! I will teach you to love me! I will exhibit towards you such +absolute fidelity, such patient devotion, such uncomplaining submission +to your cruel probation, that you will perforce pity me, and pity will +grow by soft degrees into blessed love. I do not despair, madam!" He +pressed her hand to his lips and cast his fine eyes upward in a killing +look.</p> + +<p>Patricia gave a charming laugh. "As you please, Sir Charles. In the mean +time let us be once more simply good friends and loving cousins. Tell me +as much as you please of Lady Mary's charms, but leave Patricia Verney's +alone."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles rose from his knees, smarting under an amazed sense of +failure, and very angry with the girl who had discarded him, Charles +Carew, as smilingly as if he had been one of the very provincial youths +whom he awed into awkward silence every time they came to Verney Manor. +Without doubt she deserved<a class="pagenum" name="page_94" id="page_94" title="94"></a> the condign punishment which it was in his +power to inflict by sailing away upon the next ship which should leave +for England. But he was now obstinately bent upon winning her. If not +to-day, to-morrow; and if not to-morrow, the next day; and if not that, +the day after. He was of the school of Buckingham and Rochester. He +could devote to the capture of a woman all the tireless energy, the +strategic skill, the will, the patience, the daring, of a great general. +He could mine and countermine, could plan an ambuscade here, and lead a +forlorn hope there, could take one intrenchment by storm, and another by +treachery. And victory seldom forsook her perch upon his banners.</p> + +<p>Life in Virginia was pleasant enough, and he could afford to devote +several months to this siege. As to how it would terminate he had not +the slightest doubt. But just now it was the course of wisdom to retreat +upon the position held yesterday, and that as quickly as possible. So he +smoothed his face into a fine calm, modulated his voice into its usual +tone of languor, and said with quiet melancholy:—</p> + +<p>"You are pleased to be cruel, madam. I submit. I will bide my time until +that thrice happy day when you will have learnt the lesson I would +teach, when Love, tyrannous Love, shall compel your allegiance as he +does mine."</p> + +<p>"A far day!" said Patricia with soft laughter. "You had best return to +Lady Mary. I do not think that I shall ever love."</p> + +<p>She lifted her white arms, and clasping them behind her head, gazed at +him with soft, bright, untroubled eyes and smiling lips. The sunlight, +filtering through the darkened windows in long bright stripes,<a class="pagenum" name="page_95" id="page_95" title="95"></a> laid a +shaft of gold athwart her shoulder and lit her hair into a glory. From +out the distance came the colonel's voice:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<tr><td>"In his train see sweet Peace, fairest Queen of the sky,</td></tr> +<tr><td>Ev'ry bliss in her look, ev'ry charm in her eye.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Whilst oppression, corruption, vile slav'ry and fear</td></tr> +<tr><td>At his wished for return never more shall appear.</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>Your glasses charge high, 'tis in great Charles' praise,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>In praise, in praise, 'tis in great Charles' praise."</span></td></tr> +</table> + + +<p>Some one outside the door coughed, and then rattled the latch +vigorously. These precautions taken, the door was opened and there +appeared Mistress Lettice, gorgeously attired, and with an extra row of +ringlets sweeping her withered neck, and a deeper tinge of vermilion +upon her cheeks,—for she had waked that morning with a presentiment +that Mr. Frederick Jones would ride over in the course of the day. Sir +Charles rose to hand her to a chair, but she waved him back with a thin, +beringed hand.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Sir Charles; but I will not trouble you. I am going down +to the summer-house by the road, as I think the air there will cure my +migraine. Patricia, love, I am looking for my 'Clelie,'—the fourth +volume. Have you seen it?"</p> + +<p>"No, Aunt Lettice."</p> + +<p>"It is very strange," said Mrs. Lettice plaintively. "I am sure that I +left it in this room. 'Tis that careless slut of a Chloe who deserves a +whipping. She hides things away like a magpie."</p> + +<p>"Look in the window; you may have left it there," said Patricia.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lettice approached the window, laid a hand upon the curtain, and +started back with a scream.</p> + +<p>"What is it, madam?" cried the baronet.<a class="pagenum" name="page_96" id="page_96" title="96"></a></p> + +<p>"'Tis a man! a horrid, horrid man hiding there, waiting to cut all our +throats in the dead of night as the Redemptioner did to the family at +Martin-Brandon! Oh! Oh! Oh!" and Mrs. Lettice threw her apron over her +head, and sank into the nearest chair.</p> + +<p>Patricia started up. Sir Charles, striding hastily towards the window, +his hand upon his sword, was met by the emerging figure of Landless.</p> + +<p>The two gazed at each other, Sir Charles' first haughty surprise fast +deepening into passion as he remembered that the man before him had +assisted at the scene of a while before, had witnessed his discomfiture, +had seen him upon his knees, baffled, repulsed, even laughed at!</p> + +<p>He was the first to speak. "Well, sirrah," he said between his teeth, +"what have you to say for yourself?"</p> + +<p>"That I ask your pardon," said Landless steadily. "I should have made +known my presence in the room. But at first I thought you aware of it; +and when I discovered that you were not, I ... it seemed best to remain +silent. I was wrong. I should have made some sign even then. Again, I +beg your pardon." He turned to Patricia, who stood, tall, straight, and +coldly indignant, beside the chair from which she had risen. "Madam," he +said in a voice that faltered, despite himself, "I crave your +forgiveness."</p> + +<p>She bit her coral under lip, and looked at him from under veiled +eyelids. It was a cruel look, very expressive of scorn, abhorrence, and +perhaps of fear.</p> + +<p>"My father hath many unmannerly servants," she said coldly and clearly, +"who often provoke me. But I pardon them because they know no better. It +seems that like allowance cannot be made for you. However,"<a class="pagenum" name="page_97" id="page_97" title="97"></a> she smiled +icily, "I shall not complain of you to my father, which assurance will +doubtless content you."</p> + +<p>Landless turned from burning red to deadly white. His eyes, fixed upon +the floor, caught the rich shimmer of her skirts as she moved towards +the door; a moment and she was gone, leaving the two men facing each +other.</p> + +<p>Between them there existed a subtle but strong antagonism. Sir Charles +Carew, courtier in a coarse and shameless court masquerading under a +glittering show of outward graces, had taken lazy delight in heaping +quiet insults upon the man who could not resent them. This amusement had +beguiled the tedium of the Virginia voyage; and when chance threw them +together upon a Virginia plantation, where life flowed on in one long, +placid lack of variety, the sport became doubly prized. It had to be +pursued at longer intervals, but pursued it was. Heretofore the +amusement had been all upon one side; now, Sir Charles felt a chagrined +suspicion that it was he who had afforded the entertainment. +Simultaneously with arriving at this conclusion he arrived at a point +where he was coldly furious.</p> + +<p>Landless returned his look coolly and boldly. He considered that he had +made quite sufficient apology for an offense which was largely +involuntary, and he was in no mood for further abasement.</p> + +<p>"You are an insolent rascal," said the baronet smoothly.</p> + +<p>Landless smiled. "Sir Charles Carew should be a good judge of +insolence."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles took a leisurely pinch of snuff, shook the fallen grains +from his ruffles, snapped the lid of<a class="pagenum" name="page_98" id="page_98" title="98"></a> the box, looked languishingly at +the miniature that adorned it, replaced the box in his pocket, and +remarked, "Well, I am waiting!"</p> + +<p>"And for what?"</p> + +<p>"To hear your petition that I forbear to bring this matter to the notice +of your master. The lady mercifully gave you her promise. I suppose I +must follow so fair an example."</p> + +<p>"Sir Charles Carew may wait till doomsday to hear that or any other +request made by me to him or to the lady—who does not seem always +mercifully inclined—" he broke off with a slight and expressive smile.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles took another pinch of snuff. "May the Lard blast me," he +drawled, "if they do not teach repartee at Newgate! But I forget that +the tongue is the only weapon of women and slaves."</p> + +<p>"Some day I hope to teach you otherwise."</p> + +<p>The other laughed. "So the slave thinks he can use a sword? Where did he +learn? In Newgate, from some broken captain, as payment for imparting +the trick of stealing by the Book?"</p> + +<p>Landless forced himself to stand quiet, his arms folded, his fingers +tightly clenching the sleeves of his coarse shirt. "Shall I tell Sir +Charles Carew where I first used my sword with good effect?" he said in +an ominously quiet voice. "At Worcester I was but a stripling, but I +fought by the side of my father. I remember that, young as I was, I +disabled a very pretty perfumed and ringleted Cavalier. I think he was +afterwards sold to the Barbadoes. And my father praised my sword play."</p> + +<p>"Your father," said the other, bringing his strong white teeth together +with a click. "Like father, like<a class="pagenum" name="page_99" id="page_99" title="99"></a> son. The latter a detected rogue, +gaol-bird, and slave; the former a d—d canting, sniveling Roundhead +hypocrite and traitor, with a text ever at hand to excuse parricide and +sacrilege."</p> + +<p>Landless sprang forward and struck him in the face.</p> + +<p>He staggered beneath the weight of the blow; then, recovering himself, +he whipped out his rapier, but presently slapped it home again. "I am a +gentleman," he said, with an airy laugh. "I cannot fight you." And +stood, slightly smiling, and pressing his laced handkerchief to his +cheek whence had started a few drops of blood.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lettice, whom curiosity or the search for the fourth volume of +"Clelie" had detained in the room, screamed loudly as the blow fell; and +Colonel Verney, appearing at the door, stopped short, and stared from +one to the other of the two men.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_100" id="page_100" title="100"></a> +<a name="LANDLESS_PAYS_THE_PIPER_3169" id="LANDLESS_PAYS_THE_PIPER_3169"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +<h3>LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER</h3> +</div> + +<p>The hut of the mender of nets stood upon a narrow isthmus connecting two +large tracts of marsh. That to the eastward was partially submerged at +high tide; that to the west, being higher ground, waved its long grass +triumphantly above the reaching waters. Upon this side the marsh was +separated from the mainland of forest and field by a creek so narrow +that the great pines upon one margin cast their shadows across to the +other, and one fallen giant quite spanned the sluggish waters.</p> + +<p>The grass of this marsh was annually cut for hay; for though the great +herds of cattle belonging to the different plantations roamed at large +through all seasons of the year, seeking their sustenance from forest or +marsh, the more provident of the planters were accustomed to make some +slight provision against the winter, which might prove a severe one with +snow and ice.</p> + +<p>It was late afternoon, and the hay was cut. The half dozen mowers threw +themselves down upon the stubble, stretching out tired limbs and +pillowing heated foreheads upon their arms. They had been given until +sunset to do the work. Having no task-master over them, and being hid +from the tobacco-fields by a convenient coppice of pine and cedar, they +had set to work in a fury of diligence, had cut and<a class="pagenum" name="page_101" id="page_101" title="101"></a> stacked the grass +in a race with time, and now found themselves possessed of a precious +hour in which to dawdle, and swap opinions and tobacco before the sunset +horn should call them to quarters.</p> + +<p>Three were indented servants, lumbering, honest-visaged youths whose +aims in life were simple and well defined. Their creed had but four +articles: "Do as little as you can consistently with keeping out of the +overseer's black books; get your full share of loblolly and bacon, and +some one else's if you are clever enough; embrace every opportunity for +reasonable mischief that is offered you; honor Church and King, or say +you do, and Colonel Verney will overlook most pranks." Of the others, +one was the Muggletonian, one the mulatto, Luiz Sebastian, and one a +convict, not Trail, but the red-haired, pock-marked, sullen wretch who +had come to the plantation with Trail and Landless, and whose name was +Roach.</p> + +<p>One of the rustics, who seemed more intelligent than his fellows, and +who had a good-humored deviltry in his young face and big blue eyes, +began an excellent imitation of Dr. Nash's exhortation to submission and +obedience delivered upon the last instruction day for servants, and soon +had his audience of two guffawing with laughter. The mulatto and the +convict edged by imperceptible degrees farther and farther away from the +others, until, within the shadow of a stack of grass, they lay side by +side and commenced a muttered conversation. The countenance of the white +man, atrocious villainy written large in every lineament, became +horribly intent as his amber-hued companion talked in fluent low tones, +emphasizing what he had to say by a restless, peculiar, and sinister +motion of his long, yellow fingers. At a little distance<a class="pagenum" name="page_102" id="page_102" title="102"></a> lay the +Muggletonian, his elbows on the ground, his ghastly face in his hands, +and his eyes riveted upon the Geneva Bible which he had drawn from his +bosom.</p> + +<p>When he had brought his entertainment to a finish, the blue-eyed youth +rolled himself over and over the stubble to where the Muggletonian lay, +intent upon a chapter of invective. The youth covered the page with one +enormous paw and playfully attempted to insert the little finger of the +other into the hole in Porringer's ear. "What now, old Runaway," he +said, lazily, "hunting up fresh curses to pour on our unfort'net heads?"</p> + +<p>"Cursed be he who makes a mock of age," said the Muggletonian, grimly. +"May he be even as the wicked children who cried to the prophet, 'Go up, +thou baldhead!'"</p> + +<p>The boy laughed. "Tell me when you see brown bear a-coming," quoth he. +"Losh! a bear steak would taste mighty good after eternal bacon!"</p> + +<p>Porringer closed his book and restored it to his bosom. "Tell me," he +said, abruptly, "have you seen aught of the young man called Landless?"</p> + +<p>"'The young man called Landless,'" answered the other, petulantly, "has +a d—d easy berth of it! Yesterday evening I carried water from the +spring to the great house to water Mistress Patricia's posies, and every +time I passes the window of the master's room I see that fellow +a-sitting at his ease in a fine chair before a fine table, writing away +as big as all out of doors. And every time I says to him, says I, 'I +reckon you think yourself as fine as the Lord Mayor of London? A pretty +sec'tary you make!'"</p> + +<p>"Have you seen him to-day?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_103" id="page_103" title="103"></a></p> + +<p>"No, I haven't seen him to-day,—but I see someone else. Mates," he +exclaimed, "Witch Margery's coming down t' other side of creek. I'll call +her over."</p> + +<p>Scrambling to his feet he gave a low halloo through his hands, "Margery! +Margery! Come and find the road to Paradise!"</p> + +<p>Margery waved her hand to signify that she heard and understood, and +presently stepped upon the fallen tree that spanned the stream. It was a +narrow and a slippery bridge, but she flitted across it with the secure +grace of some woodland thing, and, staff in hand, advanced towards the +men. Between them and the western sun she stood still, a dark figure +against a halo of gold light, and threw an intent and searching glance +over the unbroken green of the marsh and the blue of the waters beyond. +Then with a wild laugh she came up to them and cast her staff wreathed +with dark ivy upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"The road is not here," she cried. "Here is all green grass, and beyond +is the weary, weary, weary sea! There is no long, bright, shining road +to Paradise." She sat down beside her staff, and taking her chin into +her hand, stared fixedly at the ground.</p> + +<p>The men gathered around her, with the exception of the Muggletonian, +who, after audibly comparing her to the Witch of Endor, turned on his +side and drew his cap over his eyes as if to shut out the hated sight. +The convict took up the staff and began to pull from it the strings of +ivy.</p> + +<p>"Put it down!" she said quickly.</p> + +<p>The man continued to strip it of its leafy mantle.</p> + +<p>"Put it down, can't you?" said the youth. "She never lets any one touch +it. She says an angel gave it to her to help her on her way."<a class="pagenum" name="page_104" id="page_104" title="104"></a></p> + +<p>With a snarling laugh the convict threw it from him with all his force. +Whirling through the air it struck the water midway from shore to shore. +Margery sprang to her feet with a loud cry. The boy rose also.</p> + +<p>"D—n you!" he said, wrathfully. "I'd like to break it over your +misshapen back! Here, Margery, don't fret. I'll get it for you."</p> + +<p>He ran to the bank, dived into the water, and in three minutes was back +with the dripping mass in his arms. He gave it into Margery's hands, +saying kindly while he shook himself like a large spaniel; "There! it +isn't hurt a mite!"</p> + +<p>With a cry of delight Margery seized the "angel's gift" and kissed the +hand that restored it. Then she turned upon the convict.</p> + +<p>"When I go back to my cabin in the woods," she said, solemnly, and with +her finger up, "I shall whistle all the fairy folk into a ring, all the +elves and the pixies, and the little brown gnomes who burrow in the +leaves and look for all the world like pine cones, and I shall tell them +what you did, and to-night they will come to your cabin, and will pinch +you black and blue, and stick thorns into you, and rub you with the +poison leaf until you are blotched and swelled like the great bull frog +that croaks, croaks, in these marshes."</p> + +<p>There was an uneasy ring in the convict's laugh, full of bravado as he +meant it to be. Margery continued with an ominously extended forefinger. +"And then they will fly to the great house where the master lies +sleeping, and they will whisper to him that you took away the angel's +gift from poor, lost Margery, and he will be angry, for he is good to +Margery, and to-morrow he will make Woodson do to you what he did to-day +to the Breaking Heart."<a class="pagenum" name="page_105" id="page_105" title="105"></a></p> + +<p>"To the Breaking Heart!" exclaimed her auditors.</p> + +<p>Margery nodded. "Yes, the Breaking Heart. You call him Landless."</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian sat up. "What dost thou mean, wretched woman! fit +descendant of the mother of all evil?"</p> + +<p>Margery, offended by his tone, only pursed up her lips and looked wise.</p> + +<p>"What did the master have done to Landless, Margery?" asked the youth.</p> + +<p>Margery threw her worn figure into a singular posture. Standing +perfectly straight, she raised her arms from her sides and spread them +stiffly out, the hands turned inward in a peculiar fashion. Then, still +with extended arms, she swayed slightly forward until she appeared to +lean against, or to be fastened to, some support. Next she threw her +head back and to one side, so that her face might be seen in three +quarter over her shoulder. Her mobile features wreathed themselves in an +expression of pain and rage. Her brows drew downward, her thin lips +curled themselves away from the gleaming teeth, and, at intervals of +half a minute or more, her eyelids quivered, she shuddered, and her +whole frame appeared to shrink together.</p> + +<p>The pantomime was too expressive to be misunderstood by men each of whom +had probably his own reasons for recognizing some one or all of its +features. The convict broke into a yelling laugh, in which he was +joined, though in a subdued and sinister fashion, by Luiz Sebastian. The +rustics looked at each other with slow grins of comprehension, and the +blue-eyed youth uttered a long shrill whistle. The great letter upon the +cheek of the Muggletonian turned a deeper red, and his eyes burned. The +youth was curious.<a class="pagenum" name="page_106" id="page_106" title="106"></a></p> + +<p>"Tell us all about it, Margery," he said, coaxingly, "and when the +millons are ripe, I'll steal you one every night."</p> + +<p>Margery was nothing loth. She had attained the reputation of an +accomplished <i>raconteuse</i>, and she was proud of it. Her crazed +imagination peopled the forest with weird uncanny things, and fearful +tales she told of fays and bugaboos, of spectres and awful voices +speaking from out the dank stillness of twilight hollows. Often she sent +quaking to their pallets men who would have heard the war-whoop with +scarcely quickened pulses. And she could tell of every-day domestic +happenings as well as of the doings of the powers of darkness.</p> + +<p>Her audience listened greedily to the instance of plantation economy +which she proceeded to relate.</p> + +<p>"When was this, woman?" demanded the Muggletonian, when she had +finished.</p> + +<p>Margery pointed to the declining sun and then upwards to a spot a little +past the zenith.</p> + +<p>"Just after the nooning," said the Muggletonian, and began to curse.</p> + +<p>Margery stood up, her staff in her hand, and said airily, "Margery must +be going. The sun is growing large and red, and when he has slipped away +behind the woods, the voices will begin to call to Margery from the +hollow where the brook falls into the black pool. She must be there to +answer them." She moved away with a rapid and gliding step, flitted +across the fallen tree, and was lost to sight in the shadow of the pines +beyond.</p> + +<p>As the last flutter of her light robe vanished, a figure appeared, +walking rapidly along the opposite margin of the creek. The youth's +sight was keen. He sent<a class="pagenum" name="page_107" id="page_107" title="107"></a> a piercing glance across the intervening +distance and broke into an astonished laugh. "Lord in Heaven! it's the +man himself!" he cried in an awed tone. "Ecod! he must be made of iron!"</p> + +<p>Landless crossed the bridge and came towards the staring group. His face +was white and set, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes, which +had the wide unseeing stare of a sleep-walker. He walked lightly and +quickly, with a free, lithe swing of his body. The men looked at one +another in rough wonder, knowing what was hidden by the coarse shirt. He +passed them without a word, apparently without knowing that they were +there, and went on towards the hut of the mender of nets. Presently they +saw him enter and shut the door.</p> + +<p>The rustics and the convict, after one long stare of amazement at the +distant hut, began to comment freely and with much recondite blasphemy +upon the transaction recorded by Margery. Luiz Sebastian only smiled +amiably, like a lazy and well-disposed catamount, and the boy whistled +long and thoughtfully. But the countenance of Master Win-Grace Porringer +wore an expression of secret satisfaction.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_108" id="page_108" title="108"></a> +<a name="LANDLESS_BECOMES_A_CONSPIRATOR_3410" id="LANDLESS_BECOMES_A_CONSPIRATOR_3410"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<h3>LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR</h3> +</div> + +<p>As Landless entered the hut Godwyn looked up with a pleased smile from +the net he was mending. The two men had not seen each other since the +night upon which Landless had been brought to the hut by the +Muggletonian. Twice had Landless laid his plans for a second visit, only +to be circumvented each time by the watchfulness of the overseer.</p> + +<p>The smile died from Godwyn's face as he observed his visitor more +closely.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked quickly.</p> + +<p>Landless came up to him and held out his hand. "I am with you, Robert +Godwyn, heart and soul," he said steadily.</p> + +<p>The mender of nets grasped the hand. "I knew you would come," he said, +drawing a long breath. "I have needed you sorely, lad."</p> + +<p>"I could not come before."</p> + +<p>"I know: Porringer told me you were prevented. I—" He still held +Landless' hand in both his own, and as he spoke his slender fingers +encircled the young man's wrist.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with your pulse?" he demanded. "And your eyes! They +are glazing! Sit down!"</p> + +<p>"It is nothing," said Landless, speaking with effort.<a class="pagenum" name="page_109" id="page_109" title="109"></a></p> + +<p>"I have been a physician, young man," retorted the other. "Sit down, or +you will fall."</p> + +<p>He forced him down upon a settle from which he had himself risen, and +stood looking at him, his hand upon his shoulder. Presently his glance +fell to the shoulder, and he saw upon the white cloth where his hand +pressed it against the flesh, a faint red stain grow and spread.</p> + +<p>The face of the mender of nets grew very dark. "So!" he said beneath his +breath.</p> + +<p>He limped across the hut and drew from some secret receptacle above the +fireplace a flask, from which he poured a crimson liquid into an earthen +cup; then hobbled back to Landless, sitting with closed eyes and head +bowed upon the table.</p> + +<p>"Drink, lad," he said with grave tenderness. "'Tis a cordial of mine own +invention, and in the strength it gave me I fled from Cropredy Bridge +though woefully hacked and spent. Drink!"</p> + +<p>He held the cup to the young man's lips. Landless drained it and felt +the blood gush back to his heart and the ringing in his ears to cease. +Presently he raised his head. "Thank you," he said. "I am a man again."</p> + +<p>"How is it that you are here?"</p> + +<p>Landless smiled grimly. "I imagine it's because Woodson thinks me +effectually laid by the heels. When he goes the rounds at supper time he +will be surprised to find my pallet empty."</p> + +<p>"You must be in quarters before then. You must not get into further +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Very well," was the indifferent reply.</p> + +<p>They were silent for a few moments, and then Landless spoke.<a class="pagenum" name="page_110" id="page_110" title="110"></a></p> + +<p>"I am come to tell you, Master Godwyn, that I will join in any plan, +however desperate, that may bring me release from an intolerable and +degrading slavery. You may use me as you please. I will work for you +with hands and head, ay, and with my heart also, for you have been kind +to me, and I am grateful."</p> + +<p>The mender of nets touched him softly upon the hand. "Lad," he said, "I +once had a son who was my pride and my hope. In his young manhood he +fell at the storming of Tredah. But the other night when I talked with +you, I seemed to see him again, and my heart yearned over him."</p> + +<p>Landless held out his hand. "I have no father," he said simply.</p> + +<p>"Now," at length said Godwyn, "to business! I must not keep you now, but +come to me to-morrow night if you can manage it. You may speak to +Win-Grace Porringer, and he will help you. I will then tell you all my +arrangements, give you figures and names, possess you, in short, with +all that I, and I alone, know of this matter. And my heart is glad +within me, for though my broken body is tied to my bench here, I shall +now have a lieutenant indeed. I have conceived; you shall execute. The +son of Warham Landless, if he have a tithe of his father's powers, will +do much, very much. For more than a year I have longed for such an one."</p> + +<p>"Tell me but one thing," said Landless, "and I am content. You have so +planned this business that there shall be no wanton bloodshed? You +intend no harm, for instance, to the family yonder?" with a motion of +his head towards the great house.</p> + +<p>"God forbid!" said the other quickly. "I tell<a class="pagenum" name="page_111" id="page_111" title="111"></a> you that not one woman or +innocent soul shall suffer. Nor do I wish harm to the master of this +plantation, who is, after the lights of a Malignant, a true and kindly +man, and a gentleman. This is what will happen. Upon an appointed day +the servants, Oliverian, indented and convict, upon all the plantations +seated upon the bay, the creeks, the three rivers, and over in Accomac, +will rise. They will overpower their overseers and those of their +fellows who may remain faithful to the masters, will call upon the +slaves to follow them, and will march (the force of each plantation +under a captain or captains appointed by me), to an appointed place in +this county. All going well, there should be mustered at that place +within the space of a day and a night a force of some two thousand +men—such an army as this colony hath never seen, an army composed in +large measure of honest folk, and officered by four hundred men who, +bold and experienced, and strong in righteous wrath, should in +themselves be sufficient to utterly deject the adversary. We will make +of that force, motley as it is, a second New Model, as well disciplined +and as irresistible as the first; and who should be its general but the +son of that Warham Landless whom Cromwell loved, and whose old regiment +is well represented here? Then will we fight in honest daylight with +those who come against us—and conquer. And we will not stain our +victory. Your nightmare vision of midnight butchery is naught. There +will be no such thing."</p> + +<p>Through the quiet of the evening came to them the clear, sweet, and +distant winding of a horn.</p> + +<p>"'Tis the call to quarters," said Godwyn. "You must go, lad."<a class="pagenum" name="page_112" id="page_112" title="112"></a></p> + +<p>Landless rose. "I will come to-morrow night if I can. Till then, +farewell,—father." He ended with a smile on his dark, stern face that +turned it into a boy's again.</p> + +<p>"May the Lord bless thee, my son," said the other in his gravely tender +voice. "May he cause His face to shine upon thee, and bring thee out of +all thy troubles."</p> + +<p>As Landless turned to leave the hut the mender of nets had a sudden +thought. "Come hither," he said, "and let me show you my treasure house. +Should aught happen to me, it were well that you should know of it."</p> + +<p>He took up the precious flask from the table, and followed by Landless, +limped across the hut to the fireplace. The logs above it appeared as +solid, gnarled and stained by time as any of the others constituting the +walls of the hut, but upon the pressure of Godwyn's finger upon some +secret spring, a section of the wood fell outwards like the lid of a +box, disclosing a hollow within.</p> + +<p>From this hollow came the dull gleam of gold, and by the side of the +little heap of coin lay several folded papers and a pair of handsomely +mounted pistols.</p> + +<p>Godwyn touched the papers. "The names or the signs of the Oliverians are +here," he said, "together with those of the leaders of the indented +servants concerned with us. It is our solemn League and Covenant—and +our death warrant if discovered. The gold I had with me, hidden upon my +person, when I was brought to Virginia. The pistols were the gift of a +friend. Both may be useful some day."</p> + +<p>"Hide them! Quick!" said Landless in a low voice, and wheeled to face a +man who stood in the<a class="pagenum" name="page_113" id="page_113" title="113"></a> doorway, blinking into the semi-darkness of the +room.</p> + +<p>The lid of the hollow swung to with a click, the log assumed its wonted +appearance, and the mender of nets, too, turned upon the intruder.</p> + +<p>It was the convict Roach who had pushed the door open and now stood with +his swollen body and bestial face darkening the glory of the sunset +without. There was no added expression of greed or of awakened curiosity +upon his sullenly ferocious countenance. He might have seen or he might +not. They could not tell.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" asked Landless sternly.</p> + +<p>"Thought as you might not have heard the horn, comrade, and so might get +into more trouble. So I thought I'd come over and warn you." All this in +a low, hoarse and dogged voice.</p> + +<p>"Don't call me comrade. Yes: I heard the horn. You had best hasten or +you may get into trouble yourself."</p> + +<p>The man received this intimation with a malevolent grin. "Talking big +eases the smart, don't it?" and he broke into his yelling laugh.</p> + +<p>"Get out of this," said Landless, a dangerous light in his eyes.</p> + +<p>The man stopped laughing and began to curse. But he went his way, and +Landless, too, after waiting to give him a start, left the hut and +turned his steps towards the quarters.</p> + +<p>Upon the other side of the creek, sitting beneath a big sweet gum, and +whittling away at a piece of stick weed, he found the boy who, the day +before, had accused him of feeling as fine as the Lord Mayor of London. +He sprang to his feet as Landless approached, and<a class="pagenum" name="page_114" id="page_114" title="114"></a> cheerfully remarking +that their paths were the same, strode on side by side with him.</p> + +<p>"I say," he said presently with ingenuous frankness, "I asks your pardon +for what I said to you yesterday. I dessay you make a very good +Sec'tary, and Losh! the Lord Mayor himself mightn't have dared to strike +that d—d fine Court spark. They say he has fought twenty duels."</p> + +<p>"You have my full forgiveness," said Landless, smiling.</p> + +<p>"That's right!" cried the other, relieved. "I hates for a man to bear +malice."</p> + +<p>"I have seen you before yesterday. I forget how they call you."</p> + +<p>"Dick Whittington."</p> + +<p>"Dick Whittington!"</p> + +<p>"Ay. Leastways the parish over yonder," a jerk of his thumb towards +England, "called me Dick, and I names myself Whittington. And why? +Because like that other Dick I runs away to make my fortune. Because +like him I've little besides empty pockets and a hopeful heart. And +because I means to go back some fine day, jingling money, and wearing +gold lace, and become the mayor of Banbury. Or maybe I'll stop in +Virginia, and become a trader and Burgess. I could send for Joyce +Whitbread, and marry her here as well as in Banbury."</p> + +<p>Landless laughed. "So you ran away?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; some four years ago, just after I came to man's estate." (He was +about nineteen.) "Stowed myself away on board the Mary Hart at Plymouth. +Made the Virginny voyage for my health, and on landing was sold by the +captain for my passage money. Time's out in three years, but I may begin +to make<a class="pagenum" name="page_115" id="page_115" title="115"></a> my fortune before then, for—" He stopped speaking to give +Landless a sidelong glance from out his blue eyes, and then went on.</p> + +<p>"A voice speaks through the land, from the Potomac to the James, and +from the falls of the Far West to the great bay. What says the voice?"</p> + +<p>Landless answered, "The voice saith, 'Comfort ye, my people, for the +hour of deliverance is at hand.'"</p> + +<p>"It's all right!" cried the boy gleefully. "I thought you was one of us. +We are all in the fun together!"</p> + +<p>"We are in for a desperate enterprise that may hang every man of us," +said Landless sternly. "I do not see the 'fun,' and I think you talk +something loudly for a conspirator."</p> + +<p>The boy was nothing abashed. "There's none to hear us," he said. "I can +be as mum as t' other Dick's cat when there are ears around. As for fun, +Losh! what better fun than fighting!"</p> + +<p>"You seem to have a pretty good time as it is."</p> + +<p>"Lord, yes! Life's jolly enough, but you see there's mighty little +variety in it."</p> + +<p>"I have found variety enough," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you've been here only a few weeks. Wait until you've spent years, +and have gone through your experience of to-day half a dozen times, and +you will find it tame enough."</p> + +<p>"I shall not wait to see."</p> + +<p>"Then a man gets tired of working for another man, and hankers for the +time when he can set up for himself, especially if there's a pretty girl +waiting for him." A tremendous sigh. "And then there's the fun of the +rising. Losh! a man must break loose now and then!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_116" id="page_116" title="116"></a></p> + +<p>"For all of which good reasons you have become a conspirator?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, it doesn't pay to run away. You are hunted to death in the first +place, and well nigh whipped to death if you are caught, as you always +are. And then they double your time. This promises better."</p> + +<p>"If it succeeds."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it will succeed! Why shouldn't it with old Godwyn, who is more +cunning than a red fox or a Nansemond medicine-man, at its head? +Besides, if it fails, hanging is the worst that can happen, and we will +have had the fun of the rising."</p> + +<p>"You are a philosopher."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"A wise man. Tell me: If this plot remains undiscovered, and the rising +actually takes place, there will be upon each plantation before we can +get away an interval of confusion and perhaps violence. 'Tis then that +the greatest danger will threaten the planters and their families. You +yourself have no ill feeling towards your master or his family? You +would do them no unprovoked mischief?"</p> + +<p>The boy opened his big blue eyes, and shook his head in a vehement +negative.</p> + +<p>"Lord bless your soul, no!" he cried. "I wouldn't hurt a hair of +Mistress Patricia's pretty head, nor of Mistress Lettice's wig, neither. +As for the master, if he lets us go peaceably, we'll go with three +cheers for him! Bless you! they're safe enough!"</p> + +<p>The sanguine youth next announced that he smelt bacon frying, and that +his stomach cried "Trencher!" and started off in a lope for the +quarters, now only a few yards distant. Landless followed more sedately, +and reached his cabin without being observed by the overseer.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_117" id="page_117" title="117"></a> +<a name="A_DARK_DEED_3713" id="A_DARK_DEED_3713"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<h3>A DARK DEED</h3> +</div> + +<p>Three weeks passed, weeks in which Landless saw the mender of nets some +eight times in all, making each visit at night, stealthily and under +constant danger of detection. Thrice he had assisted at conferences of +the Oliverians from the neighboring plantations, who now, by virtue of +his descent, his intimacy with Godwyn, and his very apparent powers, +accepted him as a leader. Upon the first of these occasions he had set +his case before them in a few plain, straightforward words, and they +believed him as Godwyn had done, and he became in their eyes, not a +convict, but, as he in truth was, an Oliverian like themselves, and a +sufferer for the same cause. The remaining interviews had been between +him and Godwyn alone. In the lonely hut on the marsh, beneath starlight +or moonlight, the two had held much converse, and had grown to love each +other. The mender of nets, though possessed of a calm and high serenity +of nature that defied trials beneath which a weaker soul had sunk, was a +man of many sorrows; he had the wisdom, too, of years and experience, +and he sympathized with, soothed, and counseled his younger yoke-fellow +with a parental tenderness that was very grateful to the other's more +ardent, undisciplined, and deeply wounded spirit.</p> + +<p>Upon the night of their eighth meeting they held<a class="pagenum" name="page_118" id="page_118" title="118"></a> a long and serious +consultation. Affairs were in such train that little remained to be +done, but to set the day for the rising, and to send notice by many +devious and underground ways to the Oliverian captains scattered +throughout the Colony. Landless counseled immediate action, the firing +of the fuse at once by starting the secret intelligence which would +spread like wildfire from plantation to plantation. Then would the mine +be sprung within the week. There was nothing so dangerous as delay, when +any hour, any moment might bring discovery and ruin.</p> + +<p>Godwyn was of a different opinion. It was then August, the busiest and +most unhealthy season of the year, when the servants and slaves, +weakened by unremitting toil, were succumbing by scores to the fever. It +was the time when the masters looked for disaffection, when the +overseers were most alert, when a general watchfulness pervaded the +Colony. The planters stayed at home and attended to their business, the +trainbands were vigilant, the servant and slave laws were construed with +a harshness unknown at other seasons of the year. There were few ships +in harbor compared with the number which would assemble for their fall +lading a month later, and Godwyn counted largely upon the seizure of the +ships. In a month's time the tobacco would be largely in,—a weighty +consideration, for tobacco was money, and the infant republic must have +funds. The ships would be in harbor, and their sailors ready for +anything that would rid them of their captains; the heat and sickness of +the summer would be abated; the work slackened, and discipline relaxed. +The danger of discovery was no greater now than it had been all along, +and the good to be won by biding their time might be inestimable.<a class="pagenum" name="page_119" id="page_119" title="119"></a> The +danger was there, but they would face it, and wait,—say until the +second week in September.</p> + +<p>Landless acquiesced, scarcely convinced, but willing to believe that the +other knew whereof he spoke, and conscious, too, that his own impatience +of the yoke which galled his spirit almost past endurance might incline +him to a reckless and disastrous haste.</p> + +<p>It was past midnight when he rose to leave the hut on the marsh. Godwyn +took up his stick. "I will walk with you to the banks of the creek," he +said. "'Tis a feverish night, and I have an aching head. The air will do +me good, and I will then sleep."</p> + +<p>The young man gave him his arm with a quiet, protecting tenderness that +was very dear to the mender of nets, and leaning upon it, he limped +through the fifty feet of long grass to the border of the creek.</p> + +<p>"Shall I not wait to help you back?" asked Landless.</p> + +<p>"No," said the other, with his peculiarly sweet and touching smile. "I +will sit here awhile beneath the stars and say my hymn of praise to the +Creator of Night. You need not fear for me; my trusty stick will carry +me safely back. Go, lad, thou lookest weary enough thyself, and should +be sleeping after thy long day of toil."</p> + +<p>"I am loth to leave you to-night," said Landless.</p> + +<p>Godwyn smiled. "And I am always loth to see you go, but it were selfish +to keep you listening to a garrulous, wakeful old man, when your young +frame is in sore need of rest. Good-night, dear lad."</p> + +<p>Landless gave him his hands. "Good-night," he said.</p> + +<p>He stood below the other at the foot of the low<a class="pagenum" name="page_120" id="page_120" title="120"></a> bank to which was +moored his stolen boat. Godwyn stooped and kissed him upon the forehead. +"My heart is tender to-night, lad," he said. "I see in thee my Robert. +Last night I dreamed of him and of his mother, my dearly loved and +long-lost Eunice, and ah! I sorrowed to awake!"</p> + +<p>Landless pressed his hand in silence, and in a moment the water widened +between them as Landless bent to his oars and the crazy little bark shot +out into the middle of the stream. At the entrance of the first +labyrinthine winding he turned and looked back to see Godwyn standing +upon the bank, the moonlight silvering his thin hair and high serene +brow. In the mystic white light, against the expanse of solemn heaven, +he looked a vision, a seer or prophet risen from beneath the sighing +grass. He waved his hand to Landless, saying in his quiet voice, "Until +to-morrow!" The boat made the turn, and the lonely figure and the hut +beyond it vanished, leaving only the moonlight, the wash and lap of +water, and the desolate sighing of the marsh grass.</p> + +<p>There were many little channels and threadlike streams debouching from +the main creek, and separated from it by clumps and lines of partially +submerged grass, growing in places to the height of reeds. While passing +one of these clumps it occurred to Landless that the grass quivered and +rustled in an unusual fashion. He rested upon his oars and gazed at it +curiously, then stood up, and parting the reeds, looked through into the +tiny channel upon the other side. There was nothing to be seen, and the +rustling had ceased. "A heron has its nest there, or a turtle plunged, +shaking the reeds," said Landless to himself, and went his way.<a class="pagenum" name="page_121" id="page_121" title="121"></a></p> + +<p>Some three hours later he was roused from the heavy sleep of utter +fatigue by the voice of the overseer. Bewildered, he raised himself upon +his elbow to stare at Woodson's grim face, framed in the doorway and lit +by the torch held by Win-Grace Porringer, who stood behind him. "You +there, you Landless!" cried the overseer, impatiently. "You sleep like +the dead. Tumble out! You and Porringer are to go to Godwyn's after that +new sail for the Nancy. Sir Charles Carew has taken it into his head to +run over to Accomac, and he's got to have a spick and span white rag to +sail under. Hurry up, now! He wants to start by sun up, and I clean +forgot to send for it last night. You're to be back within the hour, +d' ye hear? Take the four-oared shallop. There's the key," and the +overseer strode away, muttering something about patched sails being good +enough for Accomac folk.</p> + +<p>Landless and the Muggletonian stumbled through the darkness to the wharf +behind the quarters, where they loosed the shallop, and in it shot +across the inlet towards the mouth of the creek.</p> + +<p>"I will row," said the Muggletonian with grim kindness; "you look worn +out. I suppose you were out last night?"</p> + +<p>Landless nodded, and the other bent to the oars with a will that sent +them rapidly across the sheet of water. A cold and uncertain light began +to stream from the ashen east, and the air was dank and heavy with the +thick mist that wrapped earth and water like a shroud. It swallowed up +the land behind them, and through it the nearer marshes gloomed +indistinctly, dark patches upon the gray surface of the water. The +narrow creek was hard to find amidst the<a class="pagenum" name="page_122" id="page_122" title="122"></a> universal dimness. The +Muggletonian rowed slowly, peering about him with small, keen eyes. At +length with a grunt of satisfaction he pointed to a pale streak dividing +two masses of gray, and had turned the boat's head towards it, when +through the stillness they caught the sound of oars. The next moment a +boat glided from the creek and began to skirt the shores of the inlet, +hugging the banks and moving slowly and stealthily. It was still so dark +that they could tell nothing more than that it held one man.</p> + +<p>"Now, who is that?" said the Muggletonian. "And what has he been doing +up that creek?"</p> + +<p>"Hail him," Landless replied.</p> + +<p>Porringer sent a low halloo across the water, but if the man heard he +made no sign. The boat, one of the crazy dugouts of which every +plantation had store, held on its stealthy way, but being over close to +the bank presently ran upon a sand bar. Its occupant was forced to rise +to his feet in order to shove it off. He stood upright but a moment, but +in that moment, and despite the partial darkness, Landless recognized +the misshapen figure.</p> + +<p>"It is the convict, Roach!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Ay," said the Muggletonian, "and an ill-omened night bird he is! May he +be cursed from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head! May there +be no soundness in him! May—What are you about, friend?" he cried, +interrupting himself. "There's no need of two pair of oars. We have +plenty of time."</p> + +<p>Landless bent to the second pair of oars. "He came down the creek," he +said in a voice that sounded strained and unnatural.</p> + +<p>The other stared at him. "What do you mean?" he demanded.<a class="pagenum" name="page_123" id="page_123" title="123"></a></p> + +<p>"Nothing: but let us hasten."</p> + +<p>Porringer stared, but fell in with the humor of his companion, and the +shallop, impelled by strong arms, shot into the creek and along its mazy +windings with the swiftness of a bird.</p> + +<p>Landless rowed with compressed lips and stony face, a great fear tugging +at his heart. Porringer too was silent. The vapor hung so heavily upon +the plains of marsh level with their heads that they seemed to be +piercing a dense, low cloud. The light was growing stronger, but the +earth still lay like a corpse, livid, dumb, cold and still. There was a +chill stagnant smell in the air.</p> + +<p>Arriving at the stake in the bank below the hut, they fastened the boat +to it, and stepping out, moved through the dense mist to where the hut +loomed indistinctly before them, looking in the blank and awful +stillness like a forlorn wreck drifting upon an infinite sea of +soundless foam.</p> + +<p>"The door is open," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Ay, I see," answered Porringer. "Does he wish to die before his time of +the fever, that he lets this graveyard mist and stench creep in upon him +in his sleep?"</p> + +<p>They spoke in low tones as though they feared to waken the sleeper whom +they had come to waken. When they reached the hut, they knocked upon the +lintel of the door and called Godwyn by name, once, twice, thrice. There +was no answer.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" said Landless hoarsely, and entered the hut, followed by the +other. The cold twilight, filtering through the low and narrow doorway, +was powerless to dispel the darkness within. Landless groped his way to +the pallet and stooped down.<a class="pagenum" name="page_124" id="page_124" title="124"></a></p> + +<p>"He is not here," he said.</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian stumbled over a sheaf of oars, sending them to the +floor with a noise that in the utter stillness, and to their strained +ears, sounded appalling.</p> + +<p>"It's the darkness of Tophet," muttered Porringer. "If I could find his +flint and steel; there are pine knots, I know, in the corner—God in +Heaven!"</p> + +<p>"What is it? What is the matter?" cried Landless, as he staggered +against him.</p> + +<p>"It's his face!" gasped the other. "There upon the table! I put my hand +upon it. It's cold!"</p> + +<p>Landless rushed to the fireplace where he knew the tinder-box to be +kept, and then groped for and found the heap of pine knots. A moment +more and the fat wood was burning brightly, casting its red light +throughout the hut, and choking back the pale daylight.</p> + +<p>The familiar room with its familiar furnishing of chest and settle and +pallet, of hanging nets and piles of dingy sail, sprung into sight, but +with it sprung into sight something unfamiliar, strange, and dreadful.</p> + +<p>It was the body of the mender of nets, flung face upwards across the +rude table, the head hanging over the edge, and the face, which but a +few short hours before had looked upon Landless with such a bright and +patient serenity, blackened and distorted. Upon the throat were dark +marks, the print of ten murderous fingers.</p> + +<p>With a bitter cry Landless fell upon his knees beside the table, and +pressed his face against the cold hand flung backwards over the head of +the murdered man. Porringer began to curse. With white lips and burning +eyes he hurled anathemas at the murderer.<a class="pagenum" name="page_125" id="page_125" title="125"></a> He cursed him by the powers +of light and darkness, by the earth, the sea, and the air; by all the +plagues of the two Testaments. Landless broke the torrent of his +maledictions.</p> + +<p>"Silence!" he said sternly. "<i>He</i> would have forgiven." Presently he +rose from the ground, and taking the body in his arms, placed it upon +the pallet, and reverently composed the limbs. Then he turned to the +fireplace. It was easy to see that the hiding place had been visited. +The spring was broken, and the lid had been struck and jammed into place +by a powerful and hasty hand. Landless wrenched it off. Before him lay +the pistols; but the gold and papers were gone. He turned to the +Muggletonian, standing beside him with staring eyes.</p> + +<p>"Listen!" he said. "There was gold here. The wretch whom we passed but +now knew of it—never mind how—and for it he has murdered the only +friend I had on earth. There will come a day when I will avenge him. +There were papers here, lists with the signatures of Oliverians, +Redemptioners, sailors,—of all classes concerned in this undertaking, +save only the slaves and the convicts. There were letters from Maryland +and New England, and a correspondence which would provide whipping-post +and pillory for other Nonconformists than the Quakers. All these, the actual +proofs of this conspiracy, are in his—that murderer's—hands,—where they +must not stay."</p> + +<p>"What wilt thou do, friend?" said the Muggletonian eagerly. "Wilt thou +take the murderer aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smite +him under the fifth rib, as did Joab to Abner the son of Ner, who slew +his brother Asahel?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_126" id="page_126" title="126"></a></p> + +<p>"God forbid," said Landless. "But I will take them from him before he +knows their contents. One moment, and we will go."</p> + +<p>He crossed to the pallet and stood beside it, looking down on the shell +that lay upon it with a stern and quiet grief. One of the cold white +hands was clenched upon something. He stooped, and with difficulty +unclasped the rigid fingers. The something was a ragged lock of coarse +red hair.</p> + +<p>"You see," he said.</p> + +<p>"Ay," said the Muggletonian grimly. "It's evidence enough. There's but +one man in this county with hair like that. Leave that lock where it is, +and that dead man holds the rope that will hang his murderer."</p> + +<p>"It shall be left where it is," said Landless, and reclosed the fingers +upon it.</p> + +<p>He took a piece of sail-cloth from the floor, and with it covered the +dead man from sight. Next he turned to the hollow above the fireplace, +and took from it the pistols, concealing them in his bosom. "I may need +them," he said. "Come."</p> + +<p>They left the hut and its dead guardian, and rowed back through the +summer dawn. The sky was barred with crimson and gold, the fiery rim of +the sun just lifting above the eastern waters, the mist, a bridal veil +of silver and pearl drawn across the face of a virgin earth.</p> + +<p>They rowed in silence until they neared the wharf, when Porringer said, +"You are leader now."</p> + +<p>The other raised his haggard eyes. "It is a trust. I will go through +with it, God helping me. But I would I were lying dead beside him in +yonder hut."</p> + +<p>They left the boat at the wharf, and went towards<a class="pagenum" name="page_127" id="page_127" title="127"></a> the quarters. Meeting +one of the blowzed and slatternly female servants, Landless asked where +they might find the overseer. He had gone to the three-mile field half +an hour ago, after bestowing upon the two dilatory servants a hearty +cursing, and promising to reckon with them at dinner-time. "Where was +the master?" He had gone to the mouth of the inlet with Sir Charles +Carew, who had grown impatient, and had sailed away under the Nancy's +patched sail. The under overseer was in the far corn-field, two miles +off.</p> + +<p>"Are all the men in the fields, Barb?" asked Landless.</p> + +<p>Barb informed him that they were, "as he might very well know, seeing +that the sun was half an hour high."</p> + +<p>"Have you seen the man called Roach?"</p> + +<p>No: Barb had not seen him; but she had heard the overseer tell Luiz +Sebastian to take two men and go to the strip of Orenoko between the +inlet and the third tobacco house, and Luiz Sebastian had been calling +for Roach and Trail.</p> + +<p>Landless thanked her, and moved away without offering to bestow upon her +that which Barb probably thought her information merited.</p> + +<p>"Do you find Woodson," he said to the Muggletonian, "and report this +murder, saying nothing, however, of what we know. I myself will go to +the tobacco house."</p> + +<p>"Had I not best come with thee to hold up thy hands?" said Porringer. "I +would take up my text from the thirty-fifth of Numbers, and from +Revelation, twenty-second, thirteen, and deal mightily with the +murderer."<a class="pagenum" name="page_128" id="page_128" title="128"></a></p> + +<p>"No," answered Landless. "Woodson must be seen at once, or we ourselves +will fall under suspicion. And, friend, ask that thou and I may be the +ones to bury <i>him</i>."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_129" id="page_129" title="129"></a> +<a name="IN_THE_TOBACCO_HOUSE_4064" id="IN_THE_TOBACCO_HOUSE_4064"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<h3>IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The third tobacco house was built upon a point of land jutting into the +larger inlet, and screened off from the wide expanse of fields by a belt +of cedars. It was a lonely, retired spot, and the high, dark, windowless +structure with its heavy, low-browed door had a menacing aspect. +Landless expected to find the men within the building, instead of +outside attending to their work, and he was not disappointed. As he +walked through the doorway into the pungent gloom, the three started up +from the debris of casks, sticks, and pegs, amidst which they had been +squatting, with their heads ominously close together.</p> + +<p>Landless strode up to Roach. "You murderer!" he said.</p> + +<p>The convict recoiled; then with a bestial sound, half snarl, half bellow +of rage, he gathered himself for a rush. Landless awaited him with bent +body and sinewy, outstretched arms; but the mulatto interposed. Laying +his long, beautifully shaped, yellow hands upon Roach, he forced him +back against a cask, and, pinning him there, whispered in his ear. The +face of the wretch gradually resumed its usual expression of low +brutality, though an ugly sweat broke out upon it, and the mouth opened +and shut as though he had been running. He turned upon Landless with a +half threatening, half cringing air.<a class="pagenum" name="page_130" id="page_130" title="130"></a></p> + +<p>"So you've found out what I was about last night, eh, pardner? But +you'll keep a still tongue. You're not one to peach on your comrade as +was in hell or Newgate with you, and as crossed the ocean with you to +this d—d Virginia, and as has always liked you, and has the same spite +as you have against the man what bought us. You say naught, comrade, and +you'll not stand to lose by it."</p> + +<p>"I go from here to give you up to Colonel Verney," said Landless.</p> + +<p>The wretch gave a snarl of rage and fear. Luiz Sebastian laid a soothing +hand upon his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"If I thought that," snarled the convict, "you'd never live to reach +that door."</p> + +<p>"I shall live to see you hanged," said the other coolly.</p> + +<p>Here the mulatto slipped something into Roach's hand. "So you'll give me +up?" said the latter in a peculiar voice.</p> + +<p>"I have said so."</p> + +<p>"Then, by the Lord! I'll be even with you!" Roach cried with savage +triumph. "Do you see this, and this, and this?" fluttering a mass of +folded papers before the other's eyes. "Ah! I was wise, I was, when I +couldn't hide everything about me, to take the papers, and leave the +weapons. I've got you now. Here's the lists that the old fool who is +dead and gone to hell had hidden behind the gold! Here's enough to hang +you and your d—d Cromwellians higher than Haman. There will be more +than one giving up, I'm thinking! I've got you under my thumb, and I'll +squeeze you!"</p> + +<p>"You cannot read; you do not know what those papers contain," said +Landless steadily.<a class="pagenum" name="page_131" id="page_131" title="131"></a></p> + +<p>"But I can," put in Trail smoothly. "I was but just running them over to +our friend whose education has been so sadly neglected, when you came +in."</p> + +<p>Landless drew a pistol from his bosom, cocked it, and leveled it at the +murderer. "You see," he said with an ominously quiet eye and voice, "you +were not altogether wise to leave the weapons. Now, give me those +lists."</p> + +<p>"Damnation!" cried the convict, and Luiz Sebastian glided towards the +door.</p> + +<p>Landless, quick of eye and active of body, saw the movement, and sprang +backwards to the opening before the other could reach it. He covered the +three with his pistol.</p> + +<p>"I will shoot the first of you that stirs," he said sternly. "You, +Roach, lay those papers upon that bit of board, and push them towards me +with your foot."</p> + +<p>"I'll go to hell first," was the sullen reply.</p> + +<p>"As you please. I will give you until I count twenty. If those papers +are not in my hands, then I will shoot you like the dog you are."</p> + +<p>The murderer uttered a dreadful curse. Landless began to count. Roach +made an irresolute motion of the hand that held the lists. Landless +counted on, "fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen—" With another oath +and a grin of rage Roach dropped the papers upon the board at his feet. +"Now push it towards me," said Landless.</p> + +<p>With a brow like midnight the other did as he was bid. Still covering +his men, Landless stooped quickly, and took up the precious papers, +assured himself that they were all there, and placed them in his bosom.</p> + +<p>"Now," he said, leaning his back against the doorpost,<a class="pagenum" name="page_132" id="page_132" title="132"></a> and regarding +the three baffled rogues with a grim eye, "I have a few words to say to +you. I speak first to you, Trail, and to you, Luiz Sebastian. These +papers have told you little that you did not know before. It was not the +information that you gained from them that made them so valuable; it was +the possession of them, the possession of actual proofs of this +conspiracy which you might hold over our heads, or, if the notion took +you, might sell to Colonel Verney?"</p> + +<p>"Señor Landless sees the thing as it is," said Luiz Sebastian.</p> + +<p>"Well, you no longer possess these proofs, and are therefore just where +you were yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Listen, Señor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian gloomily. "This plot does +not please us. It is too much in the hands of those who call themselves +soldiers and martyrs, whom our master calls fanatic Oliverians, and whom +I, Luiz Sebastian, call accursed heretics. The servants have no say in +the matter; they are to follow like sheep where these others lead. The +slaves are not even to know of it until the last moment. A handful of us +who have white blood in our veins are let into the secret, that we may +incite the blacks when the time is come; but are we consulted? Are our +opinions asked, our wishes deferred to? I, Luiz Sebastian, who have been +through three insurrections in the Indies, and who know how such things +should be managed; has my advice been craved as to this or that? You +make us promises. Mother of God! how do we know that those promises will +be kept? By St. Jago! the insurrection may arrive, and the planters be +put down, and next year may find us slaves still, with but a change of +masters!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_133" id="page_133" title="133"></a></p> + +<p>"It is too late now for such questions," said Landless steadily. "You +must accept the conspiracy as it is. In liberating themselves, these men +will of necessity free you even as they will free me, who am not, as you +know, of their class. I shall take my chance, as I think you will take +yours."</p> + +<p>The mulatto played with a tobacco peg, striking it against his great, +white teeth. At length he said slowly and with a sinister upward glance +at the figure by the door, "Certainly, Señor Landless, it seems our +best, our only chance, for freedom."</p> + +<p>And with this Landless had perforce to be content. He turned to the +murderer, saying sternly, "Now for my word with you. I hold your life in +my hands, for I heard you last night in the marsh, and Porringer and I +saw you stealing from the creek this morning, and I can swear that you +knew of the gold hidden in the hut. You have it on you at this moment. I +could hold you here with this pistol until the overseer should come and +search you. But I let you go, choosing rather your safety than the +endangerment of that which was dearer than life to the man you murdered. +The unsupported assertion of a murderer as to the contents of papers +which he had not got to show, might not go for much, but I prefer that +you should not make it. I have warned you;—you had best make your +escape at once."</p> + +<p>"If you hold your tongue, there's no reason why I should run."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, there is! There is a reason in the hut on the marsh."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that clasped in the hand of the man you murdered is the missing +half of that torn lock upon your forehead."<a class="pagenum" name="page_134" id="page_134" title="134"></a></p> + +<p>With a yell Roach sprang to the door only to be confronted by the muzzle +of Landless' pistol.</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," he said composedly. "Oh, you need not be afraid! I +intend to let you go. But you don't leave this tobacco house until after +I have left it myself."</p> + +<p>"Curse you!" cried the other, foaming at the lips.</p> + +<p>"You are ungrateful. I not only promise not to witness against you, but +I aid you to escape."</p> + +<p>"For reasons of your own," suggested Trail.</p> + +<p>"Precisely; for reasons of my own. If you are taken, I will hold my +tongue just so long as you hold yours. If you escape now, I will pray +that my day of reckoning will yet come. And it will be a heavy +reckoning."</p> + +<p>"Ay, that it will!" cried the murderer with brutal fury. "You've got the +upper hand now; but wait! Every dog has his day, and I'll have mine! and +when it comes, I'll do for you! I'll smash your beauty! I'll draw more +blood from you than ever the whip of the overseer did! I'll use you +worse than I used that old man last night, who writhed and struggled, +and tried to pray! I'll—"</p> + +<p>With white lips and blazing eyes Landless sprang forward, and clapped +the mouth of the pistol to the ruffian's temple. Roach recoiled, then +sunk upon his knees with an abject whine for mercy.</p> + +<p>Landless let his hand drop, and moved slowly back to the door. "You had +need to cry for mercy," he said in a low, distinct voice, "for you were +never so near to death before. I let you go now, but one day I shall +kill you. Until which day—take care of yourself!" Still with his face +upon them he passed out of the door, then turned and walked away with a<a class="pagenum" name="page_135" id="page_135" title="135"></a> +steady step, but with a heart bleeding for the loss of his friend, and +heavy with forebodings for the future.</p> + +<p>In the tobacco house the murderer, the forger, and the mulatto sat +stricken into silence until the last crisp footfall had died away. Then +amidst a torrent of curses Roach made for the door. Trail plucked him +back. "Where are you going?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"I don't know! To the devil!"</p> + +<p>"The bloodhounds will be upon your trail before noon."</p> + +<p>The wretch cried out and struck his hand against the wall with a force +that laid the knuckles bare and bleeding.</p> + +<p>"There is a way," said Luiz Sebastian slowly, "a way that only I know. +You must take to the inlet here, and swim up it until you come to the +mouth of the brook yonder in the forest. You must wade up that brook +until you come to a second, and up that until you come to a third. When +you have gone a mile up that one, leave it, and strike through the +woods, going towards the north. Another mile will bring you to a village +of the Chickahominies upon the +Pamunkey.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> They are at odds with +Governor and Council, and they will hide you. Moreover, I once did their +sachem a service, and they are my friends."</p> + +<p>"I'm off," said Roach, breaking from the detaining grasp.</p> + +<p>"Wait," said Luiz Sebastian. "There is time enough. Woodson will not +come for a long while. When he does, he shall find Señor Trail and +myself busily at work there outside, and we will say that you left us, +and went down the inlet a long time before. But now we want to talk to +you."</p> + +<p>"Be quick then," growled the other, "I've no mind to swing for this +job."</p> + +<p>Luiz Sebastian brought his handsomely malevolent face close to the +other's hideous countenance.</p> + +<p>"Would you not like to ruin that devil who but now robbed you of your +hard-earned property?"</p> + +<p>"Would I not?" cried the murderer with a tremendous oath. "I'd give +everything but life and gold to do it, as that cunning devil well knew. +I'd give my soul!"</p> + +<p>"Would you like to be shown how to get more gold than old Godwyn's +store, twenty times told? To get your freedom? To have some black, sweet +hours in which to work your will on them at the house yonder? To plunge +your arms to the elbow in the master's money chest; to become drunken +with his wine; to strike him down, and that smiling imp his cousin, and +that other devil, Woodson; to hear the women cry for mercy—and cry in +vain? You would like all this?"</p> + +<p>"Show me the way!" cried the brute with a ferocious light in his +bloodshot eyes. "Show me the way to do it safely, and I'll—" He broke +off and threatened the air with malignant fists.</p> + +<p>"Go to the village on the Pamunkey," said Luiz Sebastian with his most +feline expression. "I will come to you there the first night I can slip +away, I and our friend, the Señor Trail. There we will have our little +conference. Mother of God! Señor Landless may find that others can plot +as well as he and his accursed heretics."</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a> + <a href="#FNanchor_1_1"> + <span class="label">[1]</span></a> + The modern York. + </p> +</div> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_137" id="page_137" title="137"></a> +<a name="A_MIDNIGHT_EXPEDITION_4331" id="A_MIDNIGHT_EXPEDITION_4331"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<h3>A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION</h3> +</div> + +<p>Four nights later, the hour before midnight found Landless walking +steadily through the forest, bound upon a mission which he had had in +his mind since the night after the murder of Godwyn. This was the first +night since that event upon which he had deemed it advisable to leave +the quarters, having no mind to be captured as a runaway by one of the +many search parties which were scouring the peninsula between the two +great rivers for the murderer of Robert Godwyn. But the search was now +trending northward towards Maryland, to which colony runaways usually +turned their steps, and he felt that he might venture.</p> + +<p>There was little undergrowth in the primeval forest, and the rows of +vast and stately trees were as easy to thread as the pillared aisles of +a cathedral. When he came to one of the innumerable streamlets that +caught the land in a net of silver, he removed his coarse shoes and +stockings, and waded it. The great branches overhead shut in a night +that was breathlessly hot and still. He could see the stars only when he +crossed the streams or emerged into one of the many little open glades. +He walked warily, making no sound, and now and then stopping to listen +for the distant halloo, or bark of a dog, which might denote that he was +followed, or that there was a search party abroad,<a class="pagenum" name="page_138" id="page_138" title="138"></a> but he heard nothing +save the usual forest sounds,—the dropping of acorns, the sighing +leaves, the cry of some night bird,—sounds that seemed to make the +night more still than silence.</p> + +<p>He was nearing his destination when from out a shadowy clump of alders, +standing upon the bank of the stream which he had just crossed, there +shot a long arm, and the next moment he was wrestling with a dark and +powerful figure whose naked body slipped from his hold as though it had +been greased. But Landless, too, was strong and determined, and the two +swayed and strained backwards and forwards through the darkness, wary +and resolute, neither giving his antagonist advantage. The hand of the +unknown writhed itself from the other's clasp and stole downwards +towards his waist. Landless felt the motion and intercepted it. Then the +figure, with an angry guttural sound, began to put forth its full +strength. The arms encircled Landless with a slowly tightening iron +band; the great dark shoulder came forward with the force of a +battering-ram; the limbs twined like boa-constrictors around the limbs +of the other. Locked together, the two reeled into a little fairy glade, +where the short grass, pearled with dew, lay open to the moon. Here, +borne backwards by the overwhelming force of his assailant, Landless +fell heavily to the ground. The figure falling with him, pinned him to +the earth with its knee upon his breast. In the moonlight he saw the +gleam of the lifted knife.</p> + +<p>He had had but time for a half-uttered, half-thought prayer when the +pressure upon his breast relaxed; the knife fell, indeed, but harmlessly +upon the grass, and the figure rose to its height with an astonished +"Ugh!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_139" id="page_139" title="139"></a></p> + +<p>Landless, rising also, began to think that he recognized the gigantic +form towering through the pale moonlight.</p> + +<p>"Ugh!" said the figure again. "The great Spirit threw us into the light +in time. Monakatocka had been forever shamed had his knife drunk the +life of his friend."</p> + +<p>"Why did you set upon me?" demanded Landless, still breathless from the +struggle, while the Indian was as calmly composed as upon the day of +their first meeting.</p> + +<p>"Monakatocka took you for the man for whom they hunt with dogs through +the forest, scaring the deer from the licks and the partridge from the +fern. Two nights ago Major Carrington said to Monakatocka, 'Find me that +man and kill him, and to the twenty arms' length of roanoke which the +county will pay to Monakatocka, I will add a gun with store of powder, +and with a bullet for every stag between Werowocomico and Machot.' When +he heard you a long way off, moving over the leaves, trying to make no +sound, Monakatocka thought he held the gun of the paleface Major in his +hand. But now—" he waved his hand with a gesture eloquent of +resignation.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to disappoint you," said Landless, amused at his air of calm +regret.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to have proved the strength of my brother," was the +sententious reply. "Where goes my brother through the woods, which are +full of danger to him to-night? Or has he a pass?"</p> + +<p>"I have business at Rosemead," answered Landless. "I am close to the +house, I think?"</p> + +<p>The Indian pointed through the trees. "It lies twelve bowshots before +you. The overseer with the<a class="pagenum" name="page_140" id="page_140" title="140"></a> dogs has gone to the great swamp to look for +the man with the red hair."</p> + +<p>"Thanks for the information, friend," said Landless. "I ask you, +moreover, to say nothing of this encounter. I have no pass."</p> + +<p>"I have but one friend," answered the Indian. "His secret is my secret."</p> + +<p>"Are you, too, then, so lonely?" asked Landless, touched by his tone.</p> + +<p>"Listen," said the Indian, leaning his back against a great oak. "I will +tell my brother who I am.... Many years ago the Conestogas, they whom +the palefaces call the Susquehannocks, came down the great bay and +fought with the palefaces. Monakatocka was then but a lad on his first +warpath. Agreskoi was angry: he hid his face behind a cloud. With their +guns the palefaces beat the Conestogas like fleeing women back to their +village on the banks of a great river, and themselves returned in +triumph to their board wigwams, bearing with them many captives. +Monakatocka, son to a great chief, was one. The palefaces made him to +work like a squaw in their fields of tobacco and maize. When he ran away +they put forth a long arm and plucked him back and beat him. Agreskoi +was angry, for Monakatocka had not any offering to make him. One by one +his fellow captives have dropped away like the leaves that fall in the +moon of Taquetock, until, behold! he is left alone. The palefaces are +his enemies. He thinks of the village beside the pleasant stream, and he +hates them. A warrior of the long house takes no friend from the wigwam +of an Algonquin. Monakatocka is alone."</p> + +<p>He spoke with a wild pathos, his high, stern features<a class="pagenum" name="page_141" id="page_141" title="141"></a> working in the +moonlight, and his bold glance softened into an exquisite melancholy.</p> + +<p>"I too am friendless," said Landless, "and bound to a far more degrading +captivity than that you suffer. Our fate is the same."</p> + +<p>The Indian took his hand in his, and raising it, pressed the forefinger +against a certain spot upon his shoulder. "You have a friend," he said.</p> + +<p>"You make too much of a very slight service," said Landless. "But I +embrace your offer of friendship—there's my hand upon it. And now I +must be going upon my way. Good-night!"</p> + +<p>The Indian gave a guttural "Good-night," and Landless strode on through +the thinning woods. Shortly he emerged from the forest and saw before +him tobacco fields and a house, and beyond the house the vast sheet of +the Chesapeake slumbering beneath the moon. There was a beaten path +leading to the house. Landless struck into it and followed it until it +led him beneath a window which (having been once sent with a message to +the Surveyor-General), he knew to belong to the sleeping-chamber of +Major Carrington. Stopping beneath this window he listened for any sound +that might warn him of aught stirring within or without the +mansion,—all was silent, the house and its inmates locked in slumber.</p> + +<p>He took a handful of pebbles from the path and threw them, one by one, +against the wooden shutter, the thud of the last pebble being answered +by a slight noise from within the room. Presently the shutter was opened +and an authoritative voice demanded:—</p> + +<p>"Who is it? What do you want?"</p> + +<p>Landless came closer beneath the window. "Major Carrington," he said in +a low voice, "It is I, Godfrey Landless. I must have speech with you."<a class="pagenum" name="page_142" id="page_142" title="142"></a></p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence, and then the other said coldly, "'Must' is +a word that becomes neither your lips nor my ears. I know no reason why +Miles Carrington <i>must</i> speak with the servant of Colonel Verney."</p> + +<p>"As you please: Godfrey Landless craves the honor of a word with Major +Carrington."</p> + +<p>"And what if Major Carrington refuses?" said the other sharply.</p> + +<p>"I do not think he will do so."</p> + +<p>The Surveyor-General hesitated a moment, then said:—</p> + +<p>"Go to the great door. I will open to you in a moment. But make no +noise."</p> + +<p>Landless nodded, and proceeded to follow his directions. Presently the +door swung noiselessly inward, and Carrington, appearing in the opening, +beckoned Landless within, and led the way, still in profound silence, +across the hall to the great room. Here, after softly closing the door, +he lighted candles, saw to it that the heavy wooden shutters were +securely drawn across the windows, and turned to face his visitor in a +somewhat different guise than the riding suit and jack boots, the mask +and broad flapping beaver, in which he had appeared in their encounter +in the hut on the marsh. His stately figure was now wrapped in a +night-gown of dark velvet, his bare feet were thrust into velvet +slippers, and a silken night-cap, half on and half off, imparted a rakish +air to his gravely handsome countenance. He threw himself into a great +armchair and tapped impatiently upon the table.</p> + +<p>"Well!" he said dryly.</p> + +<p>Landless standing before him began to speak with dignity and to the +point. Godwyn, the head of a<a class="pagenum" name="page_143" id="page_143" title="143"></a> great conspiracy, was dead, leaving him, +Landless, in some sort his successor. In a conference of the leading +conspirators held but a few nights before the murder, Godwyn had +announced that not only had he given to the son of Warham Landless his +complete confidence, but that in case aught should happen to himself +before the time for action, he would wish the young man to succeed him +in the leadership of the revolt. There had been some demur, but Godwyn's +influence was boundless, and on his advancing reason after reason for +his preference, the Oliverians had acquiesced in his judgment and had +given their solemn promise to respect his wishes. Three nights later, +Godwyn was murdered. Since that dreadful blow, Landless had seen only +such of the conspirators as were in his immediate neighborhood. +Confounded at the turn affairs had taken, and utterly at a loss, they +had turned eagerly to him as to one having authority. For his own +freedom, for the sake of his promise to the dead man, he would do his +utmost. He had come to-night to discover, if possible, Major +Carrington's intentions—</p> + +<p>Carrington, who had listened thus far with grave attention, frowned +heavily.</p> + +<p>"If my memory serves me, sirrah, I told you once before that Miles +Carrington stirs not hand or foot in this matter. I may wish you well, +but that is all."</p> + +<p>"'Tis a poor friend that cries 'Godspeed!' to one who struggles in a +bog, and gives not his hand to help him out."</p> + +<p>"Your figure does not hold," said the other, dryly. "I have not cried +'Godspeed!' I have said nothing at all, either good or bad. I have +nothing to do with this conspiracy. You are the only man now living<a class="pagenum" name="page_144" id="page_144" title="144"></a> +that knows that I am aware that such a thing exists. And I hope, sir, +that you will remember how you gained that knowledge."</p> + +<p>"I am in no danger of forgetting."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Your journey here to-night was a useless as well as a +dangerous one. I have nothing to say to you."</p> + +<p>"Will you tell me one thing?" said Landless, patiently. "What will Major +Carrington have to say to me upon the day when I speak to him as a free +man with free men behind me?"</p> + +<p>"Upon that day," said the other, composedly, "Miles Carrington will +submit to the inevitable with a good grace, having been, as is well +known, a friend to the Commonwealth, and having always, even when there +was danger in so doing, spoken against the cruel and iniquitous +enslavement of men whose only offense was non-conformity, or the having +served under the banners of Cromwell."</p> + +<p>"If he should be offered Cromwell's position in the new Commonwealth, +what then?"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! no such offer will be made."</p> + +<p>"We must have weight and respectability, must identify ourselves with +that Virginia in which we are strangers, if we are to endure," said +Landless, with a smile. "A fact that we perfectly recognize—as does +Major Carrington. He probably knows who is of, and yet head and +shoulders above, that party in the state upon whose support we must +ultimately rely, who alone could lead that party; who alone might +reconcile Royalist and Puritan;—and to whom alone the offer I speak of +will be made."</p> + +<p>Carrington smiled despite himself. "Well, then, if the offer is made, I +will accept it. In short, when<a class="pagenum" name="page_145" id="page_145" title="145"></a> your man is out of the bog I will lend +my aid to cleanse him of the stains incurred in the transit. But he must +pull himself out of the mire. I am safe upon the bank, I will not be +drawn with him into a bottomless ruin. Do I make myself plain?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly," said Landless, dryly.</p> + +<p>The other flushed beneath the tone. "You think perhaps that I play but a +craven part in this game. I do not. God knows I run a tremendous risk as +it is, without madly pledging life and honor to this desperate +enterprise!"</p> + +<p>"I fail to see the risk," said Landless, coldly.</p> + +<p>The other struck his hand against the table. "I risk a slave +insurrection!" he said.</p> + +<p>A noise outside the door made them start like guilty things. The door +opened softly and a charming vision appeared, to wit, Mistress Betty +Carrington, rosy from sleep and hastily clad in a dressing-gown of +sombre silk. Her little white feet were bare, and her dark hair had +escaped from its prim, white night coif. She started when she saw a +visitor, and her feet drew demurely back under the hem of her gown, +while her hands went up to her disheveled hair; but a second glance +showing her his quality, she recovered her composure and spoke to her +father in her soft, serious voice.</p> + +<p>"I heard a noise, my father, and looking into your room, found it empty, +so I came down to see what made you wakeful to-night."</p> + +<p>"'Tis but a message from Verney Manor, child," said her father. "Get +back to bed."</p> + +<p>"From Verney Manor!" exclaimed Betty. "Then I can send back to-night the +song book and book of plays lent me by Sir Charles Carew, and which, +after<a class="pagenum" name="page_146" id="page_146" title="146"></a> reading the first page, I e'en restored to their wrappings and +laid aside with a good book a-top to put me in better thoughts if ever I +was tempted to touch them again. I will get them, good fellow, and you +shall carry them back to their owner with my thanks, if it so be that I +can find words that are both courteous and truthful."</p> + +<p>"Stop, child!" said her father as she turned to leave the room. "The +volumes, which you were very right not to read, may rest awhile beneath +the good book. This is a secret mission upon which this young man has +come. It is about a—a matter of state upon which his master and I have +been engaged. No one here or at Verney Manor must know that he has been +at Rosemead."</p> + +<p>"Very well, my father," said Betty, meekly, "the books can wait some +other opportunity."</p> + +<p>"And," with some sternness, "you will be careful to hold your tongue as +to this man's presence here to-night."</p> + +<p>"Very well, father."</p> + +<p>"You are not to speak of it to Mistress Patricia or to any one."</p> + +<p>"I will be silent, my father."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said the Major. "You are not like the majority of women. I +know that your word is as good as an oath. Now run away to bed, +sweetheart, and forget that you have seen this messenger."</p> + +<p>"I am going now, father," said Betty, obediently. "Is Mistress Patricia +well, good fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Quite well, I believe, madam."</p> + +<p>"She spake of crossing to Accomac with Mistress Lettice and Sir Charles +Carew, when the latter should go to visit Colonel Scarborough. Know you +if she went?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_147" id="page_147" title="147"></a></p> + +<p>"I think not, madam. I think that Sir Charles Carew went alone."</p> + +<p>"Ah! They have fallen out then," said Betty, half to herself, and with a +demure satisfaction in her wild flower face. "I am glad of it, for I +like him not. Thanks, good fellow, for your answering my idle +questions."</p> + +<p>Landless bowed gravely. Betty bent her pretty head, and with a hasty, "I +am going, father!" in answer to an impatient movement on the part of the +Major, vanished from the room.</p> + +<p>Carrington waited until the last light footfall had died away, and then +said, "Our interview is over. Are you satisfied?"</p> + +<p>"At least, I understand your position."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Carrington, thoughtfully, "it is as well that you should +understand it. It is simple. I wish you well. I am in heart a +Commonwealth's man. I love not the Stuarts. I would fain see this fair +land freed from their rule and returned to the good days of the +Commonwealth. And I may as well acknowledge, since you have found it out +for yourself,"—a haughty smile,—"that I have my ambitions. What man +has not?" He rose and began to pace the room, his hands clasped behind +him, his handsome head bent, his rich robe trailing upon the ground +behind him.</p> + +<p>"I could rule this land more acceptably to the people than can William +Berkeley with his parrot phrases, 'divine right,' and 'passive +obedience.' I know the people and am popular with them, with Royalist +and Churchman as well as with Nonconformist and Oliverian. I know the +needs of the colony—home rule, self taxation, free trade, a more +liberal encouragement to emigrants, religious tolerance, a rod<a class="pagenum" name="page_148" id="page_148" title="148"></a> of iron +for the Indians, the establishment of a direct slave trade with Africa +and the Indies. I could so rule this colony that in a twelvemonth's +time, Richard Verney or Stephen Ludlow, hot Royalists though they be, +would be forced to acknowledge that never, since the day Smith sailed up +the James, had Virginia enjoyed a tithe of her present prosperity."</p> + +<p>"'Tis a consummation devoutly to be desired,'" said Landless, dryly. "In +the mean time, like the cat i' the adage—"</p> + +<p>"You are insolent, sirrah!"</p> + +<p>"When a stripling I served under one who took the bitter with the sweet, +the danger as well as the reward, who led the soldiers from whom he took +his throne."</p> + +<p>"Cromwell, sirrah," said Carrington sternly, "led soldiers. You would +require Miles Carrington to lead servants, to place himself, a gentleman +and a master, at the head of a rebellion which, if it failed, would +plunge him into a depth of ignominy and ruin proportionate to the height +from which he fell. He declines the position. When you have won your +freedom he will treat with you. Not before."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Landless slowly, "upon the day on which the flag of the +Commonwealth floats over the Assembly hall at Jamestown, then—"</p> + +<p>"Then I will join myself to you as I have said, and I will bring with me +those without whom your revolution would be but short-lived—the Puritan +and Nonconformist element in the colony, gentle and simple."</p> + +<p>"That is sufficiently explicit," said Landless, "and I thank you."</p> + +<p>"I have trusted you fully, young man," said the<a class="pagenum" name="page_149" id="page_149" title="149"></a> other, stopping before +him, "not only because you cannot betray me if you would, seeing that +not one scrap of writing exists to inculpate me in this matter, and that +your word would scarce be taken before mine, but because I believe you +to be trustworthy. I believe also"—graciously—"that Robert Godwyn +(whose death I sincerely mourn) showed his usual wisdom and knowledge of +mankind when he chose you as his confidant and co-worker. I wish you +well through with a dangerous and delicate piece of work and in +enjoyment of your reward, namely, your freedom, and the esteem of the +Commonwealth of Virginia. I will myself see to it that any past offenses +which you are supposed to have committed (for myself, I believe you to +have been harshly used), shall not stand in your light."</p> + +<p>"Major Carrington is very good," said Landless, calmly. "I shall study +to deserve his commendation."</p> + +<p>The other took a restless turn or two through the room, stopping at +length before the younger man.</p> + +<p>"You may tell me one thing," he said in a voice scarcely above a +whisper, and with his eyes bent watchfully upon the other's composed +face. "Had Godwyn set the day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And you will adhere to it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What day?"</p> + +<p>"The thirteenth of September."</p> + +<p>"Humph! Two weeks off! Well, my tobacco will be largely in, and I shall +send my daughter upon a visit to her Huguenot kindred upon the Potomac. +Good night."</p> + +<p>"Good night," answered Landless.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_150" id="page_150" title="150"></a> +<a name="THE_WATERS_OF_CHESAPEAKE_4757" id="THE_WATERS_OF_CHESAPEAKE_4757"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<h3>THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE</h3> +</div> + +<p>Patricia was ennuyée to the last degree. That morning Sir Charles had +ridden to Green Spring with her father; Mistress Lettice was in the +still room decocting a face wash from rose leaves, dew and honey; young +Shaw on his knees in the master's room, disconsolately poring over piles +of musty papers in search of a misplaced deed which the colonel had +ordered him to find against his return. It was a hot and listless +afternoon. Patricia read a page of "The Rival Ladies," tried her spinet, +had a languid romp with her spaniels, and finally sauntered into the +porch, and leaning her white arms upon the railing, looked towards the +dazzling blue waters of the Chesapeake. Presently an idea came to her. +She went swiftly into the hall, and called for Darkeih. When that +handmaiden appeared:—</p> + +<p>"Darkeih, go down to the quarters, and tell the first man you meet to +find Woodson, and send him to me."</p> + +<p>Darkeih departed, and in half an hour's time the overseer appeared at +the foot of the porch steps, red and heated from his rapid walk from the +Three-Mile field.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong, Mistress Patricia?" he asked quickly.</p> + +<p>Patricia opened her lovely eyes. "Nothing is<a class="pagenum" name="page_151" id="page_151" title="151"></a> wrong, Woodson. What +should be? I sent for you, because I want to go to Rosemead."</p> + +<p>"To Rosemead!" exclaimed the overseer.</p> + +<p>"Yes, to Rosemead, and I want a couple of men to take me."</p> + +<p>The overseer gave a short, vexed laugh. "I can't spare the men, Mistress +Patricia. You ought to have known that every man jack on the plantation +is busy cutting. If I had a known this was all that was wanted! Fegs! I +thought something dreadful was the matter."</p> + +<p>"Something dreadful is the matter," said the young lady calmly. "I am +bored to death."</p> + +<p>"Sorry for ye, missy, but I can't spare the men."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, you can!" said Patricia with unruffled composure.</p> + +<p>The overseer, knowing his lady, began to weaken.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, you wouldn't want two men. You might go on a pillion behind old +Abraham. I could spare <i>him</i>."</p> + +<p>"I shall not go a-horseback. 'Tis too hot and dusty. I shall go in one +of the sail-boats—the Bluebird, I think."</p> + +<p>"Now, in the name of all that's contrary, what do you want to do that +for, Mistress Patricia?" cried the harassed overseer. "It's twice as far +by water."</p> + +<p>"I'll reach Rosemead before dark. The men can bring the boat back +to-night, and Major Carrington will send me home on a pillion +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Have you forgotten that to-morrow is Sunday?" said the overseer +severely, and with a new-born anxiety for the proper observance of the +holy day. "Will you have the Colonel pay a fine for you?"</p> + +<p>"I will go to service with the Carringtons then, and come home on +Monday," said the lady serenely.<a class="pagenum" name="page_152" id="page_152" title="152"></a></p> + +<p>"There's a squall coming up this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"There isn't a cloud in the sky," said his mistress with calm +conviction, looking straight before her at a low, tumbled line of creamy +peaks along the horizon.</p> + +<p>"If the Colonel were here—"</p> + +<p>"He would say, 'Woodson, do exactly as Mistress Patricia tells you.'" +This with great sweetness.</p> + +<p>The overseer gave it up. "I reckon he would, missy," he said with a +grin. "You wind him and all of us around your finger."</p> + +<p>"'Tis all for your good, Woodson," with a soft, bright laugh. Then, +coaxingly, "Am I to have the Bluebird?"</p> + +<p>"I reckon so, Mistress Patricia, seeing that you have set your heart +upon it," said the still reluctant overseer.</p> + +<p>"That's a good Woodson. I want Regulus to be one of the boatmen. You can +send any other you choose. I shall take Darkeih with me."</p> + +<p>"You can't have Regulus, Mistress Patricia," answered the overseer +positively. "He's worth any two men in the field. I can't let him go."</p> + +<p>"Let him be at the wharf in half an hour. I will be ready by then."</p> + +<p>"You can't have him, Missy."</p> + +<p>Patricia stamped her pretty foot. "Am I mistress of this plantation, or +am I not, Woodson?"</p> + +<p>"Lord knows you are!" groaned the overseer.</p> + +<p>"Then when I say I want Regulus, I will have Regulus and no other."</p> + +<p>The overseer sighed resignedly. "Very well, Mistress Patricia, I'll send +for him."</p> + +<p>Patricia danced away, and the overseer strode down the path, viciously +crunching the pebbles and bits of<a class="pagenum" name="page_153" id="page_153" title="153"></a> shell beneath his feet. At the wharf +he found a detachment of the infant population of the quarters busily +crabbing; all of whom, save two little Indians who fished stoically on, +scrambled to their feet, and pulled a forelock. The overseer touched one +urchin upon the shoulder with the butt end of his whip.</p> + +<p>"You, Piccaninny, run as fast as your legs will carry you to the field +by the swamp, and tell Regulus to leave his work, and come to the big +wharf. Mistress Patricia wants to go a pleasuring."</p> + +<p>Piccaninny's black shanks and pink heels flew up and out, and he was +away like a flash. The overseer kept on to the end of the wharf, where +were clustered the boats, some tied to the piles, some anchored a little +way out. "Haines was to send a man to caulk a seam in the Nancy," he +muttered. "Whoever he is, he'll have to go in the Bluebird. I'm not +going to take another man from the tobacco. What fools women are! But +they get their way,—the pretty ones at least." He leaned over the +railing, and called,—</p> + +<p>"You there, in the Nancy!"</p> + +<p>Godfrey Landless looked up from his work. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>The overseer chuckled grimly. "It's that fellow Landless who angered her +once before," he said to himself with a malicious grin. "Well, 't isn't +my business to know which of all the servants on this plantation she +most dislikes to come near her. She'll have to put up with him to-day. +There isn't a better boatman on the place anyhow."</p> + +<p>To Landless he said, "Bring the Bluebird up to the wharf, and see that +she is sweet and clean inside. Mistress Patricia starts for Rosemead in +half an hour,<a class="pagenum" name="page_154" id="page_154" title="154"></a> and you and Regulus are to take her. You'll bring the +boat back to-night. Step lively now!"</p> + +<p>Landless brought the Bluebird, a sixteen-foot open boat, up to the +wharf, made the inside, and especially the seat in the stern, spotlessly +clean, put up the sail, and sat down to wait. Presently Regulus appeared +above him, and swung himself down into the boat with a grin of delight, +for he much preferred sailing with "'lil missy" to cutting tobacco. He +had a great burly form and a broad, ebony face, and he was the devoted +slave of Patricia, and of Patricia's maid, Darkeih. Moreover, he enjoyed +the distinction of being the first negro born in the Colony, his parents +having been landed from the Dutch privateer which in 1619 introduced the +slave into Virginia. Viewed through a vista of nigh three hundred years, +he appears a portent, a tremendous omen, a sign from the Eumenides. Upon +that tranquil summer afternoon in the Virginia of long ago he was simply +a good-humored, docile, happy-go-lucky, harmless animal.</p> + +<p>"'Lil Missy's comin'," he remarked, with bonhommie, to his fellow +boatman.</p> + +<p>Darkeih, laden with cushions, appeared at the edge of the wharf. +Landless, standing in the bow below her, relieved her of her burdens, +and taking her by the hands, swung her down into the boat. She thanked +him with a smile that showed every tooth in her comely brown +countenance, and tripped aft, where, with the assistance of Regulus, she +proceeded to arrange a cushioned seat for her mistress.</p> + +<p>Landless waited for the lady of the manor to come forward. In the act of +extending her hands to the boatman, she glanced at him, crimsoned, and +drew back. Landless, interpreting color and action aright,<a class="pagenum" name="page_155" id="page_155" title="155"></a> buckled his +armor of studied quiet more closely over a hurt and angry heart.</p> + +<p>"I was ordered to attend you, madam," he said proudly. "But if you so +desire, I will find the overseer and tell him that you wish for some one +else in my place."</p> + +<p>"There is not time," was the cold reply. "And as well you as any other. +Let us be going."</p> + +<p>Landless held out his arms again. She measured with her eyes the +distance between her and the boat. "I do not need any help," she said. +"If you will stand aside, I can spring from here to the prow."</p> + +<p>"And strike the water instead, madam," said Landless, grimly, "when I +would have to touch more than your hand in order to pull you out."</p> + +<p>She colored angrily, but held out her hands. Landless lifted her down +and steadied her to her seat in the stern. She thanked him coldly, and +began at once to talk to Regulus with the playful familiarity of a +child. Regulus grinned delight; he had been "'lil Missy's" slave from +her childhood. Landless untied the boat from the piles and pushed her +off; Regulus, who was to steer, pulled the tiller towards him, and the +little Bluebird glided from the wharf, made a wide and graceful sweep, +and proceeded leisurely down the inlet towards the waters of the great +bay.</p> + +<p>Landless seated himself in the bow, and turned his face away from the +group in the stern. Patricia leaned back amidst her cushions, and opened +a book; Darkeih, upon the other side of the rudder, held a whispered +flirtation with Regulus, squatting at her feet, the tiller in his hand. +There was but little wind, but what there was came from the land, and +the Bluebird moved steadily though listlessly down<a class="pagenum" name="page_156" id="page_156" title="156"></a> the inlet, between +the velvet marshes. The water broke against the sides of the boat with a +languid murmur. It was very hot, and the sky above was of a steely, +unclouded blue that hurt the eyes. Only in the southwest the line of +cloud hills was erecting itself into an Alpine range. The glare of the +sun upon the white pages of her book dazzled Patricia's eyes; the heat +and the lazy swaying motion made her drowsy. With a sigh of oppression +she closed her book, and taking her fan from Darkeih, laid it across her +face, and curled herself among her cushions.</p> + +<p>"I will sleep awhile," she said to her handmaiden, and serenely glided +into slumberland.</p> + +<p>She was in a balcony with Sir Charles Carew, looking down upon a +fantastic procession that wound endlessly on, with flaunting banners, +and to the sound of kettle-drums and trumpets, when she was aroused by +Landless' voice. She opened her eyes and looked up from her nest of +cushions to see him standing above her.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she asked frigidly.</p> + +<p>"I grieve to waken you, madam, but there is a heavy squall coming up."</p> + +<p>She sat up and looked about her. The Bluebird had left the inlet and was +rising and falling with the long oily swell of the vast sheet of water +that stretched before them to a horizon of vivid blue. North and east +the water met the sky; a mile to the westward was the low wooded shore +which they were skirting.</p> + +<p>"The sun is shining," said Patricia, bewildered. "The sky is blue."</p> + +<p>"Look behind you."</p> + +<p>She turned and uttered an exclamation. The Alpine<a class="pagenum" name="page_157" id="page_157" title="157"></a> range had vanished, +and a monstrous pall of gray-black cloud was being slowly drawn upward +and across the smiling heaven. Even as she looked, it blotted out the +sun.</p> + +<p>"We had better make for the shore at once," said Landless. "We can reach +it before the storm breaks and can find shelter for you until it is +over."</p> + +<p>Patricia exclaimed: "Why, we cannot be more than three miles from +Rosemead! Surely we can reach it before that cloud overtakes us!"</p> + +<p>"I think not, madam."</p> + +<p>"Regulus!" cried his mistress imperiously. "We can reach Rosemead before +that storm breaks, can we not?"</p> + +<p>Among other amiable qualities, Regulus numbered a happy willingness to +please, even at the expense of truth.</p> + +<p>"Sho-ly, 'lil Missy," he said with emphasis.</p> + +<p>"And it will not be much of a squall, besides, will it, Regulus?"</p> + +<p>"No, 'lil Missy, not much ob squall," answered the obliging Regulus.</p> + +<p>"There is much wind in it," said Landless. "Look at those white clouds +scudding across the black; and these squalls strike with suddenness and +fury. I may put the boat about, madam?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. Regulus, who must know the Chesapeake and its squalls +much better than you possibly can, says there is no danger. I have no +mind to be set ashore in these woods with night coming on and Indians or +wolves prowling around."</p> + +<p>"I beg that you will be advised by me, madam."</p> + +<p>She looked at him as she had done that day in the master's room. "Is it +that you are <i>afraid</i> of a Virginia<a class="pagenum" name="page_158" id="page_158" title="158"></a> squall? If so, you will have to +conquer your tremor. Regulus, keep the boat as it is."</p> + +<p>Landless went back to his seat in the bow, with tightened lips. The wind +freshened, coming in hot little puffs, and the Bluebird slid more +swiftly over the low hills. The water turned to a livid green and the +air slowly darkened. Across the black pall, looming higher and higher, +shot a jagged streak of fierce gold, followed by a low rumble of +thunder. A mass of gray-white, fantastically piled clouds whirled up +from the eastern horizon to meet the vast blank sullen sheet overhead. +There came a more vivid flash and a louder roll of thunder.</p> + +<p>Landless walked aft and took the tiller from Regulus' hand, motioning +him forward to the place he had himself occupied. The negro stared, but +went with his accustomed docility. Patricia sat upright in indignant +surprise.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing?"</p> + +<p>"I am about to head the boat for the shore," suiting the action to the +word.</p> + +<p>Her eyes blazed. "Did you not hear me say that I wished to proceed to +Rosemead?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam, I did."</p> + +<p>"I order you, sir—"</p> + +<p>"And I choose to disobey."</p> + +<p>"I shall report you to Colonel Verney."</p> + +<p>"As you please, madam."</p> + +<p>From the prow, where he had been taking observations, Regulus cried in a +startled voice: "De win 's comin'! De win 's comin' mighty quick!"</p> + +<p>Landless thrust the tiller into Patricia's hands. "Keep it there, just +where it is, for your life!" he cried authoritatively, and bounded +forward to where<a class="pagenum" name="page_159" id="page_159" title="159"></a> Regulus was already struggling with the sail. They got +it in and lashed to the mast just in time, for, with the shriek of a +thousand demons, the squall whirled itself upon them. In an instant they +were enveloped in a blinding horror of furious wind and rain, glare of +lightning and incessant, ear-splitting thunder. A leaden darkness, +illuminated only by the lightning, settled around them, and the air grew +suddenly cold. Beneath the whip of the wind the Chesapeake woke from +slumber, stirred, and rose in fury. The Bluebird danced dizzily upon +white crests or swooped into black and yawning chasms. Steadying himself +by the thwarts, Landless went back to Patricia, sitting pale and with +clasped hands, but making no sound. Darkeih, with a moan of fear, had +thrown herself down at her mistress' feet, and was hiding her face in +her skirts. Landless took a scarf from among the pile of cushions, and +wrapped it around Patricia. "'Tis a poor protection against wet and +cold," he said, "but it is better than nothing."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said then, with an effort. "Do you think this squall +will last long?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell, madam. It is rather a hurricane than a squall. But we +must do the best we can."</p> + +<p>As he spoke there came a fresh access of wind with a glare of +intolerable light. The mast bent like a reed, snapped off clear to the +foot and fell inward, the loosened beam striking Regulus upon the head, +and bearing him down with it. The boat careened violently, and half +filled with water. Darkeih screamed, and Patricia sprang to her feet, +but sat down again at Landless' stern command, "Sit still! She will +right in a moment."</p> + +<p>He lifted and flung overboard the mass of splintered<a class="pagenum" name="page_160" id="page_160" title="160"></a> wood and flapping +cloth, then fell to bailing with all his might, for the danger of +swamping was imminent. Presently Patricia touched him upon the arm. "I +will bail if you will see to Regulus," she said, in a low, strained +voice. "I think he is dead."</p> + +<p>Landless resigned the pail into her hands and lifted the negro's head +and shoulders from the water in which he was lying, pillowing them upon +the stern seat. He was unconscious, and bleeding from a cut on the +forehead.</p> + +<p>"He is not dead nor like to die," Landless said. "He will revive before +long."</p> + +<p>The girl gave a long, quivering sigh of relief. Landless finished the +bailing and sat down at her feet.</p> + +<p>Some time later she asked faintly: "Do you not think the worst is over +now?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not," he answered gently. "There is a lull now, but I am +afraid the storm is but gathering its forces. But we will hope for the +best—"</p> + +<p>Another flash and crash cut him short. It was followed by rain that +fell, not in drops, but in sheets. The wind, which had been blowing a +heavy gale, rose suddenly into a tornado. With it rose the sea. The +masses of water, hissing and smoking under the furious pelting of the +rain, flung themselves upon the hapless Bluebird, laboring heavily in +the trough of the waves, or staggering over their summits. A constant +glare lit the heaving, tossing world of waters, and the air became one +roar of wind, rain, and thunder.</p> + +<p>Darkeih crouched moaning at her mistress' feet. Regulus lay unconscious, +breathing heavily. Suddenly, with a quick intake of his breath, +Landless<a class="pagenum" name="page_161" id="page_161" title="161"></a> seized Patricia, pulled her down into the bottom of the boat, +and held her there.</p> + +<p>"I see," she said in a low, awed voice. "It is Death!"</p> + +<p>Through the glare a long green wall bore down upon them. The Bluebird +leaped to meet it. It lifted her up, up to meet the lightning, then +hurled her into black depths, and passed on, leaving her staggering in +the trough, water-logged and helpless.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_162" id="page_162" title="162"></a> +<a name="THE_FACE_IN_THE_DARK_5148" id="THE_FACE_IN_THE_DARK_5148"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<h3>THE FACE IN THE DARK</h3> +</div> + +<p>Patricia lifted her white face from her hands. "We rode that dreadful +wave?" she cried incredulously.</p> + +<p>"By God's mercy, yes," said Landless gravely.</p> + +<p>"Is there any hope for us?"</p> + +<p>Landless hesitated. "Tell me the truth," she said imperiously.</p> + +<p>"We are in desperate case, madam. The boat is half filled with water. +Another such sea will sink us."</p> + +<p>"Why do you not bail the boat?"</p> + +<p>"The bucket is gone; the tiller also."</p> + +<p>She shivered, and Darkeih began to wail aloud. Landless laid a heavy +hand upon the latter's shoulder. "Silence!" he said sternly. "Here! I +shall lay Regulus' head in your lap, and you are to watch over him and +not to think of yourself. There's a brave wench!"</p> + +<p>Darkeih's lamentations subsided into a low sobbing, and Landless turned +to her mistress.</p> + +<p>"Try to keep up your courage, madam," he said. "Our peril is great; but +while there is life there is hope."</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid," she said. "I—" The pitching of the boat threw her +against Landless, and he put his arm about her. "You must let me hold +you,<a class="pagenum" name="page_163" id="page_163" title="163"></a> madam," he said quietly. She shrank away from his touch, saying +breathlessly, "No, oh no! See! I can hold quite well by the gunwale." He +acquiesced in silence, only lifting her into a more secure position. "I +thank you," she said humbly.</p> + +<p>The storm continued to rage with unabated fury. Flash and detonation +succeeded flash and detonation; the rain poured in torrents; and the +wind whooped on the angry sea like a demon of destruction. The Bluebird +pitched and tossed at the mercy of the great waves that combed above +her. Time passed, and to the darkness of the storm was added the +darkness of the night. The occupants of the boat, drenched by the rain +and the seas she had shipped, shivered with cold. Regulus began to stir +and mutter. "He is coming to himself," Landless cried to Darkeih. "When +you see that he is conscious, make him lie still. He must not move +about."</p> + +<p>"Do you know where we are?" asked Patricia.</p> + +<p>"No, madam; but I fear that the wind is driving us out into the bay."</p> + +<p>"Ah!"</p> + +<p>She said it with a sob, for a sudden vision of home flashed across the +cold and darkness; and presently Landless could hear that she was +weeping.</p> + +<p>The sound went to his heart. "I would God I could help you, madam," he +said gently. "Take comfort! You are in the hands of One who holds the +sea in the hollow of His hand."</p> + +<p>In a little while she was quiet. There passed another long interval of +silent endurance, broken by Patricia's saying piteously, "My hands are +so numbed with cold that I cannot hold to the side of the boat. And my +arms are bruised with striking against it."<a class="pagenum" name="page_164" id="page_164" title="164"></a></p> + +<p>Without a word Landless put his arm around her, and held her steady +amidst the tossings of the boat. "You are shivering with cold!" he said. +"If I had but something to wrap you in!"</p> + +<p>She drooped against him, and the lightning showed him her face, still +and white, with parted lips, and long lashes sweeping her marble cheek.</p> + +<p>"Madam, madam!" he cried roughly. "You must not swoon! You must not!"</p> + +<p>With a strong effort she rallied. "I will try to be brave," she said +plaintively. "I am not frightened,—not very much. But oh! I am cold and +tired!"</p> + +<p>He drew her head down upon his knee. "Let it lie there," he said, +speaking as to a tired child. "I will hold you quite steady. Now shut +your eyes and try to sleep. The storm is no worse than it was; and since +the boat has lived this long in this sea, she may live through the +night. And with morning may come many chances of safety. Try to rest in +that hope."</p> + +<p>Faint and exhausted from cold and terror, she submitted like a child, +and lay with closed eyes in a sort of stupor within his arms.</p> + +<p>There was less lightning now, and the thunder sounded in long booming +peals, instead of short, sharp cannon cracks. The rain, too, had ceased; +but the wind blew furiously, and the sea ran in tremendous waves. +Regulus stirred, groaned, and struggled into a sitting posture. "Lie +down again!" ordered Darkeih. "We 's all on de way to Heaben, but if +nigger shake de boat, we'll get dere befo' de Lawd ready for us. Lie +down!" Regulus, muttering to himself, looked stupidly about him, then +dropped his head back into her lap. In three minutes he was snoring.<a class="pagenum" name="page_165" id="page_165" title="165"></a> +Darkeih's whimpering died away, and her turbaned head sank lower and +lower, until it rested upon that of Regulus, and she, too, slept.</p> + +<p>Landless sat very still, holding his burden lightly and tenderly, and +staring into the darkness. Against the steep slope of the sea, a picture +framed itself, melted away, and was followed by others in long +procession. He saw a ruinous, ivy-grown hall, and an old, grave, formal +garden, where, between long box hedges broken by fantastic yews, there +walked a boy, book in hand. A man with a stately figure and a stern, +careworn face met the boy, and they leaned upon a broken dial, and the +father reasoned with the son of Right and Truth and Liberty, and +something touched upon the Tyrannicides of old. The yew trees drooped +their sombre boughs about the figures, and they were gone, and in their +place roared and swelled the Chesapeake.... The sound of the storm +became the sound of a battle-cry. He saw a clanging fight where sword +clashed upon armor, and artillery belched fire and thunder, and horse +and man went down in the melée, and were trampled under foot amidst +shrieks and oaths and stern prayers. The boy who had leaned upon the +dial fought coolly, desperately, drunk with the joy of battle, stung to +fierce effort by his father's eyes. The great banner, blazoned with the +Cross of Saint George, streamed in crimson and azure between the battle +and the lonely watcher in the storm-tossed boat, and the vision was +gone.... The spires of a great city, where men walked with long faces +and church bells made the only music, rose through the gloom, and he saw +a dingy chamber in a dingy stack of buildings, and within it, bending +over great tomes of law, a man, impoverished and orphaned,<a class="pagenum" name="page_166" id="page_166" title="166"></a> but young, +strong, and full of hope,—a man well spoken of and allowed to be on the +road to high preferment. The chamber wavered into darkness; but the city +spires flashed light, and the slow ringing changed to mad peals from joy +bells. Some one had been restored—to drop balm upon the bleeding heart +of a nation, to bring light to them that sit in darkness,—so said the +joy bells.... He saw a loathsome prison, and the man who had sat in the +dingy chamber lying therein under accusation of a crime which he had not +committed. He saw him pining there, week after week, month after month, +untried, forgotten, at the mercy of an enemy to his house whose day had +come with the Restored One.... The prison vanished, and the waves that +tossed around him were the waves of the Atlantic. A ship ploughed her +way through them. He saw into her hold,—a horrible place of stench and +filth and darkness,—a place where hounds would not have kenneled. Men +and women were there who cursed and fought for the scanty, worm-eaten +food that was thrown them. Some wore gyves: they were heavy upon the +wrists and ankles of the man of his vision. He saw a face looking down +upon this man, a handsome supercilious face, with insolent amusement in +the languid eyes and in the curves of the lips. The hatches were +battened down upon the cargo of misery, and the ship with its brutal +captain and its handful of gold-laced, dicing, swearing passengers +vanished.... He saw a sandy, grass-grown street, and a row of mean +houses, and a low, brick building with barred windows. There was a crowd +before this building, and a man standing upon the platform of a pillory +was selling human flesh and blood. He saw the boy who had stood beneath<a class="pagenum" name="page_167" id="page_167" title="167"></a> +the yews of the old Hall, who had fought at Worcester beneath his +father's eye; the man who had lain in prison and in the noisome hold of +the ship, put up and sold to the highest bidder. He saw him carried away +with other merchandise to the home of his purchaser. He saw a Virginia +plantation lying fair and serene beneath a Virginia heaven; and a wide +porch, and standing therein an angelic vision, all grace and beauty, +vivid youth and splendor.</p> + +<p>The picture vanished into the night that raved about him, and with a +long shaken sigh he let his eyes fall from the watery steeps to the face +of the woman who lay within his arms. He had not looked at her before, +conceiving that she might be awake and feel his glance upon her. Now he +could tell from her breathing that she slept. He gazed upon the pure +pale face with the golden hair falling about it, in a passion of pity +and tenderness. She moaned now and then in her sleep, or turned uneasily +in his arms. Once she spoke a few words, and he bent eagerly to catch +them, thinking that she had awakened and was speaking to him. They +were:—</p> + +<p>"Ah, your Excellency! where I reign there shall be only good Churchmen +and loyal Cavaliers—no Roundheads, no rebel or convict servants!" and +she laughed in her sleep.</p> + +<p>Landless shrank as from a mortal blow, then broke into a bitter laugh, +and said to himself, "Thou art a fool, Godfrey Landless. It were but too +easy to forget to-night what thou art and what thou must seem to her. +Thou art answered according to thy folly." He sighed impatiently, and +withdrawing his gaze from the sleeping face, fell into a sombre reverie.</p> + +<p>He was roused to active consciousness by a sudden<a class="pagenum" name="page_168" id="page_168" title="168"></a> and death-like pause +in the gale. The lightning showed the pall of cloud hanging low, black, +and unbroken; but the wind had sunk into an ominous calm. He looked +anxiously around him, then softly disengaging himself from Patricia, +leaned across her, and shook Regulus awake. The negro started up, stupid +from sleep and from his wound.</p> + +<p>"What is it, massa?" he queried. "Wake mighty early at Rosemead.... Lawd +hab mercy! we 's still on de Chesapeake!"</p> + +<p>"We will be in the Chesapeake in a moment," said Landless sternly, "if +you stagger about in that way. Sit down and pull your wits together. You +are like to need them all directly." He touched Darkeih and said, as her +eyes, wide with alarm, opened upon him, "Listen, my wench! Whatever +happens, you are to trust yourself to Regulus. He is a strong swimmer +and he will take care of you. You hear, Regulus!"</p> + +<p>"What is it?" exclaimed Patricia, as he bent over her. "Why have you +waked Regulus? And oh! has not that dreadful wind died away?"</p> + +<p>"It has stopped, madam, stopped suddenly and utterly," he said gravely. +"But it will come upon us from another quarter, and it will bring the +sea with it." He raised her, and held her with his arm. "Trust yourself +to me when it comes," he said gently. "If I can save you, I will."</p> + +<p>There was no time for more. Above them broke a new and more terrible +storm. A ball of fire shot from the cloud into the sea; it was followed +by a crash that seemed to shake the earth. A cataract of rain descended. +From the northeast there swooped upon them a wind to which the gale of +an hour before seemed a zephyr. It drove the boat before it as if she<a class="pagenum" name="page_169" id="page_169" title="169"></a> +had been the bird from which she took her name. It piled wave on wave +until the sea ran in mountains. Athwart the storm came a dull booming +roar, and above the great hills of water appeared a long ridge crested +with white.</p> + +<p>"It is coming," said Landless.</p> + +<p>Patricia looked up at him with great, despairing, courageous eyes. "I +have caused your death," she said. "Forgive me."</p> + +<p>There came a vivid flash, and a loud scream from Darkeih. "De lan'! de +bressed, bressed, lan'!"</p> + +<p>Landless wheeled. Silhouetted against the lit sky he saw a fringe of +pines, and below it a low, shelving shore where the waves were breaking +in foam and thunder. The Bluebird, driven by the wind, was hurrying +towards it in mad bounds. The great wave overtook her, bore her onward +with it, and sunk her within fifty feet of the shore.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later Landless, breathless and exhausted, staggered from out +the hell of pounding waves and blinding, stinging spray on to the shore. +Unlocking Patricia's arms from about his neck, he laid her gently down +upon the sand and turned to look for the other occupants of the hapless +Bluebird. They were close behind him. In a few minutes the two men, +battling against wind and rain, had borne the women out of reach of the +waves, and had placed them in the shelter of a low bank of sand. As +Landless set his burden down he said reverently, "I thank God, madam."</p> + +<p>"And I thank God," she answered, in the same tone.</p> + +<p>He tried to shield her from the wind with his body. "It is frightful," +he said, "that you should be exposed<a class="pagenum" name="page_170" id="page_170" title="170"></a> to such a night. I pray God that +you take no harm."</p> + +<p>"Would it not be more sheltered higher up the shore, under those trees?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, but I fear to risk you there with the lightning so near. +Later, when the storm subsides, we will try it."</p> + +<p>He seated himself so as to screen her as much as possible from wind and +rain, and a silence fell upon the party so suddenly snatched from death. +Regulus stretched himself upon the sand and pulled Darkeih down beside +him. Within a few minutes they were both asleep. The white man and woman +sat side by side without speaking, watching the storm.</p> + +<p>By degrees it raved itself out. The rain fell in less and less volume, +the lightning became infrequent, the thunder pealed less loudly, and the +wind died from a hurricane into a breeze. In two hours' time from the +swamping of the boat the booming of the sea, and a ragged mass of cloud, +lit by an occasional flash and slowly falling away from a pale and +watery moon, were the only evidences of the tornado which had raged so +lately.</p> + +<p>"The storm is over," said Patricia, breaking a long silence.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Landless. "You have nothing to fear now. Would you not like +to walk a little? You must be sadly chilled and weary with long +sitting."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would," she answered, with a sigh of relief. "Let us walk +towards those trees, and see if forest or water be beyond them."</p> + +<p>He helped her to her feet, and they left the slaves sleeping upon the +ground, and moved slowly, for she was numbed with cold, towards the +fringe of pines.<a class="pagenum" name="page_171" id="page_171" title="171"></a></p> + +<p>Landless walked beside her without speaking. A while ago she had been +simply a woman in danger of death—something for him to protect and to +save. He had well nigh forgotten: he knew that she had quite forgotten. +She was safe now, and was become once more the lady of the manor to +whose soil he was fettered. He had remembered, and she was beginning to +remember, for presently she said timidly and sweetly, but with +condescension in her voice;—</p> + +<p>"I am not ungrateful for all that you have done for me to-night, for +saving my life. And, trust me, you will not find your mas—my father, +ungrateful either. We will find some way to reward—"</p> + +<p>"I neither merit nor desire reward, madam," said Landless, proudly and +sadly, "for doing but my duty as a man and as your servant."</p> + +<p>"But—" she began kindly, when he interrupted her with sudden passion.</p> + +<p>"Unless you wish to cut me to the heart, to bitterly humiliate me, you +will not speak of payment for any service I may have done you. I have +been a gentleman, madam. For this one night treat me as such."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," she said at once.</p> + +<p>They reached the belt of trees and entered it. Outside, the broken +clouds had permitted an occasional gleam of watery moonshine; within the +shadow of the trees it was gross darkness. Above them the wet branches, +moved by the wind which still blew strongly, clashed together with a +harsh and mournful sound, showering them with heavy raindrops. Their +feet sank deeply in cushions of soaked moss and rotting leaves.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing to be done here," said Landless. "It is better beneath +the open sky."<a class="pagenum" name="page_172" id="page_172" title="172"></a></p> + +<p>There came a last, vivid flash of lightning that for a moment lit the +wood, showing long colonnades of glistening tree trunks, with here and +there a blasted and fallen monster. It showed something more, for within +ten feet of them, from out a tangle of dripping, rain-beaten vines +looked the face of the murderer of Robert Godwyn.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_173" id="page_173" title="173"></a> +<a name="LANDLESS_AND_PATRICIA_5465" id="LANDLESS_AND_PATRICIA_5465"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<h3>LANDLESS AND PATRICIA</h3> +</div> + +<p>For one moment the parties to this midnight encounter stared at each +other with starting eyeballs; the next, down came the curtain of +darkness between them.</p> + +<p>With a cry of terror Patricia seized and clung to Landless's arm, +trembling violently, and with her breath coming in long, gasping sobs. +Exhausted by the previous terrors of the night, this last experience +completely unnerved her—she seemed upon the point of swooning. Divining +what would soonest calm her, Landless hurried her out of the wood and +down the shore to the bank, beneath which lay the sleeping slaves. Here +she sank upon the sand, her frame quivering like an aspen. "That +dreadful face!" she said in a low, shaken voice. "It is burned upon my +eyeballs. How came it there? Was it—dead?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, madam," Landless said soothingly. "'Tis simple enough. The +murderer is in hiding within these woods, and we stumbled upon his +lair."</p> + +<p>She gazed fearfully around her. "I see it everywhere. And may he not +follow us down here? Oh, horrible!"</p> + +<p>"He is not likely to do that," said Landless, with a smile. "You may +rest assured that he is far from this by now."</p> + +<p>She drew a long breath of relief. "Oh! I hope he<a class="pagenum" name="page_174" id="page_174" title="174"></a> is!" she cried +fervently. "It was dreadful! No storm could frighten me as did that +face!" and she shuddered again.</p> + +<p>"Try not to think of it," he said. "It is gone now; try to forget it."</p> + +<p>"I will try," she said doubtfully.</p> + +<p>Landless did not answer, and the two sat in silence, watching out the +dreary night. But not for long, for presently Patricia said humbly:—</p> + +<p>"Will you talk to me? I am frightened. It is so still, and I cannot see +you, nor the slaves, only that horrid, horrid face. I see it +everywhere."</p> + +<p>Landless came nearer to her, and laid one hand upon the skirt of her wet +robe. "I am here, close to you, madam," he said; "there can nothing harm +you."</p> + +<p>He began to speak quietly and naturally of this and that, of what they +should do when the day broke, of Regulus's wound, of the storm, of the +great sea and its perils. He told her something of these latter, for he +knew the sea; piteous tales of forlorn wrecks, brave tales of dangers +faced and overcome, of heroic endurance and heroic rescue. He told her +tales of a wild, rockbound Devonshire coast with its scattered fisher +villages; of a hidden cave, the resort of a band of desperadoes, half +smugglers, half pirates, wholly villains; of how this cave had been long +and vainly searched for by the authorities; of how, one night, a boy +climbed down a great precipice, scaring the seafowl from their nests, +and lighted upon this cavern with the smugglers in it, and in their +midst a defenseless prisoner whom they were about to murder. How he had +shouted and made wailing, outlandish noises, and had sent rocks hurtling +down the cliffs, until the<a class="pagenum" name="page_175" id="page_175" title="175"></a> wretches thought that all the goblins of +land and sea were upon them, and rushed from the cavern, leaving their +work undone. Whereupon, the boy reclimbed the cliff, and hastening to +the nearest village, roused the inhabitants, who hurried to their boats, +and descending upon the long-sought-for cave, surprised the smugglers, +cut them down to a man, and rescued the prisoner.</p> + +<p>The man who told these things told them well. The wild tales ran like a +strain of sombre music through the night. His audience of one forgot her +terror and weariness, and listened with eager interest.</p> + +<p>"Well—" she said, as he paused.</p> + +<p>"That is all. The ruffians were all killed and the prisoner rescued."</p> + +<p>"And the boy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the boy! He went back to his books."</p> + +<p>"Did you know him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew him. See, madam, it has quite cleared. How the moon whitens +those leaping waves!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is beautiful. I am glad the prisoner escaped. Was he a +fisherman?"</p> + +<p>"No; an officer of the Excise—a gallant man, with a wife and many +children. Yes, I suppose he prized life."</p> + +<p>"And I am glad that the smugglers were all killed."</p> + +<p>Landless smiled. "Life to them was sweet, too, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"I do not care. They were wicked men who deserved to die. They had +murdered and robbed. They were criminals—"</p> + +<p>She stopped short, and her face turned from white<a class="pagenum" name="page_176" id="page_176" title="176"></a> to red and then to +white again, and her eyes sought the ground.</p> + +<p>"I had forgotten," she muttered.</p> + +<p>The hot color rose to Landless's cheek, but he said quietly:—</p> + +<p>"You had forgotten what, madam?"</p> + +<p>She flashed a look upon him. "You know," she said icily.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," he answered. "I know that the perils of this night had +driven from your mind several things. For a little while you have +thought of, and treated me, as an equal, have you not? You could not +have been more gracious to,—let us say, to Sir Charles Carew. But now +you have remembered what I am, a man degraded and enslaved, a felon,—in +short, the criminal who, as you very justly say, should not be let to +live."</p> + +<p>She made no answer, and he rose to his feet.</p> + +<p>"It is almost day, and the moon is shining brightly. You no longer fear +the face in the dark? I will first waken the slaves, and then will push +along the shore, and strive to discover where we are."</p> + +<p>She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Wait," she said, putting out +a trembling hand. "I have hurt you. I am sorry. Who am I to judge you? +And whatever you may have done, however wicked you may have been, +to-night you have borne yourself towards a defenseless maiden as truly +and as courteously as could have done the best gentleman in the land. +And she begs you to forget her thoughtless words."</p> + +<p>Landless fell upon his knee before her. "Madam!" he cried, "I have +thought you the fairest piece of work in God's creation, but harder than +marble<a class="pagenum" name="page_177" id="page_177" title="177"></a> towards suffering such as may you never understand! But now you +are a pitying angel! If I swear to you by the honor of a gentleman, by +the God above us, that I am no criminal, that I did not do the thing for +which I suffer, will you believe me?"</p> + +<p>"You mean that you are an innocent man?" she said breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"As God lives, yes, madam."</p> + +<p>"Then why are you here?"</p> + +<p>"I am here, madam," he said bitterly, "because Justice is not blind. She +is only painted so. Led by the gleam of gold she can see well enough—in +one direction. I could not prove my innocence. I shall never be able to +do so. And any one—Sir William Berkeley, your father, your +kinsman—would tell you that you are now listening to one who differs +from the rest of the Newgate contingent, from the coiners and cheats, +the cut-throats and highway robbers in whose company he is numbered, +only in being hypocrite as well as knave. And yet I ask you to believe +me. I am innocent of that wrong."</p> + +<p>The moonlight struck full upon his face as he knelt before her. She +looked at him long and intently, with large, calm eyes, then said softly +and sweetly:—</p> + +<p>"I believe you, and pity you, sir. You have suffered much."</p> + +<p>He bowed his head, and pressed the hem of her skirt to his lips.</p> + +<p>"I thank you," he said brokenly.</p> + +<p>"Is there nothing?" she said after a pause, "nothing that I can do?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "Nothing, madam. You have given me your belief and +your divine compassion. It is all that I ask, more than I dared dream of +asking<a class="pagenum" name="page_178" id="page_178" title="178"></a> an hour ago. You cannot help me. I must dree my weird. I would +even ask of your goodness that you say nothing of what I have told you +to Colonel Verney or to any one."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "If I cannot help you, it were wiser not +to speak. I might but make your hard lot harder."</p> + +<p>"Again I thank you." He kissed the hem of her robe once more, and rose +to his feet with a heart that sat lightly on its throne.</p> + +<p>The day began to break. With the first faint flush Landless woke the +slaves, who at length yawned and shivered themselves into consciousness +of their surroundings. "What are we to do now?" demanded Patricia.</p> + +<p>"We had best strike through that belt of woods until we come to some +house, whence we may get conveyance for you to Verney Manor."</p> + +<p>"Very well. But oh! do not let us enter the forest here where we saw +that fearful face. Let us walk along the shore until the light grows +stronger. It is still night within the woods."</p> + +<p>Landless acquiesced with a smile, and the four—he and Patricia in +front, the negroes straying in the rear—set out along the shore. The +air was chill and heavy, but there was no wind, and the unclouded sky +gave promise of a hot day. In the east the rosy flush spread and +deepened, and a pink path stretched itself across the fast subsiding +waters. The wet sand dragged at their feet, and made walking difficult; +moreover Patricia was chilled and weary, so their progress was slow. +There were dark circles beneath her eyes, and her lips had a weary, +downward curve; her golden hair, broken from its fastenings, hung in +damp,<a class="pagenum" name="page_179" id="page_179" title="179"></a> rich masses against her white throat and blue-veined temples, and +amidst the enshrouding glory her perfect face looked very small and +white and childlike. The magnificent eyes carried in their clear, brown +depths an expression new to Landless. Heretofore he had seen in them +scorn and dislike; now they looked at him with a grave and wondering +pity.</p> + +<p>As the sun rose, the shipwrecked party left the shore, and entered the +forest. A purple light filled its vast aisles. Far overhead bits of +azure gleamed through the rifts in the foliage, but around them was the +constant patter and splash of rain drops, falling slow and heavy from +every leaf and twig. There was a dank, rich smell of wet mould and +rotting leaves, and rain-bruised fern. The denizens of the woodland were +all astir. Birds sang, squirrels chattered, the insect world whirred +around the yellow autumn blooms and the purpling clusters of the wild +grape; from out the distance came the barking of a fox. The sunlight +began to fall in shafts of pale gold through openings in the green and +leafy world, and to warm the chilled bodies of the wayfarers.</p> + +<p>"It is like a bad dream," said Patricia gayly, as Landless held back a +great, wet branch of cedar from her path. "All the storm and darkness, +and the great hungry waves and the danger of death! Ah! how happy we are +to have waked!"</p> + +<p>Her glance fell upon Landless's face, and there came to her a sudden +realization that there were those in the world, to whom life was not one +sweet, bright gala day. She gazed at him with troubled eyes.</p> + +<p>"I hope you care to live," she said. "Death is very dreadful."</p> + +<p>"I do not think so," he answered. "At least it would be forgetfulness."<a class="pagenum" name="page_180" id="page_180" title="180"></a></p> + +<p>She shuddered. "Ah! but to leave the world, the warm, bright, beautiful +world! To die on your bed, when you are old—that is different. But to +go young! to go in storm and terror, or in horror and struggling as did +that man who was murdered! Oh, horrible!"</p> + +<p>The thought of the murdered man brought another thought into her mind.</p> + +<p>"Do you think," she said, "that we had better tell that we saw the +murderer at the first house to which we come, or had we best wait until +we reach Verney Manor?"</p> + +<p>Landless gave a great start. "You will tell Colonel Verney that?"</p> + +<p>She opened her eyes widely. "Why, of course! What else should we do? Is +not the country being scoured for him? My father is most anxious that he +should be captured. Justice and the weal of the State demand that such a +wretch should be punished." She paused and looked at him gravely as he +walked beside her with a clouded face. "You say nothing! This man is +guilty, guilty of a dreadful crime. Surely you do not wish to shield +him, to let him escape?"</p> + +<p>"Not so, madam," said Landless in desperation. "But—but—"</p> + +<p>"But what?" she asked as he stopped in confusion.</p> + +<p>He recovered himself. "Nothing, madam. You are right, of course. But I +would not speak before reaching Verney Manor."</p> + +<p>"Very well."</p> + +<p>Landless walked on, bitterly perplexed and chagrined. The strife and +danger of the night, the intoxicating sweetness of the morning hours +when he knew himself believed in and pitied by the woman beside<a class="pagenum" name="page_181" id="page_181" title="181"></a> him, +had driven certain things into oblivion. He had been dreaming, and now +he had been plucked from a fool's paradise, and dashed rudely to the +ground. Yesterday and the life and thoughts of yesterday, which had but +now seemed so far away, pressed upon him remorselessly. And to-morrow! +He did not want Roach to be taken. Always there would have been danger +to himself and his associates in the capture of the murderer, but now +when the vindictive wretch would assuredly attribute his disaster to the +man to whom the lightning flash had revealed his presence on the shores +of the bay, the danger was trebled. And it was imminent. He had little +doubt that another night would see Roach in custody, and he had no doubt +at all that the scoundrel would make a desperate effort to save his neck +by betraying what he knew of the conspiracy—and thanks to Godwyn's +lists he knew a great deal—to Governor and Council.</p> + +<p>Patricia began to speak again. "It imports much that men should see that +there is no weakness in the arm the law stretches out to seize and +punish offenders. My father and the Governor and Colonel Ludlow believe +that there is afoot an Oliverian plot—- What is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, madam."</p> + +<p>"You stood still and caught your breath. Are you ill, faint?"</p> + +<p>"It is nothing, madam, believe me? You were saying?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! the Oliverians! Nothing definite has been discovered as yet, but +there is thunder in the air, my father says, and I know that he and the +Governor and the rest of the council are very watchful just now. But +yesterday my father said that those few hundred<a class="pagenum" name="page_182" id="page_182" title="182"></a> men form a greater +menace to the Colony than do all the Indians between this and the South +Sea."</p> + +<p>They walked on in silence for a few moments, and then she broke out. +"They are horrible, those grim, frowning men! They are rebels and +traitors, one and all, and yet they stand by and shake curses on the +heads of true men. They slew the best man, the most gracious sovereign; +they trampled the Church under foot, they made the blood of the noble +and the good to flow like water, and now when they receive a portion of +their deserts, they call themselves martyrs! They, martyrs! Roundhead +traitors!"</p> + +<p>"Madam," interrupted Landless with a curious smile upon his lips, "did +you not know that I was, that I am, what you call a Roundhead?"</p> + +<p>"No," she said, "I did not know," and stood perfectly still, looking +straight before her down the long vista of trees. He saw her face change +and harden into the old expression of aversion. The slaves came up to +them, and Regulus asked if 'lil Missy wanted anything. "No, nothing at +all," she answered, and walked quietly onward.</p> + +<p>Landless, an angry pain tugging at his heart, kept beside her, for they +were passing through a deep hollow in the wood where the gnarled and +protruding roots of cypress and juniper made walking difficult, and +where a strong hand was needed to push aside the wet and pendent masses +of vine. Regulus, fifty yards behind them, began to sing a familiar +broadside ballad, torturing the words out of all resemblance to English. +The rich notes rang sweetly through the forest. Down from the far summit +of a pine flashed a cardinal bird, piercing the gloom of the hollow like +a fire ball thrown into a cavern. Landless held aside<a class="pagenum" name="page_183" id="page_183" title="183"></a> a curtain of +glistening leaves that, mingled with purple clusters of fruit, hung +across their path. Patricia passed him, then turned impulsively. "You +think me hard!" she said. "Many people think me so, but I am not so, +indeed.... And there are good Puritans. Major Carrington, they say, is +Puritan at heart, and he is a good man and a gentleman.... And you saved +my life.... At least you are not like those men of whom I spoke. You +would not plot against the good peace which we enjoy! You would not try +to array servant against master?"</p> + +<p>It was a direct question asked with large, straightforward eyes fixed +upon his. He tried to evade it, but she asked again with insistence, and +with a faint doubt lurking in her eyes, "If these men are plotting, +which God forbid! you know nothing of it? You have great wrongs, but you +would take no such dastard way to right them?"</p> + +<p>Landless's soul writhed within him, but he told the inevitable lie that +was none the less a lie that it was also the truth. He said in a low +voice, "I trust, madam, that I will do naught that may misbecome a +gentleman."</p> + +<p>She was quite satisfied. He saw that he had regained the ground lost by +his avowal of a few minutes before, and he cursed himself and cursed his +fate.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards they emerged from the forest upon a tobacco patch, from +the midst of which rose a rude cabin, in whose doorway stood a woman +serving out bowls of loblolly to half a dozen tow-headed children.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, Patricia, rested and refreshed, took her seat behind +the oxen, which the owner of the cabin had harnessed up, with much +protestation of his eagerness to serve the daughter of Colonel Verney,<a class="pagenum" name="page_184" id="page_184" title="184"></a> +emptied her purse in the midst of the open-mouthed children, and bade +kindly adieu to the good wife. Darkeih curled herself up in the bottom +of the cart, and Landless and Regulus walked beside it.</p> + +<p>In two hours' time they were at Verney Manor, where they found none but +women to greet them, Rendered uneasy by the storm, Woodson had +despatched a messenger to Rosemead, who had returned with the tidings +that no boat from Verney Manor had reached that plantation. The overseer +had ill news with which to greet the Colonel and Sir Charles when at +midnight they arrived unexpectedly from Green Spring. Since then every +able-bodied man had deserted the plantation. There were no boats at the +wharf, no horses in the stables. The master and Sir Charles were gone in +the Nancy, the two overseers on horseback. A Sabbath stillness brooded +over the plantation, until a negro woman recognized the occupants of the +ox-cart lumbering up the road. Then there was noise enough of an +exclamatory, feminine kind. The shrill sounds penetrated to the great +room, where, behind drawn curtains, surrounded by essences, and an odor +of burnt feathers, with Chloe to fan her, and Mr. Frederick Jones to +murmur consolation, reclined Mistress Lettice. As Patricia stepped upon +the porch, Betty Carrington flew down the stairs and through the hall, +and the two met with a little inarticulate burst of cries and kisses. +Mistress Lettice in the great room went into hysterics for the fifth +time that morning.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_185" id="page_185" title="185"></a> +<a name="A_CAPTURE_5844" id="A_CAPTURE_5844"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<h3>A CAPTURE</h3> +</div> + +<p>At noon the next day returned the search party, dispatched by the +Colonel on receipt of his daughter's information, and headed by Woodson +and Sir Charles Carew. In their midst, bound with ropes, and seated +behind one of the mounted men, was Roach. His clothing hung from him in +tatters, and witnessed, moreover, to the quagmires and mantled pools +through which he had struggled; his arm had been injured, and was tied +with a bloody rag; blood was caked upon his villainous face, scratched +and torn in his breathless bursting through thickets; his red hair fell +over his eyes in matted elf-locks; his lips were drawn back in a snarl +over discolored fangs; he panted like a dog, his thick red tongue +hanging out. He looked hardly human. The man behind whom he rode was +Luiz Sebastian.</p> + +<p>The party dismounted in the small square, in the midst of the quarters. +It being the noon rest, the entire servant population was on hand, and +leaving its cabins and smoking messes of bacon and succotash, it +hastened to a man to the square, where, beneath the dead tree and its +sinister appendage, stood the master, listening to Woodson's account of +the capture, and to Sir Charles's airy interpolations. Roach, dragged +from the horse by a dozen officious hands, staggered with exhaustion. +Luiz Sebastian caught<a class="pagenum" name="page_186" id="page_186" title="186"></a> him by the arm and so held him during the ensuing +interview.</p> + +<p>When the unusual bustle, the neighing of the horses, and the excited +voices of the crowd brought the news of the capture to Landless, +sitting, sunk in anxious thought, within his cabin, he rose and began to +pace to and fro in the narrow room. Past his door hurried men, women, +and children on their way to the square. One or two beckoned him to +follow, but he shook his head. "If he betray me," he thought, "my fate +will come to me soon enough. I will not go to meet it."</p> + +<p>In his restless pacing to and fro, he stopped before a shelf where, +beside some coarse eating utensils and the heap of tobacco pegs, the +cutting of which occupied his spare moments, lay a little worn book. It +had been Godwyn's. He opened it at random, and read a few verses. With a +heavy sigh he laid his arm along the shelf and rested his burning +forehead upon it. "'Let not your heart be troubled,'" he said beneath +his breath; and again, "'Let not your heart be troubled.'" He +recommenced his pacing up and down the room. "'Peace I leave with you, +My peace I give unto you.'" Going to the doorway, he leaned against it +and looked out into a world of sunshine, and up to where the topmost +branches of a pine slept against the blue. "There may be peace beyond," +he said. "I have not found it here."</p> + +<p>Down the lane came a murmur of voices; then the overseer's harsh tones; +then a light and mocking laugh. Seized by an uncontrollable impulse he +left the cabin and directed his steps towards the square. As he passed a +cabin some doors from his own, a gaunt figure arose from the doorstep +and joined itself to him.<a class="pagenum" name="page_187" id="page_187" title="187"></a></p> + +<p>"The murderer is here," said the sepulchral voice of Master Win-Grace +Porringer. "Verily the blood hath been taken out of his mouth, and his +abominations from between his teeth. Cursed be the shedder of innocent +blood!"</p> + +<p>"Amen," said Landless; then, "This capture is like to be our ruin. This +wretch will not keep silence."</p> + +<p>"But he has no proofs. Since you destroyed those lists there exists not +a scrap of writing about this affair. And we have covered our tracks as +carefully as if we were the cursed heathen of the land upon the +warpath. Let him say what he will. The Malignants, besotted fools! will +think he lies to save his neck."</p> + +<p>"A week ago they might have thought so," said Landless. "But not now. +Something has gotten abroad. Already Governor and Council think they +smell a plot."</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian caught his breath. "How do you know this?"</p> + +<p>"No matter how: I know it."</p> + +<p>Porringer raised his scarred face to heaven. "God," he said, "we are thy +people! Save us! Let destruction come upon them unawares; let them go +down a dark and slippery way to death; make them to be as blind and deaf +adders that see not the foot of the destroyer! Yea, shake thy hand upon +these Malignants and make them a spoil to their servants!" He turned his +ghastly face and burning eyes upon Landless. "Curse them with me!" he +cried.</p> + +<p>Landless shook his head. "Thou, and I look not alike at things, friend," +he said.</p> + +<p>"Thou art a Laodicean!" cried the other wildly.<a class="pagenum" name="page_188" id="page_188" title="188"></a> "Thou hast not an eye +single to the Lord's work as had thy father before thee. Thou wouldst +not smite the Amalekites hip and thigh, root and branch! One damsel +would thou save alive, and for her sake thy heart is soft towards the +whole accursed brood! Look to it lest the Lord spew thee out of His +mouth! Woe, woe, to him that putteth his hand to the plough and looketh +back!" He laughed wildly and tossed out his arms.</p> + +<p>"I think thou hast eaten of the Jamestown weed!" said Landless fiercely. +"Collect thy senses, man! And speak something less loudly, or Roach's +betrayal will be superfluous. As to myself, if I curse not, I act; and +as for my motives for what you call luke-warmness, and I call common +humanity, you will please to let them alone!"</p> + +<p>The excitement faded from the fanatic's face, and he said more quietly, +"You are right, friend. I was mad for a moment, mad to see that freedom +which is so near us so imperiled. I meant not to quarrel with you who +have shown in the conduct of this work the discernment of a young +Daniel, yea, who have so borne yourself, that I have grown to care for +you as I never thought to care again for human being. I have prayed much +that you should be brought from the twilight of Calvinism into the pure +light wherein walk the disciples of the blessed Ludovick."</p> + +<p>They reached the square and mingled with the motly crowd that lined its +sides, leaving the centre occupied only by the murderer, his captors, +and the master. Followed by the Muggletonian, Landless made his way to +where the yellow locks of young Dick Whittington towered above the +crowd. The boy saw him coming, and edging past a knot of blacks,<a class="pagenum" name="page_189" id="page_189" title="189"></a> met +him in a little open space, whose only occupants were two or three +women, and an Indian squatting upon the ground. Leaning against a pine, +and fixing his gaze and, to all appearance, his attention upon the +central group where the overseer was just finishing a circumstantial +account of the chase, Landless said quietly:—</p> + +<p>"You were of the party that took him?"</p> + +<p>"That I was!" answered the boy gleefully. "Losh! but it was fun!" His +blue eyes danced with impish delight; a noiseless laugh showed all his +strong white teeth. "We went straight to the spot where you and Mistress +Patricia saw him by the lightning. There the dogs struck his trail and +the fun commenced. Over streams and fallen trees, and chinquepin ridges; +through bogs and myrtle thickets and miles of grape vines—swounds! but +it was hot work! Just look at the scratches on my face and hands! Joyce +Whitbread wouldn't know me! The Court spark, he wore a mask and saved +his beauty. He's a well-plucked one, though, took the lead and kept it, +and when it was over, treated us to usquebaugh at Luckey Doughty's +store. Well, we run the fox to earth in a Chickahominy village. Lord! +I'm sorry for the half king of the Chickahominies! He'll have to answer +to Governor and Council for letting red fox burrow in his village. Found +him squatted in a sassafras patch. Snarled and fought and tried to bite +like the beast he is. Woodson and the Court spark took him."</p> + +<p>"Do you know what will be done with him now?"</p> + +<p>"He'll be taken on to the gaol at the court-house."</p> + +<p>"That is five miles from here," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Yes, near to the village where we took him. He'll<a class="pagenum" name="page_190" id="page_190" title="190"></a> be kept there until +they can try him. And they'll make short work of him. He'll be food for +crows directly."</p> + +<p>The throng pressed upon them, forcing them nearer to the group beneath +the dead tree. The overseer had finished his account, and the master was +clearing his throat to speak. Landless found himself upon the inner +verge of the mass of spectators, directly opposite the murderer, and +confronted by him with a look so dark, wild and malignant, that he could +not doubt the intention that lay behind those scowling eyes. Luiz +Sebastian, still with the murderer's arm in his grasp, gave him a +peculiar look which he could not translate. In the background he saw +Trail's sinister face peering over the shoulder of an Indian.</p> + +<p>"You dog!" said the planter, addressing himself directly to Roach. "What +have you to say for yourself?"</p> + +<p>The murderer made an uncertain sound with his dry lips, and his +bloodshot eyes roamed around the circle from one staring face to +another, until they returned to rest upon the watchful, amber-hued +countenance beside him.</p> + +<p>"Speak!" said his master sternly.</p> + +<p>"I'll say nothing," was the dogged reply, "until I stands my trial. I +demands a fair trial."</p> + +<p>"Remember that this is your last chance to speak to me, to speak to any +one in authority before you are tried. Of course you will hang for this. +Have you anything to say? Do you wish to speak to me in private?"</p> + +<p>The murderer raised his head, and shaking the tangled hair from about +his face, cast at Landless, standing ten paces beyond the planter, such +a look of<a class="pagenum" name="page_191" id="page_191" title="191"></a> deadly and blasting hatred, that for a moment the blood ran +cold in the young man's veins. He set his teeth and braced himself to +meet the blow at plans and hopes and life that should follow such a +look.</p> + +<p>To his astonishment the blow did not fall. Roach changed the basilisk +gaze with which he had regarded him to a vacant stare.</p> + +<p>"I've naught to say," he whined, "except that I hopes your honor will +see that I has a fair trial—no d—d Tyburn or Newgate hocus-pocussing."</p> + +<p>The master beckoned to the overseer. "Take him away," he said. "Take two +or three men and carry him on to the gaol."</p> + +<p>He turned on his heel and walked to where Sir Charles Carew leaned +against a tree, idly flicking the mud from his boots with his riding +cane. Landless standing near and listening with strained ears heard the +master say in answer to the other's lifted brows:—</p> + +<p>"Nothing to be learnt in that quarter. If there's rebellion brewing, he +knows nothing of it."</p> + +<p>Fresh horses were brought from the stables. "You, Luiz Sebastian, +Taylor, and Mathew," said the overseer, swinging himself into the +saddle. The men designated mounted, and Roach, bound and scowling, was +hoisted to his former seat behind Luiz Sebastian. The cavalcade started. +As the horse that bore the double load passed Landless, the murderer +twisted himself about in his seat, and, with a venomous look, spat at +him. Luiz Sebastian smiled evilly.</p> + +<p>The shaven head and fleshless face of Win-Grace Porringer protruded +themselves over Landless's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"What does it mean?" he muttered.</p> + +<p>"God knows," answered the other. "Come to<a class="pagenum" name="page_192" id="page_192" title="192"></a> the trysting place to-night. +We must act, and act quickly."</p> + +<p>That night ten men met in the deserted hut on the marsh, having stolen +with the caution of Indians from their respective plantations. Five were +men who had fought at Edgehill and Naseby and Worcester, or had followed +Cromwell through the breach at Drogheda. Four were victims of the Act of +Uniformity; darker, sterner, more determined if possible, than the +veterans of the New Model. The tenth man was Landless. When, late at +night, he and Porringer crept stealthily back to the quarters, it was +with the conviction that this was the last time they should so steal +through the darkness. The date of the rising had been fixed for the +thirteenth of September; this night, by Landless's advice, it was +brought forward to the tenth—and it was now the sixth.</p> + +<p>Groping his way past the slumbering forms of the three other occupants +of his cabin, Landless threw himself down upon his pallet with a heavy +sigh.</p> + +<p>"Liberty!" he said beneath his breath. "Goddess, whom I and mine have +sought through long years, whom once we thought we held, and waked to +find thee gone,—once I thought thee fairer than aught beside; thought +no price too great to pay for thee. But now!"</p> + +<p>He hid his face in his hands with a stifled groan. When at length he +fell into a troubled sleep, it was to see again a storm-tossed boat, and +a woman's face, set like a star against the blackness of the night.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_193" id="page_193" title="193"></a> +<a name="THE_LIBRARY_OF_THE_SURVEYOR-GENERAL_6089" id="THE_LIBRARY_OF_THE_SURVEYOR-GENERAL_6089"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<h3>THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL</h3> +</div> + +<p>At a long, low table stood Mistress Betty Carrington, her slender figure +enveloped in an apron of blue dowlas, her sleeves of fine holland rolled +above her elbows, and her white and rounded arms plunged deep into a +great bowl filled with the purple globes of the wild grape. A row of +children knelt on the brick floor at her feet, busily stripping the +fruit from the stems, and negresses, hard by, strained with sinewy hands +the crimson juice from the pulpy mass into jars of earthenware. To this +group suddenly entered a breathless urchin.</p> + +<p>"Ohé, mistis! de Gov'nor an' Massa Peyton comin' up de road!"</p> + +<p>Betty suspended her operations with a little cry. "The Governor!" she +exclaimed in dismay. "And my father is gone a-processioning;—and my +gown is not seemly;—and he cannot be kept waiting!" She threw off her +apron, dipped her hands into the water the slaves poured for her, and +was at the hall door in time to courtesy to the Governor, as, followed +by a groom, and attended by Mr. Peyton, he rode up to the house.</p> + +<p>With the agility of youth his Excellency sprung from his horse, threw +the reins to the groom, and advanced to greet the lady. A richly laced +riding-suit became his still slight and elegant figure to a<a class="pagenum" name="page_194" id="page_194" title="194"></a> marvel; his +gilt-spurred, Spanish leather boots were of the newest, most approved +cut; his periwig was fresh curled, and framed with distinction a +handsome, if somewhat withered, countenance. He doffed his Spanish hat +with a bow and flourish: Betty courtesied profoundly.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to Rosemead, your Excellency."</p> + +<p>"I greet you well, pretty Mistress Betty," said the Governor, and took a +governor's privilege. Mr. Peyton looked as though he would have liked to +follow his Excellency's example, but was fain to content himself with +the lady's hand, resigned to the respectful pressure of his lips with a +charming blush and a dropping of long-fringed eyelids.</p> + +<p>"Where is your father, sweetheart?" demanded the Governor.</p> + +<p>"Ah! your Excellency, he is unfortunate. The vestry hath appointed this +day for the examination of boundaries in this parish, and as his +Majesty's Surveyor-General he leads the procession. But will not your +Excellency await his return? He will be here anon, and with him Colonel +Verney."</p> + +<p>"Then will I wait, pretty one; for I have weighty matters to discuss +both with him and with Dick Verney."</p> + +<p>Betty ushered them into the great room, cool, dark, and fragrant of +roses.</p> + +<p>"If your Excellency will permit me to withdraw, I will order some +refreshment for you after your long ride."</p> + +<p>The Governor sank into an armchair, and smiled graciously.</p> + +<p>"Faith! a bit of pasty comes not amiss after a morning canter. And +prithee see to the sack thyself,<a class="pagenum" name="page_195" id="page_195" title="195"></a> Mistress Betty. And a dish of pippins +and cheese," continued the Governor, meditatively, "and a rasher of +bacon."</p> + +<p>"There was a fine comb taken from the hive this morning. Will your +Excellency choose a bit? And there are dates, sent my father by the +captain of the Barbary vessel, and a quince tart—"</p> + +<p>"We will taste of it all," said his Excellency, graciously, "and +afterwards a pipe and a saucer of sweet scented, and your company, my +love. Mr. Peyton, the lady may find the honeycomb too heavy for her +lifting. We will excuse you to her assistance."</p> + +<p>"I am your Excellency's most obedient servant," quoth Mr. Peyton with +due submission, and hastened after his blushing mistress.</p> + +<p>The Governor, left alone, strolled to the window and looked out upon the +Chesapeake, lying blue and unruffled beneath the dazzling sunshine; to +the mantel-piece, and smelt of the roses in the blue china bowl; to the +spinet, and picked out "Here's to Royal Charles" with one finger;—and +finally brought up before a corner cupboard, found the key in the door, +turned it, and came upon the Surveyor-General's library.</p> + +<p>"H'm, what has he here?" soliloquized his Excellency. "'Purchas; His +Pilgrimes,' of course; 'General History of Virginia, New England and the +Summer Isles,' well and good; 'Good News from Virginia,' humph! that +must have been before my time; 'Public Good without Private Interest,' +humph! What's this? 'Areopagitica,' John Milton! John Hypocrite and +Parricide! A pretty author, and a pretty cause he advocates,—I thank +God there are no schools and no printing presses in this colony, nor<a class="pagenum" name="page_196" id="page_196" title="196"></a> +are like to be,—and a courageous Surveyor-General to keep by him such +pestilent stuff in the present year of grace. 'Abuses Stript and Whipt,' +'Anglia Rediva,' 'Diary of Nehemiah Wallington,' 'Bastwick's Litany!' +Miles Carrington, Miles Carrington! I have my eye on thee! Thou hadst +need to walk warily! 'Zion's Plea against Prelacy,' damnation! 'Speech +of Mr. Hampden,' death and hell! 'Eikonoklastes,' may the foul fiend fly +away with my soul!"</p> + +<p>And the Governor closed the cupboard door with a bang, and, with a very +red and frowning face, went back to his seat, and there sank into a +reverie, which lasted until the entrance of Mistress Betty and Mr. +Peyton, followed by two slaves bearing an ample repast.</p> + +<p>An hour later came home the Surveyor-General, bringing with him Colonel +Verney, Sir Charles Carew, and Captain Laramore.</p> + +<p>The Surveyor-General made stately apologies to his Excellency for his +unavoidable absence: his Excellency, holding himself very erect, heard +him out, and then said coldly, "Major Carrington may rest at ease. I was +sufficiently amused."</p> + +<p>"Truly the county knows Mr. Peyton's powers of entertainment," said the +Surveyor-General with a bow and smile for that young gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Peyton had other occupation," said the Governor dryly. "And I fear +that his is too cavalier a wit, and that his sonnets and madrigals savor +too much of loyalty to the Anointed of the Lord and to His Church to +have proved acceptable to the worshipful company with whom I have been +engaged. I have to congratulate his Majesty's Surveyor-General<a class="pagenum" name="page_197" id="page_197" title="197"></a> on the +possession of such a library as, I dare swear, is to be found in no +other house in this, his Majesty's <i>loyal</i> dominion of Virginia."</p> + +<p>Carrington glanced towards the cupboard, and bit his lip.</p> + +<p>"I am pleased," he said stiffly, "that your Excellency hath found +wherewithal to pass an idle hour."</p> + +<p>"It is, indeed, a choice collection," said the Governor, with a smooth +tongue, but with an angry light in his eyes. "May I ask by whom it was +chosen; who it was that so carefully culled nightshade and poison oak?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> choose my own reading," said Carrington haughtily. "And I see not +why Sir William Berkeley should concern himself—"</p> + +<p>"This passes!" exclaimed the Governor, giving rein to his fury and +striking his hand against the table. "It doth concern me much, Major +Carrington, both as a true man, and as the Governor of this Colony, the +representative of his blessed Majesty, King Charles the Second, may all +whose enemies, private and open, be confounded! that a gentleman who +holds a high office in this Colony should have in his possession—ay! +and read, too, for 'tis a well-thumbed copy—that foul emanation from a +fouler mind, that malicious, outrageous, damnable, proscribed book, +called 'Eikonoklastes!'"</p> + +<p>"If Sir William Berkeley doubts my loyalty—" began Carrington fiercely.</p> + +<p>"Major Carrington, you are too popular a man!" broke in the Governor as +fiercely. "When, upon that black day, ten years ago, the usurper's +frigates entered the Chesapeake, and taking us unprepared, compelled +(God forgive me!) my submission, who<a class="pagenum" name="page_198" id="page_198" title="198"></a> but Miles Carrington welcomed and +entertained the four commissioners (commissioners from a Roundhead +Parliament to a King's Governor!)? Who but Miles Carrington was hand in +glove with the shopkeeper Bennett and the renegade Matthews? Oh! they +used their power mildly, I deny it not! They were gracious and +long-suffering; they left to the loyal gentlemen, their sometime +friends, life and lands; they contented themselves with banishing a +loyal Governor to his own manor-house, and not, as they might have done, +to the wilderness, to perish amongst the savages. O, they were exemplary +despots! What, when a turn of Fortune's wheel brought them up, could +grateful, loyal gentlemen, could a grateful King's Governor do, but +follow the example set them and be civil to the officers of the late +Commonwealth, and something more than civil to the gentleman who so +gracefully avowed that he had but bowed to the times, and that the +restored sovereign had no more faithful subject than he? When his +Majesty was graciously pleased to continue that gentleman (at the +solicitation of his loyal kindred at home) in the office of +Surveyor-General to this colony, sure, we all rejoiced. It is not with +the past of Major Carrington that I quarrel; it is with the present. In +his case, that which should speak loudest for his recovered loyalty is +wanting. Others there are who have that witness. Let Mr. Digges ride +abroad, and from his cabin-door some prick-eared cur cried out, +'Renegade!' (Pardon me, the word is not mine.) The Oliverian and +schismatic servants spit at him. Is it so with Major Carrington? By +G—d, no! These people uncover to him as though he were the arch rebel +himself. Speak of his Majesty's Surveyor-General<a class="pagenum" name="page_199" id="page_199" title="199"></a> before an Oliverian, +and the fellow pricks up his ears like a charger that scents the battle. +Nay, I am told that in their conventicles the schismatics pray for him, +that he may be brought back into the fold, and may become a second +Moses, and lead them out of Egypt! Even the Quakers have a good word for +him. Major Carrington asks me if I question his loyalty. I answer that I +know not, but I do know that the discontented and mutinous of the land +do look upon him with too favorable a regard. And his loyalty is of that +tender age that it may well be susceptible to the influence of the evil +eye." The Governor, who was now in a white heat of passion, stopped for +breath.</p> + +<p>"Sir William Berkeley, you shall answer to me for this!" said the +Surveyor-General, with white lips.</p> + +<p>"With all the pleasure in life," said the Governor, clapping his hand to +his rapier.</p> + +<p>Carrington folded his arms. "Not now," he said, with stern courtesy. "I +believe your Excellency sleeps at Verney Manor? I, too, am invited +thither. There, and it please you, we will adjust our little difference. +For the present, you are my guest."</p> + +<p>The Governor choked down his passion, though with difficulty. "Till +to-night then—" he began, when Colonel Verney interposed.</p> + +<p>"Neither to-night, nor at any other time," he said sturdily. "Gadzooks! +have not his Majesty's servants enough on hand without employing their +time in pinking one another? Here are the Chickahominies restive, and +those plaguy Ricahecrians amongst us, and the Nansemond Independents +prophesying the end of the world, and the witches' trial coming on, and +the Quakers to be routed out, and on top of it all this<a class="pagenum" name="page_200" id="page_200" title="200"></a> story that +Ludlow brings of a redemptioner's assertion that there is afoot an +Oliverian plot. And his Majesty's Governor, and his Majesty's +Surveyor-General with drawn rapiers! For shame, gentlemen! Major +Carrington, my good friend and neighbor, for whose loyalty to our +present gracious sovereign I would answer for as I would for my own, +forget the hasty words which I am sure Sir William Berkeley already +regrets. Come, Sir William, acknowledge that you were over-choleric."</p> + +<p>"I'll be d—d if I do!" cried the Governor.</p> + +<p>"We meet to-night," said the Surveyor-General.</p> + +<p>The Colonel turned to Sir Charles Carew, who had been a highly amused +spectator of this little scene.</p> + +<p>"Charles," he said impressively, "report hath it that you have figured +in more affairs of honor than any man of your age at court. You should +be a nice judge of such gear. Join me in assuring these gentlemen that +they may be reconciled, and their honor receive not the least taint; and +so avert a duel which would be a scandal to the community, and a menace +to the state."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles glanced from the pacific Colonel to the sternly collected +Surveyor-General, and thence to the fiery Governor, whose white, jeweled +fingers twitched with impatience.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, sir," he said lazily, "you are welcome to my poor opinion, +which is that, considering the nature of the provocation, and the +standing of the parties, there is one way out of the affair with honor."</p> + +<p>"Exactly!" said the Colonel eagerly.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles locked his hands behind his head. "There's a very pretty +piece of ground behind your orchard, sir," he said, dreamily regarding +the ceiling.<a class="pagenum" name="page_201" id="page_201" title="201"></a> "I noticed it the other day, and sink me! if I did not +wish for Harry Bellasses with whom I have fought three times. 'Tis ever +a word and a blow with Harry! The light just at sunset is excellent, +though your twilight cometh over soon. May I venture to suggest to your +Excellency that your <i>riposte</i> is more brilliant than safe? Major +Carrington, your parade is somewhat out of fashion. I could teach you +the newest French mode in five minutes."</p> + +<p>"I am obliged for your offer, sir," said the Surveyor-General dryly. +"The other has served my turn, and must do so again."</p> + +<p>"Sir Charles Carew will do me the honor to be my second?" asked the +Governor of that gentleman, who answered with a low bow, and a "The +honor is mine."</p> + +<p>"Captain Laramore?" said the Surveyor-General.</p> + +<p>"At your service, Major," cried the Captain, a dashing, black-a-vised +personage, with large gold rings in his ears, a plume a yard long in his +castor, and a general Drawcansir air.</p> + +<p>"Will Captain Laramore fight?" inquired Sir Charles. "I have had the +honor of changing the date for sailing for several gentlemen of his +profession."</p> + +<p>"Even so accomplished a swordsman as Sir Charles Carew is allowed to be, +hath yet a lesson to learn," said the doughty captain.</p> + +<p>"And that is—"</p> + +<p>"Pride shall have a fall—to-night."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles smiled politely. "The ship that is anchored off yonder point +is yours, is it not? Would you not like to take a last look at her? Or +to leave instructions for your lieutenant and successor? There is time +for you to gallop to the point and back."<a class="pagenum" name="page_202" id="page_202" title="202"></a></p> + +<p>"Am I to have the honor of crossing swords with you, Colonel Verney?" +asked Mr. Peyton.</p> + +<p>"No, sir!" exclaimed the vexed Colonel. "You are not! I wash my hands of +this foolish fray. William Berkeley, I have never scrupled to tell thee +when I thought thee in the wrong. I think so now. Charles, thou art an +impudent fellow! I have it in my mind to wish that the Captain may give +thee the lesson he talks of."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," drawled the gentleman addressed. "Mr. Peyton looks +quite disconsolate. Sink me! if it's not a shame to leave him out in the +cold. If he will wait his turn I will be happy to oblige him when I have +disposed of the Captain."</p> + +<p>"You will do no such thing!" retorted his kinsman. "Mr. Peyton, take +your hand off your sword! At least there shall be two sane men at this +meeting. I suppose, gentlemen, you agree with me that this affair cannot +be kept too private? To that end you had best ride with me to Verney +Manor, and there have it out on this plot of ground Charles talks of. It +is at least retired."</p> + +<p>"'Tis a most sweet spot," said Sir Charles.</p> + +<p>"Good!" quoth the Governor. "And now that this little matter is settled, +I am once more, and for the present, sir, simply your obliged guest and +servant," and he bowed to the Surveyor-General.</p> + +<p>Carrington returned the bow. "We will drink to our better acquaintance +to-night. Pompey! the sack and the aqua vitæ. And, Pompey! a handful of +mint."</p> + +<p>The company fell to drinking, and then to tobacco. The Governor, whose +fits of passion were as short as they were violent, arrived by rapid +degrees at a pitch<a class="pagenum" name="page_203" id="page_203" title="203"></a> of high good humor. The company listened gravely for +the fiftieth time to stories of the court of the first James; of +Buckingham's amours, of the beauty of Henrietta Maria, of a visit to +Paris, an interview with Richelieu, a duel with a captain of +Mousquetaires, a kiss imprinted upon the fair hand of Anne of Austria. +The charmed stream of the old courtier's reminiscences flowed on—he +stopped for breath, and Sir Charles took the word and proceeded to +unfold before their dazzled eyes a gorgeous phantasmagoria. The King, +the Duke, Sedley and Buckingham, Mesdames Castlemaine, Stuart and +Gwynne, Dryden and Waller and Lely, the King's house, the Queen's +chapel, the Queen's duennas, the Tityre Tus, Paul's Walk, the Russian +Ambassador, astrologers, orange girls, balls, masques, pageants, duels, +the court of Louis le Grand, the King's hunting parties, Madame +d'Orleans, Olympe di Mancini.</p> + +<p>The Governor listened with dilating nostrils and sparkling eyes; Colonel +Yerney's vexed countenance smoothed itself; Captain Laramore, sitting +with outstretched legs, and head hidden in clouds of tobacco smoke, +rumbled from out that obscurity laughter and strange oaths. Even Mr. +Peyton, after vainly trying to fix his attention upon the construction +of a sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow, succumbed to the enchantment, and +sat with parted lips, drinking in wonders; but the Surveyor-General, +though he listened courteously, listened with forced smiles and with an +attention which was hard to preserve from wandering.</p> + +<p>In the midst of a brilliant account of the nuptials of the Chevalier de +Grammont came an interruption.</p> + +<p>"De horses am fed an' brought roun', massa."</p> + +<p>The Governor started up. "Rat me, if good sack<a class="pagenum" name="page_204" id="page_204" title="204"></a> and good stories make +not a man forget all else beside! Colonel Verney, I wish you, as +lieutenant of this shire, to ride with me to this Chickahominy village +where I have promised an audience to the half king of the tribe. Plague +on the unreasonable vermin! Why can they not give way peaceably? If the +colony needs and takes their lands, it leaves them a plenty elsewhere. +Let them fall back towards the South Sea. Sir Charles, I grieve for the +necessity, but we must leave the court and come back to the wilderness. +Gentlemen, will you ride with Verney and me, or shall we part now to +meet at sunset in his orchard?"</p> + +<p>"We had best ride with your Excellency," said Carrington gravely. "I +like not the temper of the Chickahominies, who ever mean most when they +say least. And these roving Ricahecrians, their guests, are of a strange +and fierce aspect. It is as well to go in force."</p> + +<p>"Those vagrants from the Blue Mountains have been here overlong," said +the Governor. "I shall send them packing! Well, gentlemen, since we are +to have the pleasure of your company, boot and saddle is the word!"</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_205" id="page_205" title="205"></a> +<a name="WHEREIN_THE_PEACE_PIPE_IS_SMOKED_6451" id="WHEREIN_THE_PEACE_PIPE_IS_SMOKED_6451"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<h3>WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED</h3> +</div> + +<p>The sun had some time passed the meridian when the party saw through the +widening glades of the forest the gleam of a great river, and upon its +bank an Indian village of perhaps fifty wigwams, set in fields of maize +and tobacco, groves of mulberries, and tangles of wild grape. The +titanic laughter of Laramore and the drinking catch which Sir Charles +trolled forth at the top of a high, sweet voice had announced their +approach long before they pushed their horses into the open; and the +population of the village was come forth to meet them with song and +dance and in gala attire. The soft and musical voices of the young women +raised a kind of recitative wherein was lauded to the skies the virtue, +wisdom and power of the white father who had come from the banks of the +Powhatan to those of the Pamunkey to visit his faithful Chickahominies, +bringing (beyond doubt) justice in his hand. The deeper tones of the men +chimed in, and the mob of naked children, bringing up the rear of the +procession, added their shrill voices to the clamor, which, upon the +booming in of a drum and the furious shaking of the conjurer's rattle, +became deafening.</p> + +<p>The chant came to an end, but the orchestra persevered. Ten girls left +the throng, formed themselves into line, and advancing one after the +other with a slow and measured motion, laid at the feet of the<a class="pagenum" name="page_206" id="page_206" title="206"></a> Governor +(who had dismounted) platters of parched maize, beans and chinquepins, +with thin maize cakes. They were succeeded by two stalwart youths +bearing, slung upon a pole between them, a large buck which they +deposited upon the ground before the white men. There came a tremendous +crash from the drum, and a discordant scream from a long pipe made of a +reed. The crowd opened, and from out their midst stalked a venerable +Indian.</p> + +<p>"My fathers are welcome," he said gravely.</p> + +<p>"Where is the half king?" demanded the Governor sharply. "I have no time +for these fooleries. Make them stop that infernal racket, and lead us to +your chiefs at once."</p> + +<p>The Indian frowned at this cavalier reception of the village civilities, +but he waved his arm for the music to cease, and proceeded to conduct +the visitors through a lane made by two rows of dusky bodies and staring +faces, to a large wigwam in the centre of the village. Before this hut +stood a mulberry tree of enormous size, and seated upon billets of wood +in the shade of its spreading branches were the half king of the tribe +and the principal men of the village.</p> + +<p>Their faces and the upper portions of their bodies were painted red—the +color of peace. They wore mantles of otter skins, and from their ears +depended strings of pearl and bits of copper. To the earring of the half +king were attached two small, green snakes that twisted and writhed +about his neck; his body had been oiled and then plastered with small +feathers of a brilliant blue, and upon his head was fastened a stuffed +hawk with extended wings.</p> + +<p>To one side of this group stood a band of Indians, two score or more in +number, who differed in appearance<a class="pagenum" name="page_207" id="page_207" title="207"></a> and attire from the Chickahominies. +The iron had entered the soul of the latter; they had the bearing of a +subject race. Not so with the former. They were men of great size and +strength, with keen, fierce faces; their clothing was of the scantiest +possible description; ornaments they had, but of a peculiar +kind—necklaces and armlets of human bones, belts in which long tufts of +silk grass were interwoven with a more sinister fibre. They leaned on +great bows, and each sternly motionless figure looked a bronze Murder.</p> + +<p>The chief of the Chickahominies raised his eyes from the ground as the +Governor and his party entered the circle. "My white fathers are +welcome," he said. "Let them be seated," and looked at the ground again. +The "white fathers" took possession of half a dozen billets, and waited +in silence the next move of the game. After a while, the half king +lifted from the log beside him a pipe with a stem a yard long and a bowl +in which an orange might have rested. An Indian, rising, went to where a +fire burned beneath a tripod, and returning with a live coal between his +fingers, calmly and leisurely lighted the pipe. The half king, still in +dead silence, lifted it to his lips, smoked for five minutes, and handed +it to the Indian, who bore it to the Governor. The Governor drew two or +three tremendous whiffs and passed it on to Colonel Verney, who in his +turn transferred it to the Surveyor-General. When the monster pipe had +been smoked by each of the white men, it went the round of the savages. +An Indian summer haze began to settle around the company. Through it the +patient gazing throng on the outskirts of the circle became shadowy, +impalpable; the face of the<a class="pagenum" name="page_208" id="page_208" title="208"></a> half king, now hidden in shifting smoke +wreaths, now darkly visible, like that of an eastern idol before whom +incense is burned. There was no sound save the wash of the waters below +them, the sighing of the wind, the drone of the cicadas in the trees. +The Indians sat like statues, but the white men were more restive. The +elders managed to restrain their impatience, but Laramore began to +whistle, and when checked by a look from the Governor, turned to Sir +Charles with a comically disconsolate face and a shrug of the shoulders. +Whereupon the latter drew from his pocket, dice and a handful of gold +pieces. Laramore's face brightened, and the two, screened from +observation by the Colonel's shoulders, which were of the broadest, fell +to playing noiselessly, cursing beneath their breath. Mr. Peyton leaned +his elbow on his knee, and his chin upon his hand, and allowed the +dreamy beauty of the afternoon to overflow a poetic soul.</p> + +<p>At length, and when the patience of the whites was well-nigh exhausted, +the pipe came back to where the half king sat with lowered eyes and +impassive face. He laid it down beside him and rose to his feet, +gathering his mantle around him.</p> + +<p>"My white fathers are welcome," he said in a sonorous voice. "Very +welcome to the Chickahominies is the face of the white father, who rules +in the place of the great white father across the sea. Their corn feast +is not yet, and yet my people rejoice. Our hearts were glad when my +father sent word that he would this day visit his faithful +Chickahominies. Our ears are open: let my father speak."</p> + +<p>"I thank Harquip and his people for their welcome," said the Governor +coldly. "I have ever found<a class="pagenum" name="page_209" id="page_209" title="209"></a> them full of words. They profess loyalty to +the great white father beyond the seas, but they forget his good laws +and disobey his officers. I am weary of their words."</p> + +<p>"Tell me," said Harquip, with a sombre face, "are they good laws which +drive us from our hunting grounds? Are they good laws which take from us +our maize fields? Does the great white father love to hear our women cry +for food? or is his heart Indian and longs for the sound of the war +whoop?"</p> + +<p>"That is a threat," the Governor said sternly.</p> + +<p>The Indian waved his hands. "Have we not smoked the peace pipe?" he said +coldly.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" said the Governor then, "I am not come to listen to idle +complaints. Your grievances as to the land shall be laid before the next +Assembly, and it will pass judgment upon them—justly and righteously, +of course."</p> + +<p>"Ugh!" said the Indian.</p> + +<p>"I am here," continued the Governor, "to ask certain questions of the +Chickahominies, and to lay certain commands upon them which they will do +well to obey."</p> + +<p>"Let my father speak," said the Indian calmly.</p> + +<p>"Why did you shelter in your village the man with the red hair? Word was +sent to all the tribes, to the Nansemonds, the Wyanokes, the Cheskiacks, +the Paspaheghs, the Pamunkeys, the Chickahominies, that he should be +delivered up if they found him among them. Why did the Chickahominies +hide him?"</p> + +<p>"In the night time, the red fox came to the village of the +Chickahominies and burrowed there. The eyes of my people were closed: +they saw him not."</p> + +<p>"Humph! Why did you not carry your guns to the<a class="pagenum" name="page_210" id="page_210" title="210"></a> Court House when the +tribes were ordered to do so, a fortnight ago, and leave them there, +taking in exchange roanoke and fire-water?"</p> + +<p>"My fathers asked much," said the half king gloomily. "My young men love +their sticks-that-speak. They love to see the deer go down before them +like maize before the hail storm. My fathers asked much."</p> + +<p>"How many guns has your village?"</p> + +<p>"Five," was the prompt reply.</p> + +<p>"Humph! To-morrow you will deliver ten guns to the captain of the +trainband at the court-house. When do these men," pointing to the +stranger band, "return to their tribe?"</p> + +<p>"They are our friends. They wait to dance the corn dance with us. Then +will they return to the Blue Mountains, and will tell the Ricahecrians +of the great things they have seen, and of the wisdom and power of my +white fathers."</p> + +<p>"When is your corn feast?"</p> + +<p>"Seven suns hence."</p> + +<p>"They must be gone to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The face of the half king darkened, and there was a slight, instantly +repressed movement among the circle of braves.</p> + +<p>"My father asks very much," said the half king with emphasis.</p> + +<p>"Not more than I can, and will, enforce," said the Governor sternly, and +getting to his feet as he spoke. "You, Harquip, shall be answerable to +me and to the Council for these men's departure to-morrow. If by sunrise +of the next morning their canoes are far up the river, headed for the +Blue Mountains, if by the same hour the guns which you have retained in +defiance<a class="pagenum" name="page_211" id="page_211" title="211"></a> of the express decree of the Assembly, be given up to those at +the Court House, then will I overlook your hiding the man with the red +hair, and the Assembly will listen to your complaints as to your hunting +grounds. Disobey, and my warriors shall come, each with a +stick-that-speaks in his hand. I have spoken," and the Governor beckoned +to the servants who held the horses.</p> + +<p>The half king rose also. "My white father shall be obeyed," he said with +gloomy dignity. "He is stronger than we. Otee has been angry with the +red men for many years. He is gone over to the palefaces and helps their +god against the red men. My young men shall take their guns back to the +palefaces to-morrow, and shall bring back fire-water, and we will drink, +and forget that the days of Powhatan are past and that Otee fights +against us. Also when the Pamunkey is red with to-morrow's sunset, my +brothers from the Blue Mountains shall turn their faces homewards. My +father is content?"</p> + +<p>"I am content," said the Governor.</p> + +<p>"There is a thing which my brothers have to say to my white fathers," +continued the half king. "Will they hear the great chief, Black Wolf?"</p> + +<p>The Governor pulled out a great watch, glanced at it, and sighed +resignedly. "Gentlemen, have patience a moment longer. Harquip, I will +listen to the Ricahecrian until the shadow of that tree reaches the +fire. What says he?"</p> + +<p>The half king spoke to the strangers in their own tongue—their ranks +broke, and an Indian stalked forward to the centre of the circle. His +tall, powerful, nearly nude figure was thickly tatooed with +representations of birds and beasts; he wore an armlet of<a class="pagenum" name="page_212" id="page_212" title="212"></a> a dull, +yellow metal ("Gold! by the Eternal!" ejaculated the Governor to Colonel +Verney); over his naked, deeply scarred breast hung three strings of +hideous mementoes of torture stakes; the belt that held tomahawk and +scalping knife was fringed with human hair; beside his streaming +scalplock was stuck the dried hand of an enemy. The face beneath was +cunning, relentless, formidable. He spoke in his own language, and the +half king translated.</p> + +<p>"Black Wolf is a great chief. In his village in the Blue Mountains are +fifty wigwams—the largest is his. There are a hundred braves—he leads +the war parties. The Monacans run like deer, the hearts of the +Tuscaroras become soft, they hide behind their squaws! Black Wolf is a +great chief. Seven moons of cohonks have passed since the Ricahecrians +sharpened their hatchets and came down from the mountains to where the +waters of Powhatan fall over many rocks. There they met the palefaces. +The One above all was angry with his Ricahecrians. They saw for the +first time the guns of the palefaces. They thought they were gods who +spat fire at them and slew them with thunder. Their hearts became soft, +and they fled before the strange gods. Some the palefaces slew, and some +they took prisoner. Black Wolf saw his brother, the great chief Grey +Wolf, fall. The Ricahecrians went back to the Blue Mountains, and their +women raised the death chant for those whom they left stretched out on +the bank of the great river.... Seven times had the maize ripened, when +Black Wolf led a war party against a tribe that dwelt on the banks of +the Pamunkey where a fallen pine might span it. The waters ran red with +blood. When there were no more Monacans to kill, when the fires<a class="pagenum" name="page_213" id="page_213" title="213"></a> had +burnt low, Black Wolf looked down the waters of the Pamunkey. He had +heard that it ran into a great water that was salt, whose further bank a +man could not see. He had heard that the palefaces rode in canoes that +had wings, great and white. He thought he would like to know if these +things were true, or if they were but tales of the singing birds. To +find out, Black Wolf and his young men dipped their oars into the water +of the Pamunkey, and rowed towards the moonrise. In the morning they met +twenty men of the Pamunkeys in three canoes. The Pamunkeys lie deep in +the slime of the river; the eels eat them; their scalps shall hang +before the wigwams of Black Wolf and his young men. In the afternoon, +they drove their canoes into the reeds and went into the forest to find +meat. Black Wolf's arrow brought down a buck and they feasted. +Afterwards they caught a hunter who saw only the deer he was chasing. +They tied him to a tree and made merry with him. When he was dead, they +drew their boats from out the reeds, and rowed on down the broadening +river. The next day, at the time of the full sun-power, they came to +this village. Many years before the palefaces came, the Chickahominies +were a great nation, reaching to the foot of the Blue Mountains, and +then were they and the Ricahecrians friends and allies. When Black Wolf +showed them the totem of his tribe upon his breast, they welcomed him +and his young men. That was ten suns ago. Black Wolf and his young men +have seen many things. When they go back to the Blue Mountains, the +Ricahecrians will think they listen to singing birds. They will tell of +the great salt water, of the boats with wings, of the palefaces, of +their fields of maize and tobacco, of the<a class="pagenum" name="page_214" id="page_214" title="214"></a> black men who serve them, of +their temples, werowances and women. They will tell of the great white +father who rules, of his power, his wisdom, his open hand—"</p> + +<p>"I thought it would come at last," quoth the Governor. "What does he +want, Harquip?"</p> + +<p>"The Ricahecrian starts for his wigwam in the Blue Mountains to-morrow +as my father commands. He says: 'Shall I not return to my people with a +gift from the great white father in my hand?'"</p> + +<p>The Governor laughed. "Let one of your young men go to the court-house. +I will give him an order for beads, for a piece of red cloth, and yes, +rat me! he shall have a mirror! I hope he is satisfied!"</p> + +<p>The half king's eyes gleamed covetously. "My father gives large gifts. +He has indeed an open hand. But the Ricahecrian desires another thing. +He says: 'Seven years ago, at the falls of the Powhatan, Black Wolf saw +his brother fall before the stick-that-speaks of the palefaces. Grey +Wolf was a great chief. The village in the Blue Mountains mourned very +much. Nicotee, his squaw, went wailing into the land of shadows. His son +hath seen but seven moons of corn, but he dreams of the day when he +shall sharpen the hatchet against the slayers of his father.... The +Chickahominies have told Black Wolf that his brother was wounded and not +slain by the palefaces. They brought him captive to their great board +wigwams. There they tied him not to the torture stake; they knew that a +Ricahecrian laughs at the pine splinters. They tortured his spirit. They +made him a woman. The great chief of the Ricahecrians no longer throws +the tomahawk—the guns of the palefaces are about him. He dances the +corn<a class="pagenum" name="page_215" id="page_215" title="215"></a> dance no more—his back is bowed with burdens. His arrow brings +not down the fleeing deer, he tracks not the bear to his den—he toils +like a squaw in the fields of the palefaces. Black Wolf says to the +white father: "Give back the Sagamore to the Ricahecrians, to his son, +to the village by the falling stream in the Blue Mountains. Then will +the Ricahecrians be friends with the palefaces forever." To-morrow Black +Wolf and his young men row towards the sunset; let the captive chief be +in their midst. This is the gift which Black Wolf asks of his white +fathers. He has spoken.'"</p> + +<p>In the midst of a dead silence the half king took his seat and studied +the ground. The Chickahominies, squatted round the circle, stirred not a +finger, and the outer row of spectators, motionless against a background +of interlacing branches patched with vivid blue, seemed a procession in +tapestry. The Ricahecrians and their formidable chief maintained a stony +gloom. Whatever interest they felt in the fate of their captive chief +was carefully concealed. The sun, now hanging, broad and red, low in the +heavens might have been the Gorgon's head and the whole village staring +at it.</p> + +<p>The Governor began to laugh. Sir Charles chimed in musically and +Laramore followed suit. The Surveyor-General frowned, but the Colonel, +after one or two attempts at sobriety of demeanor, succumbed, and the +trio became a quartette. The glades of the forest rang to the jovial +sound—it was as though there were enchantment in the golden afternoon, +or in the ring of dark and frowning countenances before them, for they +laughed as though they would never stop. Even the servants at the +horses' heads were infected, and laughed at they knew not what.<a class="pagenum" name="page_216" id="page_216" title="216"></a></p> + +<p>The Surveyor-General lost patience. "I think the Jamestown weed groweth +in these woods," he said dryly.</p> + +<p>The Governor pulled himself together. "Faith! I believe you are right!" +he said airily. "But rat me! if the impudence of the varlets be not the +most amusing thing since the Quaker's plea for toleration!"</p> + +<p>"The amusement seems to be on our side," said the Surveyor-General.</p> + +<p>The Governor cast a careless glance in the direction indicated by the +other. "Pshaw! a fit of the sulks! They will get over it. Is this +precious captive the giant whom I have seen at Rosemead, Major +Carrington?"</p> + +<p>"Not so, your Excellency. My man is a Susquehannock."</p> + +<p>"I believe I may lay claim to the fellow, Sir William," said the +Colonel, wiping his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Is he the Indian who was whipt the other day?" asked Sir Charles, +taking snuff.</p> + +<p>"For stealing fire-water—yes."</p> + +<p>The Governor began to laugh again. "Of course you will release the +rascal, Colonel? The Blue Mountains threaten war if you do not. Fling +yourself into the breach, and so prevent a 'scandal to the community and +a menace to the State,' to quote your words of this morning. Consistency +is a jewel, Dick the Peacemaker. Wherefore let the savage go."</p> + +<p>"I'll be d—d if I do!" cried the Colonel.</p> + +<p>The Governor, shaking with laughter, got to his feet. At a signal his +groom brought up his horse and held the stirrup for him to mount. His +Excellency swung himself into the saddle and gathered the reins into his +gauntleted hands; the remainder of the<a class="pagenum" name="page_217" id="page_217" title="217"></a> company, too, got to horse. The +Governor's steed, a fiery, coal black Arabian, danced with impatience.</p> + +<p>"Selim scents a fray!" cried his Excellency. "Come on, gentlemen! 'T +will be sunset before we reach that sweet piece of earth behind Verney's +orchard."</p> + +<p>The half king rose from his seat, took three measured strides, and stood +side by side with the Ricahecrian chief.</p> + +<p>"My white father will give to the Ricahecrian the gift he asks?"</p> + +<p>A gust of passion took the Governor. "No!" he thundered, turning in his +saddle. "The Ricahecrian may go to the devil and the Blue Mountains +alone!" He struck spurs into his horse's sides. "Gentlemen, we waste +time!"</p> + +<p>The Arabian dashed down one of the winding glades of the forest; the +remainder of the party spurred their horses into the mad gallop known as +the "planter's pace," and in an instant the whole cavalcade had whirled +out of sight. A burst of laughter, made elfin by distance, came back to +the village on the banks of the Pamunkey, then all was quiet again. The +gold-laced, audacious company had vanished like a troop of powerful +enchanters, leaving behind them a sullen throng of native genii, kept +down by a Solomon's Seal which is <i>not</i> always unbreakable.</p> + +<p>Something stirred in the midst of the great mulberry tree, a tree so +vast and leafy that it might have hidden many things. A man swung +himself down with a lithe grace from limb to limb, and finally dropped +into the circle of Indians who stood or sat in a sombre stillness which +might mean much or little.<a class="pagenum" name="page_218" id="page_218" title="218"></a> Only on the outskirts the crowd of women, +children and youths, had commenced a low, monotonous, undefined noise +which had in it something sinister, ominous. It was like the sound, dull +and heavy, of the ground swell that precedes the storm. The man who +dropped from the tree was Luiz Sebastian, and his appearance seemed in +no degree to surprise the Indians. There followed a short and +sententious conversation between the mulatto, the half king and the +Ricahecrian chief. Beside the half king lay the still smoking peace +pipe. When the colloquy was ended, he raised it. At a signal an Indian +brought water in a gourd, and into it the half king plunged the glowing +bowl. The fire went out in a cloud of hissing steam. The sound of the +ground swell became louder and more threatening.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_219" id="page_219" title="219"></a> +<a name="THE_DUEL_6856" id="THE_DUEL_6856"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<h3>THE DUEL</h3> +</div> + +<p>The trees of the orchard stood out black against a crimson sky. "Faith! +it is a color we shall see more of presently," said Laramore, divesting +himself of his doublet.</p> + +<p>His antagonist, passing a laced handkerchief along a gleaming blade, +smiled politely. "A pretty tint. Wine, the lips of women, Captain +Laramore's blood—Lard! 'tis a color I adore!"</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen!" cried Colonel Verney. "Once more I beg of you to forego +this foolish quarrel. William Berkeley, for the first time in your life, +be reasonable!"</p> + +<p>The Governor turned sharply, his chest, beneath his shirt of finest +holland, swelling, each closely cropped hair upon his head, bared for +action, stiff with injured dignity.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Richard Verney forgets himself," he began angrily; then, +"Confound you, Dick! keep your hands out of this. I don't want to fight +you too! I say not that this gentleman is disloyal, but I do say, and I +will maintain it with the last drop of my blood, that he strives to draw +to himself a party in the State, with what intent he best knows. If he +choose to pocket that assertion and withdraw, I am content."</p> + +<p>"On guard, sir," said Carrington, raising his sword.<a class="pagenum" name="page_220" id="page_220" title="220"></a></p> + +<p>The Colonel shrugged his shoulders, and returned to his post beside Mr. +Peyton.</p> + +<p>"Very well, gentlemen, since you will not be ruled. Are you ready?"</p> + +<p>The rapiers clashed together, and the game began.</p> + +<p>The Governor fenced brilliantly, if a trifle wildly; his antagonist with +a cool steadiness of manner and an iron wrist. Laramore fought with +bull-like ferocity, striving to beat down his opponent's guard, making +mad lunges, stamping, and keeping up a continuous rumble of oaths. Sir +Charles, always smiling, and with an air as if his thoughts were +anywhere but at that particular spot, put aside his thrusts with the +ease with which the toreador avoids the bull.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peyton was moved to reluctant admiration. "When I was in London, +sir," he said in an excited whisper to the Colonel, "I did see Mathews +fight with Westwicke, and thought I had seen fencing indeed, but your +cousin—ah!"</p> + +<p>Laramore's sword described a curve in the air, and lodged in the boughs +of an apple-tree, while its owner staggered forward and fell heavily to +the ground. At the same instant Carrington wounded the Governor in the +wrist. Colonel Verney struck up the weapons. "By the Lord, gentlemen! +you shall go no further! Jack Laramore's down, run through the shoulder! +Major Carrington, you have drawn blood—it is enough."</p> + +<p>"If Sir William Berkeley is content," began Carrington, bowing to his +antagonist.</p> + +<p>"Rat me! I've no choice," said the Governor ruefully. "You've disabled +my sword arm, and the gout has the other."</p> + +<p>"I shall be happy to wait until the wound shall<a class="pagenum" name="page_221" id="page_221" title="221"></a> have healed," said the +Surveyor-General, with another bow.</p> + +<p>"No, no," said his Excellency, with a laugh. "We'll cry quits. And rat +me! if now that we have had it out, I do not love thee better, Miles +Carrington, than ever I did before. In the morning when thou goest home, +burn thy library, burn Milton and Bastwick, and Withers, and the rest of +the rogues, forswear such rascally company forever, and rat me! if I +will not maintain that thou art the honestest, as well as the +longest-headed, man in the colony. There's my hand on it, and to-night +we'll have a rouse such as would make old Noll turn in his grave if he +had one."</p> + +<p>Carrington took the proffered hand courteously, if coldly. "I thank your +Excellency for your advice. Your Excellency should have your wound +attended to at once. You are losing a deal of blood."</p> + +<p>"Tut, a trifle!" said the Governor, airily, winding a handkerchief about +the bleeding member.</p> + +<p>"Is there ever a chirurgeon upon the place?" asked Sir Charles in his +most dulcet tones. "If not, I fear that Captain Laramore will very +shortly make his last voyage."</p> + +<p>"Egad! that will never do!" cried the Colonel, dropping upon his knees +beside the wounded man. "A bad thrust! Charles, thou art the very +devil!"</p> + +<p>"Shall I ride for the doctor?" cried Mr. Peyton.</p> + +<p>"No. Anthony Nash is at the house. Run, lad, and fetch him. He is +surgeon as well as divine."</p> + +<p>Mr. Peyton disappeared; and presently there stood in the midst of the +group gathered about the unconscious captain, a man clad in a clerical +dress and of a very dignified and scholarly demeanor.</p> + +<p>"Ha, gentlemen!" he said gravely, looking with<a class="pagenum" name="page_222" id="page_222" title="222"></a> bright, dark eyes from +one to the other. "This is a sorry business. Shirts, drawn rapiers, +trampled turf, Sir William bleeding, Captain Laramore senseless upon the +ground! His Excellency the Governor; Major Carrington, the +Surveyor-General; Colonel Verney, the lieutenant of the +shire;—scandalous, gentlemen!"</p> + +<p>"And Anthony Nash who would give his chance of a mitre to have been one +of us," cried the Governor. "Ha! Anthony! dost remember the fight behind +Paul's, three to one,—and the baggage that brought it about?"</p> + +<p>The divine, on his knees beside Laramore, looked up with a twinkle in +his eye from his work of tying laced handkerchiefs into bandages. "That +was in the dark ages, your Excellency. My memory goeth not back so far. +Ha! that is better! He is coming to himself. It is not so bad after +all."</p> + +<p>Laramore groaned, opened his eyes, and struggled into a sitting posture.</p> + +<p>"Blast me! but I am properly spitted. Sir Charles Carew, my compliments +to you. You are a man after my own heart. Ha, your Excellency! I find +myself in good company. Dr. Anthony Nash, I shall have you out! You have +torn the handkerchief Mistress Lettice Verney gave me."</p> + +<p>The Doctor laughed. "You must be got to the house at once, and to bed, +where Mistress Lettice, who is as skillful in healing as in making +wounds, shall help me to properly dress this one."</p> + +<p>Laramore staggered to his feet. "Give me an arm, Doctor; and Peyton, +clap my periwig upon my head, will you? and fetch me my sword from where +I see it, adorning yonder bough. Sir Charles Carew,<a class="pagenum" name="page_223" id="page_223" title="223"></a> I am your humble +servant. Damme! it's no disgrace to be worsted by the best sword at +Whitehall." And the gallant captain, supported by the clergyman and Mr. +Peyton, reeled off the ground; the remainder of the party waiting only +to assume doublets and wigs before following him to the house.</p> + +<p>Two hours later Sir Charles Carew rose from the supper-table, and +leaving the gentlemen at wine, passed into the great room, and came +softly up to Patricia, sitting at the spinet.</p> + +<p>"My heart was not there," he said, answering her smile and lifted brows. +"I am come in search of it."</p> + +<p>She laughed, fingering the keys. "Did you leave it on the field of +honor? Fie, sir, for shame! Doctor Nash says that Captain Laramore will +not use his arm for a fortnight."</p> + +<p>"What—" said Sir Charles, dropping his voice and leaning over +her—"what if I had been the wounded one?"</p> + +<p>"I would have made your gruel with great pleasure, cousin."</p> + +<p>She laughed again, and looked at him half tenderly, half mockingly. +There were silver candlesticks upon the spinet and the light from the +tall wax tapers fell with a white radiance over the slender figure in +brocade and lace, the gleaming shoulders, the beautiful face, and the +shining hair. Her eyes were brilliant, her mouth all elusive, mocking, +exquisite curves.</p> + +<p>He raised a wandering lock of gold to his lips. "The King hath written, +commanding me home to England," he said abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my father told me. He says the King loves you much."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles left her side, twice walked the length<a class="pagenum" name="page_224" id="page_224" title="224"></a> of the room, and +came back to her. "Am I to go as I came—alone?" he asked, standing +before her with folded arms.</p> + +<p>"If you so desire, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Will you go with me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>He caught her in his arms; but she cried out and freed herself.</p> + +<p>"No, no, not yet!" she said breathlessly. "Listen to me."</p> + +<p>She moved backwards a step or two, and stood facing him, her hand at her +bosom, a color in her cheek, her eyes like stars. "I do not know that I +love you, Sir Charles Carew. At times I have thought that I did; at +times, not. There is an unrest here," touching her heart, "which has +come to me lately. I do not know—it may be the beginning of love. Last +night my father had much talk with me. It is his dearest wish that you +and I should wed. He has been my very good father always. If you will +take me as I am, not loving you yet, but with a heart free to learn, +why—" Her voice broke.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles flung himself at her feet, and, taking possession of her +hands, covered them with kisses. A voice passed the window, singing +through the night:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<tr><td>"Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>And shake the green leaves from the tree;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>O gentle death, when wilt thou come?</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>For of my life I am weary."</span></td></tr> +</table> + + +<p>"Margery again?" said Sir Charles, rising.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Patricia, with a troubled voice.</p> + +<p>The voice began the stanza again:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> +<tr><td>"Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow,</td></tr> +<tr><td><span style='margin-left: 20px'>And shake the green leaves from the tree?"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="page_225" id="page_225" title="225"></a>"What +is the matter?" cried Sir Charles in alarm.</p> + +<p>Patricia stared at him with wide, unseeing eyes. "Martinmas wind," she +said in a low, clear, even voice. "Martinmas wind! The leaves drift in +clouds, yellow and red, red like blood. Look at the river flowing in the +sunshine! And the tall gray crags! Ah!" and she put her hands before her +face.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" cried her suitor. "What is the matter? You are ill!"</p> + +<p>She dropped her hands. "I am well now," she said tremulously. "I do not +know what it was. I had a vision—" she broke into wild laughter.</p> + +<p>"I am fey, I think," she cried. "Let me go to my room; I am better +there."</p> + +<p>He held the door open, and she passed him quickly with lowered eyes. He +watched her run up the stairs, and then threw himself into a chair and +stared thoughtfully at the floor.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_226" id="page_226" title="226"></a> +<a name="THE_TOBACCO_HOUSE_AGAIN_7090" id="THE_TOBACCO_HOUSE_AGAIN_7090"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> +<h3>THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN</h3> +</div> + +<p>The master of Verney Manor and his guests slept late, for the carouse of +the night before had been deep and prolonged. The master's daughter rose +with the sun, and went down into the garden, and thence through the +wicket into the mulberry grove, where she found Margery sitting on the +ground, tying golden-rod to her staff. "Come and walk with me, Margery," +she said.</p> + +<p>Margery rose with alacrity. "Where shall we go?" she asked in a whisper. +"To the forest? There were eyes in the forest last night, not the great, +still, solemn eyes that stare at Margery every night, but eyes that +glowed like coals, and moved from bush to bush. Margery was afraid, and +she left the forest, and sat by the water side all night, listening to +what it had to say. A star shot, and Margery knew that a soul was on its +way to Paradise, where she would fain go if only she could find the +way.... There are purple flowers growing by the creek between the cedar +wood and the marsh. Let us go gather them, and trim Margery's staff very +bravely."</p> + +<p>"I care not where we go," said her mistress. "There as well as +elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"Come, then," said Margery, and took the lead.</p> + +<p>When they had entered the strip of cedars which lay between the wide +fields and the point of land on<a class="pagenum" name="page_227" id="page_227" title="227"></a> which stood the third tobacco house, +Patricia stopped beneath a great tree. "We will go no further, Margery," +she said.</p> + +<p>Margery objected. "The purple flowers grow by the water side."</p> + +<p>"Do you go and gather them then," said Patricia wearily. "I will wait +for you here."</p> + +<p>Margery glided away, and her mistress sat down upon the dark-red earth +at the foot of the tree. There was a cold and sombre stillness in the +wood. The air smelt chill and dank, and the light came through the low, +closely woven roof of foliage, as though it were filtered through crape, +but at the end of the vista of trees shone a glory of sea and sky and +gold-green marsh. Patricia gazed with dreamy eyes. "It is all fair," she +said. "What was it that Dr. Nash read? 'My lines are fallen in pleasant +places.' Riches and honor, and, they say, beauty, and many to love +me.—O Lord God! I wish for happiness!" She laid her cheek against the +cool earth, and the splendor before her wavered into a mist of rose and +azure. "Why should I weep," she said, "that my lines are laid in +pleasant places?"</p> + +<p>Margery with her arms filled with flowers appeared at her side. "Here +are the purple flowers," she said. "Here is farewell-summer for me and a +passion-flower for you." She threw the blooms upon the ground, and +sitting down at her mistress's feet, began to weave them into garlands. +Presently she took up the passion-flower. "This grew beside the tobacco +house, close to the wall. Margery saw it, and ran to pluck it. The door +of the tobacco house was closed, but above the passion-flower was a +great crack between the logs." She began to laugh. "Margery heard a<a class="pagenum" name="page_228" id="page_228" title="228"></a> +strange thing, while she was plucking the passion-flower. Shall she tell +it to you?"</p> + +<p>"If you like, Margery," said Patricia indifferently.</p> + +<p>Margery leaned forward, and laid a cold, thin hand upon her mistress' +arm.</p> + +<p>"There were seven men in the tobacco house. One said, 'When the +Malignants are put down, what then?' and another answered, 'Surely we +will possess their lands and their houses, their silver and their gold, +for is it not written, "The Lord hath given them a spoil unto their +servants."' Then the first said, 'Shall we not kill the Malignant, +Verney?' Margery heard no more. She came away."</p> + +<p>Patricia rose to her feet, pale, with brilliant eyes.</p> + +<p>"You heard no more?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Margery, show me the place where you listened."</p> + +<p>Margery took up her staff, and led the way to the outskirts of the wood. +"There," she said, pointing with her staff. "There, where the elder +grows."</p> + +<p>Patricia laid her hand on the mad woman's shoulder. "Listen to me, +Margery," she said in a low, distinct voice. "Listen very carefully. Go +quickly to the great house, and to my father, or to Woodson, or to Sir +Charles Carew give the message I am about to give you. Do you +understand, Margery?"</p> + +<p>Margery nodding emphatically, Patricia gave the message, and watched her +flit away through the gloom of the cedars into the sunlight beyond; then +turned and went swiftly and noiselessly across the strip of field to the +tall, dark, windowless tobacco house. As she neared it, there came to +her a low and undistinguishable murmur of voices which rose into +distinctness as she entered the clump of alders.<a class="pagenum" name="page_229" id="page_229" title="229"></a></p> + +<p>Within the tobacco house were assembled the Muggletonian, the man +branded upon the forehead, the youth with the hectic cheek (who acted as +Secretary to the Surveyor-General), two newly purchased servants of +Colonel Verney, Trail and Godfrey Landless. In the uncertain light which +streamed from above through rents in the roof and crevices between the +upper logs the interior of the tobacco house looked mysterious, +sinister, threatening. Here and there tobacco still hung from the poles +which crossed from wall to wall, and in the partial light the long, +dusky masses looked wonderfully like other hanging things. The great +casks beneath had the appearance of shadowy scaffolds, and the men, +sitting or standing against them, looked larger than life. All was dusk, +subdued, save where a stray sunbeam, sifting through a crack in the +opposite wall, lit the ghastly face and shaven crown of the +Muggletonian.</p> + +<p>Landless, leaning against a cask, addressed a man of a grave and +resolute bearing—one of the newly acquired servants of Verney Manor.</p> + +<p>"Major Havisham, you are a wise and a brave man. I will gladly listen to +any counsel you may have to give anent this matter."</p> + +<p>Havisham shook his head. "I have nothing to say. The spirit of the +father lives in the son. Skillful in planning, bold in action was Warham +Landless!"</p> + +<p>"I am but the tool of Robert Godwyn," said Landless. "You approve, then, +of our arrangements?"</p> + +<p>"Entirely. It is a daring enterprise, but if it succeeds—" he drew a +long breath.</p> + +<p>"And if it fails," said Landless, "there is freedom yet."</p> + +<p>The other nodded. "Yes, death hath few terrors for us."<a class="pagenum" name="page_230" id="page_230" title="230"></a></p> + +<p>"What is death?" cried the hectic youth. "A short, dim passage from +darkness into light; the antechamber of the white court of God; the +curtain that we lift; the veil that we tear—and SEE! My soul longeth +for death, yea, even fainteth for the courts of God! But He will not +call His servants until His work is done. Wherefore let us haste to rise +up and slay, to work the Lord's work, and go from hence!"</p> + +<p>"Yea!" cried the Muggletonian. "I fear not death! I fear not the Throne +and the Judgment seat. The Two Witnesses will speak for me! But Death is +not upon us; he passeth by the weak, and seizeth upon the strong. The +Malignants shall die, for the word of the Lord has gone out against +them. 'Thy foot shall be dipped in the blood of thy enemies, and the +tongue of thy dogs into the same! They shall fall by the sword, they +shall be a portion for foxes; as smoke is drawn away so shall they +vanish, as wax melteth before the fire so shall they perish! He that +sitteth in the heavens shall have them in derision. And the righteous +shall rejoice in His vengeance!'"</p> + +<p>"Amen," drawled Trail through his nose. "Verily, we will fatten on the +good things of the land, we will spend our days in ease and +pleasantness! The Malignants shall work for us. They shall toil in our +tobacco fields, their women shall be our handmaidens, we will drink +their wines, and wear their rich clothing, and our pockets shall be +filled with their gold and silver—"</p> + +<p>"Silence!" cried Landless fiercely. "Once more I tell you, mad dreamers +that you are, that there shall be no such devil's work! Major Havisham, +there are not among us many of this ilk. Two thirds of our number are +men of the stamp of Robert Godwyn and yourself. These men rave."<a class="pagenum" name="page_231" id="page_231" title="231"></a></p> + +<p>"I heed them not," said Havisham with a slighting gesture of the hand; +then, "Let us recapitulate. Upon this appointed day we whom they call +Oliverians, and the great majority of the redemptioners, are to rise +throughout the colony. We—"</p> + +<p>"Are to do no damage to property nor offer any unnecessary violence to +masters and overseers," said Landless firmly.</p> + +<p>"We are simply to arm ourselves, seize horses or boats, and resort to +this appointed place."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Calling upon the slaves to follow us?"</p> + +<p>"Which they will do. Yes."</p> + +<p>"And when all are assembled, to oppose any force sent against us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And if we conquer, then—"</p> + +<p>"Then the Republic,—Commonwealth,—anything you choose—at any rate, +freedom."</p> + +<p>"It is a desperate plan."</p> + +<p>"We are desperate men."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Havisham said thoughtfully; "it is the best chance for that +escape of which we all dream, and which two of our number, I see, have +attempted in vain. I had set to-morrow night for my own attempt. This +promises better."</p> + +<p>"Yea," said Porringer, "the stars in their courses fight against the +refugee! Four times have I tried, to be retaken, and handled, as you +see. Twice has this man tried and failed. And the murderer of Robert +Godwyn failed."</p> + +<p>"That remains to be seen," said Trail. "Roach has broken gaol."</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian exclaimed, and Landless turned<a class="pagenum" name="page_232" id="page_232" title="232"></a> upon the forger. "How +do you know?" he asked sternly.</p> + +<p>"I heard," was the smooth reply.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for it," said Landless grimly, and stood with a sternly +thoughtful countenance.</p> + +<p>There was a silence in the tobacco house broken by Havisham.</p> + +<p>"And now—for time passes and the overseer may come and find us not at +our tasks—tell me the day upon which we are to rise, and the place to +which all are to resort."</p> + +<p>"Both are close at hand," said Landless slowly. "The day is—" he broke +off and leaned forward, staring through the dusk.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" cried Havisham.</p> + +<p>"My eyes met other eyes. There, behind that great crack between the +logs!"</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian rushed to the door, flung it open, and vanished; the +branded man followed. The remaining occupants of the tobacco house +started to their feet, and Havisham picked from the floor a pole and +broke from it a stout cudgel. Godfrey Landless strode forward into the +broad shaft of sunshine that entered through the opened door and met the +eavesdropper face to face, as, with either arm in the rude grasp of the +fanatics, she crossed the threshold.</p> + +<p>The conspirators, recognizing the lady of the manor, were stricken dumb. +In the three minutes of dead silence which ensued they saw their plans +defeated, their hopes ruined, their cause vanquished, their lives lost. +The graceful figure with white scorn in the beautiful face was death +come upon them. The shadow fell heavy and cold upon their souls, the +very air seemed to darken and grow chill around them<a class="pagenum" name="page_233" id="page_233" title="233"></a> The figure of the +woman in their midst gathered up the sunshine, became ethereal, +transplendent, a triumphant white and gold Spirit of Evil.</p> + +<p>Landless was the first to speak. "Unhand her!" he said in a suppressed +voice.</p> + +<p>The men obeyed, but the Muggletonian placed himself between his prisoner +and the door. She saw the movement and said scornfully, "You need not +fear; I shall not run away." Upon her bare, white arms, where they had +been clasped too rudely, were fast darkening marks. She glanced from +them to the scarred face of the Muggletonian. "<i>They</i> will wear out," +she said.</p> + +<p>"Madam," said Landless hoarsely, "how long were you in that place?"</p> + +<p>She flashed upon him a look that was like a blow. "Liar! be silent!" she +said, then turned to the row of faces that frowned upon her from out the +shadow. "To you others I address myself. Traitors, rebellious servants, +base plotters! I hold your lives in my hand."</p> + +<p>"And your own?" said Trail.</p> + +<p>"Cursed daughter of the mother of evil!" cried the Muggletonian, a +baleful light burning in his eyes. "Scarlet woman, whose vain apparel, +whose uncovered hair and bared bosom, whose light songs and laughter +have long been an offense and a stumbling-block to the righteous—thy +cup of iniquity is full, thy life is forfeit, thy hour is come!" He drew +a knife from his bosom and with an unearthly cry flourished it above his +head, then rushed upon her, to be met by Landless, who hurled himself +upon the would-be murderer with a force that sent them both staggering +against the wall. A struggle ensued, which ended<a class="pagenum" name="page_234" id="page_234" title="234"></a> in Landless securing +the knife. With it in his hand he sprang to the side of the girl, who +stood unflinching, a pride that was superb in her still white face and +steadfast eyes.</p> + +<p>"Who touches her dies," he said between his teeth.</p> + +<p>Havisham came to his aid. "Men, are you mad? You cannot murder a +defenseless woman! Moreover such a deed would prove our utter ruin."</p> + +<p>"If her body were found, yes!" cried the hectic youth. "But the water is +near, and who is to know that the devil sent her hither?"</p> + +<p>"It is her death or ours," cried the branded man.</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian tossed his arms into the air.</p> + +<p>"The cause! the cause! Cursed be he that putteth his hand to the plough +and finisheth not the furrow! Ride on! Ride on! though it were over the +bodies of a thousand painted Jezebels such as this!"</p> + +<p>"Time presses!" cried the branded man. "Woodson may come!"</p> + +<p>They closed in upon the three who stood at bay. In their dark faces were +a passion and an exaltation—they saw in the woman fallen into their +hands, a sacrifice bound to the altar. Trail alone looked uneasy and +held back, muttering between his teeth.</p> + +<p>Landless stepped in front of Patricia and faced them with a still and +deadly eye, and with the hand that held the knife drawn back against his +breast. Knowing them, he saw no use in any appeal; also he saw that it +was indeed her life or theirs. On the one hand, the downfall of all +their hopes, the death or perpetual enslavement of many, and for himself +surely the gibbet and the rope; on the other—</p> + +<p>He made a gesture of command. "Thou shalt do no murder!" he cried.<a class="pagenum" name="page_235" id="page_235" title="235"></a></p> + +<p>"It is not murder; it is sacrifice."</p> + +<p>"There must be another way!" cried Havisham.</p> + +<p>"Find it!"</p> + +<p>Havisham turned to the prisoner. "Madam, will you swear to be silent +concerning what you have heard?"</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian laughed wildly. "Who trusts a woman's oath!"</p> + +<p>"You shall have no need," said the lady of the manor calmly. She paused +and her eyes went to the door in an intent and listening gaze, then came +back to the faces about her with a strange light in their depths. "Rebel +servants," she said in a clear, low voice, "I defy you! And you, false +slave, stand from before me. I need not your hateful aid." In the moment +of ominous silence that followed, she swayed towards the door, her hand +at her throat, her soul in her eyes. Suddenly she cried out, "My father! +Charles! help!"</p> + +<p>From without came an answering cry, followed by a rush of men through +the door, and in an instant the room was filled with struggling forms as +the two parties threw themselves upon each other. The newcomers were +half a dozen blacks, the two overseers and Sir Charles Carew. The +overseers had pistols and Sir Charles his sword. With it he met the rush +of the youth with the hectic cheek, who came towards him in long, +hound-like leaps, brandishing a piece of wood above his head, and drove +the blade deep into the chest of the fanatic. The wretched man staggered +and fell, then rose to his knees. Flinging his arms above his head, he +turned his worn face towards the flood of sunshine pouring in through +the door, and cried in a loud voice, "I see!" A stream of blood<a class="pagenum" name="page_236" id="page_236" title="236"></a> gushed +from his lips, his arms dropped, and without a groan he fell back, dead.</p> + +<p>Landless, wrestling with the slave Regulus, at length succeeded in +hurling the powerful figure to the ground, where it lay stunned, and +turned to find himself confronted by Woodson's pistol and the point of +Sir Charles's rapier. A glance showed him the remaining conspirators, +overpowered, and in the act of being bound with the ropes that had lain, +coiled for use in packing, in the corners of the tobacco house. The +hectic youth lay, a ghastly spectacle, in a pool of blood across the +doorway. At his feet was the branded man, a bullet through his brain, +and near him the groaning figure of Havisham's mortally wounded +companion. The woman who had brought all this to pass stood unharmed, +white, with tragic, exultant eyes.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles, serene and debonair, lowered his point. "Your hand is +played," he said with a fine smile. Landless's stern, despairing gaze +passed him and went on to the overseer. "I surrender to you," he said +briefly.</p> + +<p>Woodson chuckled grimly and stuck his pistol in his belt. He was in high +good humor, visions of reward and thanks from the Assembly dancing +before his eyes. "I've had my eye on you for some time, young man," he +said almost genially. "I've suspected that you were up to something, but +Lord! to think that a woman's wit should have trapped you at last! +Haines, bring that rope over here."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles went over to Patricia and offered her his arm. "Dearest and +bravest of women!" he said in a caressing whisper. "Come with me from +this place, which must be dreadful to you."<a class="pagenum" name="page_237" id="page_237" title="237"></a></p> + +<p>She did not answer him at once, but stood looking past him at the +picture of laughing water and waving forest framed in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"I thought I should never see the sunshine again," she said dreamily. +"Did Margery give <i>you</i> the message?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she met me under the mulberries. I would not wait to rouse your +father, but calling the overseers and the blacks from the fields, came +at once."</p> + +<p>"I owe you my life," she said. "You and—"</p> + +<p>Her eyes left the summer outside and came back to the shadowy forms +within the tobacco house. "I will go with you directly, cousin," she +said quietly, "but first I wish to speak to that man."</p> + +<p>He shot a swift glance at her face, but drew back with a bow, and she +walked with a steady step up to Landless. "Fall back a little," she said +with an imperious wave of her hand to the men about him. They obeyed +her. Landless, left standing before her, his arms bound to his sides, +raised his head and looked her in the face. She met his eyes. "You lied +to me," she said in a low, even voice.</p> + +<p>"Once, madam, and to save others," he said proudly,</p> + +<p>"Not once, but twice. Do you think that now I believe that tale you told +me that night, that fairy tale of persecuted innocence? When I think +that I ever believed it I hate myself."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, it is true, madam."</p> + +<p>"It is false! Yesterday I thought of you as a gallant gentleman, greatly +wronged ... and I pitied you. To-day I am wiser."</p> + +<p>He held her eyes with his own for a moment, then let them go. "Some day +you will know," he said.</p> + +<p>She turned from him and held out her hands to Sir<a class="pagenum" name="page_238" id="page_238" title="238"></a> Charles. He hurried +to her and she clung to him. "Take me away," she said in a whisper. +"Take me home."</p> + +<p>He put his arm about her. "You are faint," he said tenderly. "Come! the +air will revive you."</p> + +<p>Supporting her on his arm, he guided her from the house. As they passed +the body stretched across the threshold, the skirt of her robe touched +the blood in which it was lying. She saw it and shuddered.</p> + +<p>"Blood is upon me!" she said. "It is an omen!"</p> + +<p>"A good one, then," said her companion coolly, "for it is the blood of a +fanatic traitor. Think not of it." He turned at the threshold and cast a +careless glance back into the tobacco house. "Woodson, get rid of this +carrion, and bring these men quietly to the great house, where your +master will deal with them."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_239" id="page_239" title="239"></a> +<a name="THE_QUESTION_7519" id="THE_QUESTION_7519"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +<h3>THE QUESTION</h3> +</div> + +<p>"We know all but two things, but those are the most important of all," +said the Governor, tapping his jeweled fingers against the table.</p> + +<p>"It is much to be regretted," said the Surveyor-General, "that the +presence of the young lady was so soon discovered. Otherwise—"</p> + +<p>"Otherwise we might have had further information on more than one +subject," said the Governor dryly.</p> + +<p>"We must make the best of what we have," continued Carrington calmly. +"After all, it is enough."</p> + +<p>The Governor rose and began to pace the floor, his head thoughtfully +bent, his unwounded hand tugging at the curls of his periwig. "It is not +enough," he said at length, pausing before the great table around which +the company were seated. "Thanks to the gallant daughter of the gallant +Verneys,"—a bow and smile to Patricia, sitting enthroned in the great +chair in their midst,—"we know much, but it is not enough. These rogues +have set a day upon which to rise; they have appointed a place to which +they are to resort. That day may be to-morrow, that place any point in +any one of a dozen counties."</p> + +<p>"I apprehend that the cockatrice was to be hatched near by," said Sir +Charles.</p> + +<p>"It is the likeliest thing," answered the Governor, "seeing that their +ringleader belongs to this plantation.<a class="pagenum" name="page_240" id="page_240" title="240"></a> But we do not know. And there +may not be time to reach the planters, to give them warning, to arrest +these d—d traitors, scattered as they are from the James to +Rappahannock, and from Henricus to the Chesapeake. It might be best to +assemble the trainbands at this cursed spot if it can be found, and to +await their coming in force. But to know neither time nor place—to +start a hue and cry and have the storm burst before it reaches ten +plantations—to guard one point and see fire rise at another a dozen +leagues away—impossible! Gentlemen, we must come at the heart of this +matter!"</p> + +<p>"It is most advisable," said Colonel Verney gravely. "Examine the +prisoners again," suggested Sir Charles.</p> + +<p>"One of them is no wiser than we. You are certain as to this, Mistress +Patricia?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, your Excellency."</p> + +<p>"Humph! one does not know; three are dead; there remain, then, that +shaven and branded runaway and the two convicts."</p> + +<p>"You will learn naught from the runaway, your Excellency!" called out +the overseer from where he stood at a respectful distance from the +company. "He's one of them crazy fanatics that wild horses couldn't draw +truth from. No Indian torture stake could make him speak if he didn't +want to,—nor keep him from it if he did."</p> + +<p>"I know that kind," said the Governor, with a short laugh, "and we will +not waste time upon him, but will try if the convict—he who seems to +have been their leader—be not more amenable. Bring him in, Woodson."</p> + +<p>When the overseer had gone, a silence fell upon<a class="pagenum" name="page_241" id="page_241" title="241"></a> the company gathered in +the master's room. The Governor paced to and fro, perplexity in his +face; the Colonel knit his grizzled brows and studied the floor; Dr. +Anthony Nash brought the writing materials displayed upon the table, +closer to him, and held a quill ready poised for dipping into the ink +horn, while the Surveyor-General with a carefully composed countenance +toyed with a pink which he took from the bowl of flowers before him. Sir +Charles leaned back in his seat and looked at Patricia who, seated +between him and her father, stared before her with hard, bright eyes. +Her lips were like a scarlet flower against the absolute pallor of her +face; her hair was a crown of pale gold. In the great chair, her white +arms resting upon the dark wood, her feet upon a carved footstool, she +looked a queen, and the knot of brilliantly dressed gentlemen her +attendant council.</p> + +<p>The door opened and the two overseers appeared with Landless, who +advanced and stood, silent and collected, before the ring of hostile +faces.</p> + +<p>"What is your name, sirrah?" said the Governor, throwing himself into +his chair and frowning heavily.</p> + +<p>"Godfrey Landless."</p> + +<p>"I am told that you are son to one Warham Landless, a so-called colonel +in the rebel army and hand in glove with the usurper himself."</p> + +<p>"I am the son of Colonel Warham Landless of the forces of the +Commonwealth, and friend to his Highness the Lord Protector."</p> + +<p>"Humph! And did you fight in these same forces yourself?"</p> + +<p>"At Worcester, yes."</p> + +<p>"Humph! the son of a traitor and rebel—traitor and rebel yourself—and +convict to boot! A pretty record! On what day was this rising to +occur?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_242" id="page_242" title="242"></a></p> + +<p>No answer. The Governor repeated the question. "On what day was this +precious mine to be sprung? And to what place were you to resort?"</p> + +<p>Landless remaining silent, the Governor's face began to flush and the +veins in his forehead to swell. "Have you lost your tongue?" he said +fiercely. "If so, we will find a way to recover it."</p> + +<p>"I shall not answer those questions," said Landless firmly.</p> + +<p>"It is your one chance for life," said the Governor sternly. "Answer me +truly, and you may escape the gallows. Refuse, and you hang, so surely +as I sit here."</p> + +<p>"I shall not answer them."</p> + +<p>"Sink me if I ever knew a Roundhead so careless of his own interests," +drawled Sir Charles. The Governor whispered to the master of the +plantation, then turned again to the prisoner.</p> + +<p>"I give you one more chance," he said harshly. "When is this day? Where +is this place?"</p> + +<p>"I shall not tell you."</p> + +<p>"We will see about that," said his Excellency with compressed lips. +"Verney, send your daughter from the room. Woodson, you understand this +gear, having been in the Indies. This man is to tell us all that he +knows of this business. Call in a trustworthy slave or two to help you."</p> + +<p>Patricia uttered a low cry, and the Surveyor-General crushed the flower +between his fingers and turned upon the Governor. "Your Excellency! I +protest! This that you would do is not lawful! Surely such harsh +measures are not needed."</p> + +<p>The Governor's fury exploded. "Not needful!" he exclaimed in a high +voice. "Not needful, when<a class="pagenum" name="page_243" id="page_243" title="243"></a> upon these questions hang the fortunes of the +Colony! when if we fail, to-morrow may usher in a blacker forty-four! +And not lawful! I am the law in this. State, Major Carrington; I am the +King's representative, and this is my prerogative! and I say that by +fair means or foul this information must be gained. This is no time to +prate of humanity. We are to show humanity to ourselves; we are to stamp +out this lit fuse. Or does Major Carrington wish it to burn on?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Carrington coldly. "I spoke hastily. You are right, of +course, and I will interfere no further."</p> + +<p>An hour later Patricia stood before the hall window looking out upon the +dazzling water and the green velvet of the marshes with wide, unseeing +eyes. Her hands were clenched at her sides and upon each cheek burned a +crimson spot. Beside her crouched Betty Carrington who, upon the first +rumor of trouble at Verney Manor, had ridden over from Rosemead. Their +strained ears caught no sound from the room opposite other than the +occasional sound of the Governor's voice, raised in interrogation. There +came no answering voice. Patricia stood motionless, with eyes that never +wandered from the rich scene without, and with lips pressed together, +but Betty hid her face in the other's skirts and shivered. The door of +the master's room opened and both started violently. The overseer strode +down the hall and had laid his hand upon the latch of the door leading +to the offices, when his mistress called him to her. "Do they know? Has +the man told?" she asked with an effort.</p> + +<p>Woodson shook his head. "He's as dumb as an oyster. Might as well try to +get anything from an Indian. They're going to try t' other—Trail."<a class="pagenum" name="page_244" id="page_244" title="244"></a></p> + +<p>He left the hall, but was back in five minutes' time with the forger. +They entered the master's room, and Patricia, seized by a sudden +impulse, followed them, leaving Betty trembling in the window seat.</p> + +<p>Unnoted by all but one of the company, she slipt to a seat in the shadow +of her father's burly shoulders. He was leaning forward, talking to the +Governor, who sat very erect, his features fixed in an expression of +dogged determination. The Surveyor-General sat well behind the table, +and upon the polished wood before him lay a little heap of torn petals +and broken stems. At the far end of the room and leaning heavily against +the wall was the prisoner whose examination was just finished.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles had seen the entrance of the lady of the manor, and he now +rose from his seat and came to her. "Not a syllable," he whispered in +answer to the question in her eyes. "Roundhead obstinacy! But I think +that this fellow will prove more malleable."</p> + +<p>His prediction was verified. Ten minutes later the Governor rose to his +feet triumphant. "So!" he said, drawing a long breath. "We are, I think, +gentlemen, at the very core at last. The time, day after to-morrow; the +place, Poplar Spring in this county. And now to work! Those of these +d—d Oliverians whom we can reach must be arrested at once. Swift +messengers must be sent to all plantations far and near. The trainbands +must be called out. Time presses, gentlemen!"</p> + +<p>"And these men?" said the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"Must go to Jamestown gaol, where the one shall hang as surely as my +name is William Berkeley. For the other—"<a class="pagenum" name="page_245" id="page_245" title="245"></a></p> + +<p>"Your Excellency has promised me my life," said Trail cringingly, but +with an inscrutable something that was not fear in his sinister green +eyes.</p> + +<p>"An escort must be gotten together," said the Colonel, "and the day is +far advanced. I advise keeping them here until the morning."</p> + +<p>"See that you keep them straitly then," said the Governor.</p> + +<p>"Trust me for that, your Excellency," said the overseer grimly.</p> + +<p>"Then to work, gentlemen," cried the Governor, "for there is much to do +and but little time to do it in. Major Carrington, you with Mr. Peyton +will ride with me to Jamestown. Colonel Verney, you will know what +measures to take for the safety of your shire. Woodson, have the horses +brought around at once."</p> + +<p>The Council broke up in haste and confusion, and its members, talking +eagerly, streamed into the hall. Carrington was the last in line, and he +paused before Landless. The under overseer and the slave Regulus were at +a little distance replacing the cords about Trail's arms. The +Surveyor-General cast a quick glance towards the door, saw that the last +retreating figure was that of Mr. Peyton, and approached his lips close +to Landless's ear.</p> + +<p>"You are a brave man," he said in a low and troubled voice. "From my +soul I honor you! I would have saved you, would save you now if I could. +But I am cruelly placed."</p> + +<p>"I have no hope for this life—and no fear," said Landless calmly.</p> + +<p>Carrington paused irresolute, and a flush rose to his face. "I would +like to hear you say that you do not blame me," he said at last with an +effort.<a class="pagenum" name="page_246" id="page_246" title="246"></a></p> + +<p>"I do not blame you," said Landless.</p> + +<p>Woodson appeared in the doorway. "The Governor is waiting, Major +Carrington."</p> + +<p>"If I can do ought to help you, I will," said Carrington hastily, and +left the room. A moment later came the jingling of reins and the sound +of rapid hoofs quickening into the planter's pace as the Governor and +the Surveyor-General whirled away.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_247" id="page_247" title="247"></a> +<a name="A_MESSAGE_7762" id="A_MESSAGE_7762"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +<h3>A MESSAGE</h3> +</div> + +<p>In an unused attic room of the great house lay Godfrey Landless, cords +about his ankles, and his arms bound to his sides by cords and by a +thick rope, one end of which was fastened to a beam on the wall. He was +alone, for the Muggletonian, Havisham and Trail were confined in the +overseer's house. Opposite him was a small window framing a square of +sky. He had watched light clouds drift across it, and the sun pass +slowly and majestically down it, and the sunset turn the clouds into +floating blood-red plumes. He had been there since noon. Thick walls +kept from him all sound in the house below—it might have been a house +of the dead. Through the closed window came the low, incessant hum of +the summer world without, but no unusual noise. He had heard the sunset +horn, and the song of the slaves coming from the fields, and as dusk +began to fall, the cry of a whip-poor-will.</p> + +<p>When the door had closed upon the retreating figures of the men who +brought him there, he had thrown himself upon the floor where he lay, +faint from physical anguish, in a stupor of misery, conscious only of a +sick longing for death. This mood had passed and he was himself again.</p> + +<p>As he lay with his eyes following the fiery, shifting feathers of cloud, +he remembered that the gaol at<a class="pagenum" name="page_248" id="page_248" title="248"></a> Jamestown faced the south, and he +thought, "This is the last sunset I shall ever see." He had the strong +abiding faith of his time and party, and he looked beyond the clouds +with an awe and a light in his eyes. Verses learnt at his mother's knee +came back to him; he said them over to himself, and the tender, solemn, +beneficent words fell like balm upon his troubled heart. He thought of +his mother who had died young, and then of scenes and occurrences of his +childhood. All earthly hope was past, there could be no more struggling; +in a little while he would be dead. Dying, his mind reverted, not to the +sordid misery from which death would set him free, but to the long past, +to the child at the mother's knee, to the boy who had climbed down great +cliffs in search of a smuggler's cave. The unearthly light that rests +upon that time so far behind us shone strong for him—he saw every twig +in the rooks' nests in the lofty elms, every ivy leaf about a ruined +oriel, black against a gold sky; the cool, dark smell of the box alleys +filled his nostrils; the sound of the sea came to him; he heard his +mother singing on the terrace. He bowed his face with a sudden rain of +tender, not sorrowful, tears.</p> + +<p>Something crashed in at the window, splintering the coarse glass and +falling upon the floor at a little distance from him. It was a large +pebble, to which was tied a piece of paper. He started up and made for +it, to be brought up within two feet of it by the tug of the rope which +bound him to the wall. He thought a moment, then lay down upon the floor +and found that he could touch the end of the string that tied the paper +to the pebble. He took it between his teeth and slowly drew it towards +him, then, rising to his knees, he strained with all his might at the +cords<a class="pagenum" name="page_249" id="page_249" title="249"></a> that bound his arms. They were tightly drawn, but when at length +he desisted, panting, he had so loosened them that he could move one +hand a very little way. With it and with his teeth he disengaged the +paper from the pebble and spread it upon his knee. There was just light +enough to read the sprawling schoolboy hand with which it was covered. +It ran thus:—</p> + +<p>"I don't know as this will ever reach you. I am doing all I can. Luiz +Sebastian has not let me get at arm's length from him since I overheard +him and the Turk, and a sailor from Captain Laramore's ship and <i>Roach</i> +at the hut on the marsh, two hours ago. They would have killed me there, +but I ran, and he did not catch me until I was almost to the quarters. +He will kill me though in a little while, I know; he has a knife and he +is sitting on the doorstep, and the Turk is with him, and I can not +pass them. He held his hand over my mouth and the knife to my heart when +Woodson went the rounds, and I couldn't make no sound—Lord have mercy +upon me! I write this with my blood, on a leaf from your Bible, while he +sits there whispering to the Turk. He goes to his own cabin directly and +he will take me with him and kill me there, I know he will. He goes to +the stables first and I must go with him. If we pass close enough, and +if I can do it without his seeing me I will throw this in at the window +of the room where I know you are, if not—the Lord help us all!... +Landless, for God's sake! before moonrise to-night the Chickahominies +and the Ricahecrians from the Blue Mountains will come down on the +plantation. With them are leagued Luiz Sebastian, the Turk, Trail, +Roach, and most of the slaves.... When all<a class="pagenum" name="page_250" id="page_250" title="250"></a> is over, the Indians will +take the scalps and Grey Wolf and will make for the Blue Mountains; Luiz +Sebastian and the others will seize the boats and put off for the ship +at the Point. Her crew will give her up and they will all turn pirate +together. The women go with them if they can keep them from the Indians; +the men are all to be killed.... I have told you all I heard. For God's +sake, save them if you can,—and remember poor Dick Whittington."</p> + +<p>Dropping the paper, Landless strained with all his might, first at the +cords which bound his arms, and then at the rope which fastened him to +the wall. Again and again he put forth the strength of despair—his +muscles cracked, great beads stood upon his forehead—but the ropes +held. As well as he could with his shackled feet he stamped upon the +floor; he called aloud, but there came no answering voice or sound from +below. He was at the end of the house over unused chambers, and the +walls and flooring were very thick. He clenched his teeth and began +again the battle with the cords which held him. All in vain. He shouted +until he was hoarse—it was crying aloud in a desert. With a groan he +leaned against the wall, gathering strength for another effort. It was +dark now and the moon rose at eleven.... There was a piece of glass upon +the floor, one of the splinters from the shattered window. He remembered +noticing it—a long narrow piece like the blade of a knife. Sinking to +his knees he felt for it, and after a long time found it. He now had a +knife, but he could not move the hand that held it six inches from his +side. Stooping, he took the splinter between his teeth, and making the +rope taut, drew the sharp edge of the glass across it. Again and again +he drew<a class="pagenum" name="page_251" id="page_251" title="251"></a> it across, and at length he perceived that a strand was +severed. With a thrill of joy he settled to the slow, laborious and +painful task. Time passed, a long, long time, and yet the rope was but +half severed. As he worked he counted the moments with feverish dread, +his heart throbbed one passionate prayer: "Lord, let me save her!" Now +and then he glanced at the blackness of the night outside with a +terrible fear—though he knew it could not be yet—that he should see it +waver into moonlight. Another interval of toil, and he stood erect, +gathered his forces, made one supreme effort—and was free! There was +not time for the cords about his arms, but he must get rid of those +which fettered his ankles. An endless task it seemed, but hand and +friendly splinter accomplished it at last; and he sprang to the door. It +was locked. He dashed himself against it, once, twice, thrice, and it +crashed outwards, precipitating him into a large, bare room. He crossed +this, managed to open its unlocked door with his free hand, descended a +winding stair and came into the upper hall. It was in darkness, but up +the wide staircase streamed the perfumed light of many myrtle candles, +and with it laughter, and the sound of a man's voice singing to a lute.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_252" id="page_252" title="252"></a> +<a name="THE_ROAD_TO_PARADISE_7887" id="THE_ROAD_TO_PARADISE_7887"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> +<h3>THE ROAD TO PARADISE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The family and guests of Verney Manor were assembled in the great room. +The day had been one of confusion, haste and anxiety; but it was past, +and the stillness and forced inaction of the night was upon them. With +the readiness of those to whom danger is no novelty they seized the hour +and made the most of it. Sufficient unto the morrow was the evil +thereof.</p> + +<p>The Colonel, weary from hard riding, but well satisfied with his +afternoon's work, had sunk into a great chair and challenged Dr. Anthony +Nash to a game of chess. "Everything is in train," he told them, "and +all quiet upon the plantations in this shire at least. I believe the +danger past. God be thanked!" Upon a settle piled with cushions lay +Captain Laramore, with a bandaged shoulder, a long pipe between his +teeth, and at his elbow a tankard of sack and an elderly Hebe in the +person of Mistress Lettice Verney. Patricia, sumptuously clad and +beautiful as a dream, sat in the great window with Betty and Sir +Charles. Her eyes shone with a feverish brilliancy, her white hands were +never still, she laughed and jested with her lover, touching this or +that with light wit. Once or twice she broke into song, rich, +passionate, throbbing through the night. The gentle Betty looked at her +in wonder, but Sir Charles was enchanted.</p> + +<p>Steps sounded on the stairs and in the hall. "Who<a class="pagenum" name="page_253" id="page_253" title="253"></a> is that?" cried the +master, taking his hand from his rook.</p> + +<p>"The overseer, probably," said Dr. Nash. "Check to your king."</p> + +<p>A loud scream from Mistress Lettice. The master leaped to his feet, +knocking over the chess-table and sending the pieces rattling into +corners. Sir Charles, drawing his rapier, sprang to his side, the +wounded Captain started up from amidst his pillows and the divine +snatched a brass andiron from the fireplace.</p> + +<p>Framed in the doorway, looking larger than life against the blackness of +the space behind him, stood the arch plotter, the Roundhead, the +convict, the rebellious servant whom the Governor had sworn to hang. +Blood dropped from his face, cut by the glass with which he had severed +the rope, to meet the blood upon his arms and chest, lacerated by his +savage straining at his bonds. For a moment he stood, blinded by the +light, then advanced into the room. His master seized him. "Still +bound!" he cried with an oath. "He is alone then! How did you get here? +What are you doing here? Speak, scoundrel!"</p> + +<p>"I bring you this paper, sir," said Landless hoarsely. "Will you take it +from me. I cannot raise my hands."</p> + +<p>The Colonel snatched the paper, glanced at it, read it with a face from +which all the ruddy color had fled, and held it out to Sir Charles with +a shaking hand. "Read it," he gasped. "Read it aloud," and sank into his +chair breathing heavily.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles read. "Damnation!" he cried, crushing the paper in his hand. +Laramore started up with a roar of "My ship!" and then broke into a<a class="pagenum" name="page_254" id="page_254" title="254"></a> +torrent of oaths. Mistress Lettice's screams filled the room until her +brother roughly silenced her by clapping his hand over her mouth. "By +the Lord Harry, Lettice, I will throw you out to them if you do not +hush! Gentlemen, in God's name, what are we to do?"</p> + +<p>"Barricade door and window and hold the house against them," said the +baronet.</p> + +<p>"Send for help to Rosemead and to Fitzhugh and Ludwell!" cried the +divine.</p> + +<p>"Five men and three women to hold this house against a hundred Indians +and negroes! And no help could come for hours and it is now nearly ten! +Moreover, the messenger would have to pass through the savages lying in +the woods,—he would never reach Rosemead with his scalp on!"</p> + +<p>"I will be your messenger," said Nash rising, "and as every moment is +more precious than rubies, I had best start at once."</p> + +<p>"You, Anthony! God forbid!" cried the Colonel "You would go to certain +death."</p> + +<p>"I would stay to certain death, would I not?" retorted the other. "But +my mare, Pixie, and I can shew clean heels to the red villains, were +they as thick as chinquepins. Give me the stable-key, Verney. I know the +way to the jade's stall, and she will follow her master through fire and +water without a whinny. I don't want a light. Not a soul on the place +must know that I have left Verney Manor."</p> + +<p>"Anthony, Anthony, I am loth to see you go, old friend!" cried the +Colonel.</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, as well leave my scalp in the woods as in Dick Verney's +parlor! but I shall do neither. Hold the house as long as you can, and +look for Carrington,<a class="pagenum" name="page_255" id="page_255" title="255"></a> and Fitzhugh, and Ludwell, and myself with a +hundred men at our heels before the dawn. Until then <i>vale</i>."</p> + +<p>He was gone. "And now the doors and windows," said Sir Charles.</p> + +<p>"The windows, save those in this room, are secured as they always are at +night. The shutters are heavy and strongly barred, and we have but to +draw the chains across the doors. They will find it hard work to fire +the house, for the logs are wet from this morning's shower. There is +ammunition enough, and the shutters are loopholed. If we were in force, +we might hold out, but, my God! what can we do? Even with the overseers +whom we must manage to call to us, if we can do so without arousing +suspicion, we are not enough to defend one face of the house."</p> + +<p>"Are there no honest servants?"</p> + +<p>"How can I tell the true men from the knaves? To rouse the quarters +would be to show that we know, and to ourselves spring the mine which is +to destroy us. And if we brought men into the house, who are leagued +with the fiends outside, then would their work be done for them. There +are a very few whom I know to be faithful, but how to secure them +without giving the alarm—my God! how helpless we are!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I can help you, Colonel Verney," said Landless.</p> + +<p>In the midst of a dead silence the eyes of each occupant of the +room,—the master, the courtier, the wounded captain, the women, +trembling in each other's arms,—were turned upon the speaker who stood +before them, haggard, torn and bleeding, but with a quiet power in his +dark face and steadfast eyes.<a class="pagenum" name="page_256" id="page_256" title="256"></a></p> + +<p>"You?" said the master sternly, "What can you do?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you," said Landless, "but I must be freed from these bonds +first."</p> + +<p>Another pause, and then Sir Charles, responding to a nod from his +kinsman, walked over to Landless, and with his rapier cut the ropes +which bound him.</p> + +<p>"Now speak!" said the Colonel.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The quarters lay, to all appearance, wrapt in the profoundest +slumber—no movement in the low-browed cabins, or in the lane or square; +no sound other than the croak of the frogs in the marshes, the wail of +the whip-poor-wills, and the sighing of the night wind in the pines. All +was dark save in the east, where the low stars were beginning to pale. +Below them glowed a dull red spark, shining dimly across a long expanse +of black marsh and water, and coming from Captain Laramore's ship, +anchored off the Point.</p> + +<p>One moment it seemed the only light in the wide landscape of darkness; +the next the flame of a torch, streaming sidewise in the wind, cast an +orange glare upon the dead tree in the centre of the square and upon the +windowless fronts of the cabins surrounding it. The torch was in the +hand of the overseer, who went the rounds, striking upon each door, and +summoning the inmates of the cabin to the square. "The master wants a +word with you," was all the answer he vouchsafed to startled, sullen, or +suspicious inquiries. In five minutes the square was thronged. White and +black, servant and slave, rustic, convict, Jew, Turk, Indian, mulatto, +quadroon, coal black, untamed African—the motley crowd pressed and +jostled towards that end of the square at which stood the<a class="pagenum" name="page_257" id="page_257" title="257"></a> master, his +kinsman, the overseer, and Godfrey Landless. Behind them on the steps of +the overseer's house were the Muggletonian, Havisham, and Trail. They +had been unbound. In the Muggletonian's scarred face was stolid +indifference, but Trail looked furtively about until he spied Luiz +Sebastian, when he signaled "What is it?" with his eyes. The mulatto +shook his head, and continued to shoulder his way through the press +until he stood in the front row, face to face with the party from the +great house. On one side of him was the Turk, on the other an Indian.</p> + +<p>The master stepped a pace or two in front of his companions, and held up +his hand for silence. When the excited muttering had sunk into a +breathless hush, he beckoned to Landless, and the young man stepped to +his side. There were many streaming lights by now, and men saw each +other, now clearly, now darkly, as the fitful glare rose and fell.</p> + +<p>"Now, my man," said the master in a loud, slow voice, "you will point +out to me, as you have agreed to do, every man concerned in the plot +discovered this morning. And you whom he designates, I command you, in +the name of the King, to surrender peaceably. Your hope of pardon +depends upon your doing so. Now, Landless!"</p> + +<p>"John Havisham," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"Taken redhanded," quoth the master. "Place him here, Woodson, in front +of us. When all are in line, I shall have a word to say to them."</p> + +<p>Havisham advanced with quiet dignity, passing Landless as if unaware of +his presence. "I surrender," he said, raising his voice, "because I have +no choice. And I advise those of our number here present to do the same. +Our plans known, our friends<a class="pagenum" name="page_258" id="page_258" title="258"></a> taken, betrayed and deserted by the man in +whom we trusted most, whom we called our leader, we have, indeed, no +choice."</p> + +<p>"Win-Grace Porringer," said Landless.</p> + +<p>The Muggletonian threw up his arms. "Iscariot!" he cried wildly. "Woe, +woe to him by whom offenses come! Well for thee, son of Warham Landless, +hadst thou never been born! By the power given to the Two Witnesses and +to their followers I curse thee! Thou shalt be anathema maranatha! +Famine, thirst, and a violent death be thy portion in this life, and in +the world to come mayest thou burn forever, howling! Amen and amen!" +With a wild laugh he stalked to the side of Havisham, leaving Trail +standing alone upon the doorstep. The eyes of the forger met the eyes of +Luiz Sebastian in another puzzled inquiry, but the latter shook his head +with a frown. Not doubting that his name would be the next called, Trail +had already taken a step forward, but Landless's eyes passed him over, +and rested upon the face of a man standing near Luiz Sebastian.</p> + +<p>"John Robert!" he cried.</p> + +<p>The man, a Baptist preacher suffering under the Act of Uniformity, +turned a gentle, reproachful face upon him, and stepping from the crowd, +joined himself to Havisham and the Muggletonian.</p> + +<p>"James Holt!" said Landless.</p> + +<p>A rustic, standing behind Luiz Sebastian, uttered a dreadful +imprecation. "You may hang me and welcome, your Honor," he cried as he +took his place, "if you'll just let me see this d—d Judas hung +first!"</p> + +<p>Luiz Sebastian fixed his great eyes upon Landless. "If he calls my +name," said the wicked brain behind the blandly smiling face, "shall I, +or shall I not—? It is many minutes to moonrise yet."<a class="pagenum" name="page_259" id="page_259" title="259"></a></p> + +<p>But Landless did not call him. He passed him by as he had passed Trail, +and named another rustic at some little distance from the mulatto, then +a Fifth Monarchy man, then a veteran of Cromwell's, then the plantation +miller and the carpenter, then two more Oliverians, then more peasants. +Each man, as his name was called, stepped forward into the lengthening +line that faced the master and his party, standing with pistols leveled +and cocked; and each man bestowed upon Godfrey Landless a curse, or a +look that was bitterer than a curse.</p> + +<p>"Humfrey Elder!" called Landless.</p> + +<p>The old butler shot from out the crowd, as though impelled from a +catapult. "Your Honor!" he screamed, "the man as says <i>I</i> plot against a +Verney, lies! I that fought with your Honor at Naseby! I that you +brought from home with you when Mistress Patricia was a baby, and that +has poured your wine from that day to this! I plot with these +rapscallions and Roundheads! Your Honor, he lies in his throat!"</p> + +<p>"Fall into line, Humfrey," said his master quietly; "I will hear you out +later, but now, obey me."</p> + +<p>The watchful eyes of Luiz Sebastian were growing very watchful indeed.</p> + +<p>"Regulus!" cried Landless.</p> + +<p>Under cover of a burst of protestation from Regulus, the Turk whispered +to the mulatto, "By Allah! this is the slave you would not approach! You +said he would die for his master."</p> + +<p>"He is not of them," returned the other. "St. Jago! if I understand it! +But what can it matter? The moon will rise in less than an hour."</p> + +<p>"Dick Whittington!" cried Landless.<a class="pagenum" name="page_260" id="page_260" title="260"></a></p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence, broken by the mulatto, who had stepped out +of line, and now stood facing the party from the great house. "I grieve +to say, señors," he said in his silkiest tone, "that the poor Dick was +but now taken with the fever, and lies in a stupor within his cabin. +To-morrow, perhaps, he will be better, and will answer when you call."</p> + +<p>"That is your cabin, just beyond you there, is it not?" demanded +Landless.</p> + +<p>"Assuredly," with a quick glance. "And what then?"</p> + +<p>Landless raised his voice to a shout. "Dick Whittngton!"</p> + +<p>"Mother of God! what do you mean?" exclaimed the mulatto. "Your voice +cannot reach him, deaf and dumb from the fever, lying in his cabin at +the far end of the lane."</p> + +<p>"Dick Whittington!" again loudly called Landless.</p> + +<p>A cry arose from the crowd behind the mulatto and between him and his +cabin. The next instant there broke through them the figure, bound and +gagged, of young Dick Whittington. As he rushed past the mulatto, the +latter, with a snarl of fury, grappled with him, but animated with the +strength of despair, the boy, bound as he was, broke from him and rushed +to Landless, at whose feet he dropped in a dead faint. Upon the crowd +fell a silence so intense that nature herself seemed to have ceased to +breathe. Luiz Sebastian, darting glances here, there, and everywhere, +from eyes in which doubt was last growing into certainty, came upon +something which told its own tale. The women's cabins were at some +distance from the square, and nearer to the great house, and from the<a class="pagenum" name="page_261" id="page_261" title="261"></a> +one to the other was passing a hurried line of women and children with +the under overseer at their head.</p> + +<p>With the sight vanished the last remnant of doubt from the mind of the +mulatto.... Landless saw that he saw; saw the intention with which he +slipped out of range of the pistols; saw the wicked light in his face; +saw him beckon to the Indian and point to the forest; saw the glistening +and rolling eyeballs and the working lips of the throng of slaves who +had by imperceptible degrees separated from the whites, and were now +massing together at one side of the square; saw the Turk with a knife in +his hand; saw Trail edging away from the group before the overseer's +cabin—and sprang forward, his powerful figure instinct with +determination, the set calm of the face with which he had met Havisham's +quiet disdain and the imprecations of the other conspirators, broken up +into fire and passion, high and resolved. Blood was upon it still, and +upon his arms and half naked breast; his eyes burned; and as he threw up +his arm in a gesture of command, he looked the very genius of war, and +he seized and held every eye and ear.</p> + +<p>"Men!" he cried, addressing himself to the line he had called into +being. "Havisham, Arnold, Allen, Braxton! we fought in the same cause +once, fought for God and the Commonwealth! To-night we will fight again, +and together; fight for our lives and for the honor of women! Comrades, +I am no traitor! I have not sold you! You have cursed me without cause. +Listen! Colonel Verney, will you repeat the oath you swore to me an hour +ago?"</p> + +<p>The master stepped to his side. "I swear," he cried, in his loud, manly +voice, "by the faith of a Christian, by the honor of a gentleman, that +not one of<a class="pagenum" name="page_262" id="page_262" title="262"></a> you whose names have been given by this man, shall in any +way suffer by having been privy to this plot. I will so work with the +Governor and Council that your bodies shall not be touched, nor your +time of service increased. Bygones shall be bygones between us. This +applies to all save this man, the head and front of the conspiracy. Him +I cannot save. He must pay the penalty, but he shall be the scapegoat +for the rest of you. You have my promise, the promise of a man who never +breaks his word for good or evil."</p> + +<p>"In the woods yonder are Indians," cried Landless. "They wait but for +moonrise, for the appointed hour, to fall upon the plantation. You +called me traitor! It is Luiz Sebastian and Trail who are the traitors, +the betrayers! They are leagued with the Indians and with the slaves. +Look at them, and see that I speak truth!"</p> + +<p>The look was sufficient. The dusky mass of slaves had swayed forward +with one low, deep, bestial growl. Crouched for the spring, they were +yet held in leash by the menace of the pistols, leveled upon them and +gleaming in the torchlight, and by the restraining gesture and voice of +Luiz Sebastian. In the crowd of servants, now quite separated from the +slaves, was noise and confusion, and behind the Turk, standing midway +between the parties, was forming a phalanx of villainous white +faces—the dissolute, the convict, the refuse of the plantation,—and at +his side, suddenly as though sprung from the earth, appeared the evil +face and red hair of the murderer of Robert Godwyn.</p> + +<p>The silence of the Oliverians, stricken dumb by this new turn of +affairs, was broken by Havisham's crying to Landless,—</p> + +<p>"What are we to do, friend?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_263" id="page_263" title="263"></a></p> + +<p>"Make for the house and defend it and our lives," answered Landless, +"but first I call upon all true men among you yonder to leave those +murderers and join yourselves to us."</p> + +<p>"In the name of the King!" cried the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"In the name of God!" said Landless.</p> + +<p>Some seven or eight broke from the opposite throng and with lowered +heads ran to them across the open space. Landless stooped, and lifting +the senseless figure at his feet swung it over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"We are ready, Colonel Verney. Steady, men! Follow me!" He turned to the +great house, rising vast and dark, two hundred yards away.</p> + +<p>A gigantic, coal black Ashantee chief broke from the throng opposite +and, uttering his war cry, bounded across the space between them. +Another instant and he would have been upon them, and close after him a +yelling pack of hell hounds—the overseer's pistol cracked, and the +black giant fell dead. A yell arose from the crowd, but they stood +irresolute. For firearms, so strictly kept from servants and slaves, so +preeminently pertaining to the dominant class, they had a superstitious +dread. Four pistols meant four lives picked from the foremost to +advance.</p> + +<p>"Let them go," cried the mulatto, with a taunting laugh. "Let them go! +Let them go cage themselves in wooden walls where we will take them all +together—rats in a trap. We will wait for the Chickahominies who have +guns, señors, and for the Ricahecrians whose scalping knives are very +bright. Until moonrise, señors from the great house, and you others who +go with them! Mother of God! look well upon it, for it is the last you +will ever see!"</p> + +<p>Fifteen minutes later saw the house of Verney<a class="pagenum" name="page_264" id="page_264" title="264"></a> Manor garrisoned by some +thirty desperate men. They had entered to find a scene of confusion—the +hall and lower rooms filled with frightened women and crying children. +Patricia with white cheeks and brilliant eyes had come forward to meet +her father, carrying a three days' child in her arms. Beyond her was +Betty, bending her sweet, pale face over the mother, caught up from her +pallet and carried to the house in the arms of the under overseer. +Mistress Lettice was alternately wailing that they were all undone and +murdered, and wringing her hands over the obstinacy of Captain Laramore +who, rapier in left hand, would stand guard at the door, instead of +keeping quiet as the Doctor had said he must. The master's stern command +for silence reduced the clamor of women and children to an undertone of +lamentation. "We must to work at once," he said, "and apportion our +forces. There are about thirty men, are there not, Woodson? I shall take +the front with ten; Charles, thou shalt have one side, Woodson the +other, and Haines the back. Laramore, thou must let us fight for thee, +man, though I know thou findest it a bitter pill. Do you marshal the +men, Woodson, and divide them into four parties, one for each face, and +tell the women to leave off their whimpering and prepare to load the +muskets. Haines, have the arms taken down from the racks and distribute +them. Men and women, one and all, you are to remember that you are +fighting for your lives and for more than your lives. You know what you +have to expect if you are taken."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles, followed by Landless, the Muggletonian and some three or +four others, entered the great room, which, with the master's room, +occupied that side of the house allotted to the baronet. The<a class="pagenum" name="page_265" id="page_265" title="265"></a> wax +candles still burned upon the spinet, and upon the high mantel, and in +the middle of the floor lay the overturned chess table. Three of the +four windows were closely shuttered, but the fourth was open, and before +it stood a graceful figure, looking out into the darkness.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles strode hurriedly over to it. "Cousin! this is madness! You +know not to what danger you may be exposing yourself. Come away!"</p> + +<p>"I am watching for the moonrise," she said dreamily. "It is very near +now. Look at the white glow above the water, and how pale the stars are! +How beautiful it is, and how cool the wind upon your forehead! Listen! +that was the cry of a jay, surely! and yet why should we hear it at +night?"</p> + +<p>"It is the cry of a jay, sure enough," said the overseer, pausing in his +hurried passage through the room, "but it was made by Indian lips."</p> + +<p>"Come away, for God's sake!" cried the baronet.</p> + +<p>"Look! there is the moon!" she answered.</p> + +<p>Above the level of marsh and water appeared a thin line of silver. It +thickened, rounded, became a glorious orb. The marshes blanched from +black to gray, and across the water, from the dim land to the great +silver globe, stretched a long, bright, shimmering path.</p> + +<p>A knot of women appeared in the doorway, laden with powder-flasks and +platters filled with bullets. One, with only a stick wound with faded +flowers in her hand, left them and glided to the open window.</p> + +<p>"Margery!" said Patricia softly.</p> + +<p>The mad woman, pressing in front of her mistress, looked out into the +night and saw the white shining road cutting through the darkness and +stretching endlessly<a class="pagenum" name="page_266" id="page_266" title="266"></a> away. She threw up her arms with a cry of rapture.</p> + +<p>"The road to Paradise! the road to Paradise!"</p> + +<p>An arrow whistled through the window and struck into her bosom—into her +heart—the staff dropped from her hand, and she swayed forward and fell +at her mistress's feet.</p> + +<p>The night, so placid, still and beautiful, was rent and in an instant +made hideous by a sound so long, loud, and dreadful, that it might have +been the shriek of a legion of exultant fiends. It rose to the stars, +sunk to the earth and rose again, unearthly, menacing, curdling the +blood and turning the heart to stone.</p> + +<p>"The war-whoop," said Woodson. "Close the window, quick."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_267" id="page_267" title="267"></a> +<a name="NIGHT_8345" id="NIGHT_8345"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +<h3>NIGHT</h3> +</div> + +<p>That terrible cadence preluded pandemonium, the hush of horror that +followed it being broken by one deep and awful roar of voices as the +insurgents, red, white, and black, joined forces and swept down upon the +devoted house.</p> + +<p>"They will try the front first," quoth the master from his loophole. +"Steady, men, until I give the word! Now, let them have it with a +wannion!"</p> + +<p>The muskets cracked and a louder yell arose from without.</p> + +<p>"Two," said the master composedly, receiving a fresh musket from his +daughter's hand.</p> + +<p>"They will try to dash in the door, your Honor!" cried the overseer from +his post of observation. "They have the trunk of a pine with them."</p> + +<p>"Let them come," said his master grimly. "They will find a warm +welcome."</p> + +<p>A double line of savages raised the great trunk from the ground and +advanced with it at a run, yelling as they came. They had reached the +steps leading up into the porch when from the loopholed door and window +within there poured a deadly fire. Three fell, but the battering-ram +came on and struck against the door with tremendous force. The door +held, and but twelve of the twenty who had entered the porch returned to +their fellows.<a class="pagenum" name="page_268" id="page_268" title="268"></a></p> + +<p>"They won't try that again," said the master with a short laugh.</p> + +<p>"They are dividing," cried the overseer. "They will surround the house. +Every man to his post!"</p> + +<p>Around the corner of the house to the moonlit sward beneath the great +room windows swept a tide of Indians and negroes with Luiz Sebastian and +the two Ricahecrian brothers at their head. A few of the Indians had +guns; the slaves were armed with axes, scythes, knives—the plunder of +the tool house—or with jagged pieces of old iron, or with oars taken +from the boats and broken into dreadful clubs. They came on with a din +that was terrific, the savages from the eastern hemisphere howling like +the beasts within their native forests, those from the western uttering +at intervals their sterner, more appalling cry.</p> + +<p>Within the great room Sir Charles, languidly graceful as ever, stood +beside the small square opening in the door that led down into the +garden, and fired again and again into the mob without. He fought with +an air as became the fine gentleman of the period, but underneath the +elaborate carelessness of demeanor was a cool precision of action. The +hand that so nonchalantly brushed away the grains of powder from his +white ruffles, was steady enough at the trigger; the eye that turned +from the red death without to cast languishing glances at his mistress +where she stood directing the women, was quick to note the minutest +change in savage tactics. He jested as he fought—once he drew a +tremulous wail of laughter from Mistress Lettice's lips.</p> + +<p>A bullet sung through the aperture and grazed his arm. "The first +blood," he said, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"There's a man killed in the master's room and<a class="pagenum" name="page_269" id="page_269" title="269"></a> two in the hall!" cried +young Whittington, from his post at the far window.</p> + +<p>"And Margery," said Patricia, coming forward with the kerchief from her +neck in her hand. "Let me bind up your wound, cousin."</p> + +<p>He held out his arm with a smile and a few low, caressing words, and she +wound the lawn that was not whiter than her face about it; then moved +back to where the women worked, loading and passing the muskets to the +men who kept up an incessant fire upon the assailants.</p> + +<p>The whole house filled with smoke through which the figures of the +besieged loomed large and indistinct, and the noise—the crack of the +muskets, the loud commands and oaths, the scream of a frightened woman +or child, the groans of the wounded, of whom there were now many—became +deafening. The attack was now general, and the men on each face had +their hands full. Without was horrible clamor, oaths, shots, yells, +crashing blows against door and window; within was noise and confusion, +and fear, stern and controlled, but blanching the lip of the men and +showing in the agony of the women's eyes.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles, turning for a fresh musket, after a highly successful shot +as the yell outside had testified, found Patricia at his elbow. "There +are very few bullets left, cousin, and this is all the powder."</p> + +<p>The baronet drew in his breath. "Peste! we are unfortunate! One of you +men go beg, borrow, or steal from the others."</p> + +<p>Landless left his loophole in charge of the Muggletonian and went +swiftly into the hall, where he found the master, his wig off, his shirt +torn, his face and hands blackened with powder, now firing with his own<a class="pagenum" name="page_270" id="page_270" title="270"></a> +hand, now shouting encouragement to the panting men.</p> + +<p>"Powder and shot!" he cried. "God help us! are you out? Not a grain or a +bullet can we spare, for if we keep them not from the great door we are +dead men!"</p> + +<p>Landless went to the overseer. "Two more rounds and <i>we</i> are out," said +Woodson coolly, firing as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"There is no sign that they have had enough," said Landless, as the +clamor outside redoubled, and a man fell heavily back from his loophole +with a bullet through his brain.</p> + +<p>"Enough! Damn them, no!" said the overseer. "When they've had our lives +they will have had enough—not before! They're paying dearly for their +fun though."</p> + +<p>Landless went back to the great room with empty hands.</p> + +<p>"They are all in like case," he said, in answer to Sir Charles's lifted +eyebrows.</p> + +<p>The other shrugged his shoulders. "What will be, will be. If we could +have saved our fire—but we had to keep them from the door! Get to your +post, and we will hold them back as long as may be. Then a short passage +to eternal nothingness!"</p> + +<p>"A short passage!" muttered the Muggletonian at Landless's ear. "Well +for those who find that at the hands of the uncircumcised heathen. +Eternal nothingness! The fool hath said in his heart There is no +God—and he is being dashed headlong upon the judgment bar of the God +who saith, I will repay. Cursed be the Atheist! May he find the passage, +fiery though it be, as nothing to the flames of the avenging God;<a class="pagenum" name="page_271" id="page_271" title="271"></a> may +he go to his appointed place where the worm dieth not and the fire is +not quenched; may—"</p> + +<p>The trunk of a tree was dashed against the door with a force that shook +the room. "Dey're comin'!" shouted Regulus, who stood behind Sir +Charles, and raised the axe with which he was armed above his head. +Another crash and the wood splintered. Through the ragged opening was +thrust a red hand—the axe, wielded by Regulus's powerful arms, flashed +downwards, and the hand, severed at the wrist, fell with a dull thud +upon the floor. A yell from without, and another blow, widening the +opening. Landless fired his last bullet into the crowd, and clubbing his +musket sprang to the door, in front of which were now massed all the +defenders of that side of the house. Sir Charles threw down his useless +musket and drew his sword. "Cousin," he said over his shoulder to +Patricia, standing white and erect in the midst of the cowering women, +"you had best betake yourselves to the hall, and that quickly. This will +be no ladies' bower presently."</p> + +<p>"Come," said Patricia to the women, and led the way towards the door +leading into the hall. As she passed Sir Charles she put out her hand, +and he caught it, sunk to his knee, and pressed his lips upon it.</p> + +<p>"I am going to my father," she said steadily, "and I shall pray him as +he loves me to pass his sword through my heart when they break into the +hall. So it is farewell, cousin."</p> + +<p>She drew her hand away and moved towards the door, passing Landless so +closely that her rich skirts brushed him, but without a change in the +white calm of her face. The terrified women had pressed before her into +the hall, only Betty Carrington keeping by<a class="pagenum" name="page_272" id="page_272" title="272"></a> her side. Her foot was upon +the threshold, when with loud screams they surged back into the great +room. A thundering crash in the hall was followed by a babel of oaths, +screams, triumphant yells. The voice of the master made itself heard +above all the hubbub, "Charles, Woodson, Haines, they are upon us! +Defend the women to the last, as you are men, all of you!"</p> + +<p>The splintered plank between them in the great room and the murderers +without was dashed inwards. An Indian, naked, horribly painted, +brandishing a tomahawk, sprang through the opening, and Sir Charles ran +him through with his sword. A second followed, and Landless dashed his +brains out with the butt of his musket. A third, and the Muggletonian +struck at him through the wildly flaring light and the drifting smoke +wreaths, and missed his aim. The knife of the savage gleamed high in +air, then, descending, stuck quivering in the breast of the fanatic. He +sunk to his knees, flung up his skeleton arms, and raised his scarred +face, into which a light that was not of earth had come, then cried in a +loud voice, "Turn ye, turn ye to the Stronghold, ye prisoners of Hope!" +His eyes closed and he fell forward upon his face, his blood making the +ground slippery about the feet of the others.</p> + +<p>Landless closed with the Indian, finally slew him, and turned to behold +a stream, impetuous, not to be withstood, of Indians and negroes pouring +through the doorway. From the hall came the clash of weapons and a most +terrific din, and presently there burst into the great room the Colonel, +Laramore, Woodson, and Haines, followed by some fifteen men—making, +with the five in the great room, all that were left of the defenders of +Verney Manor.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_273" id="page_273" title="273"></a> +<a name="MORNING_8533" id="MORNING_8533"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +<h3>MORNING</h3> +</div> + +<p>The women crouched in a far corner of the room behind a barricade of +chairs and tables; the men stood between them and the thirsters for +blood, and fought coolly, desperately, with such effect that, fearful as +were the odds, a glimmering of hope came to them. The ammunition on both +sides was exhausted, and it had become a hand to hand struggle in which +the advantage of position and weapons was with the assailed.</p> + +<p>"Damme, but we will beat them yet!" cried Laramore, panting, and leaning +heavily upon his rapier. "They're drawing off; we've tired them out!"</p> + +<p>"They'll never tire while that hellhound of an Indian whoops them on and +that yellow devil, Luiz Sebastian, backs him up," said the overseer.</p> + +<p>"They are gathering for a rush," said Landless.</p> + +<p>The assailants had fallen back to the opposite wall, leaving a space, +cumbered with the dead and slippery with blood, between them and the +defenders of the house. In this space now appeared the lithe figure, and +the watchful, large-eyed, amber countenance of Luiz Sebastian.</p> + +<p>"Ohè!" he cried, "slaves, all of you! Ashantees, Popoes, Angolans, +Fidas, Malimbe, Ambrice! you who are all black! think of the jungle and +the village; think of the wives and the children! think<a class="pagenum" name="page_274" id="page_274" title="274"></a> of the slaver +and the slave ship! You from the Indies, you who are like me, Luiz +Sebastian, think of the blood which is the white man's blood and yet the +blood of a slave—and hate the white man as I, Luiz Sebastian, hate him! +Kill them and take the women!"</p> + +<p>The swollen figure and dreadful face of Roach appeared at his side. +"Ay!" cried the murderer, with a tremendous oath. "Kill them! Smash +them, batter them, hear them scream! In the old man's pocket is the key +of his money chest. It is filled with bright yellow gold. Kill him and +get the money, and away to turn pirate and get more!"</p> + +<p>"It grows late!" cried Trail. "We must up sail, and away before the +dawn!"</p> + +<p>The gigantic, horribly painted form of the Ricahecrian chief stalked +into the open space and commenced a harangue in his own tongue. It was +short, but effective.</p> + +<p>"God!" said the Colonel, under his breath, and grasped his bloodstained +sword more closely.</p> + +<p>With one shrill and horrible cry Indians, negroes, mulattoes, and +villainous whites were upon them, breaking their line, forcing them +apart into knots of two and three away from the frail barrier, behind +which cowered the screaming women, striking with knife and tomahawk, axe +and club. Two of the Colonel's men fell, one under the knife of the +seven-year-captive Ricahecrian, the other beaten down by the jagged and +knotted club with which Roach, foaming at the mouth, and swearing +horribly, struck madly to left and right. The Ricahecrian, drawing the +knife from the heart of his victim, rushed on to where Landless and Sir +Charles still maintained, by dint of desperate<a class="pagenum" name="page_275" id="page_275" title="275"></a> fighting, their position +before the women, but Luiz Sebastian with Roach and half a dozen negroes +swept between him and his prey. He swerved aside, and, bounding into the +midst of the women, seized the one who chanced to be in his path,—a +young and beautiful girl, newly come over from Plymouth, and a favorite +with the ladies of Verney Manor. The despairing scream which the poor +child uttered rang out above all the tumult. Landless turned, saw, and +darted to her aid—but too late. With one hand the savage gathered up +the loosened hair, with the other he passed the scalping knife around +the young head—when Landless reached them, she who so short time before +had been so fair to see, lay a shocking spectacle, writhing in her death +agony. With white lips and burning eyes Landless swung his gun above his +head, and brought it down upon the shaven crown of Grey Wolf. It cracked +like an egg shell, and the Indian dropped across the body of his victim.</p> + +<p>Landless, springing back to the post he had quitted, found Sir Charles +in desperate case, but as coolly composed as ever, and with the air of +the Court still about him despite his bared head and torn and +bloodstained clothing, treating those who came against him to an +exhibition of swordsmanship such as the New World had probably rarely +witnessed. Landless, striking down a cutpurse from Tyburn, saw him run +the Turk through, and saw behind him the nightmare visage and the raised +club of Roach. He uttered a warning cry, but the club descended, and the +handsome, careless face fell backwards, and the slender debonair figure +swayed and fell. Landless caught him, saw that he was but stunned, and +letting him drop to the floor at his feet, wrenched the sword from<a class="pagenum" name="page_276" id="page_276" title="276"></a> his +hand, and stood over him, facing Roach with a stern smile.</p> + +<p>The murderer raised his club again.</p> + +<p>"We've met at last!" he cried with a taunting laugh. "Do you remember +the tobacco house, and what I said? I says: 'Every dog has its day, and +I'll have mine.' It's my day now!"</p> + +<p>"And I said," rejoined Landless, "'I let you go now, but one day I will +kill you.' And <i>that</i> day has come."</p> + +<p>With an oath Roach brought down the club. Landless swerved, and the blow +fell harmlessly; before the arm could be again raised, he caught it, +held it with a grasp of steel, and shortened his sword. The miscreant +saw his death, and screamed for mercy. "Remember Robert Godwyn!" said +Landless, and drove the blade home.</p> + +<p>The sword was a more effective weapon than the gun, and with it he kept +the enemy at bay, while he glanced despairingly around. There were as +many dead as living within the room by this. The floor was piled with +the slain; they made traps for the living who in the wild surging to and +fro stumbled over them, and fell, and were slain before they could rise. +Three fourths of the dead belonged to the insurgents, but the attacked +had suffered severely. Of the thirty men with whom the defense had +commenced there now remained but twelve, and of that number several were +wounded. The Colonel was bleeding from a cut on the head, the under +overseer had a ball through his arm, Sir Charles still lay without +movement at Landless's feet.</p> + +<p>Forced, together with almost all of his party, by the mad rush of the +assailants to the further end of<a class="pagenum" name="page_277" id="page_277" title="277"></a> the room, the master had seen with +agony the women left well-nigh defenseless. Followed by Woodson, +Havisham, Regulus, and young Whittington, he had all but cut his way +back to them, when a fresh influx from the hall of slaves and whites who +had been engaged in plundering the house, drove them apart again.</p> + +<p>The newcomers came fresh to the work, maddened, moreover, by the +master's wines. They advanced upon the Colonel and his party with +drunken shouts, some brandishing rude weapons, others silver salvers and +tankards, the spoil of the plate chest. The voice of Luiz Sebastian rang +through the room. "Quick work of them, friends; I smell the morning!" +With a laugh and a scrap of Spanish song upon his lips he came at +Landless with a knife, but a turn of the white man's wrist sent the +weapon hurling through the air.</p> + +<p>"Curse you!" cried the mulatto, springing out of reach of the deadly +point, and holding his arm from which the blood was flowing. "Mother of +God! but I will have you yet!" and bounded towards his weapon. Landless, +steadily watchful, and pointing that fatal sword this way or that +against all comers, cleared for himself and the still senseless man at +his feet a circle into which few cared to intrude, for the fame of that +blade had gone through the room. "Leave him until we have dealt with the +others," said the mulatto between his teeth. "Then will we give him +reason to wish that he had never been born."</p> + +<p>A touch upon his arm, and Landless turned to find Patricia standing +beside him. "Go back," he cried. "Go back!"</p> + +<p>"They are murdering them all over there," she said steadily. "My father +is dead. I saw him fall."<a class="pagenum" name="page_278" id="page_278" title="278"></a></p> + +<p>"Not so, madam. He did but stumble over the dead. See, Woodson fights +them back from him. For God's sake, get back behind the barricade!"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "He is dead. They will all be dead directly, my +cousin and all. My father cannot help me, and he who lies here cannot +help me. I will not be taken alive by these devils, and I have no knife. +Will you kill me?"</p> + +<p>"My God!"</p> + +<p>"Quick!" she said in the same low, steady tones. "They are coming; they +will beat us down in a moment. Kill me!"</p> + +<p>For answer Landless raised his voice until it rang high above the +uproar, and arrested the attention of the combatants on both sides. +"Fight with a will, men," he cried, "for help is at hand! Do you not +hear the hoofs of the horses?"</p> + +<p>"By God! you are right!" cried the Colonel, suddenly struggling to his +feet. "Hold out, men! Anthony Nash reached Rosemead, and has brought us +aid!"</p> + +<p>"The dog priest!" the mulatto cried fiercely to Trail. "Was he here? +Then they have sent for help, and Mother of God! it is here!"</p> + +<p>"And coming at the planter's pace," answered Trail. "They will be upon +us before we reach the boats."</p> + +<p>The mulatto glanced at the friend with whom he had fled the Indies with +a sinister smile. "Ay," he muttered to himself. "They will be upon us +indeed, before we reach the boats, wherefore Luiz Sebastian goes not to +turn pirate this time. He throws in his lot with the Ricahecrians whose +canoes are close at hand in the inlet that winds into the Pamunkey.<a class="pagenum" name="page_279" id="page_279" title="279"></a> +They are very swift, and in the Blue Mountains there is safety. But one +thing first."</p> + +<p>He gave a shrill and peculiar whistle which brought to him half a dozen +Indians. He pointed to the body of Grey Wolf and then to Landless. A +yell burst from the lips of the savages, and they rushed upon the +latter. He met them, ran his sword through the heart of the first, of +the second: Sir Charles moaned, stirred, and struggled to his knees. A +third raised his knife; it would have descended, but Landless darted +between the savage and the half-dazed, utterly helpless man at whom the +blow was aimed, struck up the arm, and plunged his sword into the dark +breast. A broken oar, snatched from the floor by the mulatto, descended +upon his head, and with a woman's scream sounding in his ear, he fell +heavily to the floor, and lay as one dead.</p> + +<p>When he came to himself, it was to find the great room still crowded +with men, and filled with noise and confusion, but the thronging figures +and the excited voices were those of friends—of servants from the +neighboring plantations, of small planters and tenants of Colonels +Ludwell and Fitzhugh, the Surveyor-General, and Dr. Anthony Nash. He saw +the master, panting, bleeding, but exultant, seize Dr. Nash's hands in +his own. He saw Sir Charles smile and extend his box of richly scented +snuff to Colonel Ludwell, and the women leaving their corner of refuge +with hysterical laughter and tears; saw Betty Carrington in her father's +arms, and Mistress Lettice being helped across a heap of dead by Captain +Laramore. Indians, negroes, mulatto, scoundrel whites, were gone.</p> + +<p>"They got off clear—the d—d villains," said Dick Whittington, +appearing beside him, "just before the<a class="pagenum" name="page_280" id="page_280" title="280"></a> horses came up. But Woodson has +gone after the slaves and the convicts with a party of Carrington's men. +He'll catch them, I'm thinking, and they'll come to a pirate's +end—that's all the pirating they'll get. The Indians will get clean +away; they're most to the Pamunkey by now, I reckon."</p> + +<p>Landless staggered to his feet, and put his hand to his head, which was +bleeding. "The women are all safe?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"All but poor Annis," said the boy. "When I saw the poor maid fall, I +thanked the Lord that Joyce Whitbread was safe in her mother's cottage +at Banbury. But none of the others were hurt. There is Mistress Lettice +and Mistress Betty Carrington—I do not see Mistress Patricia."</p> + +<p>The master of Verney Manor, pouring forth a rapid account of the late +affair to the gentlemen who crowded around him, was brought to a dead +stop by the appearance of a man who had burst through the throng, and +now stood before him, half naked, bleeding, with white, drawn face and +wild eyes.</p> + +<p>"What is it? Speak!" cried the master, terror of he knew not what +growing in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Your daughter, Colonel Verney!" cried Landless. "She is not here. The +Ricahecrians have carried her off."</p> + +<p>With a sound between a groan and a scream the Colonel staggered, and +would have fallen had not Carrington caught him. "Gone! Impossible!" +cried Sir Charles vehemently, all his studied insouciance thrown to the +winds. "She was with the women behind the barrier that we made. She is +here."</p> + +<p>He began to call her by name, loudly, appealingly, but there came no +answering voice.<a class="pagenum" name="page_281" id="page_281" title="281"></a></p> + +<p>"She will not answer," said Landless hoarsely. "She is not here. She was +with the women until just before the last. She saw her father fall, and +thought him dead, and you dead, too, Sir Charles Carew, and she came to +me, and prayed me to kill her. Then we heard the sound of the horses, +and six Indians—Ricahecrians—with Luiz Sebastian, came against me. She +stood at my side while I killed three. Then I was struck down, and I +heard her scream as I fell."</p> + +<p>The master freed himself from Carrington's supporting arm, and raised +from his hands a face that had suddenly become that of an old man. But +the voice was steady with which he said quietly,—</p> + +<p>"Let them search the room thoroughly, for the child may be laying in a +faint beneath these dead, though my soul doth tell me that it is as this +man says, and that she is gone. But we will after them at once, and, +please God, we will have her back, safe and sound. They have but an +hour's start."</p> + +<p>"Ay," muttered young Whittington to Havisham. "Only an hour. But the +Chickahominies build the swiftest canoes in this corner of the world, +and I have heard that the canoes of the Ricahecrians are to the canoes +of the Chickahominies as swallows are to cranes."</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_282" id="page_282" title="282"></a> +<a name="BREAD_CAST_UPON_THE_WATERS_8800" id="BREAD_CAST_UPON_THE_WATERS_8800"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +<h3>BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS</h3> +</div> + +<p>Great trees, drooping from the banks of the Pamunkey, shadowed into inky +blackness the water below them; but between the lines of darkness slept +a charmed sheet, glassy, fiery red from the sunken sun. Three boats +moved silently and swiftly up the crimson stream, until, rounding a low +point, they came upon an Indian village, nestling amidst vines and +mulberries, and girt with a green ribbon of late maize, when they swung +round from the middle stream and made for the bank. They were rowed by +stalwart servants, and in the foremost sat the master of Verney Manor +and Sir Charles Carew. In the second boat was the Surveyor-General and +Dr. Anthony Nash, and in the third the overseer, and among the rowers of +this last was Godfrey Landless.</p> + +<p>As they neared the bank their occupants saw that the usual sleepy +evening stillness was not upon the village above them. A shrill sound of +wailing from women and children rose and fell through the gathering +dusk, and in the open space round which the bark wigwams were built, +dark figures moved to and fro in a kind of measured dance, slow and +solemn, and marked at intervals by dismal cries. As the boats touched +the shore and the white men sprang out, a boy, stationed as scarecrow +upon the usual scaffold in the midst of the maize fields, raised a +shrill whoop of<a class="pagenum" name="page_283" id="page_283" title="283"></a> warning which brought the lamentation of the women and +the dance of the men to a dead stop. The latter rushed down to the river +side, brandishing their weapons, and yelling; but there seemed little +strength in the arms that flourished the tomahawk; the voices sounded +cracked and shrill, and the weak fury and noise died away when a nearer +approach showed the newcomers to be white. A very aged man, with a face +all wrinkles and a chest all scars, stepped from out the throng which +was now augmented by the women and children.</p> + +<p>"My white fathers are far from the salt water. Seldom do the Pamunkeys +see their faces coming up the narrowing stream or through the forest. +They are welcome. Let my fathers tarry and my women shall bring them +chinquepin cakes and tuckahoe, pohickory and succotash, and my young +men—"</p> + +<p>He paused, and a low wailing murmur like the sound of the wind in the +forest rose from the women.</p> + +<p>"Where are your young men, your braves?" demanded the Surveyor-General. +"Here are only the very old and the very young—they who have not seen a +Huskanawing."</p> + +<p>The Indian pointed to the crimson flood below. "There are my young men; +there are my braves. Among them were a werowance and a sagamore. They +two have strings of pearl thicker than the stem of the grape vine; they +are painted with puccoon, and the feathers of the bluebird and the +red-bird are upon them. They have hills of hatchets and of arrow heads, +sharp and clean, and very much tobacco, and they sing and dance in the +great wigwam of Okee, in the home of Kiwassa, in the land beyond the +setting sun. But the rest—they lie deep in the<a class="pagenum" name="page_284" id="page_284" title="284"></a> slime of the river; it +is red with their blood; their wives wail for them; their village is +left desolate.... When the time of the full sun power was past the +smoking of three pipes, came up the Pamunkey, swift as the swallow that +skims its waters, the Ricahecrian dogs who, passing down towards the +salt water twelve suns ago, slew the young men of a village that lieth +below us. My young men went out against them, but a cloud came up and +Kiwassa hid his face behind it. They came not back, their boats were +sunk, the Ricahecrians laughed and went their way, swift as swallows."</p> + +<p>"Ask him," said the Colonel huskily.</p> + +<p>"Had they a captive with them—a woman, a paleface woman?" demanded +Carrington.</p> + +<p>"With hair like the sunshine and a white robe. And a man, the color of +the falling sycamore leaf, one of those who work in the fields of the +white fathers. The arms of the woman were bound, but his were not—he +fought with the Ricahecrian dogs."</p> + +<p>"Luiz Sebastian!" said the overseer with a muttered oath. "I thought as +much when we found that he was not with the drunken scoundrels whom we +took before they reached the Point. And we had better have killed him +than all the rest put together, for he is the devil incarnate."</p> + +<p>"Let us get on!" Sir Charles cried impatiently. "We waste time when +every moment is precious."</p> + +<p>The Colonel, who had been speaking to the Surveyor-General, came over to +him. All the jovial life and fire was gone from his face, his eyes were +haggard and bloodshot, he stooped like an old man, but the voice with +which he spoke was steady and authoritative as ever.<a class="pagenum" name="page_285" id="page_285" title="285"></a></p> + +<p>"Ay," he said. "We must on at once, but not all of us. Richard Verney +must not forget the danger of the state, in the danger of his child, nor +let his private quarrel take precedence. I had hoped when we left the +Manor at dawn to have been up with the villains ere now, but it was not +to be. This will be a long chase and a stern one, and how it will end +God only knows. We go into a wilderness from which we may never return. +Behind us in the settlement is turmoil and danger, a conspiracy to be +put down, the Chickahominies to be subdued, the strong hand needed +everywhere. Every man should be at his post, and Richard Verney, +Lieutenant of his shire, and Colonel of the trainbands, is many leagues +from the danger which threatens the colony, and with his face to the +west. He must on, but Major Carrington must go back to do his duty to +the King, and Anthony Nash must not desert his flock. And you, Woodson, +I send back to the Manor to do what you can to repair the havoc there, +and to protect Mistress Lettice. My kinsman will go on with me; is it +not so, Charles?"</p> + +<p>"Assuredly, sir," said the baronet quietly.</p> + +<p>"I'd a sight rather go with your Honor," growled the overseer, "but I'll +do my best both by the plantation and by Mistress Lettice, and I look +for your Honor and Mistress Patricia back in no time at all. We are to +take the small boat, I reckon?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, with four men to row you. We will press a boat and a crew from the +next Pamunkey village. Pick out your men, and let us be gone."</p> + +<p>"Humph! There's one that I reckon had best go back with us. Does your +Honor know that you've got with you the head of all this d—d +Oliverian business,<a class="pagenum" name="page_286" id="page_286" title="286"></a> the man that Trail swore was their general—that +they all obeyed as though he were Oliver himself?"</p> + +<p>"No! How came he here?" cried the master, staring at Landless, who stood +at some distance from them with folded arms and compressed lips, gazing +steadily up the glowing reaches of the river.</p> + +<p>"Found him in the boat when I stepped into it myself. I didn't say +anything then, for we were in a mortal hurry and he's a good rower. But +I reckon your Honor will send him back with me? He'll give you the slip +the first chance he gets."</p> + +<p>"Of course he must go back," the master said peremptorily. "He should +never have been brought thus far. A dozen or so of these Oliverians must +swing as an example to the rest, and he, their leader, and a felon to +boot, at their head. The service he did us last night can not help +him—he fought for his own life. The Governor has sworn to hang him, and +I am accountable for his safe delivery at Jamestown. Bind him and take +him back with you, and send him at once to Jamestown under a strong +escort." He turned from the overseer to the two gentlemen who were to go +down the river. "Carrington, Anthony Nash, old friends, farewell—it may +be forever. Anthony, pray that I may find my child safe and spotless."</p> + +<p>They embraced, and he wrung their hands, and, stepping hastily into the +boat, sank down and covered his face with his cloak. The +Surveyor-General stood with a pale and troubled face, and Dr. Anthony +Nash prayed aloud. The rowers took their places and the boat shot out +into the middle stream.</p> + +<p>Landless, seeing the second boat filling, and supposing<a class="pagenum" name="page_287" id="page_287" title="287"></a> that the third +would receive its load in a moment, stepped towards it. As he passed the +overseer, standing a little to one side with two servants belonging to +Colonel Fitzhugh, a tenant of Colonel Verney, and an Indian from +Rosemead, Woodson put forth an arm and stopped him.</p> + +<p>"No, no, my man," he said with a grim smile but with a watchful eye, and +nodding to the men to close in around them. "Your way's down, not up."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" cried Landless, recoiling.</p> + +<p>"I mean that the Doctor and the Major and I and these men go back to the +settlements to look after things there, and that you are going to renew +your acquaintance with Jamestown gaol."</p> + +<p>For a moment Landless stood, turned to stone, within the other's grasp, +then with a cry he broke from him and rushed to the water's edge. The +boat containing the master had turned her head up stream and was beyond +call; in the second boat the men held the oars poised while Sir Charles, +with one foot upon the gunwale, gave a gravely courteous farewell to the +Surveyor-General and the divine.</p> + +<p>"Sir Charles Carew!" cried Landless. "I pray you to take me with you!"</p> + +<p>Without moving, Sir Charles looked at him coldly, a peculiar smile just +curling his lip.</p> + +<p>"I remember a day," he said, "when you said that I might wait until +doomsday and not hear favor asked of me by you."</p> + +<p>"You are not generous," Landless said slowly, "but I ask the favor. I +ask it on my knees. Let me go with you."</p> + +<p>Sir Charles stepped into the boat and took the seat reserved for him. "I +regret," he said politely, "that<a class="pagenum" name="page_288" id="page_288" title="288"></a> it comports not with my duty as a +gentleman and an officer of the King to assist you in your very natural +endeavors to escape the gibbet. Push off, men."</p> + +<p>The boat shot from the shore and up the darkening stream, hastening to +overtake its consort. Sir Charles raised his Spanish hat and fluttered a +lace handkerchief. "To a happier meeting, gentlemen!" The +Surveyor-General and the divine returned the salute, and stood in +silence watching the canoe with its brawny rowers and the slender, +elegant figure in the stern. It caught up with the Colonel's boat and +the two grew smaller and smaller, until they became mere black dots and +the dusk swallowed them up.</p> + +<p>Landless watched them too with a face set like a stone. The overseer, +backed by two of the servants, approached him with caution, but there +was no need,—he submitted to be bound without a word, or struggle, or +change in the expression of his face. He turned mechanically towards the +boat, but the overseer plucked him back. "Not yet," he said. "We are all +dead beat, and we have not the need to hurry that have those who are +gone on. The Major's commander now, and he says sleep here a few hours. +I'll fasten you so that you can't get away, I promise ye! Fegs! it's a +pity that a man who can fight as you fought last night should have to +die a dog's death after all! But you've only yourself to thank for it."</p> + +<p>The red glow died from the river like the scarlet from cooling iron, and +it lay dark and silent, dimly reflecting a myriad of stars. The sloping +bank, the maize fields, tobacco patch and mulberry grove, the plateau +upon which were ranged the wigwams of the Indians, the dark and endless +forest—all the wide, sombre earth—had their stars also—myriads on<a class="pagenum" name="page_289" id="page_289" title="289"></a> +myriads of fireflies, restlessly sparkling lanterns swung by legions of +fairies. There was no wind; the cataracts of wild grape descending from +the tops of the tallest trees stirred not a leaf; the pines were +soundless. But the whip-poor-wills wailed on, and once a catamount +screamed, and the deer, coming to a lick close by, made a trampling over +the fern.</p> + +<p>Landless, tightly bound to a great bay tree with thongs of deerskin, +watched the night grow old with hard, despairing eyes. The stars paled +and the moon rose softly above the tree-tops, silvering the world +beneath. By her light he saw the little glade of which the tree to which +he was bound marked the centre, and the recumbent forms of those who +were to return to the settlements stretched on Indian mats laid upon the +short grass. Worn out with the toil of the day and the storm and stress +of the night before, they slumbered heavily. The watcher in their midst +thought, "If I could sleep!" and resolutely closed his eyes, but the +vision of a flying canoe and a brightness of golden hair, which had +vexed him, passing up the reaches of the river over and over and over +again, was with him still, and he opened them and raised them to the +stars, thinking, "She may be above them now."</p> + +<p>How still it was! no air, no breath, no sound—the thongs, that, wound +many times around his body, bound him to the tree, fell at his feet, a +figure slipped from behind the trunk, laid a hand, in which was a knife +that gleamed in the moonlight, upon his arm, and whispering, "Follow," +glided over the grass, past the sleepers and into the forest.</p> + +<p>Swiftly but cautiously Landless went after it. The overseer lay within +ten feet of him; he passed him,<a class="pagenum" name="page_290" id="page_290" title="290"></a> passed the unconscious servants, +crossed a strip of moonlight, entered the shadow of a locust, and all +but stumbled over a man lying asleep beneath it. He recoiled, and a twig +snapped beneath his foot. The sleeper stirred, turned upon his side, and +opened his eyes. The moon, now high in the heavens, shone so brightly +that there was soft light even beneath the heavy branches of the trees, +and by this light his Majesty's Surveyor-General and his Majesty's +rebellious, convicted, and condemned servant recognized each other. For +one long minute they stared each at the other, then, without a word or +sign to denote that he was aware that aught stood between him and the +moonlight, Carrington lay down again, pillowed his head upon his arm and +closed his eyes. Landless was passing on with a light and steady step +and the ghost of a smile upon his lips when the apparently slumbering +figure put forth an arm and laid something long and dark across his +pathway. He glanced quickly around, but the Surveyor-General lay +motionless, with closed eyes. Stooping, he took up the object, which +proved to be a richly inlaid musket with flask and pouch. He paused +again, but no sign coming from the quietly breathing form on the grass +he lightly and silently left it and the tiny encampment and entered the +forest, where he found a dark figure leaning against a tree, waiting for +him. Without a word it moved forward into the dense shadow of the +forest, and in the same silence he followed it. They were now in thick +woods, moving beneath interlocking branches and a vast canopy of wild +grape that, stretching from the summit of one lofty tree to that of +another, formed a green and undulating roof upon which beat the +moonbeams that could not penetrate<a class="pagenum" name="page_291" id="page_291" title="291"></a> the close darkness of the world +below. They came to a small and sluggish stream, flowing without noise +between the towering trees, and stepping into the water, walked up it +for a long while with giant blacknesses on either hand and above them +the moon.</p> + +<p>All this time the figure had stalked along before Landless without +speaking or turning its head, but now, the trees thinning, and they +coming upon a field of wild flax that lay fair and white beneath the +moon, it quitted the lazy stream, and turning upon Landless as he too +stepped upon the bank, showed him the bronze countenance and the +gigantic form of the Susquehannock to whom he had once done a kindness, +and with whom he had fought on such a night as this, in such a moonlight +space.</p> + +<p>"Monakatocka, I thought it had been you," said Landless quietly.</p> + +<p>With the never failing "Ugh!" the Indian took Landless's hand and with +it touched his own dark shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I too am grateful, and with far more reason," said Landless smiling. "I +will be yet more so if you will bring me out upon the bank of the river +at some distance above yonder encampment."</p> + +<p>"What will my brother do then?"</p> + +<p>"I will go up the river."</p> + +<p>"After the canoes in which sit the palefaces from whom my brother +flees?"</p> + +<p>"After the canoe which those canoes pursue."</p> + +<p>"If my brother wishes to take the warpath against the Algonquin dogs," +said the Indian quietly, "he must not follow the Pamunkey, but the +Powhatan."</p> + +<p>"They passed this village yesterday, going up the Pamunkey!" cried +Landless.<a class="pagenum" name="page_292" id="page_292" title="292"></a></p> + +<p>"A false trail. Let my brother come a little further and I will show +him."</p> + +<p>He stepped in front of the white man, and moving rapidly across the +field of flax, dived into the forest again. Following the stream in its +windings they came to where it debouched into a wide and muddy creek, +which, in its turn, flowed into an expanse of water that lay like molten +silver beyond the fringe of trees.</p> + +<p>"The Pamunkey!" exclaimed Landless.</p> + +<p>The Indian nodded and led the way to a thicket of dwarf willow and alder +that grew upon the very brink of the creek.</p> + +<p>"While the palefaces slept, Monakatocka was busy. Look!" he said, +parting the bushes and pointing.</p> + +<p>Within the thicket, drawn up upon the sloping mud, were two large +canoes, quite empty save for a debris of broken oars.</p> + +<p>Landless gasped. "How do you know them to be the same?"</p> + +<p>The Indian stooped and pointed to dark stains. "Blood. They had wounded +among them. And this." He put something into the other's hand. Landless +looked at it, then thrust it into his bosom. "You are right. It is a +ribbon which the lady wore. But why have they left their boats, and +where are they?"</p> + +<p>The Indian pointed to the side of the larger canoe. "The hatchets of the +Pamunkeys were sharp. They fought like real men. This canoe could go no +further. See, it is wet within—they had to ply the gourd very fast to +keep afloat so far. One canoe would not hold them all, so they hid both +here. They<a class="pagenum" name="page_293" id="page_293" title="293"></a> knew the palefaces would follow up the river, so they cared +not to stay upon its banks; the Pamunkeys, too, are their enemies. They +have gone through the forest towards the Powhatan. My brother cannot see +their trail, for the eyes of the palefaces are clouded, but Monakatocka +sees it."</p> + +<p>Landless turned upon him. "Will Monakatocka go with me against the +Ricahecrians?"</p> + +<p>"Monakatocka has dreamt of the village on the pleasant river where he +was born. The arm of the white men cannot reach him here, in these +woods, far from their wigwams and warriors and guns; it cannot pluck him +back to be beaten. He toils no more in their fields. He is a real man +again, a warrior of the long house, a chief of the Conestogas. Let my +white brother go with him, across the great rivers, through the forest, +until they come to the Susquehanna and the village of the Conestogas. +There will the maidens and the young men welcome Monakatocka with song +and dance, and my brother shall be welcome also and shall become a great +chief and shall take the warpath against the Algonquin and against the +paleface at the side of Monakatocka. In the Blue Mountains is Death. Let +us go to the pleasant river, to the hunting grounds of the Conestogas."</p> + +<p>Landless shook his head. "My thanks and good wishes go with you, friend, +but my path lies towards the Blue Mountains. Farewell."</p> + +<p>He put out his hand, but the Indian did not touch it. Instead, he +stooped and examined the ground about him with attention, then, +beckoning the other to follow, he moved rapidly and silently along the +border of the creek. Landless overtook him and<a class="pagenum" name="page_294" id="page_294" title="294"></a> laid his hand upon his +arm. "This is my path, but yours lies across the river, to the north."</p> + +<p>"If my brother will not go with me, I will go with my brother," said the +Conestoga.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_295" id="page_295" title="295"></a> +<a name="THE_BRIDGE_OF_ROCK_9170" id="THE_BRIDGE_OF_ROCK_9170"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +<h3>THE BRIDGE OF ROCK</h3> +</div> + +<p>For twenty days they had followed the Ricahecrians. At times the trail +lay before them so plain that even Landless's unaccustomed eyes could +read it; at times he saw nothing but untrodden ways—no sign to show +that man had been in that wilderness since the beginning of the +world—but the Susquehannock saw and went steadily onward; at times they +lost it altogether, to find it hours, days afterwards.... It had led +them westward, then south to the banks of the Powhatan, then westward +again. At first they had to avoid an occasional clearing with the cabin +of a pioneer rising from it, or some frontier post, or the village of +one of the Powhatan tribes, but that time had long past. The world of +the white man was far behind them, so far that it might have been +another planet for all it threatened them; the Indian villages were few +and far between and inhabited by tribes whose tongue the Susquehannock +did not know. For the most part they gave these villages a wide berth, +but sometimes in the quiet of the evening they entered one, and were met +by the eldest man and conducted to the stranger's lodging, where slim +brown maidens came to them with platters of maize cakes and nuts and +broiled fish, and the warriors and old men gathered around, marveling at +the color of the one and conversing with the<a class="pagenum" name="page_296" id="page_296" title="296"></a> other in stately gesture. +Sometimes, crouched in a tangle of vines or behind the giant bole of +some fallen tree they watched a war party file past, noiseless, like +shadows, disappearing in the blue haze that filled the distant aisles of +the forest. Once a band of five attacked them, coming upon them in their +sleep. Three they killed and the others fled. They dipped into the next +stream that crossed their path and swam up it a long distance, then +emerged and went their way, tolerably confident that they had covered +their trail. Sometimes they struggled for hours through coverts of wild +grape, thick with fruit; sometimes they walked for miles down endless +colonnades of pine trees, where the needle-strewn ground was like ice +for slipperiness, and the blue sky gleamed faintly through the far away +tree tops. The wind in the pines rose and fell in long, measured +cadences. It made the only sound there, for the birds forgot to sing and +the insect world kept silence in those vast and sombre cathedrals.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the twentieth day they came to a halt upon the bank +of a small stream that fell purling over a long, smooth slide of +limestone into the river. Mountains had loomed into existence in the +last few days. In the distance they made a vast blue rampart which +seemed to prop the western skies. When the sun sank behind them it was +as though a mighty warrior had entered his fortress. Nearer at hand they +fell into lofty hills, over which the forest undulated in unbroken +green. In front the river made a sudden turn and was lost to sight, +disappearing through a frowning gateway of gray cliffs as completely as +though it had plunged into the bowels of the earth.... Landless sat down +on the bank of the<a class="pagenum" name="page_297" id="page_297" title="297"></a> stream above the fall and, chin in hand, gazed at +the mountain-piled horizon. The Indian, leaning against a great sycamore +whose branches trailed in the water, watched him attentively.</p> + +<p>"My brother is tired," he said at last.</p> + +<p>Landless shook his head. The Susquehannock paused, still with his eyes +upon the other's face, and then went on, "We have searched and have +found nothing. There have been five suns since the great rains blotted +out the trail. My brother has done very much. Let him say so and we will +go back to the falls of the far west and thence to the northward, to the +pleasant river, to Monakatocka's people, to the graves of his fathers. +And my brother will be welcome to the Conestogas, and he shall be made +one of them, and become a great warrior, and both he and Monakatocka +will forget the evil days when they were slaves—until they meet a +paleface from the great water. My brother has but to speak."</p> + +<p>"If these hills in front of us," said Landless with gloomy emphasis, +"were higher than the Alps, I would climb them. If behind them there +were another range, and then another, and another, if we looked upon the +nearest wave of an ocean of mountains, I would climb them all. If they +are before us, sooner or later I shall find them. But not to know that +they are before us! To know that they may be to the north of us, may be +to the south of us! that we may even have passed them! it is maddening!"</p> + +<p>"We have not passed them," said his companion slowly, "for—" he stopped +abruptly, broke off a bough from a sumach bush beside him, and falling +on his knees, leaned far out over the stream. There were many tiny +cascades in the brook with little eddies<a class="pagenum" name="page_298" id="page_298" title="298"></a> below them where sticks and +leaves circled gaily around before they were drawn on to the next +miniature fall, and into one of these eddies the Indian plunged the +bough. The next moment he drew it carefully towards him, something white +clinging to one of its twigs. It proved to be a fragment of lace—not +more than an inch or two—and it might have been torn from a woman's +kerchief. Landless's hand closed over it convulsively.</p> + +<p>"It came down the stream!" he cried.</p> + +<p>The other nodded. "Monakatocka saw it slip over that fall. It has not +been in the water long."</p> + +<p>"Then—my God!—they are close at hand! They are up this stream!"</p> + +<p>The Indian nodded again with a look of satisfaction upon his bronze +features. Landless raised his eyes to the cloudless blue, and his lips +moved. Then, without a word he turned his face up the mountain stream, +and the Indian followed him.</p> + +<p>For an hour they crept warily onward, following the stream in its +capricious wanderings. A broken trailer of grapevine, a pine cone that +had been crushed under foot, the print of a moccasin on a bit of muddy +ground told them that they had indeed recovered the long lost trail. +They moved silently, sometimes creeping on hands and knees through the +long grass where the bank was barren of bushes, sometimes gliding +swiftly through a friendly covert of alder or sumach. The hills closed +in upon them, and became more precipitous. The stream made another bend, +and they were in a ravine where the water flowed over a rocky bed +between banks too steep to afford them secure foothold. The +Susquehannock swung himself down into the shallow water, and motioned to +his companion<a class="pagenum" name="page_299" id="page_299" title="299"></a> to do likewise. "Monakatocka smells fire," he whispered.</p> + +<p>A moment later they rounded an overhanging, fern-clad rock, and came +full upon that at which Landless stared with a sharp intake of his +breath, and which even his impassive guide greeted with a long-drawn +"Ugh!" of amazement.</p> + +<p>Towards them brawled the impetuous stream through a wonderful gorge. The +precipitous hillsides, clothed with a stately growth of oak and +chestnut, changed suddenly into a sheer and awful mass of rock. On +either side of the stream towered up the mighty walls until, two hundred +feet above the water, they swept together, spanning the chasm with a +majestic arch. Great trees crowned it; trailers of grape and clematis +made the span one emerald; below, through the vast opening, shone the +evening sky with little, rosy clouds floating across it. A bird, +flashing downwards from the far-off trees, showed black against the +carnation of the heavens.</p> + +<p>The Indian uttered another "Ugh!" then stole forward a pace or two, +stood still, and waited for the other to come up. "My brother sees," he +said simply.</p> + +<p>From a covert of arbor-vitae they looked directly up the creek and +through the archway. Beneath it, and for a few yards on the hither side, +the water flowed in a narrower channel, leaving a little strip of +boulder-strewn shore. With a leap of his heart Landless saw, rising +from this shore, the blue smoke of a newly kindled fire, and squatting +about it, or flitting from place to place, a dozen or more dark figures. +At a little distance from the fire, close against the wall of rock, had +been hastily constructed a rude<a class="pagenum" name="page_300" id="page_300" title="300"></a> shed or arbor. As he gazed at this +frail shelter, he saw the flutter of a white gown pass the opening which +served as door.</p> + +<p>"Night soon," said Monakatocka at his ear. "Then will my brother see one +Iroquois cheat all these Algonquin dogs."</p> + +<p>They drew further back into the dense shade of the overhanging boughs. A +large flat boulder afforded them a secure resting-place, and drawing +their feet from the stream, the two curled themselves up side by side +upon its friendly surface. The Indian took some slices of venison from +his wallet, and they made a slender meal, then set themselves patiently +to await the night and the time for action. The tiny encampment was +hidden from them by the thick boughs, but through the screen of +delicate, aromatic leaves they could see the bridge of rock. Around them +was the stir and murmur of the summer afternoon—the wind in the trees, +the whir of insects, the song of birds, the babble of the water—but far +above, where the great arch cut the sky, the world seemed asleep. The +trees dreamed, resting against the crimson and gold of the heavens. The +Indian's appreciation of the wonders of nature was limited—with a +grunted, "All safe: wake before moonrise," he turned upon his side, and +was asleep.</p> + +<p>His Anglo-Saxon neighbor watched the pensive beauty of the evening with +a softened heart. The glory behind the tremendous rock faded, giving +place to tender tints of pearl and amethyst. Above the distant tree tops +swam the evening star. In the half light the shadowy forest on either +hand blended with the great bridge carved by some mysterious force from +the everlasting hills. Together they made a mountain<a class="pagenum" name="page_301" id="page_301" title="301"></a> of darkness +pierced by a titanic gateway through which one looked into heavenly +spaces. The chant of the wind swelled louder. It was like the moan of +distant breakers. The night fell, and the stars came out one by one +until the blue vault was thickly studded. Up and down the sides of the +ravine flickered millions of fireflies. Their restless glimmer wearied +the eyes. Landless raised his to the one star, large, calm and +beautiful, and prayed, then thought of all that star shone upon that +night—most of the white town of his boyhood, lying fair and still like +a dream town, above a measureless, slumberous sea. A great calm was upon +him. Toil and danger were past; passionate hope and settled despair were +past. That he would do what he had come this journey to do, he now had +no doubt,—would not have doubted had there been encamped between him +and the frail shed built against the rock all the Indians this side of +the South Sea.</p> + +<p>The stars that shone through the great archway slowly paled, the stream +became dull silver, and down the towering darkness on either hand fell a +soft and tremulous light like a veil of white gauze. Landless put out +his hand to waken the sleeping Indian, and touched bare rock. A moment +later the branches before him parted. He had heard no sound, but there, +within three feet of him, were the high features and the bold eyes of +the Susquehannock.</p> + +<p>"Monakatocka has been to the great rock," he said in a guttural whisper. +"The Algonquin dogs sleep sound, for they do not know that a Conestoga +is on their trail. They have camped beneath the rock three days, and +they will move on the morrow. They have built a shed for the maiden +against the rock. About it lie the Ricahecrians, the moccasins of one +touching<a class="pagenum" name="page_302" id="page_302" title="302"></a> the scalp lock of another. They keep no watch, but they have +scattered dried twigs over all the ground. Tread on them, and the god of +the Algonquins will make them speak very loud. But a Conestoga is +cunning. Monakatocka has found a way."</p> + +<p>"Then let us go," said Landless, rising.</p> + +<p>As they crept from out their leafy covert, the moon appeared over the +tree-tops far above them, flooding the glen with light, and making a +restless shimmer of diamonds of the rushing brook. The two men moved +warily up the stream, setting their feet with care upon the slippery +stones. Once Landless stumbled, but caught at a huge boulder, and saved +himself from falling, sending, however, a stone splashing down into the +water. They drew themselves up within the shadow of the rock, and +listened with straining ears, but there came no answering sound save the +cry of a whip-poor-will, and they went on their way. When they were +within a hundred feet of the encampment, the Indian left the stream, +crossed the strip of earth between it and the cliff, and pointed to a +broken and uneven line that ran at a height of some five feet from the +ground along the face of the cliff. Landless looked and saw a very +narrow ledge, a mere projection here and there of jagged and broken +rock, a pathway perilous and difficult as might well be imagined. So +narrow and insignificant it looked, such a mere seam along the vast +wall, that a white man passing through the ravine might never have +noticed it.</p> + +<p>"It is our path," said the Susquehannock. "It leads above the heads of +these dogs and their crackling twigs, straight to where lies the +maiden."</p> + +<p>Without a word Landless caught at the stem of a cedar projecting from a +fissure in the rock, and swung<a class="pagenum" name="page_303" id="page_303" title="303"></a> himself up to the cleft. The Indian +followed, and with silence and caution they commenced their dangerous +journey. Landless was no novice at such work. When a boy, he had often +rounded the face of frowning white cliffs with the sea breaking in +thunder a hundred feet below. Then a bird's nest had been the prize of +high daring, death the penalty of dizziness or a misstep. Now, although +not two yards below him was the solid earth, a misstep would send him +crashing down to a more fearful doom—but the prize! A light was in his +eyes as he crept nearer and nearer to the shed built against the rock.</p> + +<p>They passed the smouldering embers of a large fire, and came full upon +the circle of sleeping Indians. They lay in the moonlight like fallen +statues, their bronze limbs motionless, their high, stern features +impassive as death. From their belts came the glint of tomahawk and +scalping knife, and beside each warrior lay his bow and quiver of +arrows. Only one man had a gun. It lay in the hollow of his arm, its +barrel making a gleaming line against his dark skin. The skin was not so +dark as was that of the other recumbent figures, and the face, flung +back and pillowed on the arm, was not the face of an Indian. It was Luiz +Sebastian. He lay somewhat nearer to the shed than did the Ricahecrians, +and directly in front of the doorway; as Landless paused above him, he +turned and laughed in his sleep.</p> + +<p>Slowly and cautiously Landless swung himself down from the ledge, his +moccasined feet touching ground that was clear of pebbles and beyond the +line of twigs. He glanced back to see the gigantic figure of the +Susquehannock, standing upright against the rock, knife in hand, and +watchful eyes roving from one to the<a class="pagenum" name="page_304" id="page_304" title="304"></a> other of the sleeping warriors, +then stepped lightly across the body of the mulatto, and entered the +hut.</p> + +<p>Within it the darkness was gross. Pausing a moment to accustom his eyes +to the blackness, there came to him from without the hoot of an owl. It +was the signal agreed upon between him and his companion, and he wheeled +to face the danger it announced.</p> + +<p>The lithe, yellow figure that had lain in front of the doorway had +waked. As Landless gazed, it rose to its knees, then with a quick, +cat-like grace to its feet, stretched itself, cast a listening look +around the sleeping circle, and laid its gun softly down, then with a +noiseless step and a smile upon its evil face, it too entered the hut.</p> + +<p>Landless waited until the mulatto was well across the threshold, and +then sprang upon him, dragging him to the ground, where he held him with +his knee against his chest. He writhed and struggled, but the white man +was the stronger, and held him down; he tried to cry out, but the +other's hands were at his throat choking the life from him. Putting all +his strength into one hand, Landless felt with the other for his knife. +The movement brought his face forward into the shaft of moonlight that +trembled through the opening. "You!" said the eyes of the mulatto, and +his clutching hands tore at the hand about his throat. The hand pressed +closer, and with the other Landless struck the knife into the yellow +bosom. When the writhing form was quite still, he rose from his knees, +and looked down upon the evil face flung back to meet the moonlight. The +struggle had lasted but a minute, and had been without sound—not a +sleeping savage had stirred. But he now heard frightened breathing +within the hut. By this <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: word 'time' missing in original">time</ins> +his eyes were<a class="pagenum" name="page_305" id="page_305" title="305"></a> accustomed to the darkness, +and he made out something white niched into the corner opposite. As he +advanced towards it, it started away, and would have brushed past him, +but he seized it. "Madam!" he whispered. "Do not scream. It is I, +Godfrey Landless."</p> + +<p>In the darkness he felt the rigor of terror leave the form which he +held. It swayed against him, and the head fell back across his arm. He +raised the fainting figure, and stepping across the body of the mulatto +issued from the shed, to find Monakatocka standing beside the entrance, +knife in hand, and watchfully regardful of the sleeping Ricahecrians.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_306" id="page_306" title="306"></a> +<a name="THE_BACKWARD_TRACK_9466" id="THE_BACKWARD_TRACK_9466"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2> +<h3>THE BACKWARD TRACK</h3> +</div> + +<p>Landless turned to the pathway by which they had come, but the Indian +shook his head, and pointing to the stream which, making a sudden turn, +brawled along at their very feet, stepped noiselessly down into the +water, first, however, possessing himself of Luiz Sebastian's gun, which +lay upon the ground beside the hut. Landless, following him in silence, +would have turned his face towards the river, but again the +Susquehannock shook his head and began to make his way slowly and warily +up stream.</p> + +<p>The other knew how to obey. Holding with one arm the unconscious form of +the woman he had come so many leagues to seek, and with the other +steadying himself by boulder and projecting cliff, he followed his +companion past the sleeping Ricahecrians, out of the shadow of the great +arch, into the splendor of the moonlight beyond. It was not until they +had gone a long distance, past vast, scarred cliffs, through close, +dark, scented tunnels formed by the overarching boughs of great +arbor-vitæs, up smooth slides where the water came down upon them in +long, unbroken, glassy green slopes, that Landless said, in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"Why do we go up this stream instead of back to the river? It is their +road we are traveling."</p> + +<p>The faint, reluctant smile of the Indian crossed the Susquehannock's +face. "The white man is very wise<a class="pagenum" name="page_307" id="page_307" title="307"></a> except when he is in the woods. Then +he is as if every brook ran fire-water and he had drunk of them all. A +pappoose could trick him. When these Algonquin dogs wake and find the +fawn fled and the yellow slave killed, they will cast about for our +trail, and they will find that we came up from the river. Then, when +they find no backward track, but only that we entered the water there, +before the maiden's hut, they will think that we have gone down the +stream, back to the river. They will go down to the river themselves, +but when they have reached it they will not know what to do. They will +think, 'They who come after the Ricahecrians into the Blue Mountains +must be many, with great hearts and with guns.' They will think, 'They +came in boats, and one of their braves and one Iroquois, stealing up +this stream, came upon the Ricahecrians when Kiwassa had closed their +eyes and their ears, and stole away the fawn that the Ricahecrians had +taken, and killed the man who fled with them from the palefaces.' And it +will take a long time for them to find that there were no boats and that +but two men have followed them into the Blue Mountains, for I covered +our trail where this stream runs into the river very carefully. After a +while they will find it, and after another while they will find that the +chief of the Conestogas and his white brother and the maiden have gone +up the stream, and they will come after us. But that will not be until +after the full sun power, and by then we must be far from here."</p> + +<p>"It is good," said Landless briefly. "Monakatocka has the wisdom of the +woods."</p> + +<p>"Monakatocka is a great chief," was the sententious reply.<a class="pagenum" name="page_308" id="page_308" title="308"></a></p> + +<p>"Do you think they will follow us when they find how greatly we have the +start of them?"</p> + +<p>"They will be upon our track, sun after sun, keen-eyed as the hawk, +tireless as the wild horses, hungry as the wolf, until we reach the +tribes that are friendly to the palefaces. And that will be many suns +from now. I told my brother that we followed Death into the Blue +Mountains. Now Death is upon our trail."</p> + +<p>They came to a rivulet that emptied itself into the larger stream, and +the Susquehannock led the way up its bed. Presently they reached a +gently sloping mass of bare stone, a low hill running some distance back +from the margin of the stream.</p> + +<p>"Good," grunted the Susquehannock. "The moccasin will make no mark here +that the sun will not wipe out."</p> + +<p>They clambered out upon the rock and stood looking down the ravine +through which they had come. "My brother is tired," said the Indian. +"Monakatocka will carry the maiden."</p> + +<p>"I am not tired," Landless answered.</p> + +<p>The Indian looked at the face, thrown back upon the other's shoulder. +"She is fair, and whiter than the flowers the maidens pluck from the +bosom of the pleasant river."</p> + +<p>"She is coming to herself," said Landless, and laid her gently down upon +the rock.</p> + +<p>Presently she opened her eyes quietly upon him as he knelt beside her. +"You came," she said dreamily. "I dreamt that you would. Where are my +father and my cousin?"</p> + +<p>"Seeking you still, madam, I doubt not, though I have not seen them +since the day after you were taken. They went up the Pamunkey and so +missed<a class="pagenum" name="page_309" id="page_309" title="309"></a> you. Thanks to this Susquehannock, I am more fortunate."</p> + +<p>She lay and looked at him calmly, no surprise, but only a great peace in +her face. "The mulatto," she said, "I feared him more than all the rest. +When I saw him enter the hut I prayed for death. Did you kill him?"</p> + +<p>"I trust so," said Landless, "but I am not certain, I was in too great +haste to make sure."</p> + +<p>"I do not care," she said. "You will not let him hurt me—if he +lives—nor let the Indians take me again?"</p> + +<p>"No, madam," Landless said.</p> + +<p>She smiled like a child and closed her eyes. In the moonlight which +blanched her streaming robe and her loosened hair that, falling to her +knees, wrapped her in a mantle of spun gold, she looked a wraith, a +creature woven of the mist of the stream below, a Lörelei sleeping upon +her rock. Landless, still upon his knee beside her, watched her with a +beating heart, while the Susquehannock, leaning upon his gun, bent his +darkly impassive looks upon them both. At length the latter said, "We +must be far from here before the dogs behind us awake, and the Gold Hair +cannot travel swiftly. Let us be going."</p> + +<p>"Madam," said Landless.</p> + +<p>She opened her eyes and he helped her to her feet. "We must hasten on," +he said gently. "They will follow us and we must put as many leagues as +possible between us before they find our trail."</p> + +<p>"I did not think of that!" she said, with dilating eyes. "I thought it +was all past—the terror—the horror! Let us go, let us hasten! I am +quite strong; I have learned how to walk through the woods. Come!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_310" id="page_310" title="310"></a></p> + +<p>The Indian glided before them and led the way over the friendly rocks. +They left them and found themselves upon a carpet of pine needles, and +then in a dell where the fern grew rankly and the rich black earth gave +like a sponge beneath their feet. Here the Indian made Landless carry +Patricia, and himself came last, walking backwards in the footprints of +the other, and pausing after each step to do all that Indian cunning +could suggest to cover their trail. They came to more rocky ledges and +walked along them for a long distance, then found and went up a wide and +shallow stream. Slowly the pale light of dawn diffused itself through +the forest. In the branches overhead myriads of birds began to flutter +and chirp, the squirrels commenced their ceaseless chattering, and +through the white mist, at bends of the stream, they saw deer coming +from the fern of the forest to drink. A great hill rose before them, +bare of trees, covered only with a coarse growth of grass and short blue +thistles in which already buzzed a world of bees; they climbed it and +from the summit watched a ball of fire rise into the cloudless blue. The +morning wind, blowing over that illimitable forest, fanned their brows, +and a tide of woodland sound and incense swept up to them from the world +below. Around them were the Blue Mountains—gigantic masses, cloudy +peaks, vast ramparts rising from a sea of mist—mysterious fastnesses, +scarcely believed in and never seen by the settlers of the level land—a +magic country in which they placed much gold and the wandering colonists +of Roanoke, the South Sea, and long-gowned Eastern peoples.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the mountains!" said Patricia. "The dreadful, frowning mountains! +When will we be quit of<a class="pagenum" name="page_311" id="page_311" title="311"></a> them? When will we reach the level land and the +blue water?"</p> + +<p>"Before many days, I trust," said Landless. "See, our faces are set to +the east—towards home."</p> + +<p>She stood in silence for a moment, her face lifted, the color slowly +coming back to her cheeks and the light to her eyes, then said +suddenly:—</p> + +<p>"Did my father send you after me?"</p> + +<p>"No, madam."</p> + +<p>"Then how are you here?"</p> + +<p>He looked at her with a smile. "I broke gaol—and came."</p> + +<p>A shadow crossed her face, but it was gone in a moment. "I am very +grateful," she said. "You have saved me from worse than death."</p> + +<p>"It is I that am thankful," he answered.</p> + +<p>They descended the hill in silence and found the Susquehannock, who had +preceded them, squatted before a fire which he had kindled upon a flat +rock beside one of the innumerable streamlets that wound here and there +over the land.</p> + +<p>"The dogs yonder will need Iroquois eyes to spy out this trail," he said +with grim satisfaction, as they came up to him. "Let my brother and the +Gold Hair rest by the fire, and Monakatocka will go into the forest and +get them something to eat."</p> + +<p>He was gone, his gigantic figure looking larger than life as he moved +through the mist which still filled the hollow between the hills, and +Landless and Patricia sat themselves down beside the fire. Landless +piled upon it the dead wood with which the ground was strewn, and the +flames leaped and crackled, sending up thin blue smoke against the +hillside and reddening the bosom of the placid stream. When he<a class="pagenum" name="page_312" id="page_312" title="312"></a> had +finished his task and taken his seat, there fell a silence and +constraint upon the man and woman, brought through so many strange and +wayward paths, through lives so widely differing, to this companionship +in the heart of a waste and savage world. They sat opposite each other +in the ruddy light of the fire, and each, looking into the dark or +glowing hollows, saw there the same thing—the tobacco house and what +had there passed.</p> + +<p>"I wish to believe in you," said Patricia at last, lifting appealing +eyes to the opposite face. "But how can I? You lied to me!"</p> + +<p>Landless raised his head proudly. "Madam, will you listen to me—to my +defense if you will? You are a Royalist: I am a Commonwealth man. Can +you not see, that as ten years ago, in the estimation of you and yours, +it was all that was just and heroic for a Cavalier to plot the downfall +of the Government which then was, both here and at home, so they of the +Commonwealth saw no disgrace in laboring for their cause, a cause as +real and as high and as holy to them, madam, as was that of the Stuart +and the Church to the Cavalier.... And will not the slave fight for his +liberty? Is it of choice, do you think, that men lie rotting in prison, +in the noisome holds of ships, are bought and sold like oxen, are +chained to the oar, to the tobacco field, are herded with the refuse of +the earth, are obedient to the finger, to the whip? We—they who are +known as Oliverians, and they who are felons, and I who am, if you +choose, of both parties, were haled here with ropes. What allegiance did +we owe to them who had cast us out, or to them who bought us as they buy +dumb beasts? As God lives, none! We were no longer regarded as men,<a class="pagenum" name="page_313" id="page_313" title="313"></a> we +were chattels, animals, slaves, caged, and chained. And as the caged +beast will break his bars if he can, so we strove to break ours. You +have been a captive, madam. Is not freedom sweet to you? We also longed +for it. We staked our lives upon the throw—and lost. That dream is +over,—let it go!... There is honor among rebels, madam, as among +thieves. That morning after the storm, I had the choice of lying to you +or of becoming a traitor indeed.... But as to what I had before asked +you to believe, that was the truth, is the truth. I know that in your +eyes I am still the rebel to the King, well deserving the doom which +awaits me, but if, after what I say to you, by the faith of a gentleman, +before the God who is above the stillness of these hills, you still +believe me criminal in aught else, you wrong me much, you wrong +yourself!"</p> + +<p>He ceased abruptly, and rising, began to heap more wood upon the fire. +The figure of the Indian, with something dark upon its shoulder, emerged +from the spectral forest, and came towards them through the mist.</p> + +<p>"Monakatocka has found our breakfast," said Landless, forcing himself to +speak with indifference, and without looking at his companion. "I am +glad of it, for you must be faint from hunger."</p> + +<p>"I am very thirsty," she said in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"If you will come to the water's edge, that at least can be quickly +remedied."</p> + +<p>She rose from the rock upon which she had been seated and followed him +down to the brink of the little stream. "I would I had a cup of gold," +he said, "and here is not even a great leaf. Will you drink from my +hands, madam?"<a class="pagenum" name="page_314" id="page_314" title="314"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes," she said; then deliberately, after a pause, "for I well believe +them to be clean hands."</p> + +<p>Her own hand touched his as she spoke, and he put it to his lips in +silence. Kneeling upon the turf by the stream, he raised the water in +his hands and she stooped and drank from them, and then they went back +to the fire and sat beside it without speaking until the arrival of +Monakatocka, laden with a wild turkey. An hour later the Susquehannock +carefully extinguished the fire, raked all the embers and ashes into the +stream, hid beneath great rocks the debris of their morning meal, +obliterated all moccasin prints, and having made the little hollow +between the hills to all appearance precisely as it was a few hours +before, when the foot of man had probably never entered it, stepped into +the stream and announced that they were ready to pursue their journey. +Before midday, the stream winding to the south, they left it, and +plunging into the dark heart of the forest pushed rapidly on with their +faces to the east.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_315" id="page_315" title="315"></a> +<a name="THE_HUT_IN_THE_CLEARING_9736" id="THE_HUT_IN_THE_CLEARING_9736"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> +<h3>THE HUT IN THE CLEARING</h3> +</div> + +<p>Five days later saw the wayfarers some thirty leagues to the eastward of +the hollow in the hills. They had traveled swiftly, sleeping but a few +hours of each night and in the daytime pausing for rest only when +Landless, quietly watchful, saw the weariness growing in the eyes of the +woman beside him, or noted her lagging footsteps. They had left the +higher mountains behind them, but still moved through what seemed an +uninhabited territory. No Indian village crowned the hills above the +streams; they encountered no roving bands; no solitary hunter met them; +nowhere was there sign of human life. If their enemies were upon their +track, they knew it not—perfect peace, perfect solitude seemed to +encompass them. Still the Indian was vigilant; covering their trail with +unimaginable ingenuity, taking advantage of every running stream, every +stony hillside, building a fire only in some hidden hollow or fold of +the hills, using his bow and arrow to bring down the deer or wild fowl +which furnished them food—he stalked behind them, or sat bolt upright +against the tree or rock beneath which they had made their resting +place, tireless, watchful, the breathing image of caution. If he slept, +it was a sleep from which the sound of a falling acorn, the sleepy stir +of a partridge in the fern was sufficient to awaken him. Sometimes<a class="pagenum" name="page_316" id="page_316" title="316"></a> they +rested by fires, for they heard the wolves through the darkness; upon +the nights when this was necessary the Susquehannock sat with his gun +across his knees, piercing the darkness in every direction with keen and +restless eyes. Nothing worse than the wolves—cowardly as yet, for +though drawing swiftly nearer, winter and famine were still +distant—threatened them; no sound other than the forest sounds +disturbed them; through the scant undergrowth or over the moss and +partridge berry brushed nothing more appalling than bear or badger. But +the Indian watched on.</p> + +<p>Day after day Landless and Patricia walked side by side through the +reddening forest. His hands steadied her over crags or down ravines, or +broke a way for her through vast beds of sassafras or mile-long tangles +of wild grape, and when their way lay along the bed of streams he +carried her. She had no need to complain of fatigue, for he saw when she +was weary, and called a halt. At their rustic meals he waited upon her +with grave courtesy, and when they halted for the night he made her +couch of fallen leaves and wove for it a screen of branches. They spoke +but little and only of the needs of the hour. She bore herself towards +him kindly and gently, thanking him with voice and smile for all that he +did for her, and there was no mistrust in her eyes; but he saw, or +fancied he saw, a shadow in their depths, and thinking, "She does not +forget, and neither must I," he set a watch upon himself, and bounds, +across which he was not to step.</p> + +<p>Upon the afternoon of the sixth day they were passing through a deep and +narrow ravine—a mere crack between two precipitous, heavily wooded +mountains—when<a class="pagenum" name="page_317" id="page_317" title="317"></a> the Indian stopped short in his tracks and uttered a +warning "Ugh!" then bent forward in a listening attitude.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Landless in a low voice. "I hear nothing."</p> + +<p>"It is a sound," said the other in the same tone. "I do not know what +yet, for it is far off. But it is in front of us."</p> + +<p>"Shall we go on?" demanded Landless, and the Indian nodded.</p> + +<p>It was late afternoon, and the hills which closed in behind them as the +gorge writhed to left and right hid the sun. Great trees, too, pine and +chestnut, walnut and oak, leaned towards each other from the opposing +banks, and together with the overhanging rocks, mantled with fern, made +a twilight of the pass beneath. Here and there the silver stem of a +birch stood up tall and straight, and looked a ghostly sentinel. "Do you +hear it still?" demanded Landless when they had gone some distance in +dead silence.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And still in front of us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Ah, what can it be?" cried Patricia, turning her white face upon +Landless.</p> + +<p>A cold wind, blowing from open spaces beyond, rushed up the ravine. "I +hear a very faint sound," said Landless, "like the tapping of a +woodpecker in the heart of the forest."</p> + +<p>"It is the sound of the axe of the white man," said the Indian. "Some +one is cutting down a tree."</p> + +<p>"There can be no ranger or pioneer within many leagues of us!" exclaimed +Landless. "No white man hath ever come so far. It must be an Indian!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_318" id="page_318" title="318"></a></p> + +<p>The Susquehannock shook his head. "Why should an Indian cut down a tree? +We kill them and let them stand until they are bare and white like the +bones of a man when the wolves have finished with him, and they fall of +themselves."</p> + +<p>"If my father still searches for me," said Patricia in a low voice, "may +it not be his party that we hear? There may be a stream there. They may +make canoes."</p> + +<p>"With all my heart I pray that it be so, madam," said Landless. "But we +will soon know. See, Monakatocka has gone on ahead."</p> + +<p>She did not answer, and they walked on through the gloom of the defile. +Presently their path became rough and broken, blocked with large stones +and heavily shadowed by cedars projecting from the rocks above and +draped with vines. He held out his hands and she took them, and he +helped her across the rough places. He felt her hands tremble in his, +and he thought it was with the ecstasy of the hope which inspired her.</p> + +<p>"If it is indeed so," she said once in a voice so low that he had to +bend to catch the words, "if it is indeed my father, then this is the +last time you will help me thus."</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered steadily. "The last time."</p> + +<p>They passed the rocks and came to where the ravine widened. The sound +that had perplexed them was now plainly audible; there was no mistaking +the quick, ringing strokes of the axe. They rounded a jutting cliff and +abruptly emerged from the chill darkness of the gorge upon a noble +landscape of hill and valley, autumn woods and flowing water, all bathed +in the golden light of the sinking sun and inestimably<a class="pagenum" name="page_319" id="page_319" title="319"></a> bright and +precious of aspect after the gloom through which they had been +traveling. But it was not the beauty of the scene which drew an +exclamation from them both. At a little distance rose a knoll, covered +with short grass and fading golden-rod, and with its base laved by a +crystal stream of some width, and upon the knoll, shaded by a couple of +magnificent maples, and covered with the pale and feathery bloom of the +wild clematis, stood a small, rude hut. Smoke rose from its crazy +chimney, and upon the strip of greensward before the door rolled a +little, half-naked child—a white child. As the travelers stared in +amazement, a woman's voice rang out, freshly and sweetly, in an English +ballad. The trees had been cleared away from around the knoll, and in +their place rose the yellowing stalks of Indian corn. The little mound, +feathered with the gold of the golden-rod and girt with the gold of the +maize, rose like a fairy isle from the limitless sea of forest, and the +apparition of a troop of veritable elves would have astonished the +wanderers less than did the tiny cabin, the romping child, and the clear +song of the woman.</p> + +<p>The Indian glided to their side from behind the trunk of an oak. "Ugh," +he said with emphasis. "He is mad and so he has his scalp still." As he +spoke he pointed to where, at a little distance, a man, with his back +turned to the forest, was busily felling a tree.</p> + +<p>"He dares much," said Landless. "We did not think to see the face of a +white man—pioneer, ranger, trapper or trader—for many a league yet. He +has built his house in the jaws of the wolf."</p> + +<p>Patricia gazed at the hut with wistful eyes. "There is a woman there," +she said, and Landless heard her<a class="pagenum" name="page_320" id="page_320" title="320"></a> voice tremble for the first time in +their long, toilsome and painful journey. "There is no need to pass them +by, is there? It looks very fair and peaceful. May we not rest here for +this one night?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Landless gently, reading, as he read all her fancies and +desires, her longing for the companionship of a woman, though for so +short a time. The Indian, too, nodded assent. "Good! but Monakatocka +will watch to-night."</p> + +<p>They moved through the checkered light and shade towards the man who +worked at the foot of the knoll. They were quite near him when the +woman, whose voice they had heard, came to the door of the cabin, shaded +her eyes with her hand, looked towards the ravine, and saw the three +figures emerging from it. With a loud cry she snatched up the child at +her feet and rushed down the knoll towards the man, who at the sound of +her voice dropped his axe, caught up a musket which leaned against a +stump beside him, and wheeling, presented the gun at the newcomers.</p> + +<p>"Give me your kerchief, madam," said Landless, and advanced with the +white lawn in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Halt!" cried the man with the gun.</p> + +<p>"We are friends," called Landless. "This lady and I are from the +Settlements. This Indian is not Algonquin, but Iroquois—a +Susquehannock, as you may tell by his size. You need have no fear. We +are quite alone."</p> + +<p>The man slowly lowered his gun. "What, in the name of all the fiends, do +you here?" he said, wiping away with the back of his hand the cold sweat +that had sprung to his forehead. He was a tall man with a sinewy frame +and a dare-devil face, tanned to well-nigh the hue of the Indian.<a class="pagenum" name="page_321" id="page_321" title="321"></a></p> + +<p>"I might ask the same question of you," said Landless, coming up to him +with a smile. "This lady was captured and carried off by a band of +roving Ricahecrians who bore her into the Blue Mountains. We ask your +hospitality for to-night. The lady is very weary, and she has not seen +the face of a woman for many weeks. Your good wife will entreat her +kindly, I know."</p> + +<p>The woman, who now stood beside the man, smiled, but doubtfully; the +man's face too was clouded, and there was an uneasy light in his eyes. +Landless, looking steadily at him, saw upon his forehead a mark which +served to explain his evident perturbation.</p> + +<p>"You need not fear me," he said quietly. "'Tis none of our business how +you come to be here in this wilderness, so far from what has been +counted the furthest outpost."</p> + +<p>The man, feeling his gaze upon him, raised his hand with an involuntary +motion to his forehead, then dropped it, awkwardly enough.</p> + +<p>"I see," said Landless. "I understand. I have been—I am—a servant. A +runaway, too, if you like. I have been in trouble. I would not betray +you if I could: that I cannot, goes without saying. Now, will you +shelter us for this night?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the man, his face clearing. "As you say, you couldn't do us +harm if you would, seeing that masters, and d—d overseers, and +bloodhounds are at the world's end for us. We are beyond their reach. +Bring up the lady. Joan, here, will see to her."</p> + +<p>An hour later the woman and Patricia sat side by side upon the doorstep +in the long mountain twilight. At their feet the little child crowed and +clapped its<a class="pagenum" name="page_322" id="page_322" title="322"></a> hands, and plucked at the golden-rod growing about the +door. Below them, beside the placid stream, the owner of the hut and +Godfrey Landless paced slowly up and down, now disappearing into the +shadow of the trees, now dimly seen in the open spaces, while the Indian +lay at full length beneath the maples, with his eye upon the blackness +of the ravine down which they had come.</p> + +<p>"It is fair to look upon, and peaceful," Patricia said dreamily, "but +Danger lives in these dreadful mountains. Why did you come here?"</p> + +<p>"We came because we loved," the woman said simply.</p> + +<p>"But why into the very land of the savages, so far from safety, so far +from the Settlements?"</p> + +<p>The woman turned her eyes upon the beautiful face beside her and studied +it in silence.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you," she said at last, "for I believe you are as good as +you are beautiful, and you are as beautiful as an angel. And, though I +can see that you are a lady, yet you are woman too, as I am, and you +have suffered much, as I have, and have loved too, I think, as I have +loved."</p> + +<p>"I have never loved," said Patricia.</p> + +<p>The woman smiled, and shook her head. "There is a look in the eyes that +only comes with that. I know it." She gathered the child to her, and +beating its little hand against her bosom, began her story:—</p> + +<p>"It is four years since I signed to come to the Plantations, to become +the servant of an up-river planter—and to better myself. It was a hard +life, my lady, a hard life—you cannot guess how hard.... One day a +neighboring planter sent a message to my master, and I (for I served in +the house) took it from<a class="pagenum" name="page_323" id="page_323" title="323"></a> the messenger. The messenger was one that I had +known in the village at home, in England. He had left home to make his +fortune, and I had not heard of him for a long time. They used to call +me his sweetheart. When I saw him I cried out, and he caught my hands in +his.... After that we met whenever we could, on Sundays, on Instruction +days, whenever chance offered. He had tried to run away twice before we +met, but he never tried afterwards. His master was a hard man—mine was +worse.... After a while we began to meet in secret—at night.... You are +a lady—that is different—you cannot understand; but I loved him, loved +him as well as any lady in the land could love; better, maybe.... There +came a night when I was followed, and taken, and he with me." She broke +off to smell at the scentless spear of golden-rod which the child held +up, and to say, "Yes, my darling, pretty, pretty, pretty," then went on +with her eyes following the figures walking up and down beside the +stream. "The next night found us in the sheriff's hands, in the gaol at +the court-house. Oh that blank, dreadful, heavy night! I felt the lash +already—I did not mind that—but I saw the platform and the post, and +the gaping crowd beneath. I thought of him, and my heart was sick; I +thought of my mother, and my tears fell like rain.... There was a noise +at the window, and I stood upon my stool to see what it was. It was he! +He had a knife and he worked and wrenched at the bars until he had +wrenched them away, then dragged me through the window and we stood +together beneath the stars—free! Another moment and we were down at the +water side and into a boat which was fastened there. We loosed it and +rowed with all our speed up<a class="pagenum" name="page_324" id="page_324" title="324"></a> the river. He had killed the gaoler and +gotten away, bringing with him a musket and an axe. All that night we +rowed, and when morning broke we were well-nigh past the settlements, +for we had been far up river to begin with. That day we hid in the +reeds, but when night came we sped up the stream. We came to the falls +of the far west and left our boat there. For many days we walked through +the woods, hurrying on, day after day, for when we lay down at night, I +saw in my dreams the flash of the torches and heard the baying of the +hounds. After a long while we came to an Indian village not many leagues +from here, and there we found the mercies of the savage kinder than the +mercies of the white man. They may have thought us mad—I do not +know—but they did not harm us. There we dwelt for a time, in the +stranger's wigwam, and there the child was born." She pressed the little +hand which she held, and which she had never ceased to beat against her +bosom, to her lips. "He would have stayed in the village, but in sleep I +still heard the bloodhounds, and we left the friendly Indians and +pressed on. We came upon this knoll on just such an evening as this—the +light in the west, and the stream very still, with a large white star +shining down upon it. We lay down beside it, and that night I slept +without a dream.... We have been here ever since, and here we shall stay +until we die."</p> + +<p>"It is fair now," said Patricia, "but in a little while it will be +winter and very cold."</p> + +<p>"Bitterly cold," said the woman. "The snow lies long in these hills, and +the wind howls down the ravine."</p> + +<p>"And the wolves are bold in winter."<a class="pagenum" name="page_325" id="page_325" title="325"></a></p> + +<p>"Very bold. This scar upon my arm is from the teeth of one which I +fought here, on the very threshold."</p> + +<p>"The Indians threaten always, summer or winter."</p> + +<p>"Ay, sooner or later they will come against us. We shall die that way at +last. But what does it matter—so that we die together?"</p> + +<p>The lady of the manor turned her pure, pale face upon the other with +wonder, and yet with comprehension, written upon it.</p> + +<p>"You are happy!" she said, almost in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am happy," the woman answered, a light that was not from the +faintly crimson west upon her face.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_326" id="page_326" title="326"></a> +<a name="ATTACK_10056" id="ATTACK_10056"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> +<h3>ATTACK</h3> +</div> + +<p>About midnight, Landless, lying upon the dirt floor of the lean-to +attached to the one room of the cabin, felt a hand upon his shoulder and +opened his eyes upon a shadowy figure, blocking up the starlight that +came faintly in at the open door.</p> + +<p>"Hist!" said the figure. "Ricahecrians!"</p> + +<p>Landless sprang to his feet. "My God! You are sure?"</p> + +<p>"They are coming out of the ravine. You will hear the whoop directly."</p> + +<p>The owner of the hut, stirred by the Susquehannock's foot, started up. +Such an alarm being about the least surprising thing that could happen, +he kept his wits, and after the first intake of the breath and +exclamation of, "Indians!" he went about his preparations coolly enough. +Rushing into the cabin where Landless had already waked the women, he +groped for his tinder box, and with a steady hand struck a light and +fired a pine knot which he stuck into a block of wood pierced to receive +it; then jerked from the wall his musket and powder horn.</p> + +<p>"You both have guns," he said coolly. "Good! We'll die fighting." The +woman had flown to the door, had seen that the heavy wooden bars were +drawn across it, and now stood beside him with a resolute face, and an +axe in her hands.<a class="pagenum" name="page_327" id="page_327" title="327"></a></p> + +<p>A moment of silence, and then the quiet night was cleft by the war +whoop—dreadful sound, forerunner of death and torture, concentrating in +its savage cadence all ideas of terror! A moment more, and there came +the sound of many moccasined feet and the hurling of many bodies against +the door. The door held, and the man put the muzzle of his gun in one of +the cracks between the logs and fired. The explosion was followed by a +yell. Shot and cry preluded pandemonium. Without were demoniacal cries, +quick crashing blows against the door, stealthy feet, clambering forms; +within were smoke and the noise of the muskets, the crying of the child, +and a red and flickering light which now brought out each detail of the +rude interior, now plunged all into shadow.</p> + +<p>"We are making it hot for them," cried the owner of the hut, reloading +his musket. "There's some shall go to hell before we do. Joan, my +girl—"</p> + +<p>An arrow, whistling through a crack, pierced his brain and he fell to +the ground with a crash. The shriek that the woman set up was answered +from without by a triumphant yell, and then one voice was heard +speaking.</p> + +<p>"It is the mulatto!" cried Patricia, clasping her hands.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Landless grimly. "I thought I had done for that devil, +but it seems not. May I have better luck this time!"</p> + +<p>"Ugh!" said the Indian, and pointed to the roof, which was low and +thatched with dried grass and moss.</p> + +<p>"I see," said Landless. "The cabin is on fire. We must leave it in five +minutes, come what may."<a class="pagenum" name="page_328" id="page_328" title="328"></a></p> + +<p>"We will never leave it alive," the Indian said calmly. "The dogs have +us fast. The Chief of the Conestogas will die in a strange land; his +bones will be a plaything for the wolves of the mountains; his scalp +will hang before the wigwam of an Algonquin dog. He will never see the +village and the pleasant river, never will he smoke the peace pipe, he +and his braves, with the Wyandots and the Lenni Lenape, sitting beneath +the mulberries in front of the lodge. He will never see the cornfeast. +He will never dance the war dance again, nor will he lead the war party. +The sagamore dies, and who will tell his tribe? He falls like a leaf in +the forest, like a pebble that is cast into the water. The leaf is not +seen: the stream closes above the pebble—it is gone!" His voice rose +into a chant, stern and mournful, and his vast form appeared to expand, +to become taller. He threw down his gun and drew his long, bright knife.</p> + +<p>"They are upon us!" cried Landless, and thrust Patricia behind him.</p> + +<p>The rude door, constructed of the trunks of saplings, bound together +with withes, crashed inwards, coming to the floor with a tremendous +noise, and a dozen savages precipitated themselves into the cabin. +Landless fired, bringing one to his knee; then clubbed his musket and +swung it over his shoulder. Between him and the Susquehannock, standing +beside him with bent body and knife drawn back against his breast, and +the invaders, was a space some few feet in width, and in this space +something dreadful now happened.</p> + +<p>On one side lay the body of the man with the woman crouched above it, on +the other a pile of skins upon which lay the little child. It had +sobbed<a class="pagenum" name="page_329" id="page_329" title="329"></a> itself into exhaustion and quiet, but terrified afresh by the +savage forms pouring through the doorway, the increased and awful +clamor, the flames which had now seized upon the walls, and the choking +smoke which filled the hut, it now scrambled from the pallet, and with a +weak cry started across the space towards its mother. It crossed the +path of the Ricahecrian chief—he glanced downwards, saw the tiny +tottering figure with its outstretched arms, caught it up, and holding +it by its feet, dashed its head against the ground. The cry which the +child uttered as he raised it reached the until then deaf ears of the +mother. She started up with a shriek that rang high above the yelling of +the savages, and darted forward, only to receive at her very feet the +mangled form of the baby she had sung to sleep but a few hours before. +She caught it to her breast and with another dreadful cry rushed upon +the savage. He met her, seized her free arm, raised it, and plunged his +knife into her bosom. Still clasping the child to her bosom, she fell +without a groan, while the Indian bounded on towards the three who yet +remained alive.</p> + +<p>The Susquehannock met him. "A chief for a chief," he said with a cold +smile, and the two locked together in a deadly embrace. When the +Ricahecrian was dead, the Susquehannock turned to find Landless—one +Indian dead before him, another writhing away like a wounded +snake—confronting across the body at his feet the graceful figure and +the amber-hued, evil, smiling face of Luiz Sebastian. So strong were the +flames by now, and so dense and stifling the smoke, that of the score or +more who had broken into the cabin but few remained within its walls, +which were fast becoming those of a furnace,<a class="pagenum" name="page_330" id="page_330" title="330"></a> the majority retreating to +the fresh air outside, whence they whooped on to their devil's work the +bolder spirits within.</p> + +<p>These now bore down <i>en masse</i> upon the devoted three. One threw his +tomahawk; it whistled within half an inch of Landless's head, and stuck +into the wall behind him. Another struck at him with his knife, but he +beat him down with his musket, and turned again to the mulatto, who, +knife in hand, watched his chance to run in upon him.</p> + +<p>"Look to the yellow slave, my brother," cried the Susquehannock, "I will +care for these dogs," and hurled his gigantic form upon them. One went +down before his knife; he broke the back of another, bending him like a +reed across his knee; a third fell, cleft to the brain by his +tomahawk—there was a fresh influx from without, and he was borne down +and knives thrust into him. Struggling to his feet, with one last +superhuman exertion of his vast strength, he shook them off as a stag +shakes off the dogs, and stretching out his arm, cried to Landless, +dimly seen through the ever thickening smoke;—</p> + +<p>"My brother, farewell! I said we should find Death in the Blue +Mountains.... The Iroquois laughs at the Algonquin dogs, laughs at +Death—dies laughing."</p> + +<p>He broke into wild, unearthly, choking laughter, his figure swaying to +and fro like a pine in a storm. The laughter, an indescribable and most +dreadful sound, became low, choked, a mere rattle in the throat, died +into silence, and the laugher crashed to the ground like a pine for +which the storm has been too much.</p> + +<p>Landless drew a breath that was like a moan, but kept his eyes upon the +yellow menace before him.<a class="pagenum" name="page_331" id="page_331" title="331"></a></p> + +<p>"The Ricahecrians are my good friends," said Luiz Sebastian. "They +promise me a wigwam in their village in the Blue Mountains. I shall lead +to it a bride, and she shall be no Indian girl."</p> + +<p>Landless struck at him over the dead body between them, but the mulatto, +springing back, avoided the blow.</p> + +<p>"It is my hour," he said, still with a smile.</p> + +<p>A portion of the roof fell in, making a barrier of flame between them. A +volume of smoke arose, and through it Landless and Patricia dimly saw +Indians and mulatto making for the doorway, driven forth by the +intolerable heat and the imminent danger of the burning walls and the +remainder of the roof caving in upon them. Beyond Landless was the +square opening leading into the tiny shed in which he had been sleeping +when this midnight visitation came upon them. Raising Patricia in his +arms, he made for it, and they presently found themselves in temporary +security. It was but for a moment, he knew, for the flames were already +taking hold upon the shed, but as he set his burden down he whispered +encouraging words.</p> + +<p>"I know," she answered. "We are in God's hands. I would rather die than +to come into that man's power. But the door to the shed is open and the +way seems clear. Could we not escape even now?"</p> + +<p>"Alas! madam, the flames make it as light as day around the cabin. They +would certainly see us. And yet if we stay, we burn. When the fire +reaches this straw above our heads we will try it."</p> + +<p>"I would rather stay here," said Patricia.</p> + +<p>Behind them the flames roared and crackled, the cabin burning like a +torch, and with the flames rose and fell the triumphant cries of the +savages, who,<a class="pagenum" name="page_332" id="page_332" title="332"></a> unaware of the existence of the tiny shed, so covered +with the vines that draped the cabin that it seemed one with it, +congregated in front of the gap in the wall where had been the door, and +waited for their still living victims to emerge from it.</p> + +<p>"Look!" breathed Patricia, grasping Landless's arm.</p> + +<p>They stood facing the open door of the shed, and gazing through it down +the lit slope of the knoll. Into the light, out of the darkness at the +foot of the hill, now glided a man, naked save for the loin cloth, and +painted with horrible devices; in the figure, noiseless and bent +forward, savage cunning; in the eyes, the lust for blood. In his +footsteps came his double, then a third, in all points exactly similar, +then a fourth, a fifth—a long line, creeping as silently as shadows—a +nightmare procession—up through the lurid light.</p> + +<p>Landless drew Patricia further into the shadow.</p> + +<p>"Wait," he said. "They may prove our deliverance."</p> + +<p>The stealthy line reached the summit of the knoll, then broadened into a +disc, and swept past the frail shelter in which stood the fugitives. A +moment, and the war whoop rang out, to be answered by a burst of yells +from the Ricahecrians, and then by prolonged and awful clamor.</p> + +<p>"Now is our time," said Landless.</p> + +<p>Hand in hand they ran from the shed that was now in a light flame, and +down the slope up which had come the band of unconscious Samaritans.</p> + +<p>"The stream!" said Landless. "There is a small raft upon it if they have +not destroyed it."</p> + +<p>They made for the water, found the raft hidden in<a class="pagenum" name="page_333" id="page_333" title="333"></a> a clump of reeds and +uninjured, and stepped upon it. In ten minutes' time from the appearance +of the new factor in the sum they were moving steadily, if slowly, down +a stream so wide that in Europe it would have been called a river. The +glare from the burning cabin faded, the flaming mass itself shrunk until +it looked a burning bush, then dwindled to a star. The noise of the +struggle upon the mount was with them longer, but at length it, too, +died away.</p> + +<p>"Which will conquer?" said Patricia at last, from where she crouched at +the feet of Landless, who stood erect, poling.</p> + +<p>"The Ricahecrians were the stronger," he answered. "But they may be so +handled that they will not come at us again. That must be our hope."</p> + +<p>There followed a long silence, broken by Patricia.</p> + +<p>"The baby," she said in a quivering voice, "the poor, pretty, innocent +little thing!"</p> + +<p>"It is well with it," said Landless. "It is spared all toil and +suffering. It is better as it is."</p> + +<p>"The man and woman went together," said Patricia, still with the sob in +her voice. "They would have chosen it so, I think. But the poor +Indian—"</p> + +<p>"He was my friend," said Landless slowly, "and I brought him death."</p> + +<p>"It is I that brought him death!" cried Patricia, tossing up her arms. +"I that shall bring you death!"</p> + +<p>Her voice rose into a cry that echoed drearily from the hills about +them, and she beat her hands against the raft with a sudden passion.</p> + +<p>"You would bring me no unwelcome gift," said Landless steadily, +"provided only that the time when I could serve you with my life were +past."</p> + +<p>She did not answer, and they floated on in silence<a class="pagenum" name="page_334" id="page_334" title="334"></a> down the little +river, between banks lined with dwarf willows and sighing reeds. With +the dawn they came to rapids through which they could not pilot their +frail craft. Leaving the water, they turned their faces towards the +rising sun, and pursued their journey through the forest that seemed to +stretch to the end of the world.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_335" id="page_335" title="335"></a> +<a name="THE_FALL_OF_THE_LEAF_10319" id="THE_FALL_OF_THE_LEAF_10319"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> +<h3>THE FALL OF THE LEAF</h3> +</div> + +<p>Days passed, and the forest put on a beauty, austere, yet fantastic, +bizarre. Above it hung a pale blue sky; within it, a perpetual, pale +blue haze, through which blazed the scarlet and gold of the trees—great +bonfires which did not warm, flaming pyres which were never consumed. +Morning and evening a shroud of chill, white mist fell upon them, or +they would have mocked the sunrise and the sunset. Along the summit of +low hills ran a comb of fire—the scarlet of the sumach, leaf and berry; +underfoot were crimson vines like trails and splashes of blood; into the +streams from which the wanderers stooped to drink, fell the gold of the +sycamore. From the hills they looked down upon a red and yellow world, a +gorgeous bourgeoning and blossoming that put the spring to shame, a sea +of splendor with here and there a dark-green isle of cedar or of pine. +Day after day saw the same calm blue sky, the same blue haze, the same +slow drifting of crimson and gold to earth. The winds did not blow, and +the murmur of the forest was hushed. All sound seemed muffled and +remote. The deer passed noiseless down the long aisles, the beaver and +the otter slipped noiseless into the stream, the bear rolled its +shambling bulk away from human neighborhood like a shapeless shadow. At +times vast flocks of wild pigeons darkened the air, but they passed like +a cloud.<a class="pagenum" name="page_336" id="page_336" title="336"></a> The singing birds were gone. Only at night did sound awake, +for then the wolves howled, and the infrequent scream of the panther +chilled the blood, and the fires which the wanderers must needs build +roared and crackled through the darkness. In the daytime beauty, vast +and melancholy; in the night, shadows and mysteries, the voice of wild +beasts and the stillness of the stars; at all times an enemy, they knew +not how far away or how near at hand, behind them.</p> + +<p>Through this world which seemed more a phantasm than a reality, Landless +and Patricia fared, and were happy. All passion, all fear, all mistrust +and anger slept in that enchanted calm. They never spoke of the past, +they had well-nigh ceased to think of it. When they knelt upon the turf +beside some crystal brook, and drank of the water which seemed red wine +or molten gold according to the nature of the trees above it, it might +have been the water of Lethe.</p> + +<p>In the illimitable forest, too, in the monotony of sunshine and shade, +of glade and dell, of crystal streams and tiny valleys, each the +counterpart of the other, in dense woods and grassy savannahs; in the +yesterday so like to-day, and the to-day so like to-morrow, there was no +hint of the future. It was enchanted ground, where to-morrow must always +be like to-day. They kept their faces to the east, and they walked each +day as many leagues as her strength would permit, and Landless, +imitating as best he could the dead Susquehannock, took all precautions +to cover their trail; but that done all was done, and they put care +behind them. Landless, walking in a dream, knew that it was a dream, and +said to himself, "I must awaken, but not yet. I will dream and be happy +yet a little while." But Patricia dreamt and<a class="pagenum" name="page_337" id="page_337" title="337"></a> knew it not. She kept her +wonted state, or, rather, with a quiet insistence he kept it for her. He +never addressed her save as "Madam," and he cared for her comfort, and +in all things bore himself towards her with the formal courtesy he would +have shown a queen. He said to himself, "Godfrey Landless, Godfrey +Landless, thou mayst forget much, perhaps, for a little while; but not +this! If thou dost, thou art no honorable man."</p> + +<p>Master of himself, he walked beside her, cared for her, tended her, +guarded her, served her as if he had been a knight-errant out of a +romance, and she a distressed princess. And she rewarded him with a +delicate kindliness, and a perfectly trustful, childlike dependence upon +his strength, wisdom, and resource. All her bearing towards him was +marked by an inexpressible charm, half-playful, wholly gracious and +womanly. The lady of the manor was gone, and in her place moved the +Patricia Verney of the enchanted forest—a very different creature.</p> + +<p>Thus they fared through the dying summer, and were happy in the present +of soft sunshine, tender haze, fantastic beauty. Sometimes they walked +in silence, too truly companions to feel the need of words; at other +times they talked, and the hours flew past, for they both had wit, +intelligence, quick fancy, high imagination. Sometimes their laughter +rang through the glades of the forest, and set the squirrels in the oaks +to chattering; sometimes in the melancholy grace of the evening when the +purple twilight sank through the trees, and the large stars came out one +by one, they spoke of grave things, of the mysteries of life and death, +of the soul and its hereafter. She had early noticed that he never lay +down at night without<a class="pagenum" name="page_338" id="page_338" title="338"></a> having first silently prayed. There had been a +time when she would have laughed at this as Puritan hypocrisy, but now, +one dark night, when the noises of the forest were loud about them, and +the wind rushed through the trees, she came close to him and knelt +beside him. Thenceforward each night, before they lay down beside their +fire, and when from out the darkness came all weird and mournful sounds, +when the owl hooted, and the catamount screamed, and the long howl of +the wolf was answered by its fellow, he stood with bared head, and in a +few short, simple words commended them both to God. "I will both lay me +down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in +safety."</p> + +<p>There came a day when they sat down to rest upon the dark, smooth ground +in a belt of pines, and looked between rows of stately columns to where, +in the distance, the arcade was closed by a broken and confused glory of +crimson oak and yellow maple. Landless told her that it was like gazing +at a rose window down the long nave of a cathedral.</p> + +<p>"I have never seen a cathedral," she said; "I have dreamed of them, +though, of your Milton's 'dim religious light,' and of the rolling +music."</p> + +<p>"I have seen many," he answered. "But none of them are to me what the +abbey at Westminster is. If you should ever see it—"</p> + +<p>Something in her face stopped him; there was a silence, and then he said +quietly:—</p> + +<p>"When you shall see it, is perhaps better, madam?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, gazing before her with wide fixed eyes.</p> + +<p>He did not finish his sentence, and neither spoke again until they had +left the pines and were forcing<a class="pagenum" name="page_339" id="page_339" title="339"></a> their way through the tall grass and +reeds of a wide savannah. They came to a small, clear stream, dotted +with wild fowl and mirroring the pale blue sky, and he lifted her in his +arms as was his wont and bore her through the shallow water. As he set +her gently down upon the other side, she said in a low voice, "I thought +you knew. Had it not been for that night, that night which sets us here, +you and me,—I should be now in London, at Whitehall, at some masque or +pageant perhaps. I should be all clad in brocade and jewels, not like +this—" She touched her ragged gown as she spoke, then burst into +strange laughter. "But God disposes! And you—"</p> + +<p>"I should be in a place which is never mentioned at Court, madam," said +Landless grimly. "The grave, to wit. Unless indeed his Excellency +proposed hanging me in chains."</p> + +<p>She cried out as though she had been struck. "Don't!" she said +passionately. "Don't speak to me so! I will not bear it!" and ran past +him into the woods beyond the savannah.</p> + +<p>When he came up with her he found her lying on a mossy bank with her +face hidden.</p> + +<p>"Madam," he said, kneeling beside her, "forgive me."</p> + +<p>She lifted a colorless face from her hands. "How far are we from the +Settlements?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>"I do not know, madam. Some twenty leagues, probably, from the frontier +posts."</p> + +<p>"How far from the friendly tribes?"</p> + +<p>"Something less than that distance."</p> + +<p>"Then when we reach them, sir," she said imperiously, "you are to leave +me with them at one of the villages above the falls."<a class="pagenum" name="page_340" id="page_340" title="340"></a></p> + +<p>"To leave you there!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You will tell them that I am the daughter of one of the paleface +chiefs, of one whom the great white chief calls 'brother,' and then they +will not dare to harm me or to detain me. They will send me down the +river to the nearest post, and the men there will bring me on to +Jamestown, and so home."</p> + +<p>"And why may not I bring you on to Jamestown—and so home?" demanded +Landless with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Because—because—you <i>know</i> that you are lost if you return to the +Settlements."</p> + +<p>"And nevertheless I shall return," he said with another smile.</p> + +<p>She struck her hands together. "You will be mad—mad! If you had not +been their leader!—but as it is, there is no hope. Leave me with the +friendly Indians, then go yourself to the northward. Make for New +Amsterdam. God will carry you through the Indians as he has done so far. +I will pray to him that he do so. Ah, promise me that you will go!"</p> + +<p>Landless took her hand and kissed it. "Were you in absolute safety, +madam," he said gently, "and if it were not for one other thing, I would +go, because you wish it, and because I would save you any pang, however +slight, that you might feel for the fate of one who was, who is, your +servant—your slave. I would go from you, and because it else might +grieve you, I would strive to keep my life through the forest, through +the winter—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, the winter!" she cried. "I had forgotten that winter will come."</p> + +<p>"But to do that which you propose," he continued, "to leave you to the +mercy of fierce and treacherous<a class="pagenum" name="page_341" id="page_341" title="341"></a> Indians, but half subdued, friends to +the whites only because they must—it is out of the question. To leave +you at a frontier post among rude trappers and traders, or at some half +savage pioneer's, is equally impossible. What tale would you have to +tell Colonel Verney? 'The Ricahecrians carried me into the Blue +Mountains. There your servant Landless found me and brought me a long +distance towards my home. But at the last, to save his own neck, forfeit +to the State, he left me, still in the wilderness and in danger, and +went his way.' My honor, madam, is my own, and I choose not so to stain +it. Again: I must be the witness to your story. You have wandered for +many weeks in a wilderness, far beyond the ken of your friends. To your +world, madam, I am a rebel, traitor and convict, a wretch capable of any +baseness, of any crime. If I go back with you, throwing myself into the +power of Governor and Council, at least I shall be credited with having +so borne myself towards my master's daughter as to fear nothing from +their hands on that score. The idle and censorious cannot choose but +believe when you say, 'I am come scatheless through weeks of daily and +hourly companionship with this man. Rebel and traitor and gaol-bird +though he be, he never injured me in word, thought, or deed....' For all +these reasons, madam, we must be companions still."</p> + +<p>She had covered her face while he was speaking, and she kept it hidden +when he had finished. The slowly lengthening shadows of the trees had +barred the little glade with black when he spoke again. It was only to +ask in his usual voice if she were rested and ready to continue their +journey.<a class="pagenum" name="page_342" id="page_342" title="342"></a></p> + +<p>She raised her head and looked at him with swimming eyes, then held out +two trembling hands. He took them, helped her to her feet, and before +releasing them, bent and touched them with his lips. Then side by side +and in silence they traveled on through the halcyon calm of the world +around them.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_343" id="page_343" title="343"></a> +<a name="AN_ACCIDENT_10536" id="AN_ACCIDENT_10536"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> +<h3>AN ACCIDENT</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was early morning, and the mist lay heavy upon the forest and on the +bosom of the James. Landless and Patricia raked together the dying +embers of their fire and heaped fresh wood upon them. The flames leaped +up, warming their chilled bodies and filling the hollow that had been +their camping place with a cheerful light, in which the moisture that +clothed tree bole and fallen log and withered fern glistened like +diamonds. Their breakfast of deer meat and broiled fish, nuts and a few +late clusters of grape, with coldest water from a spring hard by, was +eaten amidst laughter and pleasant talk. When they had lingered through +it and when Landless had carefully extinguished their fire and had seen +to the priming of his gun, they addressed themselves to their journey.</p> + +<p>A bowshot away was the river, and Patricia willed that they walk along +its banks that they might see the white mist lift, and the silver flash +of fish rising from the water, and the swoop of the kingfisher. Landless +agreeing, they went down to the river, and standing upon a rocky spit of +ground which ran far out into the stream, they looked down the misty +expanse, then turned involuntarily and looked up. At that moment the fog +lifted.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried Patricia, and shrunk back, cowering almost to the ground.<a class="pagenum" name="page_344" id="page_344" title="344"></a></p> + +<p>Landless seized her in his arms and ran with her across the shingle and +up the bank. Plunging into the woods he made for the little stream which +flowed past their camping place, and entering the water, walked rapidly +up it.</p> + +<p>"Did they see us?" Patricia asked in a low, strained voice.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid so."</p> + +<p>"They turned their boats towards the land. They are in the forest by +now."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And there is no doubt that they are the same. I saw the scarlet +handkerchief upon the head of the mulatto."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they are the same."</p> + +<p>"They were such a little way from us. Oh, they may be upon us at any +moment!"</p> + +<p>"We are in great danger," he answered gravely, "but it is not so +imminent as that. They were nearly a mile above us, and they have to +land, to hide their boats and to find our trail, all of which will take +time. We may count on having an hour's start of them, and we will do all +in our power to increase it by breaking our trail as we are doing now. +Then we cannot be many leagues from the falls, and the post below them, +or we may stumble at any moment upon some Monacan village which will not +need our urging to fly out against the Ricahecrians. Please God, we will +win through them yet."</p> + +<p>Somewhat comforted, she lay within his arms without speaking until they +left the stream, when he set her down, and giving her his hand, ran with +her over the fallen leaves down the long aisles of the forest.<a class="pagenum" name="page_345" id="page_345" title="345"></a></p> + +<p>Red gold showers fell upon them; fiery vines clutched at their feet, or, +swinging from the trees, struck at their faces with vicious tendrils; +the pines made the ground beneath like ice; rotting logs covered with +gorgeous fungi barred their way; dark and poisonous swamps appeared +before them, and had to be skirted—the forest leagued itself with its +children and did them yeoman service.</p> + +<p>The two aliens hastened breathlessly on. The sun climbed above the tree +tops and looked down upon them through the half denuded branches. Midday +came, and the short bright afternoon, and still they went fast through +the woods, and still they heard no other sound than the rustle and sough +of the leaves and the beating of their own hearts. They came to rising +ground, and mounting it, found themselves upon a chinquepin ridge, and +before them an abrupt descent of rain-washed, boulder-strewn earth. It +was so nearly a precipice that Patricia shrunk back with an exclamation +of dismay.</p> + +<p>"I will go first," said Landless. "Give me your hands. So!"</p> + +<p>Half way down, the earth began to slip. Patricia, looking up and over +her shoulder, uttered a cry. A great boulder, imbedded in the earth +directly above them, was dislodging itself, was falling! At her cry +Landless raised his eyes, saw the threatening mass, caught her around +the waist, and with one supreme effort swung her out of the path of the +avalanche which descended the next moment, bearing him with it to the +ground beneath.</p> + +<p>He was recalled to consciousness by the dash of water against his face, +and opened his eyes to behold Patricia bending over him, very white, +with tragic<a class="pagenum" name="page_346" id="page_346" title="346"></a> eyes, and lips pressed closely together. She had run to the +river, flowing through the sunshine a hundred yards away, for water, +which she had brought back in his cap, and she had taken the kerchief +from her neck, wet it, and laid it upon his forehead. Her hands were +torn and bleeding. He saw them and uttered an exclamation. "It is +nothing," she said; "I had to move the rock." Scarcely fully conscious +as yet, his eyes glanced from her to the great rock which lay upon one +side, and upon which there were bloodstains. "I have had a bad fall," he +said unsteadily, but with an attempt to speak lightly because of the +trouble in her eyes, "but it is over. Come! we must hurry on. We have no +time to lose."</p> + +<p>As he spoke he strove to rise, but with the effort came a pang of +anguish, and he sank back, faint and sick, upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you cannot!" cried Patricia with a great sob in her voice. "It is +your foot. The rock fell upon it."</p> + +<p>After a moment of lying with closed eyes, he sat up and with his knife +began to cut away the moccasin from the wounded limb. Presently he +looked up. "Yes, it is badly crushed. There is no doing anything with +it."</p> + +<p>For many moments they gazed at each other in a despairing silence, +broken by Patricia's low, "What are we to do now?"</p> + +<p>"We must go on," answered Landless. "It is death to stay here."</p> + +<p>Holding by the bank against which he had leaned, he dragged himself up +and stood for an instant with eyes dark with pain; then, setting his +lips, took a step forward. The bronze of his face paled, and beads of +anguish stood upon his brow, but he took another<a class="pagenum" name="page_347" id="page_347" title="347"></a> step. Patricia, the +tears running down her cheeks, came to him and put his arm around her +shoulder. "I will be your crutch," she said, striving to smile. "I will +carry the gun, too."</p> + +<p>Before them was a steeply sloping, grass-grown ascent rising to a broken +line of cliffs, scarred and gray, crowned with cedars and hung here and +there with crimson creepers, and with a chance medley of huge gray +boulders scattered about their base. Up this ascent they labored, so +slowly that the crags seemed like the mountain in the Arabian tale, ever +receding as they advanced. Twice Landless staggered and fell to his +knee, but when, after what seemed an eternity of pain and distress, they +reached the summit and Patricia would have had him rest, he shook his +head and motioned with his hand towards the narrow, boulder-strewn +plateau at the foot of the crags.</p> + +<p>With her accustomed unquestioning obedience she turned towards the +rocks, and after another interval of painful toil they found themselves +in a sort of rocky chamber, a natural blockhouse, of which the sheer +cliff formed one wall and boulders of varying height and shape the +others.</p> + +<p>Above them gleamed the blue sky; through the gaps between the rocks they +looked down upon the shining river and the parti-colored woods, and +behind them towered the cliffs. A strong wind was blowing and it sent +red leaves from the vines that draped the rock whirling down upon them.</p> + +<p>"The tall gray crags," said Patricia in a strange voice, "and the +Martinmas wind. The river flowing in the sunshine too."</p> + +<p>Landless sank upon the rocky floor. "I can go no further," he said. "God +help me!"<a class="pagenum" name="page_348" id="page_348" title="348"></a></p> + +<p>"I do not think another man could have come so far," she answered. "What +are we to do now?"</p> + +<p>"You must go on without me."</p> + +<p>She cried out angrily, "What do you mean? I don't understand you."</p> + +<p>"Listen," he said earnestly, dragging himself closer to her. "We can be +but a very few leagues from the falls, still fewer from the Indian +villages above them. Reach one of those villages and you are safe from +these devils at least. We have kept the start of them. They may not +reach this spot for several hours, and when they come, I will keep them +here, God helping me, for more hours than one. This place is a natural +fortress, and they have no guns. They will not take me until my +ammunition is exhausted, and you know there is store of bullets and +powder. They will think that you are with me, hidden behind the rocks—"</p> + +<p>"And I shall be with you!" she cried vehemently.</p> + +<p>"No, no. You must go through this pass in the cliff to the right of us, +and thence down the river with all your speed. Please God, to-morrow +will find you in safety. It is the only way. To stay here is to fall +into their hands. And you must not delay. You must go at once."</p> + +<p>"And you—" she said in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"What does it matter if I lose my life to-day instead of a few weeks +hence? I grieve for this," with a glance at his foot, "because it keeps +me from being with you, from guarding you into perfect safety. Otherwise +it does not matter. You lose time, madam."</p> + +<p>She stood with heaving bosom and foot tapping the ground, an expression +that he could not read in her wonderful eyes. "I am not going," she said +at last.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_349" id="page_349" title="349"></a> +<a name="THE_BOAT_THAT_WAS_NOT_10730" id="THE_BOAT_THAT_WAS_NOT_10730"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> +<h3>THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT</h3> +</div> + +<p>"You will not go?" cried Landless.</p> + +<p>"No, I will not!" she answered passionately. "Why should you think such +a thing of me? See! we have been together, you and I, for long weeks! +You have been my faithful guide, my faithful protector. Over and over +again you have saved my life. And now, now when you are the helpless +one, when it is through me that you lie there helpless, when it is +through me that you are in this dreadful forest at all, you tell me to +go! to leave you to the fate I have brought upon you! to save myself! I +will not save myself! But the other day it was dishonor in you to leave +me below the falls—almost in safety. Mine the dishonor if I do what you +bid me do!"</p> + +<p>"Madam, madam, it is not with women as with men!"</p> + +<p>"I care not for women! I care for myself. Never, never, will I leave, +helpless and wounded, the man who dies for me!"</p> + +<p>"Upon my knees I implore you!" Landless cried in desperation. "You +cannot save me, you cannot help me. It is you that would make the +bitterness of my fate. Let me die believing that you have escaped these +fiends, and then, do what they will to me, I shall die happy, blessing +with my last breath the generous woman who lets me give—how proudly and +gladly<a class="pagenum" name="page_350" id="page_350" title="350"></a> she will never know—my worthless life in exchange for hers, so +young, bright, innocent. Go, go, before it is too late!"</p> + +<p>He dragged himself a foot nearer, and grasping the hem of her dress, +pressed it to his lips. "Good-bye," he said with a faint smile. "Keep +behind the rocks for some distance, then follow the river. Think kindly +of me. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>"It is too late," she said. "I can see the river through this crack +between the rocks. One of those two canoes has just passed, going down +the river. In it were seven Ricahecrians and the mulatto. I saw him +quite plainly, for they row close to the bank with their faces turned to +the woods. They will land at some point below this and search for our +trail. When they do not find it, they will know that we are between them +and the rest of the band, and they will come upon us from behind. If I +go now, it will be to meet them. Shall I go?"</p> + +<p>"No, no," groaned Landless. "It is too late. God help you! I cannot."</p> + +<p>The large tears gathered in her eyes and fell over her white cheeks. +"Oh, why," she said plaintively, "why did He let you hurt yourself just +now?" She turned her face to the rock against which she was standing, +and hiding it in her arm, broke into a low sobbing. It went to the heart +of the man at her feet to hear her.</p> + +<p>Presently the weeping ceased. She drew a long tremulous sigh, and dashed +the tears from her eyes. Her hands went up to her disheveled hair in a +little involuntary, feminine gesture, and she looked at him with a wan +smile.</p> + +<p>"I did not mean to be so cowardly," she said simply. "I will be brave +now."<a class="pagenum" name="page_351" id="page_351" title="351"></a></p> + +<p>"You are the bravest woman in the world," he answered.</p> + +<p>Below them waved the painted forest flaunting triumphant banners of +crimson and gold. A strong south wind was blowing, and it brought to +them a sound as of the whispering of many voices. The shining river, +too, murmured to its reeds and pebbles, and in the air was the dull +whirr of wings as the vast flocks of wild fowl rose like dark smoke from +the water, or, skimming along its surface, broke it into myriad diamond +sprays. Around the horizon towered heaped-up masses of cloud—Ossa piled +on Pelion—fantastic Jack-and-the-Beanstalk castles, built high above +the world, with rampart and turret and bastion of pearl and coral. Above +rose the sky intensely blue and calm.</p> + +<p>All the wealth, the warmth and loveliness of the world they were about +to leave flowed over the souls of the doomed pair. In their hearts they +each said farewell to it forever. Patricia stood with uplifted face and +clear eyes, looking deep into the azure heaven. "I am trying to think," +she said, "that death is not so bitter after all. To-day is +beautiful—but ours will be a fairer morrow! After to-day we will never +be tired, or fear, or be in danger any more. I am not afraid to die; but +ah! if it could only come to us now, swiftly, silently, out of the blue +yonder; if we could go without the blood—the horror—" she broke off +shuddering. Her eyes closed and she rested her head against the rock. +Landless watched the beautiful, pale face, the quivering eyelids, the +coral underlip drawn between the pearly teeth, in a passion of pity and +despair. Horrid visions of torture flashed through his brain; he saw the +delicate limbs writhing,<a class="pagenum" name="page_352" id="page_352" title="352"></a> heard the agonized screams.... If he killed +the mulatto, it might come to that; if the mulatto lived, he knew that +she would kill herself. He had given her the knife that had been +Monakatocka's, and she had it now, hidden in her bosom.... The glory of +the autumn day darkened and went out, the bitter waters of affliction +surged over him, an immeasurable sea; it seemed to him that until then +he had never suffered. A cold sweat broke out upon him, and with an +inarticulate cry of rage and despair he struck at his wounded foot as at +a deadly foe. The girl cried out at the sound of the blow.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't, don't! What are you doing? You have loosened the bandage, +and it is bleeding afresh."</p> + +<p>Despite his effort to prevent her she readjusted the kerchief which she +had wound about the torn and crushed foot, very carefully and tenderly. +"It must hurt you very much," she said pityingly.</p> + +<p>He took the little ministering hands in his and kissed them. "Oh, madam, +madam!" he groaned. "God knows I would shed every drop of my blood a +thousand times to save you. Death to me is nothing, nor life so fair +that I should care to keep it. The grave is a less dreadful prison than +those on earth, and I think to find in God a more merciful Judge. But +you—so young and beautiful, with friends, love—"</p> + +<p>She stopped him with a gesture full of dignity and sweetness. "That life +is gone forever,—it is thousands of miles and ages on ages away. It is +a world more distant than the stars, and we are nearer to Heaven than to +it.... It is strange to think how we have drifted, you and I, to this +rock. A year ago we had never seen each other's faces, had never heard<a class="pagenum" name="page_353" id="page_353" title="353"></a> +each other's names, and yet you were coming to this rock from prison and +over seas, and I was coming to meet you.... And it is our death place, +and we will die together, and to-morrow maybe the little birds will +cover us with leaves as they did the children in the story. They were +brother and sister.... When our time comes I will not be afraid, for I +will be with you ... my brother."</p> + +<p>Landless covered his face with his hands.</p> + +<p>The shadows grew longer and the cloud castles began to flush rosily, +though the sun still rode above the tree tops. A purple light filled the +aisles of the forest, through which a herd of deer, making for some +accustomed lick, passed like a phantom troop. They vanished, and from +out the stillness of the glades came the sudden, startled barking of a +fox. A shadow darted across a sunlit alley from gloom to gloom, paused +on the outskirts of the wood below the crags while one might count ten, +then turned and flitted back into the darkness from whence it came. They +beneath the crags did not see it.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Landless raised his head. Upon his face was the look of one who +has come through much doubt and anguish of spirit to an immutable +resolve. He looked to the priming of his gun and laid it upon the rock +beside him, together with his powderhorn and pouch of bullets. Raising +himself to his knees he gazed long and intently into the forest below. +There was no sign of danger. On the checkered ground beneath two mighty +oaks squirrels were playing together like frolicsome kittens, and +through the clear air came the tapping of a woodpecker. The forest was +silent as to the shadow that had flitted through it. It can keep a +secret very well.<a class="pagenum" name="page_354" id="page_354" title="354"></a></p> + +<p>Landless sank back against the rock. He had lost much blood, and that +and the pain of his mangled foot turned him faint and sick for minutes +at a time. He clenched his teeth and forced back the deadly faintness, +then turned to the woman who stood beside him, her hands clasped before +her, her eyes following the declining sun, her lips sometimes set in +mournful curves, sometimes murmuring broken and inaudible words of +prayer. He called her twice before she answered, turning to him with +eyes of feverish splendor which saw and yet saw not. "What is it?" she +asked dreamily.</p> + +<p>"Come back to earth, madam," he said. "There is that that I wish to say +to you. Listen to me kindly and pitifully, as to a dying man."</p> + +<p>"I am listening," she answered. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>"It is this, madam: I love you. For God's sake don't turn away! Oh, I +know that I should have been strong to the end, that I should not vex +you thus! It is the coward's part I play, perhaps, but I must speak! I +cannot die without. I love you, I love you, I love you!"</p> + +<p>His voice rose into a cry; in it rang long repressed passion, hopeless +adoration, fierce joy in having broken the bonds of silence. He spoke +rapidly, thickly, with a stammering tongue, now throwing out his hands +in passionate appeal, now crushing between his fingers the dried moss +and twigs with which the ground was strewn. "I loved you the day I first +saw you. I have loved you ever since. I love you now. My God! how I love +you! Die for you? I would die for you ten thousand times! I would <i>live</i> +for you! Oh, the day I first saw you! I was in hell and I looked at you +as lost Dives might have looked at<a class="pagenum" name="page_355" id="page_355" title="355"></a> the angel on the other side of the +gulf.... I never thought to tell you this. I know that never, never, +never.... But this is the day of our death. In a few hours we shall be +gone. Do not leave the world in anger with me. Say that you pity, +understand, forgive.... Speak to me, madam!"</p> + +<p>The sun sank lower and the shadows lengthened and deepened, and still +Patricia stood silent with uplifted and averted face, and fingers +tightly locked together. With a moan of mortal weakness Landless dragged +himself nearer until he touched with his forehead the low pedestal of +rock upon which she stood. "I understand," he said quietly. "After all, +there is nothing to be said, is there? Try to forget my—madness. Think +of it, if you will, as the raving of one at death's door. Let it be as +it was between us."</p> + +<p>Patricia turned—her beautiful face transfigured. Roses bloomed in her +cheeks, her eyes were fathomless wells of splendor, an exquisite smile +played about her lips; with her nimbus of golden hair she looked a rapt +mediæval saint. Her slender figure swayed towards Landless, and when she +spoke her voice was like the tone of a violin, soft, rich, caressing, +tremulous.</p> + +<p>"There was no boat," she said.</p> + +<p>"No boat!" he cried. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"The canoe going down the river. I told you that it held seven Indians +and the mulatto. I lied to you. There were no Indians, no mulatto, no +canoe. The shadows of the clouds have been upon the river, and the wild +fowl, and once a fish-hawk plunged. I have seen nothing else."</p> + +<p>Landless gazed at her with staring eyeballs. "You have thrown away your +life," he said at last in a voice that did not seem his own.<a class="pagenum" name="page_356" id="page_356" title="356"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, I have thrown away my life."</p> + +<p>"But why—why—"</p> + +<p>The rich color surged over her face and neck. She swayed towards him +with the grace of a wind-bowed lily, her breath fanning his forehead, +and her hand touching his, softly, flutteringly, like a young bird.</p> + +<p>"Can you not guess why?" she said with an enchanting smile.</p> + +<p>All the anguish of a little while back, all the terror of the fate that +hung over her, all the white calm of despair was gone. The horror that +moved nearer and nearer, moment by moment, through the painted forest, +was forgotten. She looked at him shyly from under her long lashes and +with another wonderful blush.</p> + +<p>Landless gazed at her, comprehension slowly dawning in his eyes. For +five minutes there was a silence as of the dead beneath the crags. Then +with a great cry he caught her hands in his and drew her towards him. +"Is it?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered with laughter trembling on her lips. "Death hath +enfranchised us, you and me. Give me my betrothal kiss, my only love."</p> + +<p>For them one moment of Paradise, of bliss ineffable and supreme. The +next, the crags behind them rang to the sound of the war whoop.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_357" id="page_357" title="357"></a> +<a name="THE_LAST_FIGHT_10968" id="THE_LAST_FIGHT_10968"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> +<h3>THE LAST FIGHT</h3> +</div> + +<p>Out from the forest rushed the remnant of that band which had smoked the +peace pipe with the Governor one sunny afternoon on the banks of the +Pamunkey. Tall and large of limb, painted with all fantastic and ghastly +devices, and decorated with hideous mementoes of nameless deeds; with +the lust of blood written large in every fierce lineament and dark and +rolling eye; with raised hands grasping knife and tomahawk, and lips +uttering cries that seemed not of earth—a more appalling vision could +not have issued from out the beautiful, treacherous forest, a more +crashing discord have come into the music of the golden evening.</p> + +<p>For the two in their rocky fortress beneath the crags the apparition had +no terrors. All the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness of the world was +passing from them—the cry that swelled through the forest was its +knell. They smiled to hear it, and with raised faces looked beyond the +many-tinted evening skies into clear spaces where Love was all. The +intoxication of the moment when hidden and despairing love became love +triumphant and acknowledged abode with them. In the very grasp of death +ineffable bliss possessed them. Their countenances changed; the lines of +care and pain, the marks of tears, were all gone and the beauty of the +happy soul shone out.<a class="pagenum" name="page_358" id="page_358" title="358"></a> For that brief space of time transcendent youth +and loveliness was theirs. About them, as about the sun now sinking +behind the low hills, there breathed a glory, a dying splendor as bright +as it was fleeting. They felt, too, a lightness and gaiety of +spirit—they had drunk of the nectar of the gods, and no leaden weight +of care, no heavy sorrow, could ever touch them, ever drag them down +again to the sad earth.</p> + +<p>"You are beautiful," said Landless, gazing at her, even in the act of +raising his gun to his shoulder; "as beautiful as you were the day I +first saw you. I hear the drone of the bees in the vines at Verney +Manor. I smell the roses. I look up and see the Rose of the World. My +eyes were dazzled then, are dazzled now, my Rose of the World."</p> + +<p>"That day I wore brocade and lace, and there were pearls around my +throat," she said with a laugh of pure delight. "There was rouge upon my +cheeks, too, sir, and my eyes were darkened. To-day I go a beggar maid, +in rags, burnt by the sun—-"</p> + +<p>"The nut-brown maid," he said.</p> + +<p>"Ay," she answered, "the nut-brown maid—'For in my mind of all +mankind'—you may e'en finish it yourself, sir."</p> + +<p>The Ricahecrians had paused at the foot of the ascent to hold a council. +It was soon over. With another burst of cries they rushed up the steep +and upon the rocks, behind which were hidden their victims. Landless, +kneeling to one side of the gap between the boulders by which he and +Patricia had entered, fired, and the foremost of the savages threw up +his arms, uttered a dreadful cry, and fell across the path of his +fellows. For one moment the rush was checked, the next on they came, +yelling furiously<a class="pagenum" name="page_359" id="page_359" title="359"></a> and brandishing their weapons. Landless fired and +missed, fired again and pierced the thigh of a gigantic warrior, +bringing him crashing to the ground. The line wavered, paused, then +turning, swept to one side and so passed out of sight.</p> + +<p>"They have found this pass too formidable," said Landless. "They will +try now to force an entrance from the side. Do you watch the front, my +queen, while I face them, coming over the rocks."</p> + +<p>"I looked only at the mulatto," she said. "The others are shadows to +me."</p> + +<p>"His time is come," said Landless. "Do not fear him, sweetheart."</p> + +<p>"I fear not," she answered. "I have the perfect love."</p> + +<p>Along the top of a tall boulder to their right appeared a dark red +line—the arm of a savage, with clutching fingers. Above it, very slowly +and cautiously, there rose first an eagle's feather, then a coarse black +scalp lock, then a high forehead and fierce eyes. The echo of Landless's +shot reverberated through the cliffs, and when the smoke cleared only +the bare gray boulder faced him. But from behind it came a derisive +yell.</p> + +<p>"Thou wilt think me a poor marksman, my dear," he said, smiling, as he +reloaded his musket. "I have missed again."</p> + +<p>"It is because you are wounded," she said. "I would I had thy wounds."</p> + +<p>"I had a wounded heart, but you have healed it," he said, and looked at +her with shining eyes.</p> + +<p>The sun sank and the long twilight of the hills set in. The evening star +was brightening through the pale amethyst of the sky when Landless said +quietly:<a class="pagenum" name="page_360" id="page_360" title="360"></a> "The last charge," and emptied it into an arm which for one +incautious moment had waved above the rocks.</p> + +<p>"It is the end, then," said Patricia.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is the end. We have beaten them back for the moment, but +presently they will find that all we could do we have done, and then—"</p> + +<p>She left her post beside the gap in the front, and came and knelt beside +him, and he took her in his arms.</p> + +<p>"It is not Death before us, but Life," she said in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"It is God and Love, naught else," he answered. "But the river between +will be bitter for you to cross, sweetheart."</p> + +<p>"We cross it together," she said, "and so—" She raised her head that he +might see her radiant smile, and their lips met.</p> + +<p>"Hark!" she said directly with her hand on his. "What is that sound?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "The wind has risen, and the forest rustles and +sighs. There is nothing more."</p> + +<p>"It is far off," she answered, "but it is like the dip of oars. Ah!"</p> + +<p>Over against them, framed in the narrow opening between the rocks, his +lithe, half-nude figure dark against the crimson west, and with a smile +upon his evil lips and in his evil eyes, stood Luiz Sebastian. In the +dead silence that succeeded he looked with a smiling; countenance from +the musket, now useless and thrown aside, to his enemy, wounded and +unarmed save for a knife, and to the woman in that enemy's arms; then, +without turning, he said a few words in an Indian tongue. From the dusky +mass behind him<a class="pagenum" name="page_361" id="page_361" title="361"></a> came one short, wild cry of savage triumph, followed by +another dead silence.</p> + +<p>Still holding Patricia in one arm, Landless rose from his knee, and +stood confronting him.</p> + +<p>"We are met again, Señor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian smoothly. +Receiving no answer, he spoke again with a tigerish expansion of his +thick lips. "You have had an accident, I see. Mother of God! that foot +must pain you! But you will forget it presently in the pleasure of the +pine splinters."</p> + +<p>"I will forget it in the pleasure of this," said Landless, releasing +Patricia, and springing upon the mulatto with a suddenness and violence +that sent them both staggering through the opening between the rocks, +out upon the narrow plateau and into the ring of Ricahecrians. Luiz +Sebastian was strong, with the easy masked strength of the panther, but +Landless had the strength of despair. The mulatto, thrown heavily to the +ground, and pinned there by his adversary's knee, saw the gleam of the +lifted knife, and would have seen nothing more in this life, but that a +woman's cry rang out and saved him. Landless heard, turned, saw Patricia +dragged from the shelter of the rocks, leaped to his feet, leaving his +work undone, and rushed upon the knot of savages with whom she was +struggling. A moment saw him beside her with the Indian who had held her +dead at his feet. Behind them was the great boulder which had formed the +front wall of their chamber of defense. He put his arm around her, and +drew her back with him until they stood against this rock, then faced +the advancing savages with uplifted knife.</p> + +<p>So determined was his attitude, so terribly had they proved his power, +so certain it was that before<a class="pagenum" name="page_362" id="page_362" title="362"></a> he should be taken one at least of their +number would taste that knife, that the Ricahecrians paused, swaying to +and fro, yelling, working themselves into a fury that should send them +on like maddened brutes, blind and deaf to all things but their lust for +blood.</p> + +<p>"I hear a sound of footsteps over the leaves," said Patricia.</p> + +<p>"The wind rustles in them, or the deer pass," answered Landless. "Oh, my +life! are you content?"</p> + +<p>She answered with a low, clear laugh. "I hold happiness fast," she said. +"It cannot escape us now."</p> + +<p>"They are coming," he said. "The last kiss, heart of my heart."</p> + +<p>Their lips met, and their eyes with a smile in them met, and then he put +her gently behind him, and turned to again face Luiz Sebastian.</p> + +<p>With his eyes fixed upon the yellow face, he had raised his hand to +strike at the yellow breast, spotted and barred with the black of the +war paint, when an Indian, gliding between, struck up his arm, and sent +the knife tinkling down upon the rocks. With a yell of triumph the +savage snatched up the weapon, and brandished it, showing it to his +fellows, who, seeing their work accomplished, and the two whom they had +tracked so far actually in their hands, made the forest ring with their +exultant shouts. A few closed in around the devoted pair, directing at +them fiendish cries and no less fiendish laughter, and menacing them +with knife and tomahawk, but the majority streamed down the steep and +into the forest at its base.</p> + +<p>"They go to gather wood," said the still smiling Luiz Sebastian. "By and +by we are to have a bonfire. Señor Landless has often carried wood, I +think,<a class="pagenum" name="page_363" id="page_363" title="363"></a> in those old times when he was a slave, and when the pretty +mistress behind him there treated him as such—unless she gave him +favors in secret. But, Mother of God! now that she has made him master, +we must carry the wood for him!"</p> + +<p>Landless, standing with folded arms, looked at him with quiet scorn. "It +is the nature of the viper to use his venom," he said calmly. "Such a +thing cannot anger me."</p> + +<p>"At the same time it is as well to crush the viper," said a voice at his +elbow.</p> + +<p>The speaker, who was Sir Charles Carew, had come from behind the +boulders which ran in a straggling line down the hillside toward the +river. He had his drawn sword in his hand, and as he spoke, he ran the +mulatto through the body. The wretch, his oath of rage and astonishment +still upon his lips, fell to the ground without a groan, writhed there a +moment or two, and then lay still forever.</p> + +<p>From the forest below rose a loud confusion of shouts and cries, +followed by a volley of musketry. At the sound the half dozen savages +upon the plateau turned and plunged down the hillside, to be met before +they reached the bottom by the upward rush of a portion of the rescuing +party. For a short while the twilight glades, low hills and frowning +crags rang to the sound of a miniature battle, to the quick crack of +muskets, the clear shouts of the whites, and the whoops of the savages. +But by degrees these latter became fainter, further between, died +away—a short ten minutes, and there were no warriors left to return to +the village in the Blue Mountains. Fierce shedders of blood, they were +paid in their own coin.</p> + +<p>On the hilltop Sir Charles shot his rapier into its<a class="pagenum" name="page_364" id="page_364" title="364"></a> scabbard, and +strode over to Patricia, standing white and still against the rock. "I +was in time," he said. "Thank God!"</p> + +<p>She made no motion to meet his extended hands, but stood looking past +him at Landless. Her face was like marble, her eyes one dumb question. +Landless met their gaze, and in his own she read despair, renunciation, +strong resolve—and a long farewell.</p> + +<p>"You are come in time, Sir Charles Carew," he said. "A little more, and +we should have been beyond your reach. You will find the lady safe and +well, though shaken, as you see, by this last alarm. She will speak for +me, I trust, will tell you that I have used her with all respect, that I +have done for her all that I could do.... Madam, all danger is past. +Will you not collect yourself and speak to your kinsman and savior?"</p> + +<p>He spoke with a certain calm stateliness of voice and manner, as of one +who has passed beyond all emotion, whether of hope or fear, and in his +eyes which he kept fixed upon her there was a command.</p> + +<p>"Speak to me, my cousin; tell me that I am welcome," said Sir Charles, +flinging himself upon his knee before her.</p> + +<p>With a strong shudder she looked away from the still, white, and sternly +composed face opposite to the darkening river and the evening star +shining calmly down upon a waste world.</p> + +<p>At length she spoke. "I was all but beyond this world, cousin, so pardon +me if I seem to come back to it somewhat tardily. You have my thanks, of +course—my dear thanks—for saving my life—my life which is so precious +to me."</p> + +<p>She gave him her hand with a strange smile, and<a class="pagenum" name="page_365" id="page_365" title="365"></a> he pressed his lips +upon it. "Your father is below, dearest cousin. Shall we descend to meet +him? As to this—gentleman," turning with a smile that was like a frown +to Landless, "I regret that circumstances combine to prevent our +rewarding him as the guardian (a trusty one, I am sure) of so precious a +jewel should be rewarded. But Colonel Verney will do—I will do—all +that is possible. In the mean time I observe with regret that he is +wounded. If he will allow me, I will send him my valet, who is below, +and is the best barber surgeon in the three kingdoms. Come, dearest +madam."</p> + +<p>He bowed low and ceremoniously to Landless, who returned the salute with +grave courtesy, and gave his hand to Patricia. For one moment she looked +at Landless with wide, dark eyes, then, her spirit obedient to his +spirit, she turned and went from him without one word or backward look.</p> + +<p>The color had quite faded from the west, and the stars were thickening +when Landless became conscious that the overseer was standing beside +him. "You are the hardest one to hold that ever I saw," said that worthy +grimly, and yet with a certain appreciation of the qualities that made +the man at his feet hard to hold showing in his tone, "but I fancy we've +got you at last. You've gone and put yourself in bilboes."</p> + +<p>Landless smiled. "This time you may keep me. I shall not interfere. But +tell me how you come here. You were sent back to the Plantations."</p> + +<p>"Ay," said the other, "and there was the devil to pay, I can tell you, +when I had to report you missing to Sir William. But Major Carrington +stood my friend, and I got off with a tongue-drubbing. Well, after about +three weeks or so, during which time the dogs<a class="pagenum" name="page_366" id="page_366" title="366"></a> and the searchers brought +back most all of the runaway niggers, and Mistress Lettice had hysterics +every day, back comes the Colonel and Sir Charles with ten of the twenty +men who had rowed them up the Pamunkey. The rest had fallen in a brush +with the Monacans. They hadn't come up with the Ricahecrians, hadn't +seen hair nor hide of them, had but one report from the Indian villages +along the river, and that was that no Ricahecrians had passed that way. +So after a while they were forced to believe that they were upon a false +scent, and back they comes post haste to the Plantations to get more +men, and go up the Rappahannock. Well, they went up the Rappahannock, +and found nothing to their purpose, so back they came again to try the +James and the country above the Falls. This time they found the +Settlements, which had been before like an overturned hive, pretty +quiet, the ringleaders of your precious plot having all been strung up, +and the rest made as mild as sheep with branding and whipping and +doubling of times. So, the tobacco being in and the plantation quiet, +things were left to Haines, and I came along with the Colonel. Major +Carrington, too, who they say is in the Governor's black books, though +Lord knows he was active enough in stamping out this insurrection, asked +to be allowed to join in the search for his old friend's daughter, and +so he's down in the woods yonder. And Mr. Cary is there, and Mr. Peyton +(Mistress Betty Carrington made <i>him</i> come) and Mr. Jaclyn Carter. Fegs! +half the young gentry in the colony pressed their services on the +Colonel. It got to be the fashion to volunteer to run their heads into +the wolf's mouth for Mistress Patricia. But Sir Charles choked most of +them off. 'Gentlemen,' he says, says he, 'despite<a class="pagenum" name="page_367" id="page_367" title="367"></a> the saying that there +cannot be too much of a good thing, I beg to remind you that the +disastrous fortunes of those who first struggled with the forest and the +Indians in this western paradise are attributed to the fact that they +were two thirds gentlemen. Wherefore let us shun the rock upon which +they split'—"</p> + +<p>"How many of my fellow conspirators were put to death?" interrupted +Landless.</p> + +<p>"All the principal ones—them that Trail denounced as leaders. The rest +we pardoned after giving them a lesson they won't soon forget. We let +bygones be bygones with the redemptioners and slaves—all but those +devils who got away that night at Verney Manor, and with Trail at their +head, made for Captain Laramore's ship which was going to turn pirate. +Well, they got to the boats, and one lot got off safe to the ship which +hoisted the black flag, and sailed away to the Indies, and is sailing +there, murdering and ruining, to this day, I reckon. But the other boat +was over full, and the steersman was drunken, and she capsized before +she got to the middle of the channel. Some were drowned, and those that +got ashore we hung next morning. But Trail was in the first boat."</p> + +<p>"When do you—do we—start down the river?"</p> + +<p>"At midnight. And it's the Colonel's orders that until then you stay +here among the rocks and not show yourself to the men below. He'll see +you before we start. In the mean time I'll keep you company." And the +overseer took out his pipe and tobacco pouch, filled the former, lighted +it, and leaning back against the rock fell to smoking in contented +silence.</p> + +<p>Landless too sat in silence, with his head thrown<a class="pagenum" name="page_368" id="page_368" title="368"></a> back against the rock +and his face uplifted to the growing splendor of the skies. The night +wind, blowing mournfully around the bare hill and the broken crag, +struck upon his brow with a hint of winter in its touch. With it came +the tide of forest sounds—the sough of the leaves, the dull creaking of +branch against branch, the wash of the water in the reeds, the whirr of +wings, the cries of night birds—all the low and stealthy notes of the +earth chant which had become to him as old and tenderly familiar as the +lullabies of his childhood. Below him, at the foot of the hill, a square +of dark and stately pines was irradiated by a great fire which burnt +redly, casting flickering shadows far across the smooth brown earth, and +around which sat or moved many figures. Laughter and jest, oaths and +scraps of song floated up to the lonely watcher upon the hilltop. He +heeded them not—he was above that world—and no sound came from that +other and smaller fire blazing at some distance from the first—and the +tree trunks between were so many and so thick that he could see naught +but the light.</p> + +<hr class="major" /> +<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em"> +<a class="pagenum" name="page_369" id="page_369" title="369"></a> +<a name="VALE_11322" id="VALE_11322"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> +<h3>VALE</h3> +</div> + +<p>The overseer knocked the ashes from his pipe and stuck it in his belt. +"The master," he said curtly, getting to his feet as three cloaked +figures, followed by a negro bearing a torch, came up the hillside and +into the waste of stones beneath the crags. Advancing to meet them, he +took the torch from Regulus's hand and fired a mass of dead and leafless +vine depending from the cliff. In the bright light which sprang up, +filling the rocky chamber and burnishing the face of the crags into the +semblance of a cataract of fire, the parties to the interview gazed at +one another in silence.</p> + +<p>Colonel Verney was the first to speak. "I am sorry to see that you are +wounded," he said gravely.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, sir,—it is nothing."</p> + +<p>The Colonel walked the length of the plateau twice, then came back to +his prisoner's side. "My daughter has told me all," he said somewhat +huskily. "That you and the Susquehannock sought for her and found her; +that you fought for her bravely more than once; that after the Indian +was slain you guided and protected her through the forest; that you have +in all things borne yourself towards her faithfully and reverently, not +injuring her by word, thought or deed. My daughter is very dear to +me—dearer than life, I am not ungrateful. I thank you very heartily."<a class="pagenum" name="page_370" id="page_370" title="370"></a></p> + +<p>"Mistress Patricia Verney is dear to me also," said Sir Charles, coming +forward to stand beside his kinsman. "I too thank the man who restores +her to her friends—to her lover."</p> + +<p>"And I would to God," said the third figure, advancing, "that we could +save the brave man to whom so much is owed. If I were Governor of +Virginia—"</p> + +<p>"You could do naught, Carrington," broke in the Colonel impatiently. +"The man is convict—outside the pale! A convict, and the head of an +Oliverian plot! Scarce the King himself could pardon him! And if he did, +how long d' ye think the walls of the gaol at Jamestown would keep him +from the rabble—and the nearest tree? No, no, William Berkeley does but +his duty. And yet—and yet—"</p> + +<p>He began to pace the rocks again, frowning heavily, and pulling at the +curls of his periwig. "You are a brave man," he said at last, stopping +before Landless and speaking with energy, "and from my soul I wish I +could save you. I would gladly overlook all that is over and done with, +would gladly free you, aid you, help you, so far as might be, to +retrieve your past—but I cannot. My hands are tied; it is +impossible—you must see for yourself that it is impossible."</p> + +<p>"None can see that so clearly as myself, Colonel Verney," Landless said +steadily. "I thank you for the will none the less."</p> + +<p>"To take you back with me," the other continued, beginning to stride up +and down again, "is to take you back, bound, to certain death. And there +is but one alternative—to leave you here in the wilderness. Your +presence here is known only to those upon whose discretion I can depend. +They would hold their<a class="pagenum" name="page_371" id="page_371" title="371"></a> tongues, and none need ever be the wiser. But the +Settlements will be barred to you forever, and hundreds of leagues +stretch between this spot and the Dutch or the New Englanders. Moreover, +your description hath been sent to the authorities of each colony. And +you are wounded, and winter is at hand. It may be but a choice of +deaths! I would to God there were some other way—but there is none! You +must choose."</p> + +<p>In the dead silence that ensued the Colonel moved back to the side of +the Surveyor-General, and the two stood, thoughtfully regardant of the +prisoner. The light from the partially consumed vines beginning to wane, +the overseer motioned to Regulus to collect and apply his torch to a +quantity of the fagots with which the ground was strewn. The negro +obeyed, and stood behind the light flame and curling smoke which he had +evoked, like the genie of an Arabian tale. Sir Charles, left standing in +the centre of the rocky chamber, hesitated a moment, then walked with +his usual languid grace over to where Landless leaned against a boulder, +his eyes, shaded by his hand, fixed upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"Whichever you choose—Scylla or Charybdis—" said Sir Charles in his +most dulcet tones, "this is probably the last time you and I will ever +speak together. There have been passages between us in the past, which, +in the light of after event, I cannot but regret. You have just rendered +me an inestimable service. I have learnt, too, that you saved my life +the night of the storming of the Manor House. I beg to apologize to you, +sir, for any offense I may have given you by word or deed." And he held +out his hand with his most courtly smile.<a class="pagenum" name="page_372" id="page_372" title="372"></a></p> + +<p>"It becomes a dying man to be in charity with the world he leaves," said +Landless, somewhat coldly, but with a smile too, "and so I do that which +I never thought to do," and he touched the other's fingers with his own.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles looked at him curiously. "You make a good enemy," he said +lightly. "Had it not been predestined that we were to hate each other, I +could find it in my heart to desire you for a friend. You remain in the +forest, I dare swear?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Landless, with his eyes upon the light in the glade +below. "I choose the easier fate."</p> + +<p>"The easier for all concerned," said the other with a peculiar +intonation.</p> + +<p>Landless glanced at him keenly, but the courtier face and the +inscrutable smile told nothing. "The easier for myself, whom alone it +concerneth," said Landless sternly.</p> + +<p>Dragging himself up by the rock behind him, he turned to the two elder +men. "I have decided, Colonel Verney," he said slowly, "I will stay +here, an it please you."</p> + +<p>"You shall have all that we can leave you," said the Colonel eagerly and +with some emotion. "Ammunition in plenty, food, blankets, an axe—it's +little enough I can do, God knows, but I do that little most willingly."</p> + +<p>"Again I thank you," said Landless wearily.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles caught the inflection. "You stand in need of rest," he said +courteously, "and, this matter settled, our farther intrusion upon you +is as unnecessary as it must be unwelcome. Had we not best descend, +gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>"Ay," said the Colonel. "We have done all we<a class="pagenum" name="page_373" id="page_373" title="373"></a> could." Then, to Landless, +"With the moonrise we drop down the river—from out your sight forever. +I have told you frankly there is no hope for you amongst your kind in +the world to which we return. I believe there to be none. But have you +thought of what we must needs leave you to? Humanly speaking, it is +death, and death alone, in the winter forest."</p> + +<p>"I have thought," said Landless.</p> + +<p>"From my soul I wish that some miracle may occur to save you yet!"</p> + +<p>"An ill wish!" said the other, smiling, "with but little chance, +however, of its fulfillment."</p> + +<p>"I fear not," said the Colonel with something like a groan, "but I wish +it, nevertheless. Here is my hand, and with it my heartfelt thanks for +your service to my daughter. And I wish you to believe that I deeply +deplore your fate, and that I would have saved you if I could."</p> + +<p>"I believe it," Landless said simply.</p> + +<p>The Colonel took and wrung his hand, then turned sharply away, and +beckoning the overseer to follow, strode out of the circle of rocks.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles raised his feathered hat. "We have been foes," he said, "but +the strife is over—and when all is said, we are both Englishmen. I +trust we bear each other no ill will."</p> + +<p>"I bear none," said Landless.</p> + +<p>Sir Charles, his eyes still fixed upon the pale quiet of the other's +face, passed out of the opening between the rocks, and his place was +taken by the Surveyor-General.</p> + +<p>"I would have saved you if I could," he said in a low and troubled +voice. "I bow to a brave man and a gallant gentleman," and he too was +gone.<a class="pagenum" name="page_374" id="page_374" title="374"></a></p> + +<p>In the glade below, the movement, the laughter and the song sank +gradually into silence as the gentlemen adventurers, the rangers, Indian +guides, and servants composing the rescuing party threw themselves down, +one by one, beside the blazing fires for a short rest before moonrise +and the long pull down the river.</p> + +<p>Among the crags, high above the twinkling watch-fires and the wash of +the dark river, there was the stillness of the stars, of the white frost +and the bare cliffs. In the northern heavens played a soft light, and +now and then a star shot. The man who marked its trail across the +studded skies thought of himself as of one as far withdrawn as it from +the world of lower lights in the forest at his feet. Already he felt a +prescience of the loneliness of the morrow, and the morrow, and the +morrow, of the slow drift of the days in the waning forest, the hopeless +nights, the terror of that great solitude—and felt, too, a feverish +desire to hasten that approach, to embrace that which was to be +henceforth bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. He wished for the +dash of oars in the dark stream below and for the rise of the moon which +was to shine coldly down upon him, companionless, immured in that vast +fortress from which he might never hope to escape.</p> + +<p>The sound of cautious footsteps among the rocks brought his sick and +wandering fancy back to the present. Raising himself upon his elbow and +peering intently into the darkness, he made out two figures, one tall +and large, the other much slighter, advancing towards him. Presently the +larger figure stopped short, and, seating itself upon a flat rock at the +brink of the hill, turned its face towards the fires in the woods below. +The other came on lightly and hurriedly—another<a class="pagenum" name="page_375" id="page_375" title="375"></a> moment, and rising to +his knees, he clasped her in his arms and laid his head upon her bosom.</p> + +<p>"I never thought to see you again," he said at last.</p> + +<p>"I made Regulus bring me," she answered. "The others do not know—they +think me asleep."</p> + +<p>She spoke in a low, even, monotonous voice, and the hand which she laid +upon his forehead was like marble. "My heart is dead, I think," she +said. "I wish my body were so too."</p> + +<p>He drew her closer to him and covered her face and hands with kisses. +"My love, my lady," he said. "My white rose, my woodland dove!"</p> + +<p>She clung to him, trembling. "Down there I was going mad," she +whispered. "But now—now—I feel as though I could weep." He felt her +tears upon his face, but in a moment she was calm again. "Do you +remember the bird we found the other day, all numbed with cold?" she +said. "It had been gay and free and light of heart, but it had not +strength to flutter when I took it in my hands and tried to warm it—and +could not. I am like that bird. The world is very gray and cold, and my +heart—it will never be warm again."</p> + +<p>"God comfort you," he said brokenly.</p> + +<p>"They have told me that at moonrise we leave this place—and you. They +say that it is all they can do for you—to leave you here. All!—Oh, my +God!"</p> + +<p>"They have done what they could," he said gravely. "I recognize that. +And I wish you to do so too, sweetheart."</p> + +<p>She looked at him wildly. "I have been silent," she said, pressing her +clasped hands against her bosom. "I have not told them. I have obeyed +what I read<a class="pagenum" name="page_376" id="page_376" title="376"></a> in your eyes. But was it well? Oh, my dear, let me speak!"</p> + +<p>He took her hands from her breast and laid them against his own. "No," +he said with a smile, "I love you too well for that."</p> + +<p>From the woods across the river came the crying of wolves, then a +silence as of the grave; then a whisper arose in the long dry grass and +the leafless vines, and a cold breeze lifted the hair from their +foreheads. The whisper grew into a murmur, prolonged and deep, a sound +as of a distant cataract, or of the dash of surf upon a far away +shore—the voice of the wind in the world of trees. A star shot, leaving +a stream of white fire to fade out of the dark blue sky. From the forest +came again the cry of the wolves. In the camp below there seemed some +stir, and the figure seated on the rock turned its head towards them and +lifted a warning hand.</p> + +<p>"You must go," said Landless. "It was madness for you to venture here. +See, the light is growing in the east."</p> + +<p>With a low, desolate moaning sound she wrung the hands he released and +raised her face to his. He kissed her upon the brow, the eyes and the +mouth. "Good-by, my life, my love, my heart," he said. "We were happy +for an hour. Good-by!"</p> + +<p>"I will be brave," she answered. "I will live my life out. I will pray +to God. And, Godfrey, I will be ever true to you. I shall never see you +again, my dear, never hear of you more, never know till my latest day +whether you are of this world still, or whether you have waited for me a +long time, up there beyond those lights. If it—if death—should come +Boon, wait for me—beyond—in perfect trust, my<a class="pagenum" name="page_377" id="page_377" title="377"></a> dear, for I will come +to you—I will come to you as I am, Godfrey."</p> + +<p>He bowed his face upon her hands.</p> + +<p>The breeze freshened, and the sound of the surf became the sound of +breakers. In the east the pale light strengthened. The figure below them +stood up and beckoned.</p> + +<p>"The moon is coming," said Patricia. "Once before I watched for it—in +terror, with pride and anger in my heart. Then, when I thought of you, I +hated you. It is strange to think of that now. Kiss me good-by."</p> + +<p>"I too will be strong," he said. "I will await the pleasure of the Lord. +Until His good time, my bride!"</p> + +<p>Rising to his feet he held her in his arms, then kissed her upon the +lips and put her gently from him. For a moment she stood like a statue, +then with a lifted face and hands clasped at her bosom, she turned, and +slowly, but without a backward look, left the circle of rocks. Through +the opening he saw the slave come up to her, and saw her motion to him +to fall behind—another moment, and both dark figures had sunk below the +brow of the hill.</p> + +<p>Stronger and stronger blew the wind, louder and louder swelled the voice +of the forest. Below, the wash of the river in its reeds, the dull +groaning of branch grating against branch, the fall of leaf and acorn, +the loud sighing of the pines, the cries of the owl, the panther, and +the wolf—above, the vast dome of the heavens and the fading stars. An +effulgence in the east; a silver crest, like the white rim of a giant +wave, upon the eastern hills; a pale splendor mounting slowly and calmly +upward—a dead world,—all<a class="pagenum" name="page_378" id="page_378" title="378"></a> her passion, all her pain, all toil and +strife over and done with,—shining down upon a sadder earth.</p> + +<p>From beneath the shadowy banks there shot out into the middle of the +broad moonlit stream a long canoe, followed by a second and a third, and +turning, went swiftly down that long, bright, shimmering, rippling path.</p> + +<p>In the last and smallest of the three boats a man rose from his seat in +the stern, and with his eyes upon the line of moon-whitened cliffs above +him, raised his plumed hat with a courteous gesture, then bent and spoke +to a cloaked and hooded figure sitting, still and silent, between him +and a burlier form. This canoe was rowed by negroes, and as they rowed +they sang. The wild chant—half dirge, half frenzy—that they raised was +suited to that waste which they were leaving.</p> + +<p>The black lines upon the silver flood became mere dots, and the wailing +notes came up the stream faintly and more faintly still. For a while the +echoes rolled among the folded hills and the tall gray crags, but at +length they died away forever.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONERS OF HOPE *** + +***** This file should be named 21886-h.htm or 21886-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/8/21886/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/21886-h/images/illus-emb.png b/21886-h/images/illus-emb.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de58981 --- /dev/null +++ b/21886-h/images/illus-emb.png diff --git a/21886-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg b/21886-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7971283 --- /dev/null +++ b/21886-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg diff --git a/21886.txt b/21886.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a16fa31 --- /dev/null +++ b/21886.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12001 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston + +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: Prisoners of Hope + A Tale of Colonial Virginia + +Author: Mary Johnston + +Release Date: June 21, 2007 [EBook #21886] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONERS OF HOPE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: "WHY ARE YOU SO EAGER?" (Page 2)] + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +PRISONERS OF HOPE + +A Tale of Colonial Virginia + +BY + +MARY JOHNSTON + +AUTHOR OF "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD," "AUDREY," ETC. + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +PUBLISHERS + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY MARY JOHNSTON + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINTH THOUSAND + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +TO MY FATHER + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A SLOOP COMES IN 1 + II. ITS CARGO 15 + III. A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY 27 + IV. THE BREAKING HEART 40 + V. IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD 50 + VI. THE HUT ON THE MARSH 60 + VII. A MENDER OF NETS 71 + VIII. THE NEW SECRETARY 86 + IX. AN INTERRUPTED WOOING 91 + X. LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER 100 + XI. LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR 108 + XII. A DARK DEED 117 + XIII. IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE 129 + XIV. A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION 137 + XV. THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE 150 + XVI. THE FACE IN THE DARK 162 + XVII. LANDLESS AND PATRICIA 173 + XVIII. A CAPTURE 185 + XIX. THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL 193 + XX. WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED 205 + XXI. THE DUEL 219 + XXII. THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN 226 + XXIII. THE QUESTION 239 + XXIV. A MESSAGE 247 + XXV. THE ROAD TO PARADISE 252 + XXVI. NIGHT 267 + XXVII. MORNING 273 +XXVIII. BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS 282 + XXIX. THE BRIDGE OF ROCK 295 + XXX. THE BACKWARD TRACK 306 + XXXI. THE HUT IN THE CLEARING 315 + XXXII. ATTACK 326 +XXXIII. THE FALL OF THE LEAF 335 + XXXIV. AN ACCIDENT 343 + XXXV. THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT 349 + XXXVI. THE LAST FIGHT 357 +XXXVII. VALE 369 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +PRISONERS OF HOPE + +CHAPTER I + +A SLOOP COMES IN + + +"She will reach the wharf in half an hour." + +The speaker shaded her eyes with a great fan of carved ivory and painted +silk. They were beautiful eyes; large, brown, perfect in shape and +expression, and set in a lovely, imperious, laughing face. The divinity +to whom they belonged was clad in a gown of green dimity, flowered with +pink roses, and trimmed about the neck and half sleeves with a fall of +yellow lace. The gown was made according to the latest Paris mode, as +described in a year-old letter from the court of Charles the Second, and +its wearer gazed from under her fan towards the waters of the great bay +of Chesapeake, in his Majesty's most loyal and well beloved dominion of +Virginia. + +The object of her attention was a large sloop that had left the bay and +was sailing up a wide inlet or creek that pierced the land, cork-screw +fashion, until it vanished from sight amidst innumerable green marshes. +The channel, indicated by a deeper blue in the midst of an expanse of +shoal water, was narrow, and wound like a gleaming snake in and out +among the interminable succession of marsh islets. The vessel, following +its curves, tacked continually, its great sail intensely white against +the blue of inlet, bay and sky, and the shadeless green of the marshes, +zigzagging from side to side with provoking leisureliness. The girl who +had spoken watched it eagerly, a color in her cheeks, and one little +foot in its square-toed, rosetted shoe tapping impatiently upon the +floor of the wide porch in which she stood. + +Her companion, lounging upon the wooden steps, with his back to a +pillar, looked up with an amused light in his blue eyes. + +"Why are you so eager, cousin?" he drawled. "You cannot be pining for +your father when 'tis scarce five days since he went to Jamestown. Do +the Virginia ladies watch for the arrival of a new batch of slaves with +such impatience?" + +"The slaves! No, indeed! But, sir, in that boat there are three cases +from England." + +"Ah, that accounts for it! And what may these wonderful cases contain?" + +"One contains the dress in which I shall dance with you at the party at +Green Spring which the governor is to give in your honor--if you ask me, +sir. Oh, I take it for granted that you will, so spare us your +protestations. 'Tis to have a petticoat of blue tabby and an overdress +of white satin trimmed with yards and yards of Venice point. The +stockings are blue silk, and come from the French house in Covent +Garden, as doth the scarf of striped gauze and the shoes, gallooned with +silver. Then there are my combs, gloves, a laced waistcoat, a red satin +bodice, a scarlet taffetas mantle, a plumed hat, a pair of clasped +garters, a riding mask, a string of pearls, and the latest romances." + +"A pretty list! Is that all?" + +"There are things for aunt Lettice, petticoats and ribbons, a gilt +stomacher and a China monster, and for my father, lace ruffles and +bands, a pair of French laced boots, a periwig, a new scabbard for his +rapier, and so on." + +The young man laughed. "'Tis a curious life you Virginians lead," he +said. "The embroidered suits and ruffles, the cosmetics and perfumes of +Whitehall in the midst of oyster beds and tobacco fields, savage Indians +and negro slaves." + +The girl put on a charming look of mock offense. "We _are_ a little bit +of England set down here in the wilderness. Why should we not clothe +ourselves like gentlefolk as well as our kindred and friends at home? +And sure both England and Virginia have had enough of sad colored +raiment. Better go like a peacock than like a horrid Roundhead." + +Her companion laughed musically and sang a stave of a cavalier love +song. He was a slender, well-made man, dressed in the extreme of the +mode of the year of grace sixteen hundred and sixty-three, in a richly +laced suit of camlet with points of blue ribbon, and the great scented +periwig then newly come into fashion. The close curled rings of hair +descending far over his cravat of finest Holland framed a handsome, +lazily insolent face, with large steel-blue eyes and beautifully cut, +mocking lips. A rapier with a jeweled hilt hung at his side, and one +white hand, half buried in snowy ruffles, held a beribboned cane with +which, as he talked, he ruthlessly decapitated the pink and white +morning-glories with which the porch was trellised. + +The house to which the porch belonged was long and low, built of wood, +with many small windows, and at either end a great brick chimney. From +the porch to the water, a hundred yards away, stretched a walk of +crushed shells bisecting an expanse of green turf dotted with noble +trees--the cedar and the cypress predominating. Diverging from this +central walk were two narrower paths which, winding in and out in +eccentric figures, led, on the one hand, to a rustic summer-house +overgrown with honeysuckle and trumpet-vine, and on the other to a tiny +grotto constructed of shells and set in a tangle of periwinkle. Along +one side of the house, and protected by a stout locust paling overrun +with grape-vines, lay the garden, where flowers and vegetables +flourished contentedly side by side, the hollyhocks and tall white +lilies, the hundred-leaved roses and scarlet poppies showing like gilded +officers amidst the rank and file of sober esculents. Behind the house +were clustered various offices, then came an orchard where the June +apples and the great red cherries were ripening in the hot sunshine, +then on the shore of a second and narrower creek rose the quarters for +the plantation servants, white and black--a long double row of cabins, +dominated by the overseer's house and shaded by ragged yellow pines. +Along one shore of this inlet was planted the Indian corn prescribed by +law, and from the other gleamed the soft yellow of ripening wheat, but +beyond the water and away to the westward stretched acre after acre of +tobacco, a sea of vivid green, broken only by an occasional shed or +drying house, and merging at last into the darker hue of the forest. +Over all the fair scene, the flashing water, the velvet marshes, the +smiling fields, the fringe of dark and mysterious woodland, hung a +Virginia heaven, a cloudless blue, soft, pure, intense. The air was +full of subdued sound--the distant hum of voices from the fields of +maize and tobacco, the faint clink of iron from the smithy, the wash and +lap of the water, the drone of bees from the hives beneath the eaves of +the house. Great bronze butterflies fluttered in the sunshine, brilliant +humming-birds plunged deep into the long trumpet-flowers; from the +topmost bough of a locust, heavy with bloom, came the liquid trill of a +mock-bird. + +It was a fair domain, and a wealthy. The Englishman thought of certain +appalling sums lost to Sedley and Roscommon, and there flitted through +his brain a swift little calculation as to the number of hogsheads of +Orenoko or sweet-scented it would take to wipe off the score. And the +girl beside him was beautiful enough to take Whitehall by storm, to be +berhymed by Waller, and to give to Lely a subject above all flattery. He +set his lips with the air of a man who has made up his mind, and turned +to his companion, who was absorbed in watching the white sail grow +slowly larger. + +"How long, now, cousin?" + +"But a few minutes unless the wind should fail." + +"And then you will have your treasures. But, madam, when you have +assumed all the panoply your sex relies on to increase its charms 'twill +be but to 'gild refined gold or paint the lily.' The Aphrodite of this +western ocean needs no adornment." + +The girl looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "You make me too many +pretty speeches, cousin," she said demurely. "We know the value of the +fine things you court gallants are perpetually saying." + +"Upon my soul, madam, I swear--" + +"Do you know the amount of the fine for swearing, Sir Charles? See how +large the sail has grown! When the boat rounds the long marsh she will +come more quickly. We will soon be able to see my father wave his +handkerchief." + +The young man bit his lip. "You are pleased to be cruel to-day, madam, +but I am your slave and I obey. We will look together for Colonel +Verney's handkerchief. How many black slaves does he bring you?" + +She laughed. "But half a dozen blacks, but there will be several +redemptioners if you prefer to be numbered with them." + +"Redemptioners! Ah, yes! the English servants who are sold for their +passage money. I thank you, madam, but _my_ servitude is for life." + +"The men my father will bring may not be the ordinary servants who come +here to better their condition. He may have obtained them from a batch +of felons from Newgate who have been kept in gaol in Jamestown until +word could be got to the planters around. I am sure I wish the ship +captains and the traders would stop bringing in the wretches. It is +different with the negroes: we can make allowance for the poor silly +things that are scarce more than animals, and they grow attached to us +and we to them, and the simple indented servants are well enough too. +There are among them many honest and intelligent men. But these gaol +birds are dreadful. It sickens me to look at them. Thieves and murderers +every one!" + +"I should not think the colony served by their importation." + +"It is not indeed, and we have hopes that it will cease. I beg my father +not to buy them, but he says that one man cannot stop an abuse--that as +long as his fellow-planters use them he might as well do so too." + +Sir Charles Carew delicately smothered a yawn. "The ship that brought me +over a fortnight ago," he said lazily, "had a consignment of such +rascals. It was amusing to watch their antics, crowded together as they +were in the hold. There were two wild Irishmen whom we used to have on +deck to dance for us. Gad! what figures they cut! The captain and I had +a standing wager of five of the new guineas as to which of the rascals +could hold out longest, promising a measure of rum to the victorious +votary of Terpsichore. When I had lost a score of guineas I found that +the captain was in the habit of priming his man before he came upon +deck. Naturally, being filled with Dutch courage, he won." + +"Poor Sir Charles! What did you do?" + +"Sent the captain a cartel and fought him on his own deck. There was one +man in the villainous company whom, I protest, I almost pitied, though +of course the rogue had but his deserts." + +"What was he?" + +"A man of about thirty. A fellow with a handsome face and a lithe +well-made figure which he managed with some grace. He had the air of one +who had seen better days. I remember, one day when the captain was +bestowing upon him some especially choice oaths, seeing him clap his +hand to his side as though he expected to touch a rapier hilt. He was +cleanly too; kept his rags of clothing as decent as circumstances +allowed, and looked less like a wild beast in a litter of foul straw +than did his fellows. But he was an ill-conditioned dog. We had some +passages together, he and I. He took it upon himself to defend what he +was pleased to call the honor of one of his precious company. It was +vastly amusing.... After that I fell into the habit of watching him +through the open hatches. A little thing provides entertainment at sea, +Mistress Patricia. He would sit or stand for hours looking past me with +a perfectly still face. The other wretches were quick to crowd up, +whining to me to pitch them half pence or tobacco, but try as I would, I +could not get word or look from him. Sink me! if he didn't have the +impudence to resent my being there!" + +"It was cruel to stare at misery." + +"Lard, madam! such vermin are used to being stared at. In London, +Newgate and Bridewell are theatres as well as the Cockpit or the King's +House, and the world of _mode_ flock to the one spectacle as often as to +the other. But see! the sloop has passed the marsh and has a clean sweep +of water between her and the wharf." + +"Yes, she is coming fast now." + +"What is coming?" asked a voice from the doorway. + +"The Flying Patty, Aunt Lettice," the girl answered over her shoulder. +"Get your hood and come with us to the wharf." + +Mistress Lettice Verney emerged from the hall, two red spots burning in +her withered cheeks, and her tall thin figure quivering with excitement. + +"I am all ready, child," she quavered. "But, mark my words, Patricia, +there will be something wrong with my paduasoy petticoat, or Charette +will not have sent the proper tale of green stockings or Holland smocks. +Did you not hear the screech owl last night?" + +"No, Aunt Lettice." + +"It remained beneath my window the entire night. I did not sleep a wink. +And this morning Chloe upset the salt cellar, and the salt fell towards +me." Mistress Lettice rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed +lugubriously. Patricia laughed. + +"I dreamed of flowers last night, Aunt Lettice; miles and miles of them, +waxen and cold and sweet, like those they strew over the dead." + +Mistress Lettice groaned. "'Tis a dreadful sign. Captain Norton's wife +(she that was Polly Wilson) dreamed of flowers the night before the +massacre of 'forty-four. The only thing the poor soul said when the +war-whoop wakened them in the dead of the night and the door came +crashing in, was, 'I told you so.' They were her last words. Then Martha +Westall dreamed of flowers, and two days later her son James stepped on +a stingray over at Dale's Gift. And I myself dreamed of roses the week +before those horrid Roundhead commissioners with the rebel Claiborne at +their head and a whole fleet at their back, compelled us to surrender to +their odious Commonwealth." + +"At least that evil is past," said the girl with a gay laugh. "And ill +fortune will never come to me aboard the Flying Patty, so I shall go +down to the wharf to see her in. Darkeih! my scarf!" + +A negress appeared in the doorway with a veil of tissue in her hand. Sir +Charles took it from her and flung it over Patricia's golden head, then +offered his arm to Mistress Lettice. + +The wharf was but a stone's throw from the wooden gates, and they were +soon treading the long stretch of gray, weather-beaten boards. Others +were before them, for the news that the sloop was coming in had drawn a +small crowd to the wharf to welcome the master. + +The dozen or so of boatmen, white and black, who had been tinkering +about in the various barges, shallops and canoes tied to the mossy +piles, left their employments and scrambled up upon the platform, and a +trio of youthful darkies, fishing for crabs with a string and a piece of +salt pork, allowed their lines to fall slack and their intended victims +to walk coolly off with the meat, so intense was their interest in the +oncoming sail. A knot of negro women had left the great house kitchen +and stood, hands on hips, chatting volubly with a contingent from the +quarters, their red and yellow turbans nodding up and down like +grotesque Dutch tulips. The company was made up by an overseer with a +broadleafed palmetto hat pulled down over his eyes and a clay pipe stuck +between his teeth, a pale young man who acted as secretary to the master +of the plantation, and by three or four small land-owners and tenants +for whom Colonel Verney had graciously undertaken various commissions in +Jamestown, and who were on hand to make their acknowledgments to the +great man. + +They all made deferential way for the two ladies and Sir Charles Carew. +Mistress Lettice commenced a condescending conversation with one of the +tenants, Darkeih added a white tulip to the red and yellow ones, and +Patricia, followed by Sir Charles, walked to the edge of the wharf, and +leaning upon the rude railing looked down the glassy reaches of the +water to the approaching boat. + +The wind had sunk into a fitful breeze and the white sail moved very +slowly. The tide was in, and the water lapped with a cooling sound +against the dark green piles. In the distance the blue of the bay +melted into the blue of the sky, while the nearer waters mirrored every +passing gull, the masts of the fishing boats, the tall marsh grass, the +dead twigs marking oyster beds--each object had its double. On a point +of marshy ground stood a line of cranes, motionless as soldiers on +parade, until, taking fright as the great sail glided past, they whirred +off, uttering discordant cries and with their legs sticking out like +tail feathers. Slowly, and keeping to the middle of the channel, the +boat came on. Upon the long low deck men were preparing to lower the +sail, and a portly gentleman standing in the bow was vigorously waving +his handkerchief. The sail came down with a rush, the anchor swung +overboard, and half a dozen canoes and dugouts shot from under the +shadow of the wharf and across the strip of water between it and the +sloop. The gentleman with the handkerchief, followed by a man plainly +dressed in brown, sprang into the foremost; the others waited for their +lading of merchandise. + +Before the boat had touched the steps the master of the plantation began +to call out greetings to his expectant family. + +"Patricia, my darling, are you in health? Charles, I am happy to see you +again! Sister Lettice, Mr. Frederick Jones sends you his humble +services." + +"La, brother! and how is the dear man?" screamed Mistress Lettice. + +"As well as 'tis in nature to be, with his heart at Verney Manor and his +body at Flowerdieu Hundred." + +The boat jarred against the piles and the planter stepped out, grasping +Sir Charles's extended hand. + +"Again, I am happy to see you, Charles," he cried in a round and jovial +voice. "I have been telling my up-river good friends that I have the +most topping fellow in all London for my guest, and you will have +company enough anon." + +Sir Charles smiled and bowed. "I hope, sir, that you were successful in +the business that took you to Jamestown?" + +"Fairly so, fairly so. Haines here," with a wave of the hand towards the +man in brown, "had a lot picked out for me to choose from. I have six +negroes and three of those blackguards from Newgate--mighty poor policy +to shoulder ourselves with such gaol sweepings. I doubt we'll repent it +some day. The blacks come by way of Boston, which means that they will +have to be cockered up considerably before they are fit for work. Is +that you, Woodson? How have things gone on?" + +The overseer took his pipe from between his teeth and made an awkward +bow. + +"Glad to see your Honor back," he said deferentially. "Everything's all +right, sir. The last rain helped the corn amazingly, and the tobacco's +prime. The lightning struck a shed, but we got the flames out before +they reached the hogsheads. The Nancy got caught in a squall; lost both +masts and ran aground on Gull Marsh. The tide will take her off at the +full of the moon. Sambo 's been playing 'possum again. Said he'd cut his +foot with his hoe so badly that he couldn't stand upon it. Said I could +see that by the blood on the rag that tied it up. I made him take off +the rag and wash the foot, and there wa'n't no cut there. The blood was +puccoon. If he'd waited a bit he could 'a' had all he wanted to paint +with, for I gave him the rope's end, lively, until Mistress Patricia +heard him yelling and made me stop." + +"All right, Woodson. I reckon the plantation knows by this time that +what Mistress Patricia says is law. Here come the boats with the boxes. +Tell the men to be careful how they handle them." + +After a hearty word or two to tenants and land owners the worthy Colonel +joined his daughter and sister; and together with Sir Charles Carew they +watched the precious boxes conveyed up the slippery steps, the overseer +shouting directions, plentifully sprinkled with selected, unfinable +oaths to the panting boatmen. When all were safely piled upon the wharf +ready to be wheeled to the great house, the empty boats swung off to +make room for others, laden with the colonel's Jamestown purchases. + +One by one the articles climbed the stairs, each as it reached the level +being claimed by the overseer and told off into a lengthening line. Six +were negroes, gaunt and hollow-eyed, but smiling widely. They gazed +around them, at the heap of clams and oysters piled upon the wharf, at +the marshes, alive with wild fowl, at the distant green of waving corn, +the flower-embowered great house, the white quarters from which arose +many little spirals of savory smoke, and a bland and childlike content +took possession of their souls. With eager and obsequious "Yes, Mas'rs" +they obeyed the overseer's objurgatory indications as to their +disposition. + +There next arose above the landing the head of a white man--a +countenance of sullen ferocity, with a great scar running across it, and +framed in elf locks of staring red. The body belonging to this +prepossessing face was swollen and unshapely, and its owner moved with +a limp and a muttered curse towards the place assigned him. He was +followed by a sallow-faced, long-nosed man, with black oily hair and an +affected smirk which twitched the corners of his thin lips. Singling out +his master's family with a furtive glance from a pair of sinister +greenish eyes, he made a low bow and stepped jauntily into line. + +The third man rose above the landing. Sir Charles, standing by Patricia, +laughed. + +"This world is a place of fantastic meetings, cousin," he said, airily. +"Now who would suppose that I would ever again see that chipping from a +London gaol I told you of--my shipmate of cleanly habit and unsocial +nature. Yet there he is." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ITS CARGO + + +The afternoon sunshine lay hot upon the house and garden of Verney +Manor--the leaves drooped motionless, the glare of the white paths hurt +the eye, the flowers seemed all to be red. The odor of rose and +honeysuckle was drowned in the heavy cloying sweetness of the pendant +masses of locust bloom. Down in the garden the bees droned in the vines, +and on the steps the flies buzzed undisturbed about the sleeping hounds. +Above the long, deserted wharf and the green velvet of the marshes +quivered the heated air, while to look upon the water was like gazing +too closely at blue flame. From the tobacco fields floated the notes of +a monotonous many-versed chant, and a soft, uninterrupted cooing came +from the dove cot. Heat and fragrance and drowsy sound combined to give +a pleasant somnolence to the wide sunny scene. + +Deep in the cavernous shade of the porch lounged the master of the +plantation, his body in one chair, his legs in another, and a silver +tankard of sack standing upon a third, over the back of which had been +flung his great peruke and his riding coat of green cloth, discarded +because of the heat. Thin, blue clouds curled up from his long pipe, and +obscured his ruddy countenance. + +His shrewd gray eyes under their tufts of grizzled hair were half +closed in a lazy contentment, born of the hour, the pipe, and the drink. +The world went very well just then in Colonel Verney's estimation. His +crop of the preceding year had been a large and profitable one; this +year it bid fair to be still more satisfactory. During the past few +months he had acquired a number of servants and slaves, and his head +rights would add a goodly number of acres to his already enormous +holdings; land, land, always more land! being the ambition and the +necessity of the seventeenth century Virginia planter. Trader, planter, +magistrate, member of the council of state, soldier, author on occasion, +and fine gentleman all rolled into one, after the fashion of the times; +Cavalier of the Cavaliers, hand in glove with Governor Berkeley, and +possessed of a beautiful daughter, for whose favor one half of the young +gentlemen of the counties of York and Gloucester were ready to draw +rapier on the other half,--Colonel Verney's world was a fair and +stirring one, and gave him plentiful food for meditation on a fine +afternoon. + +Opposite him sat his kinsman and guest, Sir Charles Carew. He was +similarly equipped with pipe and sack, but there the resemblance to his +host ended, Sir Charles Carew being a man who made it a point of honor +to be clad like the lilies of the field on every possible occasion in +life, from the carrying a breach to the ogling a milkmaid. The sultry +afternoon had no power to affect the scrupulous elegance of his attire, +or to alter the careful repose of his manner. In his hand he held a +volume of "Hudibras," but his thoughts were not upon the book, wandering +instead, with those of his kinsman, over the fertile fields of Verney +Manor. + +"You have a princely estate, sir, in this fair, new world," he said at +last, in a sweetly languid voice. + +The planter roused himself from considering at what point of his newly +acquired land he should begin the attack upon the forest. "It's a fair +enough home for a man to end his days in," he said with complacence. + +"We of the court have very erroneous ideas as to Virginia. I confess +that my expectation of finding a courteous and loving kinsman," a +gracious smile and inclination of the head towards the older man, "is +the only one in which I have not been disappointed. I thought to see a +rude wilderness, and I find, to borrow the language of our Roundhead +friends, a very land of Beulah." + +"Ay, ay. D' ye remember what old Drayton sings? + + 'Virginia! + Earth's only paradise!' + +And a paradise it is, with mighty few drawbacks, now that the King has +come to his own again, if you except these d--d canting Quakers and +Anabaptists, and those yelling red devils on the frontier, and the +danger of a servant insurrection, and the fact that his Majesty (God +bless him!) and the Privy Council fleece us more mercilessly than did +old Noll himself. I verily think they believe our tobacco plants made of +gold like those they say Pizarro saw in Peru. But 'tis a sweet land! +Why, look around you!" he cried, warming to his subject. "The waters +swarm with fish, the marshes with wild fowl. In the winter the air rings +with the _cohonk!_ _cohonk!_ of the wild geese. They darken the air when +they come and go. There in the forest stand the deer, waiting for your +bullet; badgers and foxes, bears, wolves, and catamounts are more +plentiful than are hares in England. You taste pleasure indeed when you +ride full tilt through the frosty moonlight, down the ringing glades of +the forest, and hear the hounds in full cry, and see before you, black +against the silver snow, a pack of yelling wolves. Then in summer the +woods are full of singing birds and of such flowers as you in England +only dream of. Strawberries make the ground red, and there are wild +melons and grapes and mulberries, and more nuts than squirrels, which is +saying much for the nuts. Everything grows here. 'Tis the garden of the +world. And what is there fairer than the green of the tobacco and the +golden corn tassels? And the noble rivers, whose head waters no man has +ever found, hidden by the Lord in the Blue Mountains near to the South +Sea! Sir, Virginia is God's country!" + +"You in these lowlands have no trouble with the Indians?" + +"None to speak of since 'forty-four, when Opechancanough came down upon +us. The brush with the Ricahecrians seven years ago was nothing. They +are utterly broken, both here and in Accomac. Further up the rivers the +devil still holds his own, we hearing doleful tales of the butchery of +pioneers with their wives and children; and above the falls of the far +west, in the Monacan country, and towards the Blue Mountains, is his +stronghold and capitol; but here in the lowlands all's safe enough. +There is no fear of the savages. Would we could say as much of the +servants!" + +"Why, what do you fear from them?" + +"It's hard to say; but an uneasy feeling has prevailed for a year or +more. It's this d--d Oliverian element among them. You see, ever since +his Majesty's blessed restoration, gang after gang of rebels have been +sent us--Independents, Muggletonians, Fifth Monarchy men, dour Scotch +Whigamores--dangerous fanatics all! Many are Naseby or Worcester rogues, +Ironsides who worship the memory of that devil's lieutenant, Oliver. All +have the gift of the gab. We disperse them as much as possible, not +allowing above five or six to any one plantation, we of the Council +realizing that they form a dangerous leaven. Should there be trouble, +which heaven forbid! they would be the instigators, restless +mischief-makers and overturners of the established order of things that +they are! Then there are their fellow criminals, the highwaymen, +forgers, cutpurses and bullies of whom we relieve his Majesty's +government. They are few in number, but each is a very plague spot, +infecting honester men. The slaves, always excepting the Portuguese and +Spanish mulattoes from the Indies, who are devils incarnate, have not +brain enough to conspire. But in the actual event of a rising they would +be fiends unchained." + +"A pleasant state of affairs!" + +"Oh, it is not so serious! We who govern the Colony have to take all +possibilities, however unpleasant, into consideration. I myself do not +think the danger imminent, and many in the Council and among the +Burgesses, and well-nigh all outside will not allow that there is danger +at all. We passed more stringent servant laws last year, and we depend +upon them, and upon the great body of indented servants, who are, for +the most part, honest and amenable and know upon which side their bread +is buttered, to repress the unruly element." + +"What will you do with the convicts you brought with you this morning?" + +"Use them in the tobacco fields just now when all hands are needed to +weed and sucker the plants, and afterwards put them to hewing down the +forest. I told Woodson to bring them around to me this afternoon when +they had been decently clothed. I always give the scoundrels a piece of +my mind to begin with. It saves trouble." + +"Do they give you much trouble?" + +"Not on this plantation. Woodson and Haines are excellent overseers." + +The planter refilled his pipe, struck a light with his flint and steel, +and leaning back amidst the fragrant clouds, allowed his eyelids to +droop and his mind to wander over a pleasant sunshiny tract of nothing +in particular. + +Sir Charles tasted his sack, adjusted his ruffles, and resumed his +reading. But even the delectable adventures of the Presbyterian knight, +over whom all London was laughing, palled on such an afternoon, and the +young gentleman, after listlessly turning a page or two, laid the book +across his knee, and with closed eyes commenced the construction of an +air castle of his own. + +He was roused by the sound of approaching footsteps upon the shell path +leading to the back of the house, and by the harsh voice of the +overseer. + +"Here come your hopeful purchases, sir," he said lazily. + +The overseer turned the corner of the house and came forward with the +three convicts at his heels. He doffed his hat to the two gentlemen, +then turned to his charges. "Fall into line, you dogs, and salute his +Honor!" + +The first man, he of the long nose and the twitching lip, smiled +sweetly, and bent so low that his fell of greasy hair well-nigh swept +the steps; the second, with a brow like a thunder cloud, gave a vicious +nod; the third, with as impassive a countenance as Sir Charles's own, +bowed gravely, and stood with folded arms and a quietly attentive mien. + +The planter gathered himself up from his chair and came forward to the +top of the steps, his tall, corpulent figure towering above the men +below much as his fortunes towered above theirs. + +"Now, men," he said, speaking sternly and with slow emphasis. "I have +just one word to say to you. Listen well to it. I am your master; you +are my servants. I reckon myself a good master, it not being my way to +treat those belonging to me, whether white or black, like dumb beasts. +Give me obedience and the faithful work of your hands, and you shall +find me kind. But if you are stubborn or rebellious, by the Lord, you +will rue the day you left Newgate! Whipping-post and branding-irons are +at hand, and death is something closer to a felon in Virginia than in +England. Be careful! Now, Woodson, what have you put these men to?" + +"They'll go into the three-mile field to-morrow morning, your honor, +unless you wish other disposition made of them." + +"No, that will do. Take them away." + +The overseer faced about and was marching off with the recruits for the +three-mile field when his master's voice arrested him. + +"Take those two in front on with you, Woodson, and send me back the +brown-haired one." + +The "brown-haired one" turned as his companions disappeared around a +hedge of privet and came slowly back to the steps. + +"You wished to speak to me, sir?" he said quietly. + +"Yes. You are the man who was tolerably helpful in the squall last +night?" + +"I was so fortunate as to be of some small service, sir." + +"You understand the handling of a boat?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Hum. I will tell Woodson to try you with a sloop when the press of work +in the fields is past. What is your name?" + +"Godfrey Landless." + +"Chevalier d'Industrie and frequenter of the Newgate Ordinary," put in +Sir Charles lazily. "Of the Roundhead persuasion too, if I mistake +not,--from robbery in the large, descended to thievery in the small; +from the murder of a King to knives and a black alley mouth. Commend me +to these grave rogues for real knaves! Pray inform us to what little +mishap we owe the honor of your company. Did you mercifully incline to +relieve weary travelers over Hounslow Heath by disburdening them of +their heavy purses? Or did you mistake your own handwriting for that of +some one else? Or did you woo a mercer's wife a thought too roughly? Or +perhaps--" + +The man shot a fiery upward glance at the slim, elegant figure and +mocking lips of his tormentor, but kept silence. Colonel Verney, who had +returned to his pipe, interposed. "What is all this, Charles? What are +you saying to the man?" + +"Oh, nothing, sir! This gentleman and I were shipmates, and I did but +ask after his health since the voyage." + +"Sir Charles Carew is very good," the man said proudly. "I assure him +that the object of his solicitude is well, and only desires an +opportunity to repay, with interest, those little attentions shown him +by his courteous fellow voyager." + +The planter looked puzzled; Sir Charles laughed. + +"Our liking is mutual, I see," he said coolly. "I--but what is this, +Colonel Verney! Venus descending from Olympus?" + +Out of the doorway fluttered a brilliant vision, all blue and white like +the great butterflies hovering over the clove pinks. Behind it appeared +the faded countenance of Mrs. Lettice, and a group of turbaned heads +peered, grinning, from out the cool darkness of the hall. + +"Papa!" cried the vision. "I want to show you my new dress! Cousin +Charles, you are to tell me if it is all as it should be!" + +Sir Charles bowed, with his hand upon his heart. "Alas, madam! I could +as soon play critic to the choir of angels. My eyes are dazzled." + +"Stand out, child," said her father gazing at her with eyes of love and +pride, "and let us see your finery. D' ye know what the extravagant minx +has upon her back, Charles? Just five hogsheads of prime tobacco!" + +Mistress Lettice struck in: "Well, I'm sure, brother, 'tis much the +prettiest use to put tobacco to, to turn it into lace and brocade and +jewels,--much better, say I, than to be forever using it to accumulate +filthy slaves." + +Patricia floated to the centre of the porch and stood sunning herself +in a stray shaft of light, like a very bird of paradise. The +"tempestuous petticoat," sky-blue and laced with silver, swelled proudly +outwards, the gleaming satin bodice slipped low over the snowy shoulders +and the heaving bosom, and the sleeves, trimmed with magnificent lace +and looped with pearls, showed the rounded arms to perfection. Around +the slender throat was wound a double row of pearls, and the golden +ringlets were partially confined by a snood of blue velvet. She unfurled +a wonderful fan, and lifted her skirts to show the tiny white and silver +shoes and the silken silver-clocked ankles. Her eyes shone like stars, +faint wild roses bloomed in her cheeks, charming half smiles chased each +other across her dainty mouth. Such a picture of radiant youth and +loveliness did she present that the Englishman's pulses quickened, and +he swore under his breath. "Surely," he muttered, "this is the most +beautiful woman in the world, and my lucky stars have sent me to this No +Man's Land to win her." + +"How do you like me?" she cried gayly. "Is 't not worth the five +hogsheads?" + +Her father drew her to him and kissed the smooth forehead. + +"You look just as your mother did, child, the day that we were +betrothed. I could not give you higher praise than that, sweetheart." + +"And does it really lack nothing, cousin?" she cried anxiously. "Is it +in truth such a dress as they wear at Court?" + +"Not at Whitehall, madam, nor at Brussels, nor even at St. Germains have +I seen anything more point device than the dress,--nor as beautiful as +the wearer," he added in a lower voice and with a killing look. + +The girl's face dimpled with pleasure and innocent, gratified vanity. +She swept him a magnificent courtesy, and he bent low over the slender +fingers she gave him. Suddenly he felt them stiffen in his clasp, and +looking up, saw a curious expression of fear and aversion pass like a +shadow across her face. She spoke abruptly. "That man! I did not see +him! What does he here?" + +Sir Charles wheeled. The convict, forgotten by the two gentlemen, had +been left standing at the foot of the steps, and his sombre eyes were +now fixed upon the girl in a look so strange and intent as fully to +explain her perturbation. Through his parted lips the breath came +hurriedly, in his eyes was a mournful exaltation as of one who looks +from a desert into Paradise. He stood absorbed, unconscious of aught +save the splendid vision above him. For a moment she stared at him in +return, her eyes, held by his, slowly widening and the color quite gone +from her face. With a slow, involuntary movement one white arm rose, and +stiffened before her in a gesture of repulsion. The fan fell from her +hand upon the floor with a click of breaking tortoise shell. The sound +broke the spell, and with a strong shudder she turned her eyes away. +"Make him go," she said in a trembling voice. "He frightens me." + +Sir Charles sprang forward with an oath. "Curse you, you dog! Take your +ill-omened eyes from the lady! Colonel Verney, do you not see that the +fellow is annoying your daughter?" + +The planter had fallen into a reverie born of recollections of the +Patricia of his youth, long laid in her grave, but he roused himself at +the words of his guest. + +"What's that?" he cried. "Annoying Patricia!" He walked to the head of +the steps and raised his cane threateningly. + +"Hark ye, sirrah! The servants of Verney Manor, white or black, felon or +indented, need all their eyesight for their work. They have none to +waste in idle gazing at their betters. Begone to your mates!" + +The man who, at Sir Charles's intervention, had started as from a dream, +colored deeply and compressed his lips, then glanced from one to the +other of the group above him. There was pain, humiliation, almost +supplication in the look which he directed to the girl who had brought +this rating upon him. He glanced at his master with a countenance +studiously devoid of expression, at Mistress Lettice with indifference, +at Sir Charles Carew with chill defiance. Then, with a grave inclination +of his head, he turned, and a moment later had disappeared behind the +hedge. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY + + +Three days later the master of Verney Manor gave a dinner party. + +At Jamestown, twenty miles away, the Assembly had just adjourned after a +busy session. A law debarring that "turbulent people" the Quakers from +further admittance into the colony, and providing cold comfort for those +already within its doors, was passed with acclamation, as was another +against Anabaptists, and a third concerning the hue and cry for +absconding servants and slaves. The selling rates for wines and strong +waters were fixed, a proper penalty attached to the planting of tobacco +contrary to the statute, a regulation for the mending of the highways +adopted, a fine imposed for non-attendance at church, the Navigation Act +formally protested against, the trainbands strengthened, an +appropriation made for the erection of new whipping-posts and pillories, +a cruel mistress deprived of the slave she had mistreated, a harborer of +schismatics publicly reproved, and a conciliatory message and present +sent to the up-river Indians--when the Assembly adjourned with the +consciousness of having nobly done its duty. The only measure upon which +there was not unanimity of opinion was one proposing the erection of +school-houses at convenient cross-roads, and the Governor's weight being +thrown into the balance against it, it was promptly quashed. + +The burgesses from the fourteen counties filled the twenty houses that +constituted the town to suffocation. Up-river planters, too, had come +in, choosing the time the Assembly was in session to attend to their +interests in the "city." Several ships were in harbor, and their +captains, professing themselves tired of salt water, threw themselves +upon the hospitality of their friends ashore. The crowded population +overflowed into the houses of the neighboring planters, who, after the +manner of their kind, entertained profusely, giving jovial welcome and +good liquor to all comers. There was a constant jingling of reins along +the bridle paths, a constant passing of white-sailed sloops upon the +river, as gentlemen in riding coats and jack boots, or in laced coats +and silk stockings, fared to and fro between plantation and town. In the +intervals of business the worthy burgesses and their fellow planters +made merry. They were good times--for king's men--and it behooved every +loyal subject to follow (at a respectful distance) his Majesty's +example, and get all possible enjoyment from a laughing world. So there +were horse-races and cock-fights and bear-baitings, as well as dinners +and suppers, at which much sack and aqua vitae was drunk to king, church, +and reigning beauties. And if a quarrel sprung, full armed, from the +heated brains of young gallants, crossed rapiers did but add a piquancy, +a dash of cayenne, to life. + +Popular with the elder gentlemen because of his excellent Madeira, quick +wit, jovial soul, and friendship with the Governor, and with the younger +by virtue of being father to Mistress Patricia Verney, Colonel Richard +Verney had no difficulty in securing a score of guests for a day's +entertainment at Verney Manor. + +About ten in the morning of the appointed day the guests began to +arrive, some by water, some on horseback, Colonel Verney meeting each +arrival with a stately bow and a high-flown speech of welcome, and +handing him on to the hall where stood Sir Charles Carew and the ladies +of the household. + +Upon a pillion behind her father, Major Miles Carrington, +Surveyor-General to the Colony, came Mistress Betty Carrington, bosom +friend to Mistress Patricia Verney. Her sweetly serious face, pensive +eyes, and smooth, dark hair, with her dress of sober silk and kerchief +of finest lawn, demurely crossed over her bosom, contrasted finely with +Patricia's radiant beauty, decked in shimmering satin and rich lace, and +heightened by a tinge of vermilion upon the smooth cheek, and a long +black patch beneath the left temple. The two met like friends whom weary +years have parted, and indeed they had not seen each other for nearly a +week. + +All the guests, save one, had arrived. Colonel Verney fidgeted, sent a +servant wench to look at the kitchen clock, and dispatched his secretary +to an upstairs window, whence was visible a long stretch of what +courtesy called the highroad. + +The secretary returned and whispered his master. "God be thanked!" +exclaimed the latter. "I feared that his machine had mired in the +Two-Mile Swamp, or had toppled into a gully coming through the Devil's +Strip. Gentlemen, the Governor's coach is in sight. Shall we adjourn to +the porch and there await his Excellency?" + +A mighty straining, jingling and lumbering came with the breeze down the +road and proceeded from a pillar of dust which was approaching the house +with reasonable rapidity. Presently the road changed from a trough of +dust into a ribbon of greensward. The cloud dissipated itself, streaming +away like the tail of a comet, and a ponderous and much begilt coach, +drawn by six horses, their manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and +outriders in gorgeous livery at the heads of each pair, rolled, or +rather bumped into sight. With a seasick motion it undulated over the +green acclivities of the road, and finally drew up beside the great +horse-block at the gate. + +Two lackeys sprang from their perch behind the vehicle, flung open the +door, and lowered a short flight of steps. A very stately gentleman, +richly dressed, with a handkerchief of point in one hand and a jeweled +snuff-box in the other, descended the steps, placing one shapely leg in +its maroon-colored stocking before the other with the mannered grace of +the leader of a Coranto. + +Colonel Verney met him with a low bow and smiling face, after which the +two embraced, for they were old friends. + +"My dear Governor!" + +"My dear Colonel!" + +"I am charmed to welcome your Excellency to my poor house." + +"My dear Colonel, I am charmed to be here. Gad! the possession of the +only chariot in the Colony is a burdensome honor! I thought dinner would +be over, and the stirrup cup in order while I was creeping, like a snail +with his house on his back, over these 'fair and pleasant roads'--as I +call them in my book, eh, Dick! But you have a goodly company, I see; +Ludwell, Fitzhugh, Carey, Anthony Nash, mine ancient enemy Lawrence, +Wormeley, Carrington our Puritan convert and his pretty daughter, young +Peyton, and that pretty fellow, your nephew or cousin, is he? Odzooks! +he is much what I was at his age, begotten of Delilah and Lucifer, hand +of iron in glove of velvet, eh, Dick! I hear he is hail-fellow-well-met +with the King and with Buckingham and Killigrew and their wild set. Ah, +boys will be boys! 'We have heard the chimes at midnight,' eh, Dick?" + +And the Governor in high good humor skipped up the steps with the +agility of youth, bent low with sugared compliments over the hands of +his hostesses and of Mistress Betty Carrington, and gave courteous +greeting to the assembled gentlemen, after which the company flowed back +into the grateful twilight of hall and "great room," where the weather, +the state of the crops, and the last horse-race engaged them until the +announcement of dinner. + +With a flourish of his costly handkerchief, the Governor offered his arm +to the young mistress of the house, and led the way to the dining-room, +where old Humfrey, the butler, marshaled the guests to their seats. +Mistress Betty Carrington had for her cavalier Sir Charles Carew, to +whose honeyed words she listened with a species of awe, wondering in her +innocent soul if all the wild tales they told of this very fine, +smooth-tongued, handsome gentleman could be true. + +Doctor Anthony Nash made a long and fluent grace wherein much latinity +was aired, a neat allusion made to the _jus divinum_, and an anathema +hurled against those "who break down the carved work of the sanctuary." +Then was uncovered the mighty saddle of mutton, reposing in the dish of +honor, the roast pig, the haunch of venison, the sirloin of beef, the +breast of veal, the powdered goose, the noble dish of sheepshead and +bluefish, and the pasty in which was entombed a whole flock of pigeons. +These _pieces de resistance_ were flanked by bowls of oysters, by rows +of wild fowl skewered together, by mince pies and a grand salad, while +upon the outskirts of the damask plain were stationed trenchers piled +with wheat bread, platters of pease and smoking potatoes, cauliflower +and asparagus, and a concoction of rice and prunes, seasoned with mace +and cinnamon and a pinch of assafoetida. A great silver salt-cellar +stood in the centre of the table, and smaller receptacles of the same +metal held pepper and spices. Silver flagons of cider and ale were +placed at intervals, the Madeira, Fayal and Rhenish awaiting upon the +sideboard the moment when, the cloth drawn and the ladies gone, a +gentlemanly carousal should be inaugurated. + +The company drew their Russian leather chairs closer to the table, +spread over their silken knees the fringed damask napkins, and for a +space little was to be heard but the sound of knife and spoon (forks +there were none), for the morning ride had sharpened appetites. The +servants passed from chair to chair; the master, seconded by his +daughter and sister, pricked his guests on to fresh attacks, pressing a +third slice of mutton on one, a fresh helping of capon upon another, +protesting that a third ate as though it were a fast day, and that a +fourth drank as though the October were sea-water. + +When the cloth was drawn and the banquet put on, tongues were loosened. +The Governor quoted passages from his "Lost Lady" to Patricia, lifting +her lovely flushed face from the carving of a tart with wonderfully +constructed towering walls. Behind a second turreted marvel of pastry, +Mistress Lettice and Mr. Frederick Jones sighed and ogled with antique +grace. Sir Charles Carew, fingering his cherries, told a piquant little +court anecdote to Mistress Betty Carrington, and was lazily amused at +the blush and veiled eyelids with which the young lady received it. +Young Mr. Peyton, on her other side, looked very black. + +The wine was put on and the toast to King and Church drunk standing, +after which the ladies dipped their white fingers into the basin of +perfumed water, dried them on the silver-fringed napkin, and sailed to +the door, through which, after the profoundest of courtesies on the one +side and the lowest of bows upon the other, they vanished, leaving the +gentlemen to wine and wassail. + +Colonel Verney drank to the Governor; the Governor to Colonel Verney; +Sir Charles to the author of the "Lost Lady" and the "Discourse and View +of Virginia," so tickling the Governor's vanity thereby that he became +altogether charming. Mr. Peyton toasted Mistress Betty Carrington, and +Mr. Frederick Jones, Mistress Lettice Verney, "fairest and most discreet +of ladies." They drank to Captain Laramore's next voyage, to Mr. +Wormeley's success in vine planting, to Major Carrington's conversion. +They drank confusion to Quakers, Independents, Baptists and infidels, to +the heathen on the frontier and the Papists in Maryland, the Dutch on +the Hudson and the French on the St. Lawrence,--"Quebec in exchange for +Dunkirk!" In short, there were few things in heaven or earth but +justified draughts of Madeira. + +The room filled with a blue and fragrant mist proceeding from twenty +pipe-bowls. Mr. Peyton sang a pretty song of his own composing. The +company applauded. Sir Charles Carew, in a richly plaintive tenor voice, +sang a lyric of Rochester's. Several of the gentlemen looked askance +(the clergyman had left the room with the ladies), but on the Governor's +crying out "Excellent!" they considered themselves over-squeamish, and +clapped loudly. + +Sir Charles, being dry after his song, drank to Hospitality,--"A duty," +he said, smiling, "that you gentlemen make so paramount that you must +wonder at the omission of 'Thou shalt be hospitable' from the +Decalogue." + +"Faith, sir!" cried Mr. Peyton, "God is too good a Virginian not to +consider such a commandment superfluous." + +The Governor commenced a story which all present, but one, had heard a +dozen times. It mattered the less, as it was a good one. Sir Charles +capped it with a better. The Governor told a weird tale of Lunsford's +men, the "babe-eating" regiment. Sir Charles recounted a little +adventure of His Grace of Buckingham with a quack astrologer, a Court +lady, and an orange girl, which made the company die of laughter. + +"Rat me! but you tell a story well, sir!" said the Governor, wiping his +eyes. + +"I serve King Charles the Second, your Excellency." + +"And so have to live by your wit, eh, sir?" + +"Precisely, your Excellency." + +"Emigrate to Virginia, man! to the land of good eating, good drinking, +good fighting, stout men, and pretty women--who make angelic wives." And +the Governor, who loved his own wife with chivalric devotion, kissed a +locket which he wore at his neck. "Come to Virginia where we need loyal +men and true. Lord! we all thought the millennium was come with the +king, but damme! if it doesn't seem as far off as ever! Not that his +Majesty is to blame," he added quickly, as though fearing that his words +might be taken as an aspersion upon Charles's ability to conduct the +millennium single-handed. "The naughty spirit of the age sets itself +against the Lord's Anointed. The Puritan snake is but scotched, not +killed. It's the old prate of freedom of conscience, government by the +people, and the like disgusting stuff (no offense to you, Major +Carrington) that makes the trouble of the times both here and at home. I +sigh for the good old days when, for eleven sweet years, no Parliament +sat to meddle in affairs of state, when Wentworth kept down faction and +the saintly Laud built up the Church which he adorned." And the Governor +buried his woes in the Rhenish. + +"Sir William Berkeley's loyalty is proverbial," said Sir Charles +suavely. "The King knows that while he is at the helm in Virginia, the +colony is on the high road to that era of peace and prosperity which his +majesty so ardently desires--for his tax-paying people. And I have +thought more than once of late that I might do worse than to dispose of +my majority in the 'Blues,' bid the Court adieu, and obtaining from his +Majesty a grant of land, retire here to Virginia to pass my days on my +own land and amid a little court of my own, in the patriarchal fashion +you gentlemen affect. Under certain circumstances it is a course I might +possibly pursue." He glanced at his kinsman, whose countenance showed +high approval of a plan which dovetailed nicely with one of his own +making. + +"Can you guess the 'certain circumstances' which are to give us the +pleasure of his confounded company?" whispered Mr. Peyton to Mr. Carey. + +"An easy riddle, Jack. Damn the insolent, smooth-spoken knave of hearts, +and confound the women! They all drop to a court card." + +"Not Mistress Betty Carrington. _She_ looks below the surface." + +"Humph! What does she see below thine? An empty gourd with a few +madrigals and sonnets, and fine images, conned from the 'Grand Cyrus,' +rattling about like dried seeds?" + +"Hush, thou green persimmon! the Governor is speaking." + +The governor rose with care to his feet. His wig was awry, his cravat of +fine mechlin under one ear. Benevolent smiles played like summer +lightning across his flushed face. He raised his tankard slowly and with +attentive steadiness. "Gentlemen," he said in a high voice, "we have +eaten and we have drunken. Dick Verney's wine is as old as the hills and +as mellow as sunlight. It groweth late, gentlemen, and some of you have +miles to travel, and it takes cool heads to ride the 'planter's pace.' +For William Berkeley, gentlemen, Governor of Virginia by the grace of +God and his Majesty, King Charles the Second, it takes more than Dick +Verney's wine to fluster him. I call a final toast. I drink again to our +loving friend and host, the worshipful Colonel Richard Verney, to his +beauteous daughter and sister, to his man-servant and his maid-servant, +his ox and his ass, and the stranger which is within his gates." He +smiled benignly at a reflection of Sir Charles in a distant mirror. +"Gentlemen, the devil, you see, can quote scripture. Let the cup go +roun', go roun', go roun'." + +The toast was drunk with fervor, and the party broke up. + +The Governor, with Colonel Ludlow and Captain Laramore, was to sleep at +Verney Manor, and Mistress Betty Carrington was left by her father to +bear Patricia company for a day or two. One by one the remainder of the +company rode or sailed away, those who had an even keel beneath them +being in much better case than their brethren on horseback. + +When the last sail showed a white speck in the distance, Patricia and +Betty came out upon the porch and sat them down, one on either side of +the Governor, with whom they were great favorites. Colonel Ludlow and +Captain Laramore were at dice at a table within the hall, and Colonel +Verney had excused himself in order to hear the evening report from his +overseers. Sir Charles Carew, very idle and purposeless-looking, lounged +in a great chair, and studied the miniature upon his snuff-box. The +Governor, whom the wine had mellowed into a genial softness, a kind of +sunset glow, alternately puffed wide rings of smoke into the air, and +paid compliments to the young ladies. The evening breeze had sprung up, +rustling the leaves of the trees, and bringing with it the sound of the +water. In the western sky crimson islets forever shifted shapes in a sea +of gold. A rosy light suffused the earth. In it the water turned to the +pink of a shell, the marshes became ethereal and far away, earth and sky +seemed one. The flashing wings of gull and curlew were like fairy sails +faring to and fro. + +"If I had wings," said Patricia dreamily, her hands clasped over her +knees, "I would fly straight to that highest island of cloud. The one, +Betty, that looks like a field of daffodils, with those beautiful peaks +rising from it, and the violet light in the hollows. I would set up my +standard there, Sir William, and the island should be mine, and I would +rule the fairies that must inhabit it, with a rod of iron--as you rule +Virginia," she ended with a laugh. + +The Governor laughed with her. "You would have no such stiff-necked folk +to deal with, my love, as have I." + +"No, they should all be good Cavaliers and Churchmen--no Roundheads, no +servants--and if Indians on neighboring isles threatened we would pray +for a wind and sail away from them, around and around the bright blue +sky." + +"And when you are gone to take possession of your castle in the air what +will poor Virginia do?" gallantly demanded the governor. + +"Oh, she would still exist! But I am not going to-night. The princess of +the castle in the air is engaged to his Excellency the Governor of +Virginia for a game of chess. In the mean time here comes my father, who +shall entertain your Excellency while Betty and I go for a walk. Come, +Lady-bird." + +The two graceful figures twined arms and moved off down the walk. Sir +Charles looked after them a moment, then, with a "Permit me, sir," to +the Governor, he snapped the lid of his snuff-box and started down the +steps. The Governor laughed. "We will excuse you, sir," he said +graciously. "Dick," to Colonel Verney, as the young gentleman hastened +after the ladies, "that fine spark is to be your son-in-law, eh?" + +"It is the wish of my heart, William." + +"Humph!" + +"He has birth and breeding. His father was my good friend and kinsman, +and as loyal a Cavalier as ever gave life and lands for the blessed +Martyr. He died in my arms at Marston Moor, and with his last breath +commended his son to me. My dear wife was then expecting the birth of +our child, of Patricia. I can see him now as he smiled up at me (he was +ever gay) and said, 'If it's a girl, Dick, marry her to my boy.' Well! +he died, and his brother took the boy, and my wife and I came over seas, +and I never saw the lad from that day to this, when he comes at my +invitation to visit us." + +"Well, he is a very pretty fellow! And what does Patricia say to him?" + +"Patricia is a good daughter," said the Colonel sedately, "and is +possessed of sense beyond the average of womenkind. She knows the +advantages this match offers. Sir Charles Carew can give her a title, +and a name that's as old as her own. He is a man of parts and +distinction, has served the King, is familiar with the courts of Europe. +I do not pin my faith to the tales that are told of him. His father was +a gallant gentleman, and I am not the man to believe ill of his son. +Moreover, if, as he hath half promised, he will come to Virginia, he +will throw off here the vices of the Court, the faults of youth, and +become an honest Virginia gentleman, God-fearing, law-abiding, +reverencing the King, but not copying him too closely--such an one as +thou or I, William. The king should give him large grants of land, and +so, with what Patricia will have when I am gone, there will be laid the +foundation of a great and noble estate, which, please God, will belong +in the fair future of this fair land to a great and noble family sprung +from the union of Verney and Carew. Patricia, trust me, sees all this +with my eyes." + +"Humph!" said the Governor again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BREAKING HEART + + +Sir Charles was up with the two girls before they reached the garden; +and they passed together through the gate and into the spicy wilderness. +The dew was falling, and as they sauntered through the narrow paths, +Betty held back her skirts that the damp leaves of sage and marjoram +might not brush them; but Patricia, gathering larkspur and +sweet-william, was heedless of her finery. At the further end of the +garden was a wicket leading into a grove of mulberries. The three walked +on beneath the spreading branches and the broad, heart-shaped leaves, +until they came to a tree of extraordinary height and girth whose roots +bulged out into great, smooth excrescences like inverted bowls. Patricia +stopped. "Betty is tired," she said kindly, "and she shall sit here and +rest. Betty is a windflower, Sir Charles, a little tender timid flower, +frail and sweet--are you not, Betty?" She sat down upon one of the +bowls, and pulled her friend down beside her. Sir Charles leaned against +the trunk of the tree. "Betty is a little Puritan," continued Patricia; +"she would not wear the set of ribbons I had for her; and that hurt me +very much." + +"O Patricia!" cried Betty, with tears in her eyes. "If I thought you +really cared! But even then I could not wear them!" + +"No, you little martyr," said the other, with a kiss. "You would go to +the stake any day for what you call your 'principles.' And I honor you +for it, you know I do. Cousin Charles, do you know that Betty thinks it +wrong to hold slaves?" + +Sir Charles laughed, and Betty's delicate face flushed. + +"O Patricia!" she cried. "I did not say that! I only said that we would +not like it ourselves." + +"'Pon my soul, I don't suppose we would," said Sir Charles coolly. "But, +Mistress Betty, the negroes have neither thin skins nor nice feelings." + +"I know that," said Betty bravely; "and I know that our divines and +learned men cannot yet decide whether or not they have souls. And, of +course, if they have not, they are as well treated as other animals; but +all the same I am sorry for them, and I am sorry for the servants too." + +"For the servants!" cried Patricia, arching her brows. + +"Yes," said Betty, standing to her guns. "I am sorry for the servants, +for those who must work seven years for another before they can do aught +for themselves. And often when their time is out they are bowed and +broken; and those whom they love at home, and would bring over, are +dead; and often before the seven years have passed they die themselves. +And I am sorry for those whom you call rebels, for the Oliverians; and +for the convicts, despised and outcast. And for the Indians about us, +dispossessed and broken, and--yes, I am sorry for the Quakers." + +"I waste no pity on the under dog," said Sir Charles. "Keep him +down--and with a heavy hand--or he will fly at your throat." + +"Hark!" said Patricia. + +Some one in the distance was singing:-- + + "Gentle herdsman, tell to me + Of courtesy I thee pray, + Unto the town of Walsingham, + Which is the right and ready way? + + "Unto the town of Walsingham + The way is hard for to be gone, + And very crooked are those paths + For you to find out all alone." + +The notes were wild and plaintive, and sounded sadly through the +gathering dusk. A figure flitted towards them between the shadowy tree +trunks. + +"It is Mad Margery," said Patricia. + +"And who is Mad Margery?" asked Sir Charles. + +"No one knows, cousin. She does not know herself. Ten years ago a ship +came in with servants, and she was on it. She was mad then. The captain +could give no account of her, save that when, the day after sailing, he +came to count the servants, he found one more than there should have +been, and that one a woman, stupid from drugs. She had been spirited on +board the ship, that was all he could say. It's a common occurrence, as +you know. She never came to herself,--has always been what she is now. +She was sold to a small planter, and cruelly treated by him. After a +time my father heard her story and bought her from her master. She has +been with us ever since. Her term of service is long out; but there is +nothing that could drive her from this plantation. She wanders about as +she pleases, and has a cabin in the woods yonder; for she will not live +in the quarters. They say that she is a white witch; and the Indians, +who reverence the mad, lay maize and venison at her door." + +The voice, shrill and sweet, rang out close at hand. + + "Thy years are young, thy face is fair, + Thy wits are weak, thy thoughts are green, + Time hath not given thee leave as yet, + For to commit so great a sin." + +"Margery!" called Patricia softly. + +The woman came towards them with a peculiar gliding step, swift and +stealthy. Within a pace or two of them she stopped, and asked, "Who +called me?" in a voice that seemed to come from far away. She was not +old, and might once have been beautiful. + +"I called you, Margery," said Patricia gently. "Sit down beside us, and +tell us what you have been doing." + +The woman came and sat herself down at Patricia's feet. She carried a +stick, or light pole, wound with thick strings of wild hops, which she +laid on the ground. Taking one of the wreaths from around it, she +dropped the pale green mass into Patricia's lap. + +"Take it," she said. "They are flowers I gathered in Paradise, long ago. +They wither in this air; but if you fan them with your sighs, and water +them with your tears, they will revive.... Paradise is a long way from +here. I have been seeking the road all day; but I have not found it yet. +I think it must lie near Bristol Town, Bristol Town, Bristol Town." + +Her voice died away in a long sigh, and she sat plucking at the fragrant +blooms. + +Patricia said softly, "She talks much of Bristol Town, and she is always +seeking the road to Paradise. I think that once some one must have said +to her, 'We will meet in Paradise.'" + +"I know little of Paradise, Margery," said Sir Charles, good-naturedly; +"but Bristol Town is many leagues from here, across the great ocean." + +"Yes, I know. It lieth in the rising of the sun. I have never seen it +except in my dreams. But it is a beautiful place--not like this world of +trees. The church bells are ever ringing there, ... and the children +sing in the streets. It is all fair, and smiling and beautiful, all but +one spot, one black, black, black spot. I will tell you." She sunk her +voice to a whisper and looked fearfully around. "The mouth of the Pit is +there, the Bottomless Pit that the Preacher tells about. It is a small +room, dark, dark, ... and there is a heavy smell in the air, ... and +there are fiends with black cloth over their faces. They hold a draught +of hell to your mouth, and they make you drink it; ... it burns, burns. +And then you go down, down, down, into everlasting blackness." She broke +off, and shuddered violently, then burst into eldritch laughter. + +"Shall I tell you what I found just now while I was looking for +Paradise?" + +"Yes," said Patricia. + +"A breaking heart." + +"A breaking heart!" + +Margery nodded. "Yes," she said. "I thought it would surprise you. I +find many things, looking for Paradise. The other day I found a brown +pixie sitting beneath a mushroom, and he told me curious things. But a +breaking heart is different. I know all about it, for once upon a time +my heart broke; but mine was soft and easy to break. It was as soft and +weak as a baby's wrist, a little, tender, helpless thing, you know, that +melts under your kisses. But this heart that I found will take a long +time to break. Proud anger will strengthen it at first; but one string +will snap, and then another, and another, until, at last--" she swept +her arms abroad with a wild and desolate gesture. + +"What does she mean?" asked Sir Charles. + +"I do not know," answered Patricia. + +Margery rose and took up her leafy staff. + +"Come," she said. "Come and see the breaking heart." + +"O Patricia!" cried Betty, "do not go with her!" + +"Why not?" asked Patricia resolutely. "Come, cousin, let us find out +what she means. We will go with you, Margery; but you must not take us +far. It grows late." + +Margery laughed weirdly. "It is never late for Margery. There is a star +far up in heaven that is sorry for Margery, and it shines for her, +bright, bright, all night long, that she may not miss the road to +Paradise." + +She glided in front of them, and moved rapidly down the dim alley of +trees, her feet seeming scarce to touch the short grass, and the long +green wreaths, stirred by the wind, coiling and uncoiling around her +staff like serpents. Patricia, with Betty and Sir Charles, followed her +closely. She led them out of the mulberry grove, through a small +vineyard, and into a patch of corn, beyond which could be seen the gleam +of water, faintly pink from the faded sunset. + +"She is taking us towards the quarters!" exclaimed Patricia. "Margery! +Margery!" + +But Margery held on, moving swiftly through the waist-deep corn. Betty +looked down with a little sigh at her dainty shoes, which were suffering +by their contact with the dew-laden leaves of pumpkins and macocks. Sir +Charles put aside the long corn blades with his cane, and so made a way +for the girls. He felt mildly curious and somewhat bored. + +Suddenly they emerged upon the banks of the inlet, within a hundred +yards of the quarters. Patricia would have spoken, but Margery put her +finger to her lips and flitted on towards the row of cabins. + +Before them stretched a long, narrow lane, sandy and barren, with a +pine-tree rising here and there. Rude cabins, windowless and with mud +chimneys, faced each other across the lane. Half way down was an open +space, or small square, in the centre of which stood a dead tree with a +board nailed across its trunk at about a man's height from the ground. +In either end of the board was cut a round hole big enough for a man's +hand to be squeezed through, and above hung a heavy stick with leathern +thongs tied to it, the whole forming a pillory and whipping-post, rude, +but satisfactory. + +It was almost dark. The larger stars had come out, and the fireflies +began to sparkle restlessly. The wind sighed in the pines, and a strong +salt smell came from the sea. Overhead a whip-poor-will uttered its +mournful cry. + +The long day's work, from sunrise to sunset, was over, and the +population of the quarter had drifted in from the fields of tobacco and +maize, the boats, the carpenter's shop, the forge, the mill, the +stables, and barns. Hard-earned rest was theirs, and they were prepared +to enjoy it. It was supper-time. In the square a great fire of +brush-wood had been kindled, and around it squatted a ring of negroes, +busy with bowls of loblolly and great chunks of corn bread. They +chattered like monkeys, and one who had finished his mess raised a chant +in which one note was a yell of triumph, the next a long-drawn +plaintive wail. The rich barbaric voice filled the night. A figure, +rising, tossed aside an empty bowl, and began to dance in the red +firelight. + +The white men ate at their cabin doors, sitting upon logs of wood, or in +groups of three or four messed at tables made by stretching planks from +one tree-stump to another. It was meat-day; and they, too, made merry. +From the women's cabins also came shrill laughter. Snatches of song +arose, altercations that suddenly began and as suddenly ceased, a babel +of voices in many fashions of speech. Broad Yorkshire contended with the +thin nasal tones of the cockney; the man from the banks of the Tweed +thrust cautious sarcasms at the man from Galway. A mulatto, the color of +pale amber, spoke sonorous Spanish to an olive-hued piece of drift-wood +from Florida. An Indian indulged in a monologue in a tongue of a faraway +tribe of the Blue Mountains. + +The glare from the fire and from flaring pine-knots played fitfully over +the motley throng, now bringing out in strong relief some one face or +figure, then plunging it into profoundest shadow. It burnished the high +forehead and scalp lock of the Indian, and made to gleam intensely the +gold earring in the ear of the mulatto. The scarlet cloth wound about +the head of a Turk seemed to turn to actual flame. Under the baleful +light vacant faces of dully honest English rustics became malignant, +while the negro, dancing with long, outstretched arms and uncouth +swayings to and fro, appeared a mirthful fiend. + +The three gentlefolk and their mad conductress gazed from out the shadow +and at a safe distance. Sir Charles Carew, a man of taste, felt strong +artistic pleasure in the Rembrandtesque scene before him--the leaping +light, the weird shadows, resolving themselves into figures posed with +savage freedom, the dancing satyr, the sombre pines above, and, beyond +the pines, the stillness of the stars. Betty drew a little shuddering +breath, and her hand went to clasp Patricia's. The latter was looking +steadily upward at the slender crescent moon. + +"Do not look, Betty," she said quietly. "I do not. It is a horror to +me--a horror. I am going back," she said, turning. + +But she had reckoned without Margery, who caught her by the arm. "Come," +she said imperiously. "Come and see the breaking heart!" Patricia +hesitated, then yielded to curiosity and the insistent pressure of the +skeleton fingers. + +The cabins nearest them were deserted, their occupants having joined +themselves to the groups further down the lane where the firelight beat +strongest and the torches were more numerous. With no more sound than a +moth would make, flitting through the dusk, the mad woman led them to +the outermost of these cabins. Within five paces of the door she stopped +and pointed a long forefinger. + +"The breaking heart!" she said in a triumphant whisper. + +A man lay, face downwards, in the coarse and scanty grass. One arm was +bent beneath his forehead, the other was outstretched, the hand +clenched. It was the attitude of one who has flung himself down in dumb, +despairing misery. As they looked, he gave a long gasping sob that shook +his whole frame, then lay quiet. + +A burst of revelry came down the lane. The man raised his head +impatiently, then let it drop again upon his arm. + +Patricia turned and walked quickly back the way they had come. Betty and +Sir Charles followed her; Margery, her whim gratified, had vanished into +the darkness of the pines. + +No one spoke until they were again amidst the wet and rustling corn. +Then said Betty with tears in her voice, "O Patricia, darling! there is +so much misery in the world, fair and peaceful as it looks to-night. +That poor man!" + +"That 'poor man,' Betty," answered Patricia in a hard voice, "is a +criminal, a felon, guilty of some dreadful, sordid thing, a gaol-bird +reclaimed from the gallows and sent here to pollute the air we breathe." + +"It was the convict, Landless, was it not?" asked Sir Charles. + +"Yes." + +"But, Patricia," said the gentle Betty, "whatever he may have done, he +is wretched now." + +"He has sowed the wind; let him reap the whirlwind," said Patricia +steadily. + +They went on to the house and into the great room where the myrtle +candles were burning softly, the dimity curtains shutting out the night. +Mrs. Lettice was at the spinet, with Captain Laramore to turn the leaves +of her song book, and the Governor, with the chess table out and the +pieces in battle array, awaited (he said) the arrival of the Princess of +the Castle in the Air. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD + + +In a far corner of the Three-mile Field Landless bent over tobacco plant +after tobacco plant, patiently removing the little green shoots or +"suckers" from the parent stem. + +His back and limbs ached from the unaccustomed stooping, the fierce +sunshine beat upon his head, the blood pounded behind his temples, his +tongue clave to the roof of his mouth,--and the noontide rest was still +two hours away. As, with a gasp of weariness, he straightened himself, +the endless plain of green rose and fell to his dazzled eyes in misty +billows. The most robust rustic required several months of seasoning +before he and the Virginia climate became friends, and this man was +still weak from privation and confinement in prison and in the noisome +hold of the ship. + +He turned his weary eyes from the vivid gold green of the fields to the +shadows of the forest. It lay within a few yards of him, just on the +other side of a little stream and a rail fence that zigzagged in gray +lines hung with creepers. At the moment he defined happiness as a plunge +into the cool, perfumed darkness, a luxurious flinging of a tired body +upon the carpet of pine needles, a shutting out, forever, of the +sunshine. + +Suddenly he felt that eyes were upon him, and his glance traveled from +the fringe of trees to meet that of an Indian seated upon a log in an +angle of the fence. + +He was a man of gigantic stature, dressed in coarse canvas breeches, and +with a handkerchief of gaudy dye twisted about his head. His bold +features wore the usual Indian expression of saturnine imperturbability, +and he half sat, half reclined upon the log as motionless as a piece of +carven bronze, staring at Landless with large, inscrutable eyes. + +Landless, staring in return, saw something else. The rank growth of +weeds in which the log was sunk moved ever so slightly. There was a +flash as of a swiftly drawn rapier, and something long and mottled hung +for an instant upon the shoulder of the Indian, and then dropped into +its lair again. + +With a sudden lithe twist of his body, the savage flung himself upon it, +and holding it down with one hand, with the other beat the life out with +a heavy stick. The creature was killed by the first stroke, but he +continued to rain vindictive blows upon it until it was mashed to a +pulp. Then, with a serenely impassive mien, he resumed his seat upon the +log. + +Landless sprang across the stream, and went up to him. + +"You are bitten! Is there aught I can do?" + +The Indian shook his head. With one hand he pulled the shoulder forward, +trying, as Landless saw, to meet the wound with his lips; but finding +that it could not be done, he desisted and sat silent, and to all +appearance, unconcerned. + +Landless cried out impatiently, "It will kill you, man! Do you know no +remedy?" + +The Indian grunted. "Snake root grow deep in the forest, a long way off. +Besides, an Iroquois does not die for a little thing like a pale face +or a dog of an Algonquin." + +"Why did you try to reach the sting with your mouth?" + +"To suck out the evil." + +"Is that a cure?" + +The Indian nodded. Landless knelt down and examined the shoulder. "Now," +he said, "tell me if I set about it in the right way," and applied his +lips to the swollen, blue-black spot. + +The Indian gave a grunt of surprise, and his white teeth flashed in a +smile; then he sat silent under the ministrations of the white man who +sucked at the wound, spitting the venom upon the ground, until the dark +skin was drawn and wrinkled like the hand of a washerwoman. + +"Good!" then said the Indian, and pointed to the stream. Landless went +to it, rinsed his mouth, and brought back water in his cap with which he +laved the shoulder of his new acquaintance, ending by binding it up with +the handkerchief from the man's head. + +A guttural sound from the Indian made him look up. At the same instant +the whip of the overseer, descending, cut him sharply across the +shoulders. He sprang to his feet, the veins in his forehead swollen, his +frame tense with impotent anger. The overseer, having gained his +attention, thrust the whip back into his belt. + +"If you don't want to get what will hurt as bad as a snake bite," he +said grimly, "you had best tend to your tobacco and let vagrom Indians +alone. That row is to be suckered before dinner-time or your pork and +beans will go begging. As for you," turning to the Indian, "what are you +doing on this plantation? Where's your pass?" + +The Indian took from his waistband a slip of paper which he handed to +the overseer, who looked at it and gave it back with a grudging--"It's +all right this time, but you'd better be careful. It's my opinion that +Major Carrington lets his servants run about a deal more than's good for +them. Anyhow, you've no business in this field. Clear out!" + +The Indian arose and went his way. But as he passed Landless, suckering +a plant with angry energy, he touched him, as if by accident, with his +sinewy hand. + +"Monakatocka never forgives an enemy," came in a sibilant whisper too +low to be heard by the watchful overseer. "Monakatocka never forgets a +friend. Some day he will repay." + +The red-brown body slipped away through the tall weeds and clumps of +alder, like the larger edition of the thing that had hung upon its +shoulder. The overseer strode off down the field, sending keen glances +to right and left. He was a conscientious man, and earned every pound of +his wages. + +Landless, left alone, worked steadily on, for he had no mind to lose his +midday meal, uninviting as he knew it would prove to be. Moreover, he +was one who did with his might what his hand found to do. His body was +weary, and his heart sick within him, but the green shoots fell thick +and fast. + +"Yon was a kindly thing you did. Pity 'twas in no better cause than the +saving of a worthless natural." + +The speaker, who was at work on the next row of plants, had caught up +with Landless from behind, and now moved his nimble fingers more slowly, +so as to keep pace with the less expert new hand. + +Landless, raising his head, stared at a figure of positively terrifying +aspect. Upon a skeleton body of extraordinary height was set a head bare +of any hair. Scalp, forehead and cheeks were of one dull, ivory hue like +an eastern carving. Upon the smooth, dead surface of the right cheek +sprawled a great red R, branded into the flesh, and through each large +protruding ear went a ragged hole. For the rest, the lips were of iron, +and the small, deep-set eyes were so bright and burning that they gave +the impression that they were red like the great letter. It might have +been the face of a man of sixty years, though it would have been hard to +tell wherein lay the semblance of age, so smooth was the skin and so +brilliant the eyes. + +"The Indian needed help. Why should I not have given it him?" said +Landless. + +"Because it is written, 'Cursed are the heathen who inhabit the land.'" + +Landless smiled. "So you would not help an Indian in extremity. What if +it had been a negro?" + +"Cursed are the negroes! 'Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by the +sword.'" + +"A Quaker?" + +"Cursed are the Quakers! 'Silly doves that have no heart.'" + +Landless laughed. "You have cursed pretty well all the oppressed of the +land. I suppose you reserve your blessings for the powers that be." + +"The powers that be! May the plagues of Egypt light upon them, and the +seven vials rain down their contents upon them! Cursed be they all, from +the young man, Charles Stuart, to that prelatical, tyrannical, noxious +Malignant, William Berkeley! May their names become a hissing and an +abomination! Roaring lions are their princes, ravening wolves are their +judges, their priests have polluted the sanctuary! May their flesh +consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes consume +away in their holes, and their tongues consume away in their mouths, and +may there be mourning among them, even as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in +the valley of Megiddon!" + +"You are a Muggletonian?" + +"Yea, verily am I! a follower of the saintly Ludovick Muggleton, and of +the saintlier John Reeve, of whom Ludovick is but the mouthpiece, even +as Aaron was of Moses. They are the two witnesses of the Apocalypse. +They are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks. To them and to +their followers it is given to curse and to spare not, to prophesy +against the peoples and kindred and nations and tongues whereon is set +the seal of the beast. Wherefore I, Win-Grace Porringer, testify against +the people of this land; against Prelatists and Papists, Presbyterians +and Independents, Baptists, Quakers and heathen; against princes, +governors, and men in high places; against them that call themselves +planters and trample the vineyard of the Lord; against their sons and +their daughters who are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth neck and +wanton eyes, walking and mincing and making a tinkling with their feet. +Cursed be they all! Surely they shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah, even the +breeding of salt-pits and a perpetual desolation!" + +"Your curses seem not to have availed, friend," said Landless. "Curses +are apt to come home to roost. I should judge that yours have returned +to you in the shape of branding-irons." + +The man raised a skeleton hand and stroked the red letter. + +"This," he said coolly, "was given me when I ran away the second time. +The first time I was merely whipped. The third time I was shaven and +this shackle put upon my leg." He raised his foot and pointed to an iron +ring encircling the ankle. "The fourth time I was nailed by the ears to +the pillory, whence come these pretty scars." + +Landless burst into grim laughter. "And after your fifth attempt, what +then?" + +The man gave him a sidelong look. "I have not made my fifth attempt," he +said quietly. + +They worked in silence for a few minutes. Then said Master Win-Grace +Porringer:-- + +"I was sent to the plantations, because, in defiance of the Act of +Uniformity (cursed be it, and the authors thereof), I attended a meeting +of the persecuted and broken remnant of the Lord's people. What was your +offense, friend, for I reckon that you come not here of your free will, +being neither a rustic nor a fool?" + +"I came from Newgate," said Landless, after a pause. "I am a convict." + +The man's hand stopped in the act of pulling off a shoot. He gave a slow +upward look at the figure beside him, let his eyes rest upon the face, +and looked slowly down again with a shake of the head. + +"Humph!" he said. "The society in Newgate must be improved since my +time." + +They worked without speaking until they had nearly reached the end of +the long double row, when said the Muggletonian:-- + +"You are too young, I take it, to have seen service in the wars?" + +"I fought at Worcester." + +"Upon which side?" + +"The Commonwealth's." + +"I thought as much. Humph! You were all, Parliament and Presbytery, +Puritan and Independent, Hampden and Vane and Oliver, in the gall of +bitterness and the bond of iniquity, very far from the pure light in +which walk the followers of the blessed Ludovick. At the last the two +witnesses will speak against you also. But in the mean time it were +easier for the children of light to walk under the rule of the Puritan +than under that of the lascivious house of Jeroboam which now afflicts +England for her sins. But the Lord hath a controversy with them! An east +wind shall come up, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the +wilderness! They shall be moved from their places! They shall lick the +dust like serpents, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the +earth, and be utterly destroyed! Think you not as I do, friend?" he +asked, turning suddenly upon Landless. + +"I think," said Landless, "that you are talking that which, if +overheard, might give you a deeper scar than any you bear." + +"But who is to hear? the tobacco, the Lord in heaven, and you. The +senseless plant will keep counsel, the Lord is not like to betray his +servant, and as for you, friend,--" he looked long and searchingly at +Landless. "Despite the place you come from, I do not think you one to +bring a man into trouble for being bold enough to say what you dare only +think." + +Landless returned the look. "No," he said quietly. "You need have no +fear of me." + +"I fear no one," said the other proudly. + +Presently he craned his long body across the plant between them until +his lips almost touched the ear of the younger man. + +"Shall you try to escape?" he whispered. + +A smile curled Landless's lip. "Very probably I shall," he said dryly. +He looked down the long lines of broad green leaves at the toiling +figures, black and white, dull peasants at best, scoundrels at worst; +and beyond to the huddled cabins of the quarter, and to the great house, +rising fair and white from orchard and garden; seeing, as in a dream, a +man, young in years but old in sorrow, disgraced, outcast, friendless, +alone, creeping down a vista of weary years, day after day of +soul-deadening toil, of association with the mean and the vile, of +shameful submission to whip and finger. Escape! The word had beaten +through brain and heart so long and so persistently, that at times he +feared lest he should cry it aloud. + +Win-Grace Porringer shook his head. + +"It's not an easy thing to escape from a Virginia plantation. With dogs +and with horses they hunt you down, yea, with torches and boats. They +band themselves together against the fleeing sparrow. They call in the +heathen to their aid. And it is a fearful land, for great rivers bar +your way, and forests push you back, and deep quagmires clutch you and +hold you until the men of blood come up. And when you are taken they +cruelly maltreat you, and your term of service is doubled." + +"And yet men have gotten away," said Landless. + +"Yes, but not many. And those that get away are seldom heard of more. +The forest swallows them up, and after a while their skulls roll about +the hills, playthings for wolves, or the deep waters flow over their +bones, or they lie in a little heap of ashes at the foot of some Indian +torture stake." + +"Why did you try to escape?" asked Landless. + +The man gave him another sidelong look. + +"I tried because I was a fool. I am no longer a fool. I know a better +way." + +"A better way!" + +"Hush!" The man looked over his shoulder and then whispered, "Will you +go with me to-night?" + +"Go with you! Where?" + +"To a man I know--a man who gives good advice." + +"Many can do that, friend." + +"Ay, but not show the way to profit by it as doth this man." + +"Who is he?" + +"A servant even as we are servants,--a learned and godly man, albeit not +a follower of the blessed Ludovick. Listen! About the rising of the moon +to-night, slip from your cabin and come to the blasted pine on the shore +of the inlet. There will be a boat there and I will be in it. We will go +to the cabin of the man of whom I speak. He is a cripple, and knowing +that he cannot run away, the godless and roistering Malignant who calls +himself our master hath given him a hut among the marshes, where he +mendeth nets. Come! I may not say more than that it will be worth your +while." + +"If we are caught--" + +"Our skins pay for us. But the Lord will shut the eyes of the overseers +that they see not, and their ears that they hear not, and we will be +safely back before the dawn. You will come?" + +"Yes," said Landless. "I will come." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE HUT ON THE MARSH + + +It was shortly after midnight when the two servants slipped along the +inlet, silently and warily, and keeping their boat well under the shore. +It was a crazy affair, barely large enough for two, and requiring +constant bailing. When they had made half a mile from the quarters, the +Muggletonian, who rowed, turned the boat's head across the inlet, and +ran into a very narrow creek that wound in mazy doubles through the +marshes. They entered it, made the first turn, and the broad bosom of +the inlet, lit by a low, crimson moon, was as if it had never been. On +every side high marsh grass soughed in the night wind,--plains of +blackness with the red moon rising from them. The tide was low. So close +were the banks of wet, black earth, that they heard the crabs scuttling +down them, and Porringer made a jab with his pole at a great sheepshead +lying _perdu_ alongside. The water broke before them into spangles, +glittering phosphorescent ripples. A school of small fish, disturbed by +the oars, rushed past them, leaping from the water with silver flashes. +A turtle plunged sullenly. From the grass above came the sleepy cry of +marsh hens, and once a great white heron rose like a ghost across their +path. It flapped its wings and sailed away with a scream of wrath. + +The boat had wound its tortuous way for many minutes before Porringer +said in a low voice: "We can speak safely now. There is nothing human +moving on these flats unless the witch, Margery, is abroad. Cursed may +she be, and cursed those who give her shelter and food and raiment and +lay offerings at her door, for surely it is written, 'Thou shalt not +suffer a witch to live.'" + +"Is there anything a Muggletonian will not curse?" asked Landless. + +"Yea," answered the other complacently. "There are ourselves, the salt +of the earth. There are a thousand or more of us." + +"And the remainder of the inhabitants of the earth are reprobate and +doomed?" + +"Yea, verily, they shall be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut up +will they be burned in the fire." + +"Then why have you to do with me, and with the man to whom we are +going?" + +"Because it is written: 'Make ye friends of the mammon of +unrighteousness;' and moreover there be degrees even in hell fire. I do +not place you, who have some inkling of the truth, nor the Independents +and Fifth Monarchy men (as for the Quakers they shall be utterly damned) +in the furnace seven times heated which is reserved for the bigoted and +bloody Prelatists who rule the land, swearing strange oaths, foining +with the sword, and delighting in vain apparel; keeping their feast days +and their new moons and their solemn festivals. They are the rejoicing +city that dwells carelessly, that says in her heart, 'I am, and there is +none beside me.' The day cometh when they shall be broken as the +breaking of a potter's vessel, yea, they shall be violently tossed like +a ball into a far country." + +Here they struck a snag, well-nigh capsizing the boat. When she righted, +and Landless had bailed her out with a gourd, they proceeded in silence. +Landless was in no mood for speech. He did not know where they were +going, nor for what purpose, nor did he greatly care. He meant to +escape, and that as soon as his strength should be recovered and he +could obtain some knowledge of the country, and he meant to take no one +into his counsel, not the Muggletonian, whose own attempts had ended so +disastrously, nor the 'man who gave good advice.' As to this midnight +expedition he was largely indifferent. But it was something to escape +from the stifling atmosphere of the cabin where he had tossed from side +to side, listening to the heavy breathing of the convict Turk and +peasant lad with whom he was quartered, to the silver peace of +moon-flooded marsh and lapping water. + +They made another turn, and in front of them shone out a light, gleaming +dully like a will-of-the-wisp. It looked close at hand, but the creek +turned upon itself, coiled and writhed through the marsh, and trebled +the distance. + +The Muggletonian rested on his oar, and turned to Landless. + +"Yonder is our bourne," he said gravely. "But I have a word to say to +you, friend, before we reach it. If, to curry favor with the +uncircumcised Philistines who set themselves over us, thou speakest of +aught thou mayest see or hear there to-night, may the Lord wither thy +tongue within thy mouth, may he smite thee with blindness, may he bring +thee quick into the pit! And if not the Lord, then will I, Win-Grace +Porringer, rise and smite thee!" + +"You may spare your invectives," said Landless coldly. "I am no +traitor." + +"Nay, friend," said the other in a milder tone. "I thought it not of +thee, or I had not brought thee thither." + +He shoved the nose of the boat into the shore, and caught at a stake, +rising, water-soaked and rotten, from below the bank. Landless threw him +the looped end of a rope, and together they made the boat fast, then +scrambled up the three feet of fat, sliding earth to the level above +where the ground was dry, none but the highest of tides ever reaching +it. Fifty yards away rose a low hut. It stood close to another bend in +the creek, and before it were several boats, tied to stakes, and softly +rubbing their sides together. The hut had no window, but there were +interstices between the logs through which the light gleamed redly. + +When the two men had reached it, the Muggletonian knocked upon the heavy +door, after a peculiar fashion, striking it four times in all. There was +a shuffling sound within, and (Landless thought) two voices ceased +speaking. Then some one said in a low voice and close to the door: "Who +is it?" + +"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," answered the Muggletonian. + +A bar fell from the door, and it swung slowly inwards. + +"Enter, friends," said a quiet voice. Landless, stooping his head, +crossed the threshold, and found himself in the presence of a man with a +high, white forehead and a grave, sweet face, who, leaning on a stick, +and dragging one foot behind him, limped back to the settle from which +he had risen, and fell to work upon a broken net as calmly as if he were +alone. Besides themselves he was the only inmate of the room. + +A pine torch, stuck into a cleft in the table, cast a red and +flickering light over a rude interior, furnished with the table, the +settle, a chest and a straw pallet. From the walls and rafters hung +nets, torn or mended. In one corner was a great heap of dingy sail, in +another a sheaf of oars, and a third was wholly in darkness. Lying about +the earthen floor were several small casks to which the man motioned as +seats. + +Leaving Landless near the door, Win-Grace Porringer dragged a keg to the +side of the settle, and sitting down upon it, approached his death mask +of a face close to the face of the mender of nets, and commenced a +whispered conversation. To Landless, awaiting rather listlessly the +outcome of this nocturnal adventure, came now and then a broken +sentence. "He hath not the look of a criminal, but--" "Of Puritan +breeding, sayest thou?" "We need young blood." Then after prolonged +whispering, "No traitor, at least." + +At length the Muggletonian arose and came towards Landless. "My friend +would speak with you alone," he said, "I will stand guard outside." He +went out, closing the door behind him. + +The mender of nets beckoned Landless. "Will you come nearer?" he asked +in a quiet refined voice that was not without a ring of power. "As you +see, I am lame, and I cannot move without pain." + +Landless came and sat down beside the table, resting his elbow upon the +wood, and his chin upon his hand. The mender of nets put down his work, +and the two measured each other in silence. + +Landless saw a man of middle age who looked like a scholar, but who +might have been a soldier; a man with a certain strong, bright sweetness +of look in a spare, worn face, and underlying the sweetness a still and +deadly determination. The mender of nets saw, in his turn, a figure +lithe and straight as an Indian's, a well-poised head, and a handsome +face set in one fixed expression of proud endurance. A determined face, +too, with dark, resolute eyes and strong mouth, the face of a man who +has done and suffered much, and who knows that he will both do and +suffer more. + +"I am told," said the mender of nets, "that you are newly come to the +plantations." + +"I was brought by the ship God-Speed a month ago." + +"You did not come as an indented servant?" + +Landless reddened. "No." + +"Nor as a martyr to principle, a victim of that most iniquitous and +tyrannical Act of Uniformity?" + +"No." + +"Nor as one of those whom they call Oliverians?" + +"No." + +The mender of nets tapped softly against the table with his thin, white +fingers. Landless said coldly:-- + +"These are idle questions. The man who brought me here hath told you +that I am a convict." + +The other looked at him keenly. "I have heard convicts talk before this. +Why do you not assert your innocence?" + +"Who would believe me if I did?" + +There was a silence. Landless, raising his eyes, met those of the mender +of nets, large, luminous, gravely tender, and reading him like a book. + +"I will believe you," said the mender of nets. + +"Then, as God is above us," said the other solemnly, "I did not do the +thing! And He knows that I thank you, sir, for your trust. I have not +found another--" + +"I know, lad, I know! How was it?" + +"I was a Commonwealth's man. My father was dead, my kindred attainted, +and I had a powerful enemy. I was caught in a net of circumstance. And +Morton was my judge." + +"Humph! the marvel is that you ever got nearer to the plantations than +Tyburn. Your name is--" + +"Godfrey Landless." + +"Landless! Once I knew--and loved--a Warham Landless--a brave soldier, a +gallant gentleman, a true Christian. He fell at Worcester." + +"He was my father." + +The mender of nets covered his eyes with his hand. "O Lord! how +wonderful are thy ways!" he said beneath his breath, then aloud, "Lad, +lad, I cannot wholly sorrow to see you here. Wise in counsel, bold in +action, patient, farseeing, brave, was thy father, and I think thou hast +his spirit. Thou hast his eyes, now that I look at thee more closely. I +have prayed for such a man." + +"I am glad you knew my father," said Landless simply. + +After a long silence, in which the minds of both had gone back to other +days, the mender of nets spoke gravely. + +"You have no cause to love the present government?" + +"No," said Landless grimly. + +"You were heart and hand for the Commonwealth?" + +"Yes." + +"You mean to escape from this bondage?" + +"Yes." + +The mender of nets took from his bosom a little worn book. "Will you +swear upon this that you will never reveal what I am about to say to +you, save to such persons as I shall designate? For myself I would take +your simple word, for we are both gentlemen, but other lives than mine +hang in the balance." + +Landless touched the book with his lips. "I swear," he said. + +The man brought his serene, white face nearer. + +"What would you have given," he asked solemnly, "for the cause for which +your father died?" + +"My life," said Landless. + +"Would you give it still?" + +"A worthless gift," said Landless bitterly. "Yea, I would give it, but +the cause is dead." + +The other shook his head. "The cause of the just man dieth not." + +There was a pause broken by the mender of nets. + +"Thou art no willing slave, I trow. The thought of escape is ever with +thee." + +"I shall escape," said Landless deliberately. "And if they track me they +shall not take me alive." + +The mender of nets gave a melancholy smile. "They would track you, never +fear!" He leaned forward and touched Landless with his hand. "What if I +show you a better way?" he asked in a whisper. + +"What way?" + +"A way to recover your liberty, and with it, the liberty of downtrodden +brethren. A way to raise the banner of the Commonwealth and to put down +the Stuart." + +Landless stared. "A miserable hut," he said, "in the midst of a desolate +Virginia marsh, and within it, a brace of slaves, the one a cripple, the +other a convict,--and Charles Stuart on his throne in Whitehall! +Friend, this dismal place hath turned your wits!" + +The other smiled. "My wits are sound," he said, "as sound as they were +upon that day when I gave my voice for the death (a sad necessity!) of +this young man's father. And I do not think to shake England,--I speak +of Virginia." + +"Of Virginia!" + +"Yea, of this goodly land, a garden spot, a new earth where should be +planted the seeds of a mighty nation, strong in justice and simple +right, wise, temperate, brave; an enlightened people, serving God in +spirit and in truth, not with the slavish observance of prelatist and +papist, nor with the indecent familiarity of the Independent; loyal to +their governors, but exercising the God-given right of choosing those +who are to rule over them; a people amongst whom liberty shall walk +unveiled, and to whom Astraea shall come again; a people as free as the +eagle I watched this morning, soaring higher and ever higher, strongly +and proudly, rejoicing in its progress heavenward." + +"In other words, a republic," said Landless dryly. + +"Why not?" answered the other with shining, unseeing eyes. "It is a +dream we dreamed ten years ago, I and Vane and Sidney and Marten and +many others,--but Oliver rudely wakened us. Then it was by the banks of +the Thames, and it was for England. Now, on the shores of Chesapeake I +dream again, and it is for Virginia. You smile!" + +"Have you considered, sir,--I do not know your name." + +"Robert Godwyn is my name." + +"Have you considered, Master Godwyn, that the Virginians do not want a +republic, that they are more royalist and prelatical than are their +brethren at home; that they out-Herod Herod in their fantastic loyalty?" + +"That is true of the class with whom you have come into contact,--of the +masters. But there is much disaffection among the people at large. And +there are the Nonconformists, the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, +even the Quakers, though they say they fight not. To them all, Charles +Stuart is the Pharaoh whose heart the Lord hardened, and William +Berkeley is his task-master." + +"Any one else?" + +"There are those of the gentry who were Commonwealth's men, and who +chafe sorely under the loss of office and disfavor into which they have +fallen." + +"And these all desire a republic?" + +"They desire the downfall of the royalists with William Berkeley at +their head. The republic would follow." + +"And when a handful of Puritan gentlemen, a few hundred Nonconformists, +and the rabble of the colony shall have executed this project, have +usurped the government, dethroning the king, or his governor, which is +the same thing,--then will come in from the mouth of Thames a couple of +royal frigates and blow your infant republic into space." + +"I do not think so. The frigates would come undoubtedly, but I am of +another opinion as to the result of their coming. They would not take us +unprepared as those of the Commonwealth took William Berkeley in +fifty-two. And with a plentiful lack of money and a Dutch war +threatening, Charles Stuart could not send unlimited frigates. Moreover, +if Virginia revolted, Puritan New England would follow her example, and +she would find allies in the Dutch of New Amsterdam." + +"You spin large fancies," said Landless, with some scorn. "I suppose you +are plotting with these gentlemen you speak of?" + +"No," said the man, with a scarcely perceptible hesitation. "No, they +are few in number and scattered. Moreover, they might plot amongst +themselves but never with--a servant." + +"Then you are concerned with the Nonconformists?" + +"The Nonconformists are timid, and dream not that the day of deliverance +is at hand." + +Landless began to laugh. "Do you mean to say," he demanded, "that you +and I, for I suppose you count on my assistance, are to enact a kind of +Pride's Purge of our own? That we are to drive from the land the King's +Governor, Council, Burgesses and trainbands; sweep into the bay Sir +William Berkeley and Colonel Verney, and all those gold-laced planters +who dined with him the other day? That we are to take possession of the +colony as picaroons do of a vessel, and hoisting our flag,--a crutch +surmounted by a ball and chain on a ground sable,--proclaim a republic?" + +"Not we alone." + +"Oh, ay! I forgot the worthy Muggletonian." + +"He is but one of many," said the mender of nets. + +Landless leaned forward, a light growing in his eyes. "Speak out!" he +said. "What is it that will break this chain?" + +The mender of nets, too, bent forward from his settle until his breath +mingled with the breath of the younger man. + +"A slave insurrection," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A MENDER OF NETS + + +"A slave insurrection!" + +Landless, recoiling, struck with his shoulder the torch, which fell to +the floor. The flame went out, leaving only a red gleaming end. "I will +get another," said the mender of nets, and limped to the corner where +the shadow had been thickest. Landless, left in darkness, heard a faint +muttering as though Master Robert Godwyn were talking to himself. It +took some time to find the torch; but at length Godwyn returned with one +in his hand, and kindled it at the expiring light. + +Landless rose from his seat, and strode to and fro through the hut. His +pulses beat to bursting; there was a tingling at his finger-tips; to his +startled senses the hut seemed to expand, to become a cavern, +interminable and unfathomable, wide as the vaulted earth, filled with +awful, shadowy places and strange, lurid lights. The mender of nets +became a far-off sphinx-like figure. + +Godwyn watched him in silence. He had a large knowledge of human nature, +and he saw into the mind and heart of the restless figure. He himself +was a philosopher, and wore his chains lightly, but he guessed that the +iron had entered deeply into the soul of the man before him. The sturdy +peasants, indented servants with but a few short years to serve, better +fed and better clad than their fellows at home, found life on a Virginia +plantation no sweet or easy thing; the political and ecclesiastical +offenders enjoyed it still less, while the small criminal class found +their punishment quite sufficiently severe. To this man the life must be +a slow _peine forte et dure_, breaking his body with toil, crushing his +soul with a hopeless degradation. The thought of escape must be ever +present with him. But escape in the conventional manner, through +pathless forests and over broad streams, was a thing rarely attained to. +Ninety-nine out of a hundred failed; and the last state of the man who +failed was worse than his first. + +Landless strode over to the table, and leaned his weight upon it. + +"Listen!" he said. "God knows I am a desperate man! My attempt to escape +failing, there is naught but His word between me and the deepest pool of +these waters. I am no saint. I hate my enemies. Restore to me my sword, +pit me against them one by one, and I will fight my way to freedom or +die.... A fair fight, too, a rising of the people against oppression; a +challenge to the oppressor to do his worst; a gallant leading of a +forlorn hope.... But a slave insurrection! a midnight butchery! There +was one who used to tell me tales of such risings in the Indies. Murder +and rapine, fire rising through the night, planters cut down at their +very thresholds, shrieking women tortured, children flung into the +flames,--a carnival of blood and horror!" + +"We are not in the Indies," said the other quietly. "There will be no +such devil's work here. Sit down and listen while I put the thing before +you as it is. There are, most iniquitously held as slaves in this +Virginia, some four hundred Commonwealth's men, each one of whom, at +home and in his own station, was a man of mark. Many were Ironsides. And +each one is a force in himself,--cool, determined, intrepid,--and wholly +desperate. With them are many victims of the Act of Uniformity, godly +men, eaten up with zeal. For their freedom they would dare much; for +their faith they would spill every drop of their blood." + +"They are like our friend, the Muggletonian, fanatics all, I suppose," +said Landless. + +"Possibly. Your fanatic is the best fighting machine yet invented. Do +you not see that these two classes form a regiment against which no +trainbands, no force which these planters could raise, would stand?" + +"But they are scattered, dispersed through the colony!" + +"Ay, but they can be brought together! And to that end, seeing how few +there are upon any one plantation, upon the day when they rise, they +must raise with them servants and slaves. Then will they overpower +masters and overseers, and gathering to one point, form there a force +which will beat down all opposition. It is simple enough. We will but do +that which it was proposed to do ten years ago. You know the +instructions given by the Parliament to the four commissioners?" + +"They were to summon the colony to surrender to the Commonwealth. If it +did so, well and good; if not, war was to be declared, and the servants +invited to rise against their masters and so purchase their freedom." + +"Precisely. Berkeley submitted, and there was no rising. This time there +will be no summons, but a rising, and a very great one. It will be, +primarily, a rising of four hundred Oliverians, strong to avenge many +and grievous wrongs; but with them will rise servants and slaves, and to +the banner of the Commonwealth, beneath which they will march, will +flock every Nonconformist in the land, and, when success is assured, +then will come in and give us weight and respectability those (and they +are not a few) of the better classes who long in their hearts for the +good days of the Commonwealth, and yet dare not lift a finger to bring +them back." + +"And the royalists?" + +"If they resist, their blood be upon them! But there shall be no +carnage, no butchery. And if they submit they shall be unmolested, even +as they were ten years ago. There is land enough for all." + +"The servants and slaves?" + +"They that join with us, of whatever class, shall be freed." + +"This insurrection is actually in train?" + +"Let us call it a revolution. Yes, it is in train as far as regards the +Oliverians. We have but begun to sound servants and slaves." + +"And you?" + +"I am, for lack of a better, General to the Oliverians." + +"And you believe yourself able to control these motley forces,--men +wronged and revengeful, fanatics, peasants, brutal negroes, mulattoes +(whom they say are devils), convicts,--to say to them, 'Thus far must +you go, and no farther.' You invoke a fiend that may turn and rend you!" + +Godwyn shaded his eyes with his hand. "Yes," he said at last, speaking +with energy. "I do believe it! I know it is a desperate game; but the +stake! I believe in myself. And I have four hundred able adjutants, men +who are to me what his Ironsides were to Oliver, but none--" he +stretched out his hand, thin, white, and delicate as a woman's, and laid +it upon the brown one resting upon the table. "Lad," he said in a +gravely tender voice, "I have none upon this plantation in whom I can +put absolute trust. There are few Oliverians here, and they are like +Win-Grace Porringer, in whom zeal hath eaten up discretion. Lad, I need +a helper! I have spoken to you freely; I have laid my heart before you; +and why? Because I, who was and am a gentleman, see in you a gentleman, +because I would take your word before all the oaths of all the peasant +servants in Virginia, because you have spirit and judgment; because,--in +short, because I could love you as I loved your father before you. You +have great wrongs. We will right them together. Be my lieutenant, my +confidant, my helper! Come! put your hand in mine and say, 'I am with +you, Robert Godwyn, heart and soul.'" + +Landless sprang to his feet. "It were easy to say that," he said +hoarsely, "for, in all the two years I lay rotting in prison, and in +these weeks of sordid misery here in Virginia, yours is the only face +that has looked kindly upon me, yours the only voice that has told me I +was believed.... But it is a fearful thing you propose! If all go as you +say it will,--why WELL! but if not, Hell will be in the land. I must +have time to think, to judge for myself, to decide--" + +The door swung stealthily inward, and in the opening appeared the dead +white face, with the great letter sprawling over it, of Master Win-Grace +Porringer. + +"There are boats on the creek," he said. "Two coming up, one coming +down." + +Godwyn nodded. "I hold conference to-night with men from this and the +two neighboring plantations. You will stay where you are and see and +hear them. Only you must be silent; for they must not know that you are +not entirely one with us, as I am well assured you will be." + +"They are Oliverians?" + +"All but two or three." + +"I secured the mulatto," interrupted the Muggletonian. + +"Ay," said Godwyn, "I thought it well to have one slave representative +here to-night. These mulattoes are devils; but they can plot, and they +can keep a still tongue. But I shall not trust him or his kind too far." + +The peculiar knock--four strokes in all--sounded upon the door, and +Porringer went to it. "Who is there?" passed on the one side, and "The +sword of the Lord and of Gideon" on the other. The door swung open, and +there entered two men of a grave and determined cast of countenance. +Both had iron-gray hair, and one was branded upon the forehead with the +letter that appeared upon the cheek of the Muggletonian. Again the knock +sounded, the countersign was given, and the door opened to admit a pale, +ascetic-looking youth, with glittering eyes and a crimson spot on each +cheek, who stooped heavily and coughed often. He was followed by another +stern-faced Commonwealth's man, and he in turn by a brace of +broad-visaged rustics and a smug-faced man, who looked like a small +shopkeeper. After an interval came two more Oliverians, grim of eye, +and composed in manner. + +Last of all came the mulatto of the pale amber color and the gold +ear-rings; and with him came the long-nosed, twitching-lipped convict in +whose company Landless had crossed the Atlantic. His name was Trail; and +Landless, knowing him for a villainous rogue, started at finding him +amongst the company. + +His presence there was evidently unexpected. Godwyn frowned and turned +sharply upon the mulatto. "Who gave you leave to bring this man?" he +demanded sternly. + +The mulatto was at no loss. "Worthy Senors all," he said smoothly, +addressing himself to the company in general. "This Senor Trail is a +good man, as I have reason to know. Once we were together in San +Domingo, slave to a villainous cavalier from Seville. With the help of +St. Jago and the Mother of God, we killed him and made our escape. Now, +after many years, we meet here in a like situation. I answer for my +friend as I answer for myself, myself, Luiz Sebastian, the humble and +altogether-devoted servant of you all, worshipful Senors." + +The man with the branded forehead muttered something in which the only +distinguishable words were, "Scarlet woman," and "Papist half-breed," +and the smug-faced man cried out, "Trail is a forger and thief! I +remember his trial at the Bailey, a week before I signed as storekeeper +to Major Carrington." + +This speech of the smug-faced man created something of a commotion, and +one or two started to their feet. The mulatto looked about him with an +evil eye. + +"My friend has been in trouble, it is true," he said, still very +smoothly. "He will not make the worse conspirator for that. And why, +worthy Senors, should you make a difference between him and one other I +see in company? Mother of God! they are both in the same boat!" He fixed +his large eyes on Landless as he spoke, and his thick lips curled into a +tigerish smile. + +Landless half rose, but Godwyn laid a detaining hand upon his arm. "Be +still," he said in a low voice, "and let me manage this matter." + +Landless obeyed, and the mender of nets turned to the assembly, who by +this time were looking very black. + +"Friends," he said with quiet impressiveness, "I think you know me, +Robert Godwyn, well enough to know that I make no move in these great +matters without good and sufficient reason. I have good and sufficient +reason for wishing to associate with us this young man,--yea, even to +make him a leader among us. He is one of us--he fought at Worcester. And +that he is an innocent man, falsely accused, falsely imprisoned, +wrongfully sent to the plantations, I well believe,--for I will believe +no wrong of the son of Warham Landless." + +There was a loud murmur of surprise through the room, and one of the +Oliverians sprung to his feet, crying out, "Warham Landless was my +colonel! I will follow his son were he ten times a convict!" + +Godwyn waited for the buzz of voices to cease and then calmly proceeded, +"As to this man whom Luiz Sebastian hath brought with him, I know +nothing. But it matters little. Sooner or later we must engage his +class,--as well commence with him as with another. He will be faithful +for his own sake." + +The dark faces of his audience cleared gradually. Only the youth with +the hectic cheeks cried out, "I have hated the congregation of evil +doers, and I will not sit with the wicked!" and rose as if to make for +the door. Win-Grace Porringer pulled him down with a muttered, "Curse +you for a fool! Shall not the Lord shave with a hired razor? When these +men have done their work, then shall they be cut down and cast into +outer darkness, until when, hold thy peace!" + +The company now applied itself to the transaction of business. Trail was +duly sworn in, not without a deal of oily glibness and unnecessary +protestation on his part. The man who held the little, worn Bible now +turned to Landless, but upon Godwyn's saying quietly, "I have already +sworn him," the book was returned to the bosom of its owner. + +Each conspirator had his report to make. Landless listened with grave +attention and growing wonder to long lists of plantations and the +servant and slave force thereon; to news from the up-river estates, and +from the outlying settlements upon the Rappahannock and the Pamunkey, +and from across the bay in Accomac; to accounts of secret arsenals +slowly filling with rude weapons; to allusions to the well-affected +sailors on board those ships that were likely to be in harbor during the +next two months;--to the details of a formidable and far-reaching +conspiracy. + +The Oliverians spoke of the hour in which this mine should be sprung as +the great and appointed day of the Lord, the day when the Lord was to +stretch forth his hand and smite the malignants, the day when Israel +should be delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh. The branded man +apostrophized Godwyn as Moses. Their stern and rigid features relaxed, +their eyes glistened, their breath came short and thick. Once the youth +who had wished to avoid the company of the wicked broke into hysterical +sobbing. The two rustics spoke little, but possibly thought the more. To +them the day of the Lord translated itself the day of their obtaining a +freehold. The smug-faced shopkeeper put in his oar now and again, but +only to be swept aside by the torrent of Biblical quotation. The newly +admitted Trail kept a discreet silence, but used his furtive greenish +eyes to good purpose. Luiz Sebastian sat with the stillness of a great, +yellow, crouching tiger cat. + +Godwyn heard all in silence. Not till the last man had had his say did +he begin to speak, approving, suggesting, directing, moulding in his +facile hands the incongruous and disjointed mass of information and +opinion into a rounded whole. The men, listening to him with breathless +attention, gave grim nods of approval. At one point of his discourse the +branded man cried out:-- + +"If the Puritan gentry you talk of would gird themselves like men, and +come forth to the battle, how quickly would the Lord's work be done! +They are the drones within the hive! They expect the honey, but do not +the work." + +"It is so," said Godwyn, "but they have lands and goods and fame to +lose. We have naught to lose--can be no worse off than we are now." + +"If the Laodicean, Carrington,"--began the branded man. + +Godwyn interrupted him. "This is beside the matter. Major Carrington is +a godly man who hath, though in secret, done many kindnesses to us poor +prisoners of the Lord. Let us be content with that." + +A moment later he said, "It waxeth late, friends, and loath would I be +for one of you to be discovered. Come to me again a week from to-night. +The word will be, 'The valley of Jehoshaphat.'" + +The conspirators dropped away, in twos and threes, gliding silently off +in their stolen boats between the walls of waving grass. When, last of +all save Landless and the Muggletonian, Trail and Luiz Sebastian +approached the door, Godwyn stopped them with a gesture. + +"Stay a moment," he said. "I have a word to say to you. We may as well +be frank with you. I distrust you, of course. It is natural that I +should. And you distrust me as much. It is natural that you should. I +would do without the aid of you and the class you represent if I could, +but I cannot. You would do without my aid if you could, but you cannot. +Betray me, and whatever blood money you get, it will not be that freedom +which you want. We are obliged to work together, unequal yoke-fellows as +we are. Do I make myself understood?" + +"To a marvel, Senor," said Luiz Sebastian. + +"Damn my soul, but you're a sharp one!" said Trail. + +Godwyn smiled. "That is enough, we understand one another. Good-night." + +The two glided off in their turn, and Godwyn said to the Muggletonian, +"Friend Porringer, that mended sail must be bestowed in the large boat +before the hut against Haines' coming for it in the morning. Will you +take it to the boat for me? And if you will wait there this young man +shall join you shortly." + +The Muggletonian nodded, piled the heap of dingy sail upon his head and +strode off. The mender of nets turned to Landless. + +"Well," he said. "What do you think?" + +"I think," said Landless, raising his voice, "that the gentleman in the +dark corner must be tired of standing." + +There was a dead silence. Then a piece of shadow detached itself from +the other heavy shadows in the dark corner and came forward into the +torch light, where it resolved itself into a handsome figure of a man, +apparently in the prime of life, and wearing a riding cloak of green +cloth and a black riding mask. Not content with the concealment afforded +by the mask, he had pulled his beaver low over his eyes and with one +hand held the folds of the cloak about the lower part of his face. He +rested the other ungloved hand upon the table and stared fixedly at +Landless. "You have good eyes," he said at last, in a voice as muffled +as his countenance. + +"It is a warm night," said Landless with a smile. "If Major Carrington +would drop that heavy cloak, he would find it more comfortable." + +The man recoiled. "You know me!" he cried incredulously. + +"I know the Carrington arms and motto. _Tenax et Fidelis_, is it not? +You should not wear your signet ring when you go a-plotting." + +The Surveyor-General of the Colony dropped his cloak, and springing +forward seized Landless by the shoulders. + +"You dog!" he hissed between his teeth, "if you dare betray me, I'll +have every drop of your blood lashed out of your body!" + +Landless wrenched himself free. "I am no traitor," he said coldly. + +Carrington recovered himself. "Well, well," he said, still breathing +hastily, "I believe you. I heard all that passed to-night, and I +believe you. You have been a gentleman." + +"Had I my sword, I should be happy to give Major Carrington proof," said +Landless sternly. + +The other smiled. "There, there, I was hasty, but by Heaven! you gave me +a start! I ask your pardon." + +Landless bowed, and the mender of nets struck in. "I was sorry to keep +you so long, Major Carrington, in such an uncomfortable position. But +the arrival of the Muggletonian before he was due, together with your +desire for secrecy, left me no alternative." + +"I surmise, friend Godwyn, that you would not have been sorry had this +young man proclaimed his discovery in full conclave," said Carrington +with a keen glance. + +Godwyn's thin cheek flushed, but he answered composedly, "It is +certainly true that I would like to see Major Carrington committed +beyond withdrawal to this undertaking. But he will do me the justice to +believe that if, by raising my finger, I could so commit him, I would +not do so without his permission." + +"Faith, it is so!" said the other, then turned to Landless with a stern +smile. "You will understand, young man, that Miles Carrington never +attended, nor will attend, a meeting wherein the peace of the realm is +conspired against by servants. If Miles Carrington ever visits Robert +Godwyn, servant to Colonel Verney, 'tis simply to employ him (with his +master's consent) in the mending of nets, or to pass an idle hour +reading Plato, Robert Godwyn having been a scholar of note at home." + +"Certainly," said Landless, answering the smile. "Major Carrington and +Master Godwyn are at present much interested in the philosopher's +pretty but idle conception of a Republic, wherein philosophers shall +rule, and warriors be the bulwark of the state, and no Greek shall +enslave a fellow Greek, but only outer barbarians--all of which is +vastly pretty on paper--but they agree that it would turn the world +upside down were it put into practice." + +"Precisely," said Carrington with a smile. + +"You had best be off, lad," put in Godwyn. "Woodson is an early riser, +and he must not catch you gadding.... You will think on what you have +heard to-night, and will come to me again as soon as you can make +opportunity?" + +"Yes," said Landless slowly. "I will come, but I make no promises." + +He found Porringer seated in their boat, patiently awaiting him. They +cast off and rowed back the way they had come through the stillness of +the hour before dawn. The tide being full, the black banks had +disappeared, and the grass, sighing and whispering, waved on a level +with their boat. When they slid at last into the broader waters of the +inlet, the stars were paling, and in the east there gleamed a faint rose +tint, the ghost of a color. A silver mist lay upon land and water, and +through it they stole undetected to their several cabins. + +Meanwhile the two men, left alone in the hut on the marsh, looked one +another in the face. + +"Are you sure that he can be trusted?" demanded Carrington. + +"I would answer for his father's son with my life." + +"What of these scruples of his? Faith! an unusual conjunction--a convict +and scruples! Will you manage to dispose of them?" + +Godwyn smiled with wise, sad eyes. "Time will dispose of them," he said +quietly. "He is new to the life. Let him taste its full bitterness. It +will plead powerfully against his--scruples. He has as yet no special +and private grievance. Wait until he gets into trouble with Woodson or +his master. When he has done that and has taken the consequences, he +will be ours. We can bide our time." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NEW SECRETARY + + + "Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind, + That from the nunnery + Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind, + To war and arms I flee.... + + "Yet this inconstancy is such + As you too shall adore. + I could not love thee, dear, so much, + Loved I not honor more." + +The rich notes rang higher and higher, filling the languid air, and +drowning the trill of the mockingbirds. Patricia, filling her apron with +midsummer flowers, sang with a careless passion, her mind far away in +the midst of a Whitehall pageant, described to her the night before by +that silver-tongued courtier, Sir Charles Carew. + +Still singing, she went up the steps of the porch and into the cool wide +hall. In her face there was a languorous beauty born of the sunshine +outside; a soft color glowed in her cheeks, her eyes were large and +dreamy, little damp tendrils of gold strayed about her temples. She +threw down her hat, and loosened the kerchief of delicate lawn from +about her warm young throat; then, with the flowers still in her arms, +she raised the latch of the door of a room held sacred to Colonel +Verney, and entered, to find herself face to face with the convict, +Godfrey Landless, who sat at a table covered with papers, busily +writing. + +She started violently, and the mass of flowers fell to the floor, +shattering the petals from the roses and poppies. Landless came forward, +knelt down, and, picking them up, restored them to her without a word. + +"I thank you," she said coldly. "I thought my father was here." + +"Colonel Verney is in the next room, madam." + +She moved to the door leading into the great room with the gait of a +princess, and Landless went back to his work. + +Colonel Verney, on his knees before the richly carven chest containing +his library, looked up from the two score volumes to behold a mass of +brilliant blooms transferred from two white arms to the ground outside +the open window. + +"Well, sweetheart," he said. "What is it?" + +"Papa," she said, coming to his side, and looking down upon him with a +vexed face; "you promised me that you would employ no more convicts in +the house." + +"Why, so I did, my dear," answered her father, comfortably seating +himself upon "Purchas: His Pilgrimmes." "And I meant to keep my word, +but this is the way of it. The day after you went to Rosemead with Betty +Carrington, down comes young Shaw with the fever, and has to be sent +home to his mother. His illness came at a precious inconvenient season, +for the gout was in my fingers again, and I was bent on disappointing +William Berkeley, who hath wagered a thousand pounds of sweet scented +that my 'Statement of the Evil Wrought by the Navigation Laws to His +Majesty's Colony of Virginia' won't be finished in time for the sailing +of the God-Speed. So I told Woodson to find me some one among the men +who knew how to write. He brought me this fellow, and I vow he is an +improvement on young Shaw. He doesn't ask questions, and he is a very +pretty Latinist. The paper will be finished to-day. I was but searching +for a neat quotation to close with. Then the fellow will go back to the +tobacco, and you will be no longer annoyed by his presence in the house. +Now kiss me, sweet chuck, and begone, for I am busied upon affairs of +state." + +Left alone, Colonel Verney pored over his books until he found what he +wanted, when, after rearranging his library in the carved chest, he rose +stiffly to his feet, and went into the next room and up to the +writing-table. Landless rose from his seat, and, resigning it to his +master, stood gravely by while the Colonel looked over the manuscript +upon which he had been employed. + +"Ha!" said the Colonel. "A very fair copy! You have numbered and headed +the pages, I observe. Let me see, let me see, let me see," and he ran +them over between his fingers. "Oppressive Nature of the Act.--Grave +Dissatisfaction.--It advantageth No One save Small Traders at +Home.--Increase of Revenue to His Majesty if 't were repealed.--Dutch +Bottoms.--Trade with Russia.--His Majesty's Poor Planters Throw +Themselves upon His Majesty's Mercy. Very good, very good!" + +"It is nigh finished, sir," said Landless. + +"Ay, ay! By the Lord Harry, William Berkeley will repent his wager! A +pretty paper it is, and containeth many excellent points and much good +Latin, and you have copied it fairly and cleanly. It is a pity, my man," +he added not unkindly, "that you should have lived so evilly as to +bring yourself to this pass, for you have in you the making of an +excellent secretary." + +"Is it your will, sir, that I finish the copy now?" + +"Yes, but take it to the small table within the window there. I myself +will sit here and jot down some ideas for my dedication which you can +afterwards amplify." + +The worthy colonel pulled the big Turkey worked chair closer to the +table, turned back his ruffles and fell to work. Landless retired to the +table within the window, and for a while naught was heard in the quiet +room but the scratching of quills, as master and man drove them across +the whitey-brown sheets. + +At length the master pushed his chair back and stretched himself with a +prodigious yawn. "The Lord be thanked!" he said, addressing the air. +"That's done! And it is time to see to the dressing of that sore upon +Prince Rupert's shoulder; and I remember Haines said that one of the +hounds had been gored by Carrington's bull. Haines can't dress a wound. +Haines is a bungler. But, by the Lord Harry! Richard Verney is as good a +veterinary as he is a statesman." + +He lifted his burly figure from the depths of the chair, and going over +to Landless, dropped upon the table before him a page of hieroglyphics +for him to decipher at his leisure. Then with another word of +commendation for the beauty of the copy, he walked heavily from the +room. A moment later Landless heard him whistle to his dogs, and then +break into a stave of a cavalier drinking song, sung at the top of a +full manly voice, and dying away in the direction of the stables. + +Landless' hand moved to and fro across the paper with a tireless +patience. He did not go back to the central table, for the light was +better in the window, and a vagrant breath of air strayed in now and +then. The window was a deep one, and heavy drugget curtains hung between +it and the rest of the room. + +The door opened and a man's voice said: "This room is darkened into +delicious coolness. Shall we try it, cousin?" + +Patricia entered like a sunbeam, and after her sauntered Sir Charles +Carew, languid, debonair, and perfectly appareled. + +Landless, seeing them plainly, did not realize that in the shadow of the +heavy curtains he was himself unseen. He had grown so accustomed to the +quiet insolence that overlooks the presence of an inferior as it does +that of any other article of furniture, that he did not doubt that the +fine lady and gentleman before him were perfectly aware of the presence +in the room of the slave whom his master's caprice had raised for the +moment to the post of secretary. It was some few minutes before he began +to consider within himself that he might be mistaken. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN INTERRUPTED WOOING + + +Sir Charles pushed forward the big chair for Patricia, and himself +dropped upon a stool at her feet. Taking her fan from her, he began to +play with it, lightly commenting on the picture of the Rape of Europa +with which it was adorned. Suddenly he closed it, tossed it aside, and +leaning forward, possessed himself of her hand. + +"Madam, sweet cousin, divinest Patricia," he exclaimed in a carefully +impassioned tone; "do you not know that I am your slave, the captive of +your bow and spear, that I adore you? I adore you! and you, +flinty-hearted goddess, give no word of encouragement to your prostrate +worshiper. You trample upon the offering of sighs and tears which he +lays at your feet; you will not listen when he would pour into your ear +his aspirations towards a sweeter and richer life than he has ever +known. Will it be ever thus? Will not the goddess stoop from her throne +to make him the happiest of mortals, to win his eternal gratitude, to +become herself forever the object of the most respectful, the most +ardent, the most devoted love?" + +He flung himself upon his knee and pressed her hand to his heart with +passion not all affected. He had come to consider it a piece of +monstrous good luck, that, since he must make a wealthy match, +Providence (or whatever as a Hobbist he put in place of Providence), +had, in pointing him the fortune, pointed also to Patricia Verney. But +the night before, in the privacy of his chamber, he had suddenly sat up +between the Holland sheets with a startled and amused expression upon +his handsome face, swathed around with a wonderful silken night-cap, and +had exclaimed to the carven heads surmounting the bed-posts, "May the +Lard sink me! but I'm in love!" and had lain down again with an +astonished laugh. While sipping his morning draught he made up his mind +to secure the prize that very day, in pursuance of which determination +he made a careful toilet, assuming a suit that was eminently becoming to +his blonde beauty. Also his valet slightly darkened the lower lids of +his eyes, thereby giving him a larger, more languishing and melancholy +aspect. + +Patricia, from the depths of the Turkey worked chair, gazed with calm +amusement upon her kneeling suitor. + +"You talk beautifully, cousin," she said at length. "'Tis as good as a +page from 'Artemene.'" + +Sir Charles bit his lip. "It is a page from my heart, madam; nay, it is +my heart itself that I show you." + +"And would you forsake all those beautiful ladies who are so madly in +love with you?--I vow, sir, you told me so yourself! Let me see, there +was Lady Mary and Lady Betty, Mistress Winifred, the Countess of ---- and +Madame la Duchesse de ----. Will Corydon leave all the nymphs lamenting +to run after a little salvage wench who does not want him?" + +"'S death, madam! you mock me!" cried the baronet, starting to his +feet. + +"Sure, I meant no harm, cousin; I but put in a good word for the poor +ladies at Whitehall. I fear that you are but a recreant wooer." + +"Will you marry me, madam?" demanded Sir Charles, standing before her +with folded arms. + +She slowly shook her head. "I do not love you, cousin." + +"I will teach you to do so." + +"I do not think you can," she said demurely. "Though I am sure I do not +know why I do not. You are a very fine gentleman, a soldier and a +courtier, witty, brave and handsome--and this match"--a sigh--"is my +father's dearest wish. But I do not love you, sir, and I shall not marry +you until I do." + +"Ah!" cried Sir Charles, and sunk again upon his knee. "You give me +hope! I will teach you to love me! I will exhibit towards you such +absolute fidelity, such patient devotion, such uncomplaining submission +to your cruel probation, that you will perforce pity me, and pity will +grow by soft degrees into blessed love. I do not despair, madam!" He +pressed her hand to his lips and cast his fine eyes upward in a killing +look. + +Patricia gave a charming laugh. "As you please, Sir Charles. In the mean +time let us be once more simply good friends and loving cousins. Tell me +as much as you please of Lady Mary's charms, but leave Patricia Verney's +alone." + +Sir Charles rose from his knees, smarting under an amazed sense of +failure, and very angry with the girl who had discarded him, Charles +Carew, as smilingly as if he had been one of the very provincial youths +whom he awed into awkward silence every time they came to Verney Manor. +Without doubt she deserved the condign punishment which it was in his +power to inflict by sailing away upon the next ship which should leave +for England. But he was now obstinately bent upon winning her. If not +to-day, to-morrow; and if not to-morrow, the next day; and if not that, +the day after. He was of the school of Buckingham and Rochester. He +could devote to the capture of a woman all the tireless energy, the +strategic skill, the will, the patience, the daring, of a great general. +He could mine and countermine, could plan an ambuscade here, and lead a +forlorn hope there, could take one intrenchment by storm, and another by +treachery. And victory seldom forsook her perch upon his banners. + +Life in Virginia was pleasant enough, and he could afford to devote +several months to this siege. As to how it would terminate he had not +the slightest doubt. But just now it was the course of wisdom to retreat +upon the position held yesterday, and that as quickly as possible. So he +smoothed his face into a fine calm, modulated his voice into its usual +tone of languor, and said with quiet melancholy:-- + +"You are pleased to be cruel, madam. I submit. I will bide my time until +that thrice happy day when you will have learnt the lesson I would +teach, when Love, tyrannous Love, shall compel your allegiance as he +does mine." + +"A far day!" said Patricia with soft laughter. "You had best return to +Lady Mary. I do not think that I shall ever love." + +She lifted her white arms, and clasping them behind her head, gazed at +him with soft, bright, untroubled eyes and smiling lips. The sunlight, +filtering through the darkened windows in long bright stripes, laid a +shaft of gold athwart her shoulder and lit her hair into a glory. From +out the distance came the colonel's voice:-- + + "In his train see sweet Peace, fairest Queen of the sky, + Ev'ry bliss in her look, ev'ry charm in her eye. + Whilst oppression, corruption, vile slav'ry and fear + At his wished for return never more shall appear. + Your glasses charge high, 'tis in great Charles' praise, + In praise, in praise, 'tis in great Charles' praise." + +Some one outside the door coughed, and then rattled the latch +vigorously. These precautions taken, the door was opened and there +appeared Mistress Lettice, gorgeously attired, and with an extra row of +ringlets sweeping her withered neck, and a deeper tinge of vermilion +upon her cheeks,--for she had waked that morning with a presentiment +that Mr. Frederick Jones would ride over in the course of the day. Sir +Charles rose to hand her to a chair, but she waved him back with a thin, +beringed hand. + +"I thank you, Sir Charles; but I will not trouble you. I am going down +to the summer-house by the road, as I think the air there will cure my +migraine. Patricia, love, I am looking for my 'Clelie,'--the fourth +volume. Have you seen it?" + +"No, Aunt Lettice." + +"It is very strange," said Mrs. Lettice plaintively. "I am sure that I +left it in this room. 'Tis that careless slut of a Chloe who deserves a +whipping. She hides things away like a magpie." + +"Look in the window; you may have left it there," said Patricia. + +Mrs. Lettice approached the window, laid a hand upon the curtain, and +started back with a scream. + +"What is it, madam?" cried the baronet. + +"'Tis a man! a horrid, horrid man hiding there, waiting to cut all our +throats in the dead of night as the Redemptioner did to the family at +Martin-Brandon! Oh! Oh! Oh!" and Mrs. Lettice threw her apron over her +head, and sank into the nearest chair. + +Patricia started up. Sir Charles, striding hastily towards the window, +his hand upon his sword, was met by the emerging figure of Landless. + +The two gazed at each other, Sir Charles' first haughty surprise fast +deepening into passion as he remembered that the man before him had +assisted at the scene of a while before, had witnessed his discomfiture, +had seen him upon his knees, baffled, repulsed, even laughed at! + +He was the first to speak. "Well, sirrah," he said between his teeth, +"what have you to say for yourself?" + +"That I ask your pardon," said Landless steadily. "I should have made +known my presence in the room. But at first I thought you aware of it; +and when I discovered that you were not, I ... it seemed best to remain +silent. I was wrong. I should have made some sign even then. Again, I +beg your pardon." He turned to Patricia, who stood, tall, straight, and +coldly indignant, beside the chair from which she had risen. "Madam," he +said in a voice that faltered, despite himself, "I crave your +forgiveness." + +She bit her coral under lip, and looked at him from under veiled +eyelids. It was a cruel look, very expressive of scorn, abhorrence, and +perhaps of fear. + +"My father hath many unmannerly servants," she said coldly and clearly, +"who often provoke me. But I pardon them because they know no better. It +seems that like allowance cannot be made for you. However," she smiled +icily, "I shall not complain of you to my father, which assurance will +doubtless content you." + +Landless turned from burning red to deadly white. His eyes, fixed upon +the floor, caught the rich shimmer of her skirts as she moved towards +the door; a moment and she was gone, leaving the two men facing each +other. + +Between them there existed a subtle but strong antagonism. Sir Charles +Carew, courtier in a coarse and shameless court masquerading under a +glittering show of outward graces, had taken lazy delight in heaping +quiet insults upon the man who could not resent them. This amusement had +beguiled the tedium of the Virginia voyage; and when chance threw them +together upon a Virginia plantation, where life flowed on in one long, +placid lack of variety, the sport became doubly prized. It had to be +pursued at longer intervals, but pursued it was. Heretofore the +amusement had been all upon one side; now, Sir Charles felt a chagrined +suspicion that it was he who had afforded the entertainment. +Simultaneously with arriving at this conclusion he arrived at a point +where he was coldly furious. + +Landless returned his look coolly and boldly. He considered that he had +made quite sufficient apology for an offense which was largely +involuntary, and he was in no mood for further abasement. + +"You are an insolent rascal," said the baronet smoothly. + +Landless smiled. "Sir Charles Carew should be a good judge of +insolence." + +Sir Charles took a leisurely pinch of snuff, shook the fallen grains +from his ruffles, snapped the lid of the box, looked languishingly at +the miniature that adorned it, replaced the box in his pocket, and +remarked, "Well, I am waiting!" + +"And for what?" + +"To hear your petition that I forbear to bring this matter to the notice +of your master. The lady mercifully gave you her promise. I suppose I +must follow so fair an example." + +"Sir Charles Carew may wait till doomsday to hear that or any other +request made by me to him or to the lady--who does not seem always +mercifully inclined--" he broke off with a slight and expressive smile. + +Sir Charles took another pinch of snuff. "May the Lard blast me," he +drawled, "if they do not teach repartee at Newgate! But I forget that +the tongue is the only weapon of women and slaves." + +"Some day I hope to teach you otherwise." + +The other laughed. "So the slave thinks he can use a sword? Where did he +learn? In Newgate, from some broken captain, as payment for imparting +the trick of stealing by the Book?" + +Landless forced himself to stand quiet, his arms folded, his fingers +tightly clenching the sleeves of his coarse shirt. "Shall I tell Sir +Charles Carew where I first used my sword with good effect?" he said in +an ominously quiet voice. "At Worcester I was but a stripling, but I +fought by the side of my father. I remember that, young as I was, I +disabled a very pretty perfumed and ringleted Cavalier. I think he was +afterwards sold to the Barbadoes. And my father praised my sword play." + +"Your father," said the other, bringing his strong white teeth together +with a click. "Like father, like son. The latter a detected rogue, +gaol-bird, and slave; the former a d--d canting, sniveling Roundhead +hypocrite and traitor, with a text ever at hand to excuse parricide and +sacrilege." + +Landless sprang forward and struck him in the face. + +He staggered beneath the weight of the blow; then, recovering himself, +he whipped out his rapier, but presently slapped it home again. "I am a +gentleman," he said, with an airy laugh. "I cannot fight you." And +stood, slightly smiling, and pressing his laced handkerchief to his +cheek whence had started a few drops of blood. + +Mrs. Lettice, whom curiosity or the search for the fourth volume of +"Clelie" had detained in the room, screamed loudly as the blow fell; and +Colonel Verney, appearing at the door, stopped short, and stared from +one to the other of the two men. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER + + +The hut of the mender of nets stood upon a narrow isthmus connecting two +large tracts of marsh. That to the eastward was partially submerged at +high tide; that to the west, being higher ground, waved its long grass +triumphantly above the reaching waters. Upon this side the marsh was +separated from the mainland of forest and field by a creek so narrow +that the great pines upon one margin cast their shadows across to the +other, and one fallen giant quite spanned the sluggish waters. + +The grass of this marsh was annually cut for hay; for though the great +herds of cattle belonging to the different plantations roamed at large +through all seasons of the year, seeking their sustenance from forest or +marsh, the more provident of the planters were accustomed to make some +slight provision against the winter, which might prove a severe one with +snow and ice. + +It was late afternoon, and the hay was cut. The half dozen mowers threw +themselves down upon the stubble, stretching out tired limbs and +pillowing heated foreheads upon their arms. They had been given until +sunset to do the work. Having no task-master over them, and being hid +from the tobacco-fields by a convenient coppice of pine and cedar, they +had set to work in a fury of diligence, had cut and stacked the grass +in a race with time, and now found themselves possessed of a precious +hour in which to dawdle, and swap opinions and tobacco before the sunset +horn should call them to quarters. + +Three were indented servants, lumbering, honest-visaged youths whose +aims in life were simple and well defined. Their creed had but four +articles: "Do as little as you can consistently with keeping out of the +overseer's black books; get your full share of loblolly and bacon, and +some one else's if you are clever enough; embrace every opportunity for +reasonable mischief that is offered you; honor Church and King, or say +you do, and Colonel Verney will overlook most pranks." Of the others, +one was the Muggletonian, one the mulatto, Luiz Sebastian, and one a +convict, not Trail, but the red-haired, pock-marked, sullen wretch who +had come to the plantation with Trail and Landless, and whose name was +Roach. + +One of the rustics, who seemed more intelligent than his fellows, and +who had a good-humored deviltry in his young face and big blue eyes, +began an excellent imitation of Dr. Nash's exhortation to submission and +obedience delivered upon the last instruction day for servants, and soon +had his audience of two guffawing with laughter. The mulatto and the +convict edged by imperceptible degrees farther and farther away from the +others, until, within the shadow of a stack of grass, they lay side by +side and commenced a muttered conversation. The countenance of the white +man, atrocious villainy written large in every lineament, became +horribly intent as his amber-hued companion talked in fluent low tones, +emphasizing what he had to say by a restless, peculiar, and sinister +motion of his long, yellow fingers. At a little distance lay the +Muggletonian, his elbows on the ground, his ghastly face in his hands, +and his eyes riveted upon the Geneva Bible which he had drawn from his +bosom. + +When he had brought his entertainment to a finish, the blue-eyed youth +rolled himself over and over the stubble to where the Muggletonian lay, +intent upon a chapter of invective. The youth covered the page with one +enormous paw and playfully attempted to insert the little finger of the +other into the hole in Porringer's ear. "What now, old Runaway," he +said, lazily, "hunting up fresh curses to pour on our unfort'net heads?" + +"Cursed be he who makes a mock of age," said the Muggletonian, grimly. +"May he be even as the wicked children who cried to the prophet, 'Go up, +thou baldhead!'" + +The boy laughed. "Tell me when you see brown bear a-coming," quoth he. +"Losh! a bear steak would taste mighty good after eternal bacon!" + +Porringer closed his book and restored it to his bosom. "Tell me," he +said, abruptly, "have you seen aught of the young man called Landless?" + +"'The young man called Landless,'" answered the other, petulantly, "has +a d--d easy berth of it! Yesterday evening I carried water from the +spring to the great house to water Mistress Patricia's posies, and every +time I passes the window of the master's room I see that fellow +a-sitting at his ease in a fine chair before a fine table, writing away +as big as all out of doors. And every time I says to him, says I, 'I +reckon you think yourself as fine as the Lord Mayor of London? A pretty +sec'tary you make!'" + +"Have you seen him to-day?" + +"No, I haven't seen him to-day,--but I see someone else. Mates," he +exclaimed, "Witch Margery's coming down t' other side of creek. I'll call +her over." + +Scrambling to his feet he gave a low halloo through his hands, "Margery! +Margery! Come and find the road to Paradise!" + +Margery waved her hand to signify that she heard and understood, and +presently stepped upon the fallen tree that spanned the stream. It was a +narrow and a slippery bridge, but she flitted across it with the secure +grace of some woodland thing, and, staff in hand, advanced towards the +men. Between them and the western sun she stood still, a dark figure +against a halo of gold light, and threw an intent and searching glance +over the unbroken green of the marsh and the blue of the waters beyond. +Then with a wild laugh she came up to them and cast her staff wreathed +with dark ivy upon the ground. + +"The road is not here," she cried. "Here is all green grass, and beyond +is the weary, weary, weary sea! There is no long, bright, shining road +to Paradise." She sat down beside her staff, and taking her chin into +her hand, stared fixedly at the ground. + +The men gathered around her, with the exception of the Muggletonian, +who, after audibly comparing her to the Witch of Endor, turned on his +side and drew his cap over his eyes as if to shut out the hated sight. +The convict took up the staff and began to pull from it the strings of +ivy. + +"Put it down!" she said quickly. + +The man continued to strip it of its leafy mantle. + +"Put it down, can't you?" said the youth. "She never lets any one touch +it. She says an angel gave it to her to help her on her way." + +With a snarling laugh the convict threw it from him with all his force. +Whirling through the air it struck the water midway from shore to shore. +Margery sprang to her feet with a loud cry. The boy rose also. + +"D--n you!" he said, wrathfully. "I'd like to break it over your +misshapen back! Here, Margery, don't fret. I'll get it for you." + +He ran to the bank, dived into the water, and in three minutes was back +with the dripping mass in his arms. He gave it into Margery's hands, +saying kindly while he shook himself like a large spaniel; "There! it +isn't hurt a mite!" + +With a cry of delight Margery seized the "angel's gift" and kissed the +hand that restored it. Then she turned upon the convict. + +"When I go back to my cabin in the woods," she said, solemnly, and with +her finger up, "I shall whistle all the fairy folk into a ring, all the +elves and the pixies, and the little brown gnomes who burrow in the +leaves and look for all the world like pine cones, and I shall tell them +what you did, and to-night they will come to your cabin, and will pinch +you black and blue, and stick thorns into you, and rub you with the +poison leaf until you are blotched and swelled like the great bull frog +that croaks, croaks, in these marshes." + +There was an uneasy ring in the convict's laugh, full of bravado as he +meant it to be. Margery continued with an ominously extended forefinger. +"And then they will fly to the great house where the master lies +sleeping, and they will whisper to him that you took away the angel's +gift from poor, lost Margery, and he will be angry, for he is good to +Margery, and to-morrow he will make Woodson do to you what he did to-day +to the Breaking Heart." + +"To the Breaking Heart!" exclaimed her auditors. + +Margery nodded. "Yes, the Breaking Heart. You call him Landless." + +The Muggletonian sat up. "What dost thou mean, wretched woman! fit +descendant of the mother of all evil?" + +Margery, offended by his tone, only pursed up her lips and looked wise. + +"What did the master have done to Landless, Margery?" asked the youth. + +Margery threw her worn figure into a singular posture. Standing +perfectly straight, she raised her arms from her sides and spread them +stiffly out, the hands turned inward in a peculiar fashion. Then, still +with extended arms, she swayed slightly forward until she appeared to +lean against, or to be fastened to, some support. Next she threw her +head back and to one side, so that her face might be seen in three +quarter over her shoulder. Her mobile features wreathed themselves in an +expression of pain and rage. Her brows drew downward, her thin lips +curled themselves away from the gleaming teeth, and, at intervals of +half a minute or more, her eyelids quivered, she shuddered, and her +whole frame appeared to shrink together. + +The pantomime was too expressive to be misunderstood by men each of whom +had probably his own reasons for recognizing some one or all of its +features. The convict broke into a yelling laugh, in which he was +joined, though in a subdued and sinister fashion, by Luiz Sebastian. The +rustics looked at each other with slow grins of comprehension, and the +blue-eyed youth uttered a long shrill whistle. The great letter upon the +cheek of the Muggletonian turned a deeper red, and his eyes burned. The +youth was curious. + +"Tell us all about it, Margery," he said, coaxingly, "and when the +millons are ripe, I'll steal you one every night." + +Margery was nothing loth. She had attained the reputation of an +accomplished _raconteuse_, and she was proud of it. Her crazed +imagination peopled the forest with weird uncanny things, and fearful +tales she told of fays and bugaboos, of spectres and awful voices +speaking from out the dank stillness of twilight hollows. Often she sent +quaking to their pallets men who would have heard the war-whoop with +scarcely quickened pulses. And she could tell of every-day domestic +happenings as well as of the doings of the powers of darkness. + +Her audience listened greedily to the instance of plantation economy +which she proceeded to relate. + +"When was this, woman?" demanded the Muggletonian, when she had +finished. + +Margery pointed to the declining sun and then upwards to a spot a little +past the zenith. + +"Just after the nooning," said the Muggletonian, and began to curse. + +Margery stood up, her staff in her hand, and said airily, "Margery must +be going. The sun is growing large and red, and when he has slipped away +behind the woods, the voices will begin to call to Margery from the +hollow where the brook falls into the black pool. She must be there to +answer them." She moved away with a rapid and gliding step, flitted +across the fallen tree, and was lost to sight in the shadow of the pines +beyond. + +As the last flutter of her light robe vanished, a figure appeared, +walking rapidly along the opposite margin of the creek. The youth's +sight was keen. He sent a piercing glance across the intervening +distance and broke into an astonished laugh. "Lord in Heaven! it's the +man himself!" he cried in an awed tone. "Ecod! he must be made of iron!" + +Landless crossed the bridge and came towards the staring group. His face +was white and set, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes, which +had the wide unseeing stare of a sleep-walker. He walked lightly and +quickly, with a free, lithe swing of his body. The men looked at one +another in rough wonder, knowing what was hidden by the coarse shirt. He +passed them without a word, apparently without knowing that they were +there, and went on towards the hut of the mender of nets. Presently they +saw him enter and shut the door. + +The rustics and the convict, after one long stare of amazement at the +distant hut, began to comment freely and with much recondite blasphemy +upon the transaction recorded by Margery. Luiz Sebastian only smiled +amiably, like a lazy and well-disposed catamount, and the boy whistled +long and thoughtfully. But the countenance of Master Win-Grace Porringer +wore an expression of secret satisfaction. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR + + +As Landless entered the hut Godwyn looked up with a pleased smile from +the net he was mending. The two men had not seen each other since the +night upon which Landless had been brought to the hut by the +Muggletonian. Twice had Landless laid his plans for a second visit, only +to be circumvented each time by the watchfulness of the overseer. + +The smile died from Godwyn's face as he observed his visitor more +closely. + +"What is it?" he asked quickly. + +Landless came up to him and held out his hand. "I am with you, Robert +Godwyn, heart and soul," he said steadily. + +The mender of nets grasped the hand. "I knew you would come," he said, +drawing a long breath. "I have needed you sorely, lad." + +"I could not come before." + +"I know: Porringer told me you were prevented. I--" He still held +Landless' hand in both his own, and as he spoke his slender fingers +encircled the young man's wrist. + +"What is the matter with your pulse?" he demanded. "And your eyes! They +are glazing! Sit down!" + +"It is nothing," said Landless, speaking with effort. + +"I have been a physician, young man," retorted the other. "Sit down, or +you will fall." + +He forced him down upon a settle from which he had himself risen, and +stood looking at him, his hand upon his shoulder. Presently his glance +fell to the shoulder, and he saw upon the white cloth where his hand +pressed it against the flesh, a faint red stain grow and spread. + +The face of the mender of nets grew very dark. "So!" he said beneath his +breath. + +He limped across the hut and drew from some secret receptacle above the +fireplace a flask, from which he poured a crimson liquid into an earthen +cup; then hobbled back to Landless, sitting with closed eyes and head +bowed upon the table. + +"Drink, lad," he said with grave tenderness. "'Tis a cordial of mine own +invention, and in the strength it gave me I fled from Cropredy Bridge +though woefully hacked and spent. Drink!" + +He held the cup to the young man's lips. Landless drained it and felt +the blood gush back to his heart and the ringing in his ears to cease. +Presently he raised his head. "Thank you," he said. "I am a man again." + +"How is it that you are here?" + +Landless smiled grimly. "I imagine it's because Woodson thinks me +effectually laid by the heels. When he goes the rounds at supper time he +will be surprised to find my pallet empty." + +"You must be in quarters before then. You must not get into further +trouble." + +"Very well," was the indifferent reply. + +They were silent for a few moments, and then Landless spoke. + +"I am come to tell you, Master Godwyn, that I will join in any plan, +however desperate, that may bring me release from an intolerable and +degrading slavery. You may use me as you please. I will work for you +with hands and head, ay, and with my heart also, for you have been kind +to me, and I am grateful." + +The mender of nets touched him softly upon the hand. "Lad," he said, "I +once had a son who was my pride and my hope. In his young manhood he +fell at the storming of Tredah. But the other night when I talked with +you, I seemed to see him again, and my heart yearned over him." + +Landless held out his hand. "I have no father," he said simply. + +"Now," at length said Godwyn, "to business! I must not keep you now, but +come to me to-morrow night if you can manage it. You may speak to +Win-Grace Porringer, and he will help you. I will then tell you all my +arrangements, give you figures and names, possess you, in short, with +all that I, and I alone, know of this matter. And my heart is glad +within me, for though my broken body is tied to my bench here, I shall +now have a lieutenant indeed. I have conceived; you shall execute. The +son of Warham Landless, if he have a tithe of his father's powers, will +do much, very much. For more than a year I have longed for such an one." + +"Tell me but one thing," said Landless, "and I am content. You have so +planned this business that there shall be no wanton bloodshed? You +intend no harm, for instance, to the family yonder?" with a motion of +his head towards the great house. + +"God forbid!" said the other quickly. "I tell you that not one woman or +innocent soul shall suffer. Nor do I wish harm to the master of this +plantation, who is, after the lights of a Malignant, a true and kindly +man, and a gentleman. This is what will happen. Upon an appointed day +the servants, Oliverian, indented and convict, upon all the plantations +seated upon the bay, the creeks, the three rivers, and over in Accomac, +will rise. They will overpower their overseers and those of their +fellows who may remain faithful to the masters, will call upon the +slaves to follow them, and will march (the force of each plantation +under a captain or captains appointed by me), to an appointed place in +this county. All going well, there should be mustered at that place +within the space of a day and a night a force of some two thousand +men--such an army as this colony hath never seen, an army composed in +large measure of honest folk, and officered by four hundred men who, +bold and experienced, and strong in righteous wrath, should in +themselves be sufficient to utterly deject the adversary. We will make +of that force, motley as it is, a second New Model, as well disciplined +and as irresistible as the first; and who should be its general but the +son of that Warham Landless whom Cromwell loved, and whose old regiment +is well represented here? Then will we fight in honest daylight with +those who come against us--and conquer. And we will not stain our +victory. Your nightmare vision of midnight butchery is naught. There +will be no such thing." + +Through the quiet of the evening came to them the clear, sweet, and +distant winding of a horn. + +"'Tis the call to quarters," said Godwyn. "You must go, lad." + +Landless rose. "I will come to-morrow night if I can. Till then, +farewell,--father." He ended with a smile on his dark, stern face that +turned it into a boy's again. + +"May the Lord bless thee, my son," said the other in his gravely tender +voice. "May he cause His face to shine upon thee, and bring thee out of +all thy troubles." + +As Landless turned to leave the hut the mender of nets had a sudden +thought. "Come hither," he said, "and let me show you my treasure house. +Should aught happen to me, it were well that you should know of it." + +He took up the precious flask from the table, and followed by Landless, +limped across the hut to the fireplace. The logs above it appeared as +solid, gnarled and stained by time as any of the others constituting the +walls of the hut, but upon the pressure of Godwyn's finger upon some +secret spring, a section of the wood fell outwards like the lid of a +box, disclosing a hollow within. + +From this hollow came the dull gleam of gold, and by the side of the +little heap of coin lay several folded papers and a pair of handsomely +mounted pistols. + +Godwyn touched the papers. "The names or the signs of the Oliverians are +here," he said, "together with those of the leaders of the indented +servants concerned with us. It is our solemn League and Covenant--and +our death warrant if discovered. The gold I had with me, hidden upon my +person, when I was brought to Virginia. The pistols were the gift of a +friend. Both may be useful some day." + +"Hide them! Quick!" said Landless in a low voice, and wheeled to face a +man who stood in the doorway, blinking into the semi-darkness of the +room. + +The lid of the hollow swung to with a click, the log assumed its wonted +appearance, and the mender of nets, too, turned upon the intruder. + +It was the convict Roach who had pushed the door open and now stood with +his swollen body and bestial face darkening the glory of the sunset +without. There was no added expression of greed or of awakened curiosity +upon his sullenly ferocious countenance. He might have seen or he might +not. They could not tell. + +"What do you want?" asked Landless sternly. + +"Thought as you might not have heard the horn, comrade, and so might get +into more trouble. So I thought I'd come over and warn you." All this in +a low, hoarse and dogged voice. + +"Don't call me comrade. Yes: I heard the horn. You had best hasten or +you may get into trouble yourself." + +The man received this intimation with a malevolent grin. "Talking big +eases the smart, don't it?" and he broke into his yelling laugh. + +"Get out of this," said Landless, a dangerous light in his eyes. + +The man stopped laughing and began to curse. But he went his way, and +Landless, too, after waiting to give him a start, left the hut and +turned his steps towards the quarters. + +Upon the other side of the creek, sitting beneath a big sweet gum, and +whittling away at a piece of stick weed, he found the boy who, the day +before, had accused him of feeling as fine as the Lord Mayor of London. +He sprang to his feet as Landless approached, and cheerfully remarking +that their paths were the same, strode on side by side with him. + +"I say," he said presently with ingenuous frankness, "I asks your pardon +for what I said to you yesterday. I dessay you make a very good +Sec'tary, and Losh! the Lord Mayor himself mightn't have dared to strike +that d--d fine Court spark. They say he has fought twenty duels." + +"You have my full forgiveness," said Landless, smiling. + +"That's right!" cried the other, relieved. "I hates for a man to bear +malice." + +"I have seen you before yesterday. I forget how they call you." + +"Dick Whittington." + +"Dick Whittington!" + +"Ay. Leastways the parish over yonder," a jerk of his thumb towards +England, "called me Dick, and I names myself Whittington. And why? +Because like that other Dick I runs away to make my fortune. Because +like him I've little besides empty pockets and a hopeful heart. And +because I means to go back some fine day, jingling money, and wearing +gold lace, and become the mayor of Banbury. Or maybe I'll stop in +Virginia, and become a trader and Burgess. I could send for Joyce +Whitbread, and marry her here as well as in Banbury." + +Landless laughed. "So you ran away?" + +"Yes; some four years ago, just after I came to man's estate." (He was +about nineteen.) "Stowed myself away on board the Mary Hart at Plymouth. +Made the Virginny voyage for my health, and on landing was sold by the +captain for my passage money. Time's out in three years, but I may begin +to make my fortune before then, for--" He stopped speaking to give +Landless a sidelong glance from out his blue eyes, and then went on. + +"A voice speaks through the land, from the Potomac to the James, and +from the falls of the Far West to the great bay. What says the voice?" + +Landless answered, "The voice saith, 'Comfort ye, my people, for the +hour of deliverance is at hand.'" + +"It's all right!" cried the boy gleefully. "I thought you was one of us. +We are all in the fun together!" + +"We are in for a desperate enterprise that may hang every man of us," +said Landless sternly. "I do not see the 'fun,' and I think you talk +something loudly for a conspirator." + +The boy was nothing abashed. "There's none to hear us," he said. "I can +be as mum as t' other Dick's cat when there are ears around. As for fun, +Losh! what better fun than fighting!" + +"You seem to have a pretty good time as it is." + +"Lord, yes! Life's jolly enough, but you see there's mighty little +variety in it." + +"I have found variety enough," said Landless. + +"Oh, you've been here only a few weeks. Wait until you've spent years, +and have gone through your experience of to-day half a dozen times, and +you will find it tame enough." + +"I shall not wait to see." + +"Then a man gets tired of working for another man, and hankers for the +time when he can set up for himself, especially if there's a pretty girl +waiting for him." A tremendous sigh. "And then there's the fun of the +rising. Losh! a man must break loose now and then!" + +"For all of which good reasons you have become a conspirator?" + +"Ay, it doesn't pay to run away. You are hunted to death in the first +place, and well nigh whipped to death if you are caught, as you always +are. And then they double your time. This promises better." + +"If it succeeds." + +"Oh, it will succeed! Why shouldn't it with old Godwyn, who is more +cunning than a red fox or a Nansemond medicine-man, at its head? +Besides, if it fails, hanging is the worst that can happen, and we will +have had the fun of the rising." + +"You are a philosopher." + +"What's that?" + +"A wise man. Tell me: If this plot remains undiscovered, and the rising +actually takes place, there will be upon each plantation before we can +get away an interval of confusion and perhaps violence. 'Tis then that +the greatest danger will threaten the planters and their families. You +yourself have no ill feeling towards your master or his family? You +would do them no unprovoked mischief?" + +The boy opened his big blue eyes, and shook his head in a vehement +negative. + +"Lord bless your soul, no!" he cried. "I wouldn't hurt a hair of +Mistress Patricia's pretty head, nor of Mistress Lettice's wig, neither. +As for the master, if he lets us go peaceably, we'll go with three +cheers for him! Bless you! they're safe enough!" + +The sanguine youth next announced that he smelt bacon frying, and that +his stomach cried "Trencher!" and started off in a lope for the +quarters, now only a few yards distant. Landless followed more sedately, +and reached his cabin without being observed by the overseer. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A DARK DEED + + +Three weeks passed, weeks in which Landless saw the mender of nets some +eight times in all, making each visit at night, stealthily and under +constant danger of detection. Thrice he had assisted at conferences of +the Oliverians from the neighboring plantations, who now, by virtue of +his descent, his intimacy with Godwyn, and his very apparent powers, +accepted him as a leader. Upon the first of these occasions he had set +his case before them in a few plain, straightforward words, and they +believed him as Godwyn had done, and he became in their eyes, not a +convict, but, as he in truth was, an Oliverian like themselves, and a +sufferer for the same cause. The remaining interviews had been between +him and Godwyn alone. In the lonely hut on the marsh, beneath starlight +or moonlight, the two had held much converse, and had grown to love each +other. The mender of nets, though possessed of a calm and high serenity +of nature that defied trials beneath which a weaker soul had sunk, was a +man of many sorrows; he had the wisdom, too, of years and experience, +and he sympathized with, soothed, and counseled his younger yoke-fellow +with a parental tenderness that was very grateful to the other's more +ardent, undisciplined, and deeply wounded spirit. + +Upon the night of their eighth meeting they held a long and serious +consultation. Affairs were in such train that little remained to be +done, but to set the day for the rising, and to send notice by many +devious and underground ways to the Oliverian captains scattered +throughout the Colony. Landless counseled immediate action, the firing +of the fuse at once by starting the secret intelligence which would +spread like wildfire from plantation to plantation. Then would the mine +be sprung within the week. There was nothing so dangerous as delay, when +any hour, any moment might bring discovery and ruin. + +Godwyn was of a different opinion. It was then August, the busiest and +most unhealthy season of the year, when the servants and slaves, +weakened by unremitting toil, were succumbing by scores to the fever. It +was the time when the masters looked for disaffection, when the +overseers were most alert, when a general watchfulness pervaded the +Colony. The planters stayed at home and attended to their business, the +trainbands were vigilant, the servant and slave laws were construed with +a harshness unknown at other seasons of the year. There were few ships +in harbor compared with the number which would assemble for their fall +lading a month later, and Godwyn counted largely upon the seizure of the +ships. In a month's time the tobacco would be largely in,--a weighty +consideration, for tobacco was money, and the infant republic must have +funds. The ships would be in harbor, and their sailors ready for +anything that would rid them of their captains; the heat and sickness of +the summer would be abated; the work slackened, and discipline relaxed. +The danger of discovery was no greater now than it had been all along, +and the good to be won by biding their time might be inestimable. The +danger was there, but they would face it, and wait,--say until the +second week in September. + +Landless acquiesced, scarcely convinced, but willing to believe that the +other knew whereof he spoke, and conscious, too, that his own impatience +of the yoke which galled his spirit almost past endurance might incline +him to a reckless and disastrous haste. + +It was past midnight when he rose to leave the hut on the marsh. Godwyn +took up his stick. "I will walk with you to the banks of the creek," he +said. "'Tis a feverish night, and I have an aching head. The air will do +me good, and I will then sleep." + +The young man gave him his arm with a quiet, protecting tenderness that +was very dear to the mender of nets, and leaning upon it, he limped +through the fifty feet of long grass to the border of the creek. + +"Shall I not wait to help you back?" asked Landless. + +"No," said the other, with his peculiarly sweet and touching smile. "I +will sit here awhile beneath the stars and say my hymn of praise to the +Creator of Night. You need not fear for me; my trusty stick will carry +me safely back. Go, lad, thou lookest weary enough thyself, and should +be sleeping after thy long day of toil." + +"I am loth to leave you to-night," said Landless. + +Godwyn smiled. "And I am always loth to see you go, but it were selfish +to keep you listening to a garrulous, wakeful old man, when your young +frame is in sore need of rest. Good-night, dear lad." + +Landless gave him his hands. "Good-night," he said. + +He stood below the other at the foot of the low bank to which was +moored his stolen boat. Godwyn stooped and kissed him upon the forehead. +"My heart is tender to-night, lad," he said. "I see in thee my Robert. +Last night I dreamed of him and of his mother, my dearly loved and +long-lost Eunice, and ah! I sorrowed to awake!" + +Landless pressed his hand in silence, and in a moment the water widened +between them as Landless bent to his oars and the crazy little bark shot +out into the middle of the stream. At the entrance of the first +labyrinthine winding he turned and looked back to see Godwyn standing +upon the bank, the moonlight silvering his thin hair and high serene +brow. In the mystic white light, against the expanse of solemn heaven, +he looked a vision, a seer or prophet risen from beneath the sighing +grass. He waved his hand to Landless, saying in his quiet voice, "Until +to-morrow!" The boat made the turn, and the lonely figure and the hut +beyond it vanished, leaving only the moonlight, the wash and lap of +water, and the desolate sighing of the marsh grass. + +There were many little channels and threadlike streams debouching from +the main creek, and separated from it by clumps and lines of partially +submerged grass, growing in places to the height of reeds. While passing +one of these clumps it occurred to Landless that the grass quivered and +rustled in an unusual fashion. He rested upon his oars and gazed at it +curiously, then stood up, and parting the reeds, looked through into the +tiny channel upon the other side. There was nothing to be seen, and the +rustling had ceased. "A heron has its nest there, or a turtle plunged, +shaking the reeds," said Landless to himself, and went his way. + +Some three hours later he was roused from the heavy sleep of utter +fatigue by the voice of the overseer. Bewildered, he raised himself upon +his elbow to stare at Woodson's grim face, framed in the doorway and lit +by the torch held by Win-Grace Porringer, who stood behind him. "You +there, you Landless!" cried the overseer, impatiently. "You sleep like +the dead. Tumble out! You and Porringer are to go to Godwyn's after that +new sail for the Nancy. Sir Charles Carew has taken it into his head to +run over to Accomac, and he's got to have a spick and span white rag to +sail under. Hurry up, now! He wants to start by sun up, and I clean +forgot to send for it last night. You're to be back within the hour, +d' ye hear? Take the four-oared shallop. There's the key," and the +overseer strode away, muttering something about patched sails being good +enough for Accomac folk. + +Landless and the Muggletonian stumbled through the darkness to the wharf +behind the quarters, where they loosed the shallop, and in it shot +across the inlet towards the mouth of the creek. + +"I will row," said the Muggletonian with grim kindness; "you look worn +out. I suppose you were out last night?" + +Landless nodded, and the other bent to the oars with a will that sent +them rapidly across the sheet of water. A cold and uncertain light began +to stream from the ashen east, and the air was dank and heavy with the +thick mist that wrapped earth and water like a shroud. It swallowed up +the land behind them, and through it the nearer marshes gloomed +indistinctly, dark patches upon the gray surface of the water. The +narrow creek was hard to find amidst the universal dimness. The +Muggletonian rowed slowly, peering about him with small, keen eyes. At +length with a grunt of satisfaction he pointed to a pale streak dividing +two masses of gray, and had turned the boat's head towards it, when +through the stillness they caught the sound of oars. The next moment a +boat glided from the creek and began to skirt the shores of the inlet, +hugging the banks and moving slowly and stealthily. It was still so dark +that they could tell nothing more than that it held one man. + +"Now, who is that?" said the Muggletonian. "And what has he been doing +up that creek?" + +"Hail him," Landless replied. + +Porringer sent a low halloo across the water, but if the man heard he +made no sign. The boat, one of the crazy dugouts of which every +plantation had store, held on its stealthy way, but being over close to +the bank presently ran upon a sand bar. Its occupant was forced to rise +to his feet in order to shove it off. He stood upright but a moment, but +in that moment, and despite the partial darkness, Landless recognized +the misshapen figure. + +"It is the convict, Roach!" he exclaimed. + +"Ay," said the Muggletonian, "and an ill-omened night bird he is! May he +be cursed from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head! May there +be no soundness in him! May--What are you about, friend?" he cried, +interrupting himself. "There's no need of two pair of oars. We have +plenty of time." + +Landless bent to the second pair of oars. "He came down the creek," he +said in a voice that sounded strained and unnatural. + +The other stared at him. "What do you mean?" he demanded. + +"Nothing: but let us hasten." + +Porringer stared, but fell in with the humor of his companion, and the +shallop, impelled by strong arms, shot into the creek and along its mazy +windings with the swiftness of a bird. + +Landless rowed with compressed lips and stony face, a great fear tugging +at his heart. Porringer too was silent. The vapor hung so heavily upon +the plains of marsh level with their heads that they seemed to be +piercing a dense, low cloud. The light was growing stronger, but the +earth still lay like a corpse, livid, dumb, cold and still. There was a +chill stagnant smell in the air. + +Arriving at the stake in the bank below the hut, they fastened the boat +to it, and stepping out, moved through the dense mist to where the hut +loomed indistinctly before them, looking in the blank and awful +stillness like a forlorn wreck drifting upon an infinite sea of +soundless foam. + +"The door is open," said Landless. + +"Ay, I see," answered Porringer. "Does he wish to die before his time of +the fever, that he lets this graveyard mist and stench creep in upon him +in his sleep?" + +They spoke in low tones as though they feared to waken the sleeper whom +they had come to waken. When they reached the hut, they knocked upon the +lintel of the door and called Godwyn by name, once, twice, thrice. There +was no answer. + +"Come on!" said Landless hoarsely, and entered the hut, followed by the +other. The cold twilight, filtering through the low and narrow doorway, +was powerless to dispel the darkness within. Landless groped his way to +the pallet and stooped down. + +"He is not here," he said. + +The Muggletonian stumbled over a sheaf of oars, sending them to the +floor with a noise that in the utter stillness, and to their strained +ears, sounded appalling. + +"It's the darkness of Tophet," muttered Porringer. "If I could find his +flint and steel; there are pine knots, I know, in the corner--God in +Heaven!" + +"What is it? What is the matter?" cried Landless, as he staggered +against him. + +"It's his face!" gasped the other. "There upon the table! I put my hand +upon it. It's cold!" + +Landless rushed to the fireplace where he knew the tinder-box to be +kept, and then groped for and found the heap of pine knots. A moment +more and the fat wood was burning brightly, casting its red light +throughout the hut, and choking back the pale daylight. + +The familiar room with its familiar furnishing of chest and settle and +pallet, of hanging nets and piles of dingy sail, sprung into sight, but +with it sprung into sight something unfamiliar, strange, and dreadful. + +It was the body of the mender of nets, flung face upwards across the +rude table, the head hanging over the edge, and the face, which but a +few short hours before had looked upon Landless with such a bright and +patient serenity, blackened and distorted. Upon the throat were dark +marks, the print of ten murderous fingers. + +With a bitter cry Landless fell upon his knees beside the table, and +pressed his face against the cold hand flung backwards over the head of +the murdered man. Porringer began to curse. With white lips and burning +eyes he hurled anathemas at the murderer. He cursed him by the powers +of light and darkness, by the earth, the sea, and the air; by all the +plagues of the two Testaments. Landless broke the torrent of his +maledictions. + +"Silence!" he said sternly. "_He_ would have forgiven." Presently he +rose from the ground, and taking the body in his arms, placed it upon +the pallet, and reverently composed the limbs. Then he turned to the +fireplace. It was easy to see that the hiding place had been visited. +The spring was broken, and the lid had been struck and jammed into place +by a powerful and hasty hand. Landless wrenched it off. Before him lay +the pistols; but the gold and papers were gone. He turned to the +Muggletonian, standing beside him with staring eyes. + +"Listen!" he said. "There was gold here. The wretch whom we passed but +now knew of it--never mind how--and for it he has murdered the only +friend I had on earth. There will come a day when I will avenge him. +There were papers here, lists with the signatures of Oliverians, +Redemptioners, sailors,--of all classes concerned in this undertaking, +save only the slaves and the convicts. There were letters from Maryland +and New England, and a correspondence which would provide whipping-post +and pillory for other Nonconformists than the Quakers. All these, the actual +proofs of this conspiracy, are in his--that murderer's--hands,--where they +must not stay." + +"What wilt thou do, friend?" said the Muggletonian eagerly. "Wilt thou +take the murderer aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smite +him under the fifth rib, as did Joab to Abner the son of Ner, who slew +his brother Asahel?" + +"God forbid," said Landless. "But I will take them from him before he +knows their contents. One moment, and we will go." + +He crossed to the pallet and stood beside it, looking down on the shell +that lay upon it with a stern and quiet grief. One of the cold white +hands was clenched upon something. He stooped, and with difficulty +unclasped the rigid fingers. The something was a ragged lock of coarse +red hair. + +"You see," he said. + +"Ay," said the Muggletonian grimly. "It's evidence enough. There's but +one man in this county with hair like that. Leave that lock where it is, +and that dead man holds the rope that will hang his murderer." + +"It shall be left where it is," said Landless, and reclosed the fingers +upon it. + +He took a piece of sail-cloth from the floor, and with it covered the +dead man from sight. Next he turned to the hollow above the fireplace, +and took from it the pistols, concealing them in his bosom. "I may need +them," he said. "Come." + +They left the hut and its dead guardian, and rowed back through the +summer dawn. The sky was barred with crimson and gold, the fiery rim of +the sun just lifting above the eastern waters, the mist, a bridal veil +of silver and pearl drawn across the face of a virgin earth. + +They rowed in silence until they neared the wharf, when Porringer said, +"You are leader now." + +The other raised his haggard eyes. "It is a trust. I will go through +with it, God helping me. But I would I were lying dead beside him in +yonder hut." + +They left the boat at the wharf, and went towards the quarters. Meeting +one of the blowzed and slatternly female servants, Landless asked where +they might find the overseer. He had gone to the three-mile field half +an hour ago, after bestowing upon the two dilatory servants a hearty +cursing, and promising to reckon with them at dinner-time. "Where was +the master?" He had gone to the mouth of the inlet with Sir Charles +Carew, who had grown impatient, and had sailed away under the Nancy's +patched sail. The under overseer was in the far corn-field, two miles +off. + +"Are all the men in the fields, Barb?" asked Landless. + +Barb informed him that they were, "as he might very well know, seeing +that the sun was half an hour high." + +"Have you seen the man called Roach?" + +No: Barb had not seen him; but she had heard the overseer tell Luiz +Sebastian to take two men and go to the strip of Orenoko between the +inlet and the third tobacco house, and Luiz Sebastian had been calling +for Roach and Trail. + +Landless thanked her, and moved away without offering to bestow upon her +that which Barb probably thought her information merited. + +"Do you find Woodson," he said to the Muggletonian, "and report this +murder, saying nothing, however, of what we know. I myself will go to +the tobacco house." + +"Had I not best come with thee to hold up thy hands?" said Porringer. "I +would take up my text from the thirty-fifth of Numbers, and from +Revelation, twenty-second, thirteen, and deal mightily with the +murderer." + +"No," answered Landless. "Woodson must be seen at once, or we ourselves +will fall under suspicion. And, friend, ask that thou and I may be the +ones to bury _him_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE + + +The third tobacco house was built upon a point of land jutting into the +larger inlet, and screened off from the wide expanse of fields by a belt +of cedars. It was a lonely, retired spot, and the high, dark, windowless +structure with its heavy, low-browed door had a menacing aspect. +Landless expected to find the men within the building, instead of +outside attending to their work, and he was not disappointed. As he +walked through the doorway into the pungent gloom, the three started up +from the debris of casks, sticks, and pegs, amidst which they had been +squatting, with their heads ominously close together. + +Landless strode up to Roach. "You murderer!" he said. + +The convict recoiled; then with a bestial sound, half snarl, half bellow +of rage, he gathered himself for a rush. Landless awaited him with bent +body and sinewy, outstretched arms; but the mulatto interposed. Laying +his long, beautifully shaped, yellow hands upon Roach, he forced him +back against a cask, and, pinning him there, whispered in his ear. The +face of the wretch gradually resumed its usual expression of low +brutality, though an ugly sweat broke out upon it, and the mouth opened +and shut as though he had been running. He turned upon Landless with a +half threatening, half cringing air. + +"So you've found out what I was about last night, eh, pardner? But +you'll keep a still tongue. You're not one to peach on your comrade as +was in hell or Newgate with you, and as crossed the ocean with you to +this d--d Virginia, and as has always liked you, and has the same spite +as you have against the man what bought us. You say naught, comrade, and +you'll not stand to lose by it." + +"I go from here to give you up to Colonel Verney," said Landless. + +The wretch gave a snarl of rage and fear. Luiz Sebastian laid a soothing +hand upon his shoulder. + +"If I thought that," snarled the convict, "you'd never live to reach +that door." + +"I shall live to see you hanged," said the other coolly. + +Here the mulatto slipped something into Roach's hand. "So you'll give me +up?" said the latter in a peculiar voice. + +"I have said so." + +"Then, by the Lord! I'll be even with you!" Roach cried with savage +triumph. "Do you see this, and this, and this?" fluttering a mass of +folded papers before the other's eyes. "Ah! I was wise, I was, when I +couldn't hide everything about me, to take the papers, and leave the +weapons. I've got you now. Here's the lists that the old fool who is +dead and gone to hell had hidden behind the gold! Here's enough to hang +you and your d--d Cromwellians higher than Haman. There will be more +than one giving up, I'm thinking! I've got you under my thumb, and I'll +squeeze you!" + +"You cannot read; you do not know what those papers contain," said +Landless steadily. + +"But I can," put in Trail smoothly. "I was but just running them over to +our friend whose education has been so sadly neglected, when you came +in." + +Landless drew a pistol from his bosom, cocked it, and leveled it at the +murderer. "You see," he said with an ominously quiet eye and voice, "you +were not altogether wise to leave the weapons. Now, give me those +lists." + +"Damnation!" cried the convict, and Luiz Sebastian glided towards the +door. + +Landless, quick of eye and active of body, saw the movement, and sprang +backwards to the opening before the other could reach it. He covered the +three with his pistol. + +"I will shoot the first of you that stirs," he said sternly. "You, +Roach, lay those papers upon that bit of board, and push them towards me +with your foot." + +"I'll go to hell first," was the sullen reply. + +"As you please. I will give you until I count twenty. If those papers +are not in my hands, then I will shoot you like the dog you are." + +The murderer uttered a dreadful curse. Landless began to count. Roach +made an irresolute motion of the hand that held the lists. Landless +counted on, "fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen--" With another oath +and a grin of rage Roach dropped the papers upon the board at his feet. +"Now push it towards me," said Landless. + +With a brow like midnight the other did as he was bid. Still covering +his men, Landless stooped quickly, and took up the precious papers, +assured himself that they were all there, and placed them in his bosom. + +"Now," he said, leaning his back against the doorpost, and regarding +the three baffled rogues with a grim eye, "I have a few words to say to +you. I speak first to you, Trail, and to you, Luiz Sebastian. These +papers have told you little that you did not know before. It was not the +information that you gained from them that made them so valuable; it was +the possession of them, the possession of actual proofs of this +conspiracy which you might hold over our heads, or, if the notion took +you, might sell to Colonel Verney?" + +"Senor Landless sees the thing as it is," said Luiz Sebastian. + +"Well, you no longer possess these proofs, and are therefore just where +you were yesterday." + +"Listen, Senor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian gloomily. "This plot does +not please us. It is too much in the hands of those who call themselves +soldiers and martyrs, whom our master calls fanatic Oliverians, and whom +I, Luiz Sebastian, call accursed heretics. The servants have no say in +the matter; they are to follow like sheep where these others lead. The +slaves are not even to know of it until the last moment. A handful of us +who have white blood in our veins are let into the secret, that we may +incite the blacks when the time is come; but are we consulted? Are our +opinions asked, our wishes deferred to? I, Luiz Sebastian, who have been +through three insurrections in the Indies, and who know how such things +should be managed; has my advice been craved as to this or that? You +make us promises. Mother of God! how do we know that those promises will +be kept? By St. Jago! the insurrection may arrive, and the planters be +put down, and next year may find us slaves still, with but a change of +masters!" + +"It is too late now for such questions," said Landless steadily. "You +must accept the conspiracy as it is. In liberating themselves, these men +will of necessity free you even as they will free me, who am not, as you +know, of their class. I shall take my chance, as I think you will take +yours." + +The mulatto played with a tobacco peg, striking it against his great, +white teeth. At length he said slowly and with a sinister upward glance +at the figure by the door, "Certainly, Senor Landless, it seems our +best, our only chance, for freedom." + +And with this Landless had perforce to be content. He turned to the +murderer, saying sternly, "Now for my word with you. I hold your life in +my hands, for I heard you last night in the marsh, and Porringer and I +saw you stealing from the creek this morning, and I can swear that you +knew of the gold hidden in the hut. You have it on you at this moment. I +could hold you here with this pistol until the overseer should come and +search you. But I let you go, choosing rather your safety than the +endangerment of that which was dearer than life to the man you murdered. +The unsupported assertion of a murderer as to the contents of papers +which he had not got to show, might not go for much, but I prefer that +you should not make it. I have warned you;--you had best make your +escape at once." + +"If you hold your tongue, there's no reason why I should run." + +"Oh, yes, there is! There is a reason in the hut on the marsh." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that clasped in the hand of the man you murdered is the missing +half of that torn lock upon your forehead." + +With a yell Roach sprang to the door only to be confronted by the muzzle +of Landless' pistol. + +"Wait a moment," he said composedly. "Oh, you need not be afraid! I +intend to let you go. But you don't leave this tobacco house until after +I have left it myself." + +"Curse you!" cried the other, foaming at the lips. + +"You are ungrateful. I not only promise not to witness against you, but +I aid you to escape." + +"For reasons of your own," suggested Trail. + +"Precisely; for reasons of my own. If you are taken, I will hold my +tongue just so long as you hold yours. If you escape now, I will pray +that my day of reckoning will yet come. And it will be a heavy +reckoning." + +"Ay, that it will!" cried the murderer with brutal fury. "You've got the +upper hand now; but wait! Every dog has his day, and I'll have mine! and +when it comes, I'll do for you! I'll smash your beauty! I'll draw more +blood from you than ever the whip of the overseer did! I'll use you +worse than I used that old man last night, who writhed and struggled, +and tried to pray! I'll--" + +With white lips and blazing eyes Landless sprang forward, and clapped +the mouth of the pistol to the ruffian's temple. Roach recoiled, then +sunk upon his knees with an abject whine for mercy. + +Landless let his hand drop, and moved slowly back to the door. "You had +need to cry for mercy," he said in a low, distinct voice, "for you were +never so near to death before. I let you go now, but one day I shall +kill you. Until which day--take care of yourself!" Still with his face +upon them he passed out of the door, then turned and walked away with a +steady step, but with a heart bleeding for the loss of his friend, and +heavy with forebodings for the future. + +In the tobacco house the murderer, the forger, and the mulatto sat +stricken into silence until the last crisp footfall had died away. Then +amidst a torrent of curses Roach made for the door. Trail plucked him +back. "Where are you going?" he cried. + +"I don't know! To the devil!" + +"The bloodhounds will be upon your trail before noon." + +The wretch cried out and struck his hand against the wall with a force +that laid the knuckles bare and bleeding. + +"There is a way," said Luiz Sebastian slowly, "a way that only I know. +You must take to the inlet here, and swim up it until you come to the +mouth of the brook yonder in the forest. You must wade up that brook +until you come to a second, and up that until you come to a third. When +you have gone a mile up that one, leave it, and strike through the +woods, going towards the north. Another mile will bring you to a village +of the Chickahominies upon the Pamunkey.[1] They are at odds with +Governor and Council, and they will hide you. Moreover, I once did their +sachem a service, and they are my friends." + +"I'm off," said Roach, breaking from the detaining grasp. + +"Wait," said Luiz Sebastian. "There is time enough. Woodson will not +come for a long while. When he does, he shall find Senor Trail and +myself busily at work there outside, and we will say that you left us, +and went down the inlet a long time before. But now we want to talk to +you." + +"Be quick then," growled the other, "I've no mind to swing for this +job." + +Luiz Sebastian brought his handsomely malevolent face close to the +other's hideous countenance. + +"Would you not like to ruin that devil who but now robbed you of your +hard-earned property?" + +"Would I not?" cried the murderer with a tremendous oath. "I'd give +everything but life and gold to do it, as that cunning devil well knew. +I'd give my soul!" + +"Would you like to be shown how to get more gold than old Godwyn's +store, twenty times told? To get your freedom? To have some black, sweet +hours in which to work your will on them at the house yonder? To plunge +your arms to the elbow in the master's money chest; to become drunken +with his wine; to strike him down, and that smiling imp his cousin, and +that other devil, Woodson; to hear the women cry for mercy--and cry in +vain? You would like all this?" + +"Show me the way!" cried the brute with a ferocious light in his +bloodshot eyes. "Show me the way to do it safely, and I'll--" He broke +off and threatened the air with malignant fists. + +"Go to the village on the Pamunkey," said Luiz Sebastian with his most +feline expression. "I will come to you there the first night I can slip +away, I and our friend, the Senor Trail. There we will have our little +conference. Mother of God! Senor Landless may find that others can plot +as well as he and his accursed heretics." + +[Footnote 1: The modern York.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION + + +Four nights later, the hour before midnight found Landless walking +steadily through the forest, bound upon a mission which he had had in +his mind since the night after the murder of Godwyn. This was the first +night since that event upon which he had deemed it advisable to leave +the quarters, having no mind to be captured as a runaway by one of the +many search parties which were scouring the peninsula between the two +great rivers for the murderer of Robert Godwyn. But the search was now +trending northward towards Maryland, to which colony runaways usually +turned their steps, and he felt that he might venture. + +There was little undergrowth in the primeval forest, and the rows of +vast and stately trees were as easy to thread as the pillared aisles of +a cathedral. When he came to one of the innumerable streamlets that +caught the land in a net of silver, he removed his coarse shoes and +stockings, and waded it. The great branches overhead shut in a night +that was breathlessly hot and still. He could see the stars only when he +crossed the streams or emerged into one of the many little open glades. +He walked warily, making no sound, and now and then stopping to listen +for the distant halloo, or bark of a dog, which might denote that he was +followed, or that there was a search party abroad, but he heard nothing +save the usual forest sounds,--the dropping of acorns, the sighing +leaves, the cry of some night bird,--sounds that seemed to make the +night more still than silence. + +He was nearing his destination when from out a shadowy clump of alders, +standing upon the bank of the stream which he had just crossed, there +shot a long arm, and the next moment he was wrestling with a dark and +powerful figure whose naked body slipped from his hold as though it had +been greased. But Landless, too, was strong and determined, and the two +swayed and strained backwards and forwards through the darkness, wary +and resolute, neither giving his antagonist advantage. The hand of the +unknown writhed itself from the other's clasp and stole downwards +towards his waist. Landless felt the motion and intercepted it. Then the +figure, with an angry guttural sound, began to put forth its full +strength. The arms encircled Landless with a slowly tightening iron +band; the great dark shoulder came forward with the force of a +battering-ram; the limbs twined like boa-constrictors around the limbs +of the other. Locked together, the two reeled into a little fairy glade, +where the short grass, pearled with dew, lay open to the moon. Here, +borne backwards by the overwhelming force of his assailant, Landless +fell heavily to the ground. The figure falling with him, pinned him to +the earth with its knee upon his breast. In the moonlight he saw the +gleam of the lifted knife. + +He had had but time for a half-uttered, half-thought prayer when the +pressure upon his breast relaxed; the knife fell, indeed, but harmlessly +upon the grass, and the figure rose to its height with an astonished +"Ugh!" + +Landless, rising also, began to think that he recognized the gigantic +form towering through the pale moonlight. + +"Ugh!" said the figure again. "The great Spirit threw us into the light +in time. Monakatocka had been forever shamed had his knife drunk the +life of his friend." + +"Why did you set upon me?" demanded Landless, still breathless from the +struggle, while the Indian was as calmly composed as upon the day of +their first meeting. + +"Monakatocka took you for the man for whom they hunt with dogs through +the forest, scaring the deer from the licks and the partridge from the +fern. Two nights ago Major Carrington said to Monakatocka, 'Find me that +man and kill him, and to the twenty arms' length of roanoke which the +county will pay to Monakatocka, I will add a gun with store of powder, +and with a bullet for every stag between Werowocomico and Machot.' When +he heard you a long way off, moving over the leaves, trying to make no +sound, Monakatocka thought he held the gun of the paleface Major in his +hand. But now--" he waved his hand with a gesture eloquent of +resignation. + +"I am sorry to disappoint you," said Landless, amused at his air of calm +regret. + +"I am glad to have proved the strength of my brother," was the +sententious reply. "Where goes my brother through the woods, which are +full of danger to him to-night? Or has he a pass?" + +"I have business at Rosemead," answered Landless. "I am close to the +house, I think?" + +The Indian pointed through the trees. "It lies twelve bowshots before +you. The overseer with the dogs has gone to the great swamp to look for +the man with the red hair." + +"Thanks for the information, friend," said Landless. "I ask you, +moreover, to say nothing of this encounter. I have no pass." + +"I have but one friend," answered the Indian. "His secret is my secret." + +"Are you, too, then, so lonely?" asked Landless, touched by his tone. + +"Listen," said the Indian, leaning his back against a great oak. "I will +tell my brother who I am.... Many years ago the Conestogas, they whom +the palefaces call the Susquehannocks, came down the great bay and +fought with the palefaces. Monakatocka was then but a lad on his first +warpath. Agreskoi was angry: he hid his face behind a cloud. With their +guns the palefaces beat the Conestogas like fleeing women back to their +village on the banks of a great river, and themselves returned in +triumph to their board wigwams, bearing with them many captives. +Monakatocka, son to a great chief, was one. The palefaces made him to +work like a squaw in their fields of tobacco and maize. When he ran away +they put forth a long arm and plucked him back and beat him. Agreskoi +was angry, for Monakatocka had not any offering to make him. One by one +his fellow captives have dropped away like the leaves that fall in the +moon of Taquetock, until, behold! he is left alone. The palefaces are +his enemies. He thinks of the village beside the pleasant stream, and he +hates them. A warrior of the long house takes no friend from the wigwam +of an Algonquin. Monakatocka is alone." + +He spoke with a wild pathos, his high, stern features working in the +moonlight, and his bold glance softened into an exquisite melancholy. + +"I too am friendless," said Landless, "and bound to a far more degrading +captivity than that you suffer. Our fate is the same." + +The Indian took his hand in his, and raising it, pressed the forefinger +against a certain spot upon his shoulder. "You have a friend," he said. + +"You make too much of a very slight service," said Landless. "But I +embrace your offer of friendship--there's my hand upon it. And now I +must be going upon my way. Good-night!" + +The Indian gave a guttural "Good-night," and Landless strode on through +the thinning woods. Shortly he emerged from the forest and saw before +him tobacco fields and a house, and beyond the house the vast sheet of +the Chesapeake slumbering beneath the moon. There was a beaten path +leading to the house. Landless struck into it and followed it until it +led him beneath a window which (having been once sent with a message to +the Surveyor-General), he knew to belong to the sleeping-chamber of +Major Carrington. Stopping beneath this window he listened for any sound +that might warn him of aught stirring within or without the +mansion,--all was silent, the house and its inmates locked in slumber. + +He took a handful of pebbles from the path and threw them, one by one, +against the wooden shutter, the thud of the last pebble being answered +by a slight noise from within the room. Presently the shutter was opened +and an authoritative voice demanded:-- + +"Who is it? What do you want?" + +Landless came closer beneath the window. "Major Carrington," he said in +a low voice, "It is I, Godfrey Landless. I must have speech with you." + +There was a moment's silence, and then the other said coldly, "'Must' is +a word that becomes neither your lips nor my ears. I know no reason why +Miles Carrington _must_ speak with the servant of Colonel Verney." + +"As you please: Godfrey Landless craves the honor of a word with Major +Carrington." + +"And what if Major Carrington refuses?" said the other sharply. + +"I do not think he will do so." + +The Surveyor-General hesitated a moment, then said:-- + +"Go to the great door. I will open to you in a moment. But make no +noise." + +Landless nodded, and proceeded to follow his directions. Presently the +door swung noiselessly inward, and Carrington, appearing in the opening, +beckoned Landless within, and led the way, still in profound silence, +across the hall to the great room. Here, after softly closing the door, +he lighted candles, saw to it that the heavy wooden shutters were +securely drawn across the windows, and turned to face his visitor in a +somewhat different guise than the riding suit and jack boots, the mask +and broad flapping beaver, in which he had appeared in their encounter +in the hut on the marsh. His stately figure was now wrapped in a +night-gown of dark velvet, his bare feet were thrust into velvet +slippers, and a silken night-cap, half on and half off, imparted a rakish +air to his gravely handsome countenance. He threw himself into a great +armchair and tapped impatiently upon the table. + +"Well!" he said dryly. + +Landless standing before him began to speak with dignity and to the +point. Godwyn, the head of a great conspiracy, was dead, leaving him, +Landless, in some sort his successor. In a conference of the leading +conspirators held but a few nights before the murder, Godwyn had +announced that not only had he given to the son of Warham Landless his +complete confidence, but that in case aught should happen to himself +before the time for action, he would wish the young man to succeed him +in the leadership of the revolt. There had been some demur, but Godwyn's +influence was boundless, and on his advancing reason after reason for +his preference, the Oliverians had acquiesced in his judgment and had +given their solemn promise to respect his wishes. Three nights later, +Godwyn was murdered. Since that dreadful blow, Landless had seen only +such of the conspirators as were in his immediate neighborhood. +Confounded at the turn affairs had taken, and utterly at a loss, they +had turned eagerly to him as to one having authority. For his own +freedom, for the sake of his promise to the dead man, he would do his +utmost. He had come to-night to discover, if possible, Major +Carrington's intentions-- + +Carrington, who had listened thus far with grave attention, frowned +heavily. + +"If my memory serves me, sirrah, I told you once before that Miles +Carrington stirs not hand or foot in this matter. I may wish you well, +but that is all." + +"'Tis a poor friend that cries 'Godspeed!' to one who struggles in a +bog, and gives not his hand to help him out." + +"Your figure does not hold," said the other, dryly. "I have not cried +'Godspeed!' I have said nothing at all, either good or bad. I have +nothing to do with this conspiracy. You are the only man now living +that knows that I am aware that such a thing exists. And I hope, sir, +that you will remember how you gained that knowledge." + +"I am in no danger of forgetting." + +"Very well. Your journey here to-night was a useless as well as a +dangerous one. I have nothing to say to you." + +"Will you tell me one thing?" said Landless, patiently. "What will Major +Carrington have to say to me upon the day when I speak to him as a free +man with free men behind me?" + +"Upon that day," said the other, composedly, "Miles Carrington will +submit to the inevitable with a good grace, having been, as is well +known, a friend to the Commonwealth, and having always, even when there +was danger in so doing, spoken against the cruel and iniquitous +enslavement of men whose only offense was non-conformity, or the having +served under the banners of Cromwell." + +"If he should be offered Cromwell's position in the new Commonwealth, +what then?" + +"Pshaw! no such offer will be made." + +"We must have weight and respectability, must identify ourselves with +that Virginia in which we are strangers, if we are to endure," said +Landless, with a smile. "A fact that we perfectly recognize--as does +Major Carrington. He probably knows who is of, and yet head and +shoulders above, that party in the state upon whose support we must +ultimately rely, who alone could lead that party; who alone might +reconcile Royalist and Puritan;--and to whom alone the offer I speak of +will be made." + +Carrington smiled despite himself. "Well, then, if the offer is made, I +will accept it. In short, when your man is out of the bog I will lend +my aid to cleanse him of the stains incurred in the transit. But he must +pull himself out of the mire. I am safe upon the bank, I will not be +drawn with him into a bottomless ruin. Do I make myself plain?" + +"Perfectly," said Landless, dryly. + +The other flushed beneath the tone. "You think perhaps that I play but a +craven part in this game. I do not. God knows I run a tremendous risk as +it is, without madly pledging life and honor to this desperate +enterprise!" + +"I fail to see the risk," said Landless, coldly. + +The other struck his hand against the table. "I risk a slave +insurrection!" he said. + +A noise outside the door made them start like guilty things. The door +opened softly and a charming vision appeared, to wit, Mistress Betty +Carrington, rosy from sleep and hastily clad in a dressing-gown of +sombre silk. Her little white feet were bare, and her dark hair had +escaped from its prim, white night coif. She started when she saw a +visitor, and her feet drew demurely back under the hem of her gown, +while her hands went up to her disheveled hair; but a second glance +showing her his quality, she recovered her composure and spoke to her +father in her soft, serious voice. + +"I heard a noise, my father, and looking into your room, found it empty, +so I came down to see what made you wakeful to-night." + +"'Tis but a message from Verney Manor, child," said her father. "Get +back to bed." + +"From Verney Manor!" exclaimed Betty. "Then I can send back to-night the +song book and book of plays lent me by Sir Charles Carew, and which, +after reading the first page, I e'en restored to their wrappings and +laid aside with a good book a-top to put me in better thoughts if ever I +was tempted to touch them again. I will get them, good fellow, and you +shall carry them back to their owner with my thanks, if it so be that I +can find words that are both courteous and truthful." + +"Stop, child!" said her father as she turned to leave the room. "The +volumes, which you were very right not to read, may rest awhile beneath +the good book. This is a secret mission upon which this young man has +come. It is about a--a matter of state upon which his master and I have +been engaged. No one here or at Verney Manor must know that he has been +at Rosemead." + +"Very well, my father," said Betty, meekly, "the books can wait some +other opportunity." + +"And," with some sternness, "you will be careful to hold your tongue as +to this man's presence here to-night." + +"Very well, father." + +"You are not to speak of it to Mistress Patricia or to any one." + +"I will be silent, my father." + +"Very well," said the Major. "You are not like the majority of women. I +know that your word is as good as an oath. Now run away to bed, +sweetheart, and forget that you have seen this messenger." + +"I am going now, father," said Betty, obediently. "Is Mistress Patricia +well, good fellow?" + +"Quite well, I believe, madam." + +"She spake of crossing to Accomac with Mistress Lettice and Sir Charles +Carew, when the latter should go to visit Colonel Scarborough. Know you +if she went?" + +"I think not, madam. I think that Sir Charles Carew went alone." + +"Ah! They have fallen out then," said Betty, half to herself, and with a +demure satisfaction in her wild flower face. "I am glad of it, for I +like him not. Thanks, good fellow, for your answering my idle +questions." + +Landless bowed gravely. Betty bent her pretty head, and with a hasty, "I +am going, father!" in answer to an impatient movement on the part of the +Major, vanished from the room. + +Carrington waited until the last light footfall had died away, and then +said, "Our interview is over. Are you satisfied?" + +"At least, I understand your position." + +"Yes," said Carrington, thoughtfully, "it is as well that you should +understand it. It is simple. I wish you well. I am in heart a +Commonwealth's man. I love not the Stuarts. I would fain see this fair +land freed from their rule and returned to the good days of the +Commonwealth. And I may as well acknowledge, since you have found it out +for yourself,"--a haughty smile,--"that I have my ambitions. What man +has not?" He rose and began to pace the room, his hands clasped behind +him, his handsome head bent, his rich robe trailing upon the ground +behind him. + +"I could rule this land more acceptably to the people than can William +Berkeley with his parrot phrases, 'divine right,' and 'passive +obedience.' I know the people and am popular with them, with Royalist +and Churchman as well as with Nonconformist and Oliverian. I know the +needs of the colony--home rule, self taxation, free trade, a more +liberal encouragement to emigrants, religious tolerance, a rod of iron +for the Indians, the establishment of a direct slave trade with Africa +and the Indies. I could so rule this colony that in a twelvemonth's +time, Richard Verney or Stephen Ludlow, hot Royalists though they be, +would be forced to acknowledge that never, since the day Smith sailed up +the James, had Virginia enjoyed a tithe of her present prosperity." + +"'Tis a consummation devoutly to be desired,'" said Landless, dryly. "In +the mean time, like the cat i' the adage--" + +"You are insolent, sirrah!" + +"When a stripling I served under one who took the bitter with the sweet, +the danger as well as the reward, who led the soldiers from whom he took +his throne." + +"Cromwell, sirrah," said Carrington sternly, "led soldiers. You would +require Miles Carrington to lead servants, to place himself, a gentleman +and a master, at the head of a rebellion which, if it failed, would +plunge him into a depth of ignominy and ruin proportionate to the height +from which he fell. He declines the position. When you have won your +freedom he will treat with you. Not before." + +"Then," said Landless slowly, "upon the day on which the flag of the +Commonwealth floats over the Assembly hall at Jamestown, then--" + +"Then I will join myself to you as I have said, and I will bring with me +those without whom your revolution would be but short-lived--the Puritan +and Nonconformist element in the colony, gentle and simple." + +"That is sufficiently explicit," said Landless, "and I thank you." + +"I have trusted you fully, young man," said the other, stopping before +him, "not only because you cannot betray me if you would, seeing that +not one scrap of writing exists to inculpate me in this matter, and that +your word would scarce be taken before mine, but because I believe you +to be trustworthy. I believe also"--graciously--"that Robert Godwyn +(whose death I sincerely mourn) showed his usual wisdom and knowledge of +mankind when he chose you as his confidant and co-worker. I wish you +well through with a dangerous and delicate piece of work and in +enjoyment of your reward, namely, your freedom, and the esteem of the +Commonwealth of Virginia. I will myself see to it that any past offenses +which you are supposed to have committed (for myself, I believe you to +have been harshly used), shall not stand in your light." + +"Major Carrington is very good," said Landless, calmly. "I shall study +to deserve his commendation." + +The other took a restless turn or two through the room, stopping at +length before the younger man. + +"You may tell me one thing," he said in a voice scarcely above a +whisper, and with his eyes bent watchfully upon the other's composed +face. "Had Godwyn set the day?" + +"Yes." + +"And you will adhere to it?" + +"Yes." + +"What day?" + +"The thirteenth of September." + +"Humph! Two weeks off! Well, my tobacco will be largely in, and I shall +send my daughter upon a visit to her Huguenot kindred upon the Potomac. +Good night." + +"Good night," answered Landless. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE + + +Patricia was ennuyee to the last degree. That morning Sir Charles had +ridden to Green Spring with her father; Mistress Lettice was in the +still room decocting a face wash from rose leaves, dew and honey; young +Shaw on his knees in the master's room, disconsolately poring over piles +of musty papers in search of a misplaced deed which the colonel had +ordered him to find against his return. It was a hot and listless +afternoon. Patricia read a page of "The Rival Ladies," tried her spinet, +had a languid romp with her spaniels, and finally sauntered into the +porch, and leaning her white arms upon the railing, looked towards the +dazzling blue waters of the Chesapeake. Presently an idea came to her. +She went swiftly into the hall, and called for Darkeih. When that +handmaiden appeared:-- + +"Darkeih, go down to the quarters, and tell the first man you meet to +find Woodson, and send him to me." + +Darkeih departed, and in half an hour's time the overseer appeared at +the foot of the porch steps, red and heated from his rapid walk from the +Three-Mile field. + +"What's wrong, Mistress Patricia?" he asked quickly. + +Patricia opened her lovely eyes. "Nothing is wrong, Woodson. What +should be? I sent for you, because I want to go to Rosemead." + +"To Rosemead!" exclaimed the overseer. + +"Yes, to Rosemead, and I want a couple of men to take me." + +The overseer gave a short, vexed laugh. "I can't spare the men, Mistress +Patricia. You ought to have known that every man jack on the plantation +is busy cutting. If I had a known this was all that was wanted! Fegs! I +thought something dreadful was the matter." + +"Something dreadful is the matter," said the young lady calmly. "I am +bored to death." + +"Sorry for ye, missy, but I can't spare the men." + +"Oh, yes, you can!" said Patricia with unruffled composure. + +The overseer, knowing his lady, began to weaken. + +"Anyhow, you wouldn't want two men. You might go on a pillion behind old +Abraham. I could spare _him_." + +"I shall not go a-horseback. 'Tis too hot and dusty. I shall go in one +of the sail-boats--the Bluebird, I think." + +"Now, in the name of all that's contrary, what do you want to do that +for, Mistress Patricia?" cried the harassed overseer. "It's twice as far +by water." + +"I'll reach Rosemead before dark. The men can bring the boat back +to-night, and Major Carrington will send me home on a pillion +to-morrow." + +"Have you forgotten that to-morrow is Sunday?" said the overseer +severely, and with a new-born anxiety for the proper observance of the +holy day. "Will you have the Colonel pay a fine for you?" + +"I will go to service with the Carringtons then, and come home on +Monday," said the lady serenely. + +"There's a squall coming up this afternoon." + +"There isn't a cloud in the sky," said his mistress with calm +conviction, looking straight before her at a low, tumbled line of creamy +peaks along the horizon. + +"If the Colonel were here--" + +"He would say, 'Woodson, do exactly as Mistress Patricia tells you.'" +This with great sweetness. + +The overseer gave it up. "I reckon he would, missy," he said with a +grin. "You wind him and all of us around your finger." + +"'Tis all for your good, Woodson," with a soft, bright laugh. Then, +coaxingly, "Am I to have the Bluebird?" + +"I reckon so, Mistress Patricia, seeing that you have set your heart +upon it," said the still reluctant overseer. + +"That's a good Woodson. I want Regulus to be one of the boatmen. You can +send any other you choose. I shall take Darkeih with me." + +"You can't have Regulus, Mistress Patricia," answered the overseer +positively. "He's worth any two men in the field. I can't let him go." + +"Let him be at the wharf in half an hour. I will be ready by then." + +"You can't have him, Missy." + +Patricia stamped her pretty foot. "Am I mistress of this plantation, or +am I not, Woodson?" + +"Lord knows you are!" groaned the overseer. + +"Then when I say I want Regulus, I will have Regulus and no other." + +The overseer sighed resignedly. "Very well, Mistress Patricia, I'll send +for him." + +Patricia danced away, and the overseer strode down the path, viciously +crunching the pebbles and bits of shell beneath his feet. At the wharf +he found a detachment of the infant population of the quarters busily +crabbing; all of whom, save two little Indians who fished stoically on, +scrambled to their feet, and pulled a forelock. The overseer touched one +urchin upon the shoulder with the butt end of his whip. + +"You, Piccaninny, run as fast as your legs will carry you to the field +by the swamp, and tell Regulus to leave his work, and come to the big +wharf. Mistress Patricia wants to go a pleasuring." + +Piccaninny's black shanks and pink heels flew up and out, and he was +away like a flash. The overseer kept on to the end of the wharf, where +were clustered the boats, some tied to the piles, some anchored a little +way out. "Haines was to send a man to caulk a seam in the Nancy," he +muttered. "Whoever he is, he'll have to go in the Bluebird. I'm not +going to take another man from the tobacco. What fools women are! But +they get their way,--the pretty ones at least." He leaned over the +railing, and called,-- + +"You there, in the Nancy!" + +Godfrey Landless looked up from his work. "What is it?" + +The overseer chuckled grimly. "It's that fellow Landless who angered her +once before," he said to himself with a malicious grin. "Well, 't isn't +my business to know which of all the servants on this plantation she +most dislikes to come near her. She'll have to put up with him to-day. +There isn't a better boatman on the place anyhow." + +To Landless he said, "Bring the Bluebird up to the wharf, and see that +she is sweet and clean inside. Mistress Patricia starts for Rosemead in +half an hour, and you and Regulus are to take her. You'll bring the +boat back to-night. Step lively now!" + +Landless brought the Bluebird, a sixteen-foot open boat, up to the +wharf, made the inside, and especially the seat in the stern, spotlessly +clean, put up the sail, and sat down to wait. Presently Regulus appeared +above him, and swung himself down into the boat with a grin of delight, +for he much preferred sailing with "'lil missy" to cutting tobacco. He +had a great burly form and a broad, ebony face, and he was the devoted +slave of Patricia, and of Patricia's maid, Darkeih. Moreover, he enjoyed +the distinction of being the first negro born in the Colony, his parents +having been landed from the Dutch privateer which in 1619 introduced the +slave into Virginia. Viewed through a vista of nigh three hundred years, +he appears a portent, a tremendous omen, a sign from the Eumenides. Upon +that tranquil summer afternoon in the Virginia of long ago he was simply +a good-humored, docile, happy-go-lucky, harmless animal. + +"'Lil Missy's comin'," he remarked, with bonhommie, to his fellow +boatman. + +Darkeih, laden with cushions, appeared at the edge of the wharf. +Landless, standing in the bow below her, relieved her of her burdens, +and taking her by the hands, swung her down into the boat. She thanked +him with a smile that showed every tooth in her comely brown +countenance, and tripped aft, where, with the assistance of Regulus, she +proceeded to arrange a cushioned seat for her mistress. + +Landless waited for the lady of the manor to come forward. In the act of +extending her hands to the boatman, she glanced at him, crimsoned, and +drew back. Landless, interpreting color and action aright, buckled his +armor of studied quiet more closely over a hurt and angry heart. + +"I was ordered to attend you, madam," he said proudly. "But if you so +desire, I will find the overseer and tell him that you wish for some one +else in my place." + +"There is not time," was the cold reply. "And as well you as any other. +Let us be going." + +Landless held out his arms again. She measured with her eyes the +distance between her and the boat. "I do not need any help," she said. +"If you will stand aside, I can spring from here to the prow." + +"And strike the water instead, madam," said Landless, grimly, "when I +would have to touch more than your hand in order to pull you out." + +She colored angrily, but held out her hands. Landless lifted her down +and steadied her to her seat in the stern. She thanked him coldly, and +began at once to talk to Regulus with the playful familiarity of a +child. Regulus grinned delight; he had been "'lil Missy's" slave from +her childhood. Landless untied the boat from the piles and pushed her +off; Regulus, who was to steer, pulled the tiller towards him, and the +little Bluebird glided from the wharf, made a wide and graceful sweep, +and proceeded leisurely down the inlet towards the waters of the great +bay. + +Landless seated himself in the bow, and turned his face away from the +group in the stern. Patricia leaned back amidst her cushions, and opened +a book; Darkeih, upon the other side of the rudder, held a whispered +flirtation with Regulus, squatting at her feet, the tiller in his hand. +There was but little wind, but what there was came from the land, and +the Bluebird moved steadily though listlessly down the inlet, between +the velvet marshes. The water broke against the sides of the boat with a +languid murmur. It was very hot, and the sky above was of a steely, +unclouded blue that hurt the eyes. Only in the southwest the line of +cloud hills was erecting itself into an Alpine range. The glare of the +sun upon the white pages of her book dazzled Patricia's eyes; the heat +and the lazy swaying motion made her drowsy. With a sigh of oppression +she closed her book, and taking her fan from Darkeih, laid it across her +face, and curled herself among her cushions. + +"I will sleep awhile," she said to her handmaiden, and serenely glided +into slumberland. + +She was in a balcony with Sir Charles Carew, looking down upon a +fantastic procession that wound endlessly on, with flaunting banners, +and to the sound of kettle-drums and trumpets, when she was aroused by +Landless' voice. She opened her eyes and looked up from her nest of +cushions to see him standing above her. + +"What is it?" she asked frigidly. + +"I grieve to waken you, madam, but there is a heavy squall coming up." + +She sat up and looked about her. The Bluebird had left the inlet and was +rising and falling with the long oily swell of the vast sheet of water +that stretched before them to a horizon of vivid blue. North and east +the water met the sky; a mile to the westward was the low wooded shore +which they were skirting. + +"The sun is shining," said Patricia, bewildered. "The sky is blue." + +"Look behind you." + +She turned and uttered an exclamation. The Alpine range had vanished, +and a monstrous pall of gray-black cloud was being slowly drawn upward +and across the smiling heaven. Even as she looked, it blotted out the +sun. + +"We had better make for the shore at once," said Landless. "We can reach +it before the storm breaks and can find shelter for you until it is +over." + +Patricia exclaimed: "Why, we cannot be more than three miles from +Rosemead! Surely we can reach it before that cloud overtakes us!" + +"I think not, madam." + +"Regulus!" cried his mistress imperiously. "We can reach Rosemead before +that storm breaks, can we not?" + +Among other amiable qualities, Regulus numbered a happy willingness to +please, even at the expense of truth. + +"Sho-ly, 'lil Missy," he said with emphasis. + +"And it will not be much of a squall, besides, will it, Regulus?" + +"No, 'lil Missy, not much ob squall," answered the obliging Regulus. + +"There is much wind in it," said Landless. "Look at those white clouds +scudding across the black; and these squalls strike with suddenness and +fury. I may put the boat about, madam?" + +"Certainly not. Regulus, who must know the Chesapeake and its squalls +much better than you possibly can, says there is no danger. I have no +mind to be set ashore in these woods with night coming on and Indians or +wolves prowling around." + +"I beg that you will be advised by me, madam." + +She looked at him as she had done that day in the master's room. "Is it +that you are _afraid_ of a Virginia squall? If so, you will have to +conquer your tremor. Regulus, keep the boat as it is." + +Landless went back to his seat in the bow, with tightened lips. The wind +freshened, coming in hot little puffs, and the Bluebird slid more +swiftly over the low hills. The water turned to a livid green and the +air slowly darkened. Across the black pall, looming higher and higher, +shot a jagged streak of fierce gold, followed by a low rumble of +thunder. A mass of gray-white, fantastically piled clouds whirled up +from the eastern horizon to meet the vast blank sullen sheet overhead. +There came a more vivid flash and a louder roll of thunder. + +Landless walked aft and took the tiller from Regulus' hand, motioning +him forward to the place he had himself occupied. The negro stared, but +went with his accustomed docility. Patricia sat upright in indignant +surprise. + +"What are you doing?" + +"I am about to head the boat for the shore," suiting the action to the +word. + +Her eyes blazed. "Did you not hear me say that I wished to proceed to +Rosemead?" + +"Yes, madam, I did." + +"I order you, sir--" + +"And I choose to disobey." + +"I shall report you to Colonel Verney." + +"As you please, madam." + +From the prow, where he had been taking observations, Regulus cried in a +startled voice: "De win 's comin'! De win 's comin' mighty quick!" + +Landless thrust the tiller into Patricia's hands. "Keep it there, just +where it is, for your life!" he cried authoritatively, and bounded +forward to where Regulus was already struggling with the sail. They got +it in and lashed to the mast just in time, for, with the shriek of a +thousand demons, the squall whirled itself upon them. In an instant they +were enveloped in a blinding horror of furious wind and rain, glare of +lightning and incessant, ear-splitting thunder. A leaden darkness, +illuminated only by the lightning, settled around them, and the air grew +suddenly cold. Beneath the whip of the wind the Chesapeake woke from +slumber, stirred, and rose in fury. The Bluebird danced dizzily upon +white crests or swooped into black and yawning chasms. Steadying himself +by the thwarts, Landless went back to Patricia, sitting pale and with +clasped hands, but making no sound. Darkeih, with a moan of fear, had +thrown herself down at her mistress' feet, and was hiding her face in +her skirts. Landless took a scarf from among the pile of cushions, and +wrapped it around Patricia. "'Tis a poor protection against wet and +cold," he said, "but it is better than nothing." + +"Thank you," she said then, with an effort. "Do you think this squall +will last long?" + +"I cannot tell, madam. It is rather a hurricane than a squall. But we +must do the best we can." + +As he spoke there came a fresh access of wind with a glare of +intolerable light. The mast bent like a reed, snapped off clear to the +foot and fell inward, the loosened beam striking Regulus upon the head, +and bearing him down with it. The boat careened violently, and half +filled with water. Darkeih screamed, and Patricia sprang to her feet, +but sat down again at Landless' stern command, "Sit still! She will +right in a moment." + +He lifted and flung overboard the mass of splintered wood and flapping +cloth, then fell to bailing with all his might, for the danger of +swamping was imminent. Presently Patricia touched him upon the arm. "I +will bail if you will see to Regulus," she said, in a low, strained +voice. "I think he is dead." + +Landless resigned the pail into her hands and lifted the negro's head +and shoulders from the water in which he was lying, pillowing them upon +the stern seat. He was unconscious, and bleeding from a cut on the +forehead. + +"He is not dead nor like to die," Landless said. "He will revive before +long." + +The girl gave a long, quivering sigh of relief. Landless finished the +bailing and sat down at her feet. + +Some time later she asked faintly: "Do you not think the worst is over +now?" + +"I am afraid not," he answered gently. "There is a lull now, but I am +afraid the storm is but gathering its forces. But we will hope for the +best--" + +Another flash and crash cut him short. It was followed by rain that +fell, not in drops, but in sheets. The wind, which had been blowing a +heavy gale, rose suddenly into a tornado. With it rose the sea. The +masses of water, hissing and smoking under the furious pelting of the +rain, flung themselves upon the hapless Bluebird, laboring heavily in +the trough of the waves, or staggering over their summits. A constant +glare lit the heaving, tossing world of waters, and the air became one +roar of wind, rain, and thunder. + +Darkeih crouched moaning at her mistress' feet. Regulus lay unconscious, +breathing heavily. Suddenly, with a quick intake of his breath, +Landless seized Patricia, pulled her down into the bottom of the boat, +and held her there. + +"I see," she said in a low, awed voice. "It is Death!" + +Through the glare a long green wall bore down upon them. The Bluebird +leaped to meet it. It lifted her up, up to meet the lightning, then +hurled her into black depths, and passed on, leaving her staggering in +the trough, water-logged and helpless. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FACE IN THE DARK + + +Patricia lifted her white face from her hands. "We rode that dreadful +wave?" she cried incredulously. + +"By God's mercy, yes," said Landless gravely. + +"Is there any hope for us?" + +Landless hesitated. "Tell me the truth," she said imperiously. + +"We are in desperate case, madam. The boat is half filled with water. +Another such sea will sink us." + +"Why do you not bail the boat?" + +"The bucket is gone; the tiller also." + +She shivered, and Darkeih began to wail aloud. Landless laid a heavy +hand upon the latter's shoulder. "Silence!" he said sternly. "Here! I +shall lay Regulus' head in your lap, and you are to watch over him and +not to think of yourself. There's a brave wench!" + +Darkeih's lamentations subsided into a low sobbing, and Landless turned +to her mistress. + +"Try to keep up your courage, madam," he said. "Our peril is great; but +while there is life there is hope." + +"I am not afraid," she said. "I--" The pitching of the boat threw her +against Landless, and he put his arm about her. "You must let me hold +you, madam," he said quietly. She shrank away from his touch, saying +breathlessly, "No, oh no! See! I can hold quite well by the gunwale." He +acquiesced in silence, only lifting her into a more secure position. "I +thank you," she said humbly. + +The storm continued to rage with unabated fury. Flash and detonation +succeeded flash and detonation; the rain poured in torrents; and the +wind whooped on the angry sea like a demon of destruction. The Bluebird +pitched and tossed at the mercy of the great waves that combed above +her. Time passed, and to the darkness of the storm was added the +darkness of the night. The occupants of the boat, drenched by the rain +and the seas she had shipped, shivered with cold. Regulus began to stir +and mutter. "He is coming to himself," Landless cried to Darkeih. "When +you see that he is conscious, make him lie still. He must not move +about." + +"Do you know where we are?" asked Patricia. + +"No, madam; but I fear that the wind is driving us out into the bay." + +"Ah!" + +She said it with a sob, for a sudden vision of home flashed across the +cold and darkness; and presently Landless could hear that she was +weeping. + +The sound went to his heart. "I would God I could help you, madam," he +said gently. "Take comfort! You are in the hands of One who holds the +sea in the hollow of His hand." + +In a little while she was quiet. There passed another long interval of +silent endurance, broken by Patricia's saying piteously, "My hands are +so numbed with cold that I cannot hold to the side of the boat. And my +arms are bruised with striking against it." + +Without a word Landless put his arm around her, and held her steady +amidst the tossings of the boat. "You are shivering with cold!" he said. +"If I had but something to wrap you in!" + +She drooped against him, and the lightning showed him her face, still +and white, with parted lips, and long lashes sweeping her marble cheek. + +"Madam, madam!" he cried roughly. "You must not swoon! You must not!" + +With a strong effort she rallied. "I will try to be brave," she said +plaintively. "I am not frightened,--not very much. But oh! I am cold and +tired!" + +He drew her head down upon his knee. "Let it lie there," he said, +speaking as to a tired child. "I will hold you quite steady. Now shut +your eyes and try to sleep. The storm is no worse than it was; and since +the boat has lived this long in this sea, she may live through the +night. And with morning may come many chances of safety. Try to rest in +that hope." + +Faint and exhausted from cold and terror, she submitted like a child, +and lay with closed eyes in a sort of stupor within his arms. + +There was less lightning now, and the thunder sounded in long booming +peals, instead of short, sharp cannon cracks. The rain, too, had ceased; +but the wind blew furiously, and the sea ran in tremendous waves. +Regulus stirred, groaned, and struggled into a sitting posture. "Lie +down again!" ordered Darkeih. "We 's all on de way to Heaben, but if +nigger shake de boat, we'll get dere befo' de Lawd ready for us. Lie +down!" Regulus, muttering to himself, looked stupidly about him, then +dropped his head back into her lap. In three minutes he was snoring. +Darkeih's whimpering died away, and her turbaned head sank lower and +lower, until it rested upon that of Regulus, and she, too, slept. + +Landless sat very still, holding his burden lightly and tenderly, and +staring into the darkness. Against the steep slope of the sea, a picture +framed itself, melted away, and was followed by others in long +procession. He saw a ruinous, ivy-grown hall, and an old, grave, formal +garden, where, between long box hedges broken by fantastic yews, there +walked a boy, book in hand. A man with a stately figure and a stern, +careworn face met the boy, and they leaned upon a broken dial, and the +father reasoned with the son of Right and Truth and Liberty, and +something touched upon the Tyrannicides of old. The yew trees drooped +their sombre boughs about the figures, and they were gone, and in their +place roared and swelled the Chesapeake.... The sound of the storm +became the sound of a battle-cry. He saw a clanging fight where sword +clashed upon armor, and artillery belched fire and thunder, and horse +and man went down in the melee, and were trampled under foot amidst +shrieks and oaths and stern prayers. The boy who had leaned upon the +dial fought coolly, desperately, drunk with the joy of battle, stung to +fierce effort by his father's eyes. The great banner, blazoned with the +Cross of Saint George, streamed in crimson and azure between the battle +and the lonely watcher in the storm-tossed boat, and the vision was +gone.... The spires of a great city, where men walked with long faces +and church bells made the only music, rose through the gloom, and he saw +a dingy chamber in a dingy stack of buildings, and within it, bending +over great tomes of law, a man, impoverished and orphaned, but young, +strong, and full of hope,--a man well spoken of and allowed to be on the +road to high preferment. The chamber wavered into darkness; but the city +spires flashed light, and the slow ringing changed to mad peals from joy +bells. Some one had been restored--to drop balm upon the bleeding heart +of a nation, to bring light to them that sit in darkness,--so said the +joy bells.... He saw a loathsome prison, and the man who had sat in the +dingy chamber lying therein under accusation of a crime which he had not +committed. He saw him pining there, week after week, month after month, +untried, forgotten, at the mercy of an enemy to his house whose day had +come with the Restored One.... The prison vanished, and the waves that +tossed around him were the waves of the Atlantic. A ship ploughed her +way through them. He saw into her hold,--a horrible place of stench and +filth and darkness,--a place where hounds would not have kenneled. Men +and women were there who cursed and fought for the scanty, worm-eaten +food that was thrown them. Some wore gyves: they were heavy upon the +wrists and ankles of the man of his vision. He saw a face looking down +upon this man, a handsome supercilious face, with insolent amusement in +the languid eyes and in the curves of the lips. The hatches were +battened down upon the cargo of misery, and the ship with its brutal +captain and its handful of gold-laced, dicing, swearing passengers +vanished.... He saw a sandy, grass-grown street, and a row of mean +houses, and a low, brick building with barred windows. There was a crowd +before this building, and a man standing upon the platform of a pillory +was selling human flesh and blood. He saw the boy who had stood beneath +the yews of the old Hall, who had fought at Worcester beneath his +father's eye; the man who had lain in prison and in the noisome hold of +the ship, put up and sold to the highest bidder. He saw him carried away +with other merchandise to the home of his purchaser. He saw a Virginia +plantation lying fair and serene beneath a Virginia heaven; and a wide +porch, and standing therein an angelic vision, all grace and beauty, +vivid youth and splendor. + +The picture vanished into the night that raved about him, and with a +long shaken sigh he let his eyes fall from the watery steeps to the face +of the woman who lay within his arms. He had not looked at her before, +conceiving that she might be awake and feel his glance upon her. Now he +could tell from her breathing that she slept. He gazed upon the pure +pale face with the golden hair falling about it, in a passion of pity +and tenderness. She moaned now and then in her sleep, or turned uneasily +in his arms. Once she spoke a few words, and he bent eagerly to catch +them, thinking that she had awakened and was speaking to him. They +were:-- + +"Ah, your Excellency! where I reign there shall be only good Churchmen +and loyal Cavaliers--no Roundheads, no rebel or convict servants!" and +she laughed in her sleep. + +Landless shrank as from a mortal blow, then broke into a bitter laugh, +and said to himself, "Thou art a fool, Godfrey Landless. It were but too +easy to forget to-night what thou art and what thou must seem to her. +Thou art answered according to thy folly." He sighed impatiently, and +withdrawing his gaze from the sleeping face, fell into a sombre reverie. + +He was roused to active consciousness by a sudden and death-like pause +in the gale. The lightning showed the pall of cloud hanging low, black, +and unbroken; but the wind had sunk into an ominous calm. He looked +anxiously around him, then softly disengaging himself from Patricia, +leaned across her, and shook Regulus awake. The negro started up, stupid +from sleep and from his wound. + +"What is it, massa?" he queried. "Wake mighty early at Rosemead.... Lawd +hab mercy! we 's still on de Chesapeake!" + +"We will be in the Chesapeake in a moment," said Landless sternly, "if +you stagger about in that way. Sit down and pull your wits together. You +are like to need them all directly." He touched Darkeih and said, as her +eyes, wide with alarm, opened upon him, "Listen, my wench! Whatever +happens, you are to trust yourself to Regulus. He is a strong swimmer +and he will take care of you. You hear, Regulus!" + +"What is it?" exclaimed Patricia, as he bent over her. "Why have you +waked Regulus? And oh! has not that dreadful wind died away?" + +"It has stopped, madam, stopped suddenly and utterly," he said gravely. +"But it will come upon us from another quarter, and it will bring the +sea with it." He raised her, and held her with his arm. "Trust yourself +to me when it comes," he said gently. "If I can save you, I will." + +There was no time for more. Above them broke a new and more terrible +storm. A ball of fire shot from the cloud into the sea; it was followed +by a crash that seemed to shake the earth. A cataract of rain descended. +From the northeast there swooped upon them a wind to which the gale of +an hour before seemed a zephyr. It drove the boat before it as if she +had been the bird from which she took her name. It piled wave on wave +until the sea ran in mountains. Athwart the storm came a dull booming +roar, and above the great hills of water appeared a long ridge crested +with white. + +"It is coming," said Landless. + +Patricia looked up at him with great, despairing, courageous eyes. "I +have caused your death," she said. "Forgive me." + +There came a vivid flash, and a loud scream from Darkeih. "De lan'! de +bressed, bressed, lan'!" + +Landless wheeled. Silhouetted against the lit sky he saw a fringe of +pines, and below it a low, shelving shore where the waves were breaking +in foam and thunder. The Bluebird, driven by the wind, was hurrying +towards it in mad bounds. The great wave overtook her, bore her onward +with it, and sunk her within fifty feet of the shore. + +Ten minutes later Landless, breathless and exhausted, staggered from out +the hell of pounding waves and blinding, stinging spray on to the shore. +Unlocking Patricia's arms from about his neck, he laid her gently down +upon the sand and turned to look for the other occupants of the hapless +Bluebird. They were close behind him. In a few minutes the two men, +battling against wind and rain, had borne the women out of reach of the +waves, and had placed them in the shelter of a low bank of sand. As +Landless set his burden down he said reverently, "I thank God, madam." + +"And I thank God," she answered, in the same tone. + +He tried to shield her from the wind with his body. "It is frightful," +he said, "that you should be exposed to such a night. I pray God that +you take no harm." + +"Would it not be more sheltered higher up the shore, under those trees?" + +"Perhaps, but I fear to risk you there with the lightning so near. +Later, when the storm subsides, we will try it." + +He seated himself so as to screen her as much as possible from wind and +rain, and a silence fell upon the party so suddenly snatched from death. +Regulus stretched himself upon the sand and pulled Darkeih down beside +him. Within a few minutes they were both asleep. The white man and woman +sat side by side without speaking, watching the storm. + +By degrees it raved itself out. The rain fell in less and less volume, +the lightning became infrequent, the thunder pealed less loudly, and the +wind died from a hurricane into a breeze. In two hours' time from the +swamping of the boat the booming of the sea, and a ragged mass of cloud, +lit by an occasional flash and slowly falling away from a pale and +watery moon, were the only evidences of the tornado which had raged so +lately. + +"The storm is over," said Patricia, breaking a long silence. + +"Yes," said Landless. "You have nothing to fear now. Would you not like +to walk a little? You must be sadly chilled and weary with long +sitting." + +"Yes, I would," she answered, with a sigh of relief. "Let us walk +towards those trees, and see if forest or water be beyond them." + +He helped her to her feet, and they left the slaves sleeping upon the +ground, and moved slowly, for she was numbed with cold, towards the +fringe of pines. + +Landless walked beside her without speaking. A while ago she had been +simply a woman in danger of death--something for him to protect and to +save. He had well nigh forgotten: he knew that she had quite forgotten. +She was safe now, and was become once more the lady of the manor to +whose soil he was fettered. He had remembered, and she was beginning to +remember, for presently she said timidly and sweetly, but with +condescension in her voice;-- + +"I am not ungrateful for all that you have done for me to-night, for +saving my life. And, trust me, you will not find your mas--my father, +ungrateful either. We will find some way to reward--" + +"I neither merit nor desire reward, madam," said Landless, proudly and +sadly, "for doing but my duty as a man and as your servant." + +"But--" she began kindly, when he interrupted her with sudden passion. + +"Unless you wish to cut me to the heart, to bitterly humiliate me, you +will not speak of payment for any service I may have done you. I have +been a gentleman, madam. For this one night treat me as such." + +"I beg your pardon," she said at once. + +They reached the belt of trees and entered it. Outside, the broken +clouds had permitted an occasional gleam of watery moonshine; within the +shadow of the trees it was gross darkness. Above them the wet branches, +moved by the wind which still blew strongly, clashed together with a +harsh and mournful sound, showering them with heavy raindrops. Their +feet sank deeply in cushions of soaked moss and rotting leaves. + +"There is nothing to be done here," said Landless. "It is better beneath +the open sky." + +There came a last, vivid flash of lightning that for a moment lit the +wood, showing long colonnades of glistening tree trunks, with here and +there a blasted and fallen monster. It showed something more, for within +ten feet of them, from out a tangle of dripping, rain-beaten vines +looked the face of the murderer of Robert Godwyn. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +LANDLESS AND PATRICIA + + +For one moment the parties to this midnight encounter stared at each +other with starting eyeballs; the next, down came the curtain of +darkness between them. + +With a cry of terror Patricia seized and clung to Landless's arm, +trembling violently, and with her breath coming in long, gasping sobs. +Exhausted by the previous terrors of the night, this last experience +completely unnerved her--she seemed upon the point of swooning. Divining +what would soonest calm her, Landless hurried her out of the wood and +down the shore to the bank, beneath which lay the sleeping slaves. Here +she sank upon the sand, her frame quivering like an aspen. "That +dreadful face!" she said in a low, shaken voice. "It is burned upon my +eyeballs. How came it there? Was it--dead?" + +"No, no, madam," Landless said soothingly. "'Tis simple enough. The +murderer is in hiding within these woods, and we stumbled upon his +lair." + +She gazed fearfully around her. "I see it everywhere. And may he not +follow us down here? Oh, horrible!" + +"He is not likely to do that," said Landless, with a smile. "You may +rest assured that he is far from this by now." + +She drew a long breath of relief. "Oh! I hope he is!" she cried +fervently. "It was dreadful! No storm could frighten me as did that +face!" and she shuddered again. + +"Try not to think of it," he said. "It is gone now; try to forget it." + +"I will try," she said doubtfully. + +Landless did not answer, and the two sat in silence, watching out the +dreary night. But not for long, for presently Patricia said humbly:-- + +"Will you talk to me? I am frightened. It is so still, and I cannot see +you, nor the slaves, only that horrid, horrid face. I see it +everywhere." + +Landless came nearer to her, and laid one hand upon the skirt of her wet +robe. "I am here, close to you, madam," he said; "there can nothing harm +you." + +He began to speak quietly and naturally of this and that, of what they +should do when the day broke, of Regulus's wound, of the storm, of the +great sea and its perils. He told her something of these latter, for he +knew the sea; piteous tales of forlorn wrecks, brave tales of dangers +faced and overcome, of heroic endurance and heroic rescue. He told her +tales of a wild, rockbound Devonshire coast with its scattered fisher +villages; of a hidden cave, the resort of a band of desperadoes, half +smugglers, half pirates, wholly villains; of how this cave had been long +and vainly searched for by the authorities; of how, one night, a boy +climbed down a great precipice, scaring the seafowl from their nests, +and lighted upon this cavern with the smugglers in it, and in their +midst a defenseless prisoner whom they were about to murder. How he had +shouted and made wailing, outlandish noises, and had sent rocks hurtling +down the cliffs, until the wretches thought that all the goblins of +land and sea were upon them, and rushed from the cavern, leaving their +work undone. Whereupon, the boy reclimbed the cliff, and hastening to +the nearest village, roused the inhabitants, who hurried to their boats, +and descending upon the long-sought-for cave, surprised the smugglers, +cut them down to a man, and rescued the prisoner. + +The man who told these things told them well. The wild tales ran like a +strain of sombre music through the night. His audience of one forgot her +terror and weariness, and listened with eager interest. + +"Well--" she said, as he paused. + +"That is all. The ruffians were all killed and the prisoner rescued." + +"And the boy?" + +"Oh, the boy! He went back to his books." + +"Did you know him?" + +"Yes, I knew him. See, madam, it has quite cleared. How the moon whitens +those leaping waves!" + +"Yes, it is beautiful. I am glad the prisoner escaped. Was he a +fisherman?" + +"No; an officer of the Excise--a gallant man, with a wife and many +children. Yes, I suppose he prized life." + +"And I am glad that the smugglers were all killed." + +Landless smiled. "Life to them was sweet, too, perhaps." + +"I do not care. They were wicked men who deserved to die. They had +murdered and robbed. They were criminals--" + +She stopped short, and her face turned from white to red and then to +white again, and her eyes sought the ground. + +"I had forgotten," she muttered. + +The hot color rose to Landless's cheek, but he said quietly:-- + +"You had forgotten what, madam?" + +She flashed a look upon him. "You know," she said icily. + +"Yes, I know," he answered. "I know that the perils of this night had +driven from your mind several things. For a little while you have +thought of, and treated me, as an equal, have you not? You could not +have been more gracious to,--let us say, to Sir Charles Carew. But now +you have remembered what I am, a man degraded and enslaved, a felon,--in +short, the criminal who, as you very justly say, should not be let to +live." + +She made no answer, and he rose to his feet. + +"It is almost day, and the moon is shining brightly. You no longer fear +the face in the dark? I will first waken the slaves, and then will push +along the shore, and strive to discover where we are." + +She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Wait," she said, putting out +a trembling hand. "I have hurt you. I am sorry. Who am I to judge you? +And whatever you may have done, however wicked you may have been, +to-night you have borne yourself towards a defenseless maiden as truly +and as courteously as could have done the best gentleman in the land. +And she begs you to forget her thoughtless words." + +Landless fell upon his knee before her. "Madam!" he cried, "I have +thought you the fairest piece of work in God's creation, but harder than +marble towards suffering such as may you never understand! But now you +are a pitying angel! If I swear to you by the honor of a gentleman, by +the God above us, that I am no criminal, that I did not do the thing for +which I suffer, will you believe me?" + +"You mean that you are an innocent man?" she said breathlessly. + +"As God lives, yes, madam." + +"Then why are you here?" + +"I am here, madam," he said bitterly, "because Justice is not blind. She +is only painted so. Led by the gleam of gold she can see well enough--in +one direction. I could not prove my innocence. I shall never be able to +do so. And any one--Sir William Berkeley, your father, your +kinsman--would tell you that you are now listening to one who differs +from the rest of the Newgate contingent, from the coiners and cheats, +the cut-throats and highway robbers in whose company he is numbered, +only in being hypocrite as well as knave. And yet I ask you to believe +me. I am innocent of that wrong." + +The moonlight struck full upon his face as he knelt before her. She +looked at him long and intently, with large, calm eyes, then said softly +and sweetly:-- + +"I believe you, and pity you, sir. You have suffered much." + +He bowed his head, and pressed the hem of her skirt to his lips. + +"I thank you," he said brokenly. + +"Is there nothing?" she said after a pause, "nothing that I can do?" + +He shook his head. "Nothing, madam. You have given me your belief and +your divine compassion. It is all that I ask, more than I dared dream of +asking an hour ago. You cannot help me. I must dree my weird. I would +even ask of your goodness that you say nothing of what I have told you +to Colonel Verney or to any one." + +"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "If I cannot help you, it were wiser not +to speak. I might but make your hard lot harder." + +"Again I thank you." He kissed the hem of her robe once more, and rose +to his feet with a heart that sat lightly on its throne. + +The day began to break. With the first faint flush Landless woke the +slaves, who at length yawned and shivered themselves into consciousness +of their surroundings. "What are we to do now?" demanded Patricia. + +"We had best strike through that belt of woods until we come to some +house, whence we may get conveyance for you to Verney Manor." + +"Very well. But oh! do not let us enter the forest here where we saw +that fearful face. Let us walk along the shore until the light grows +stronger. It is still night within the woods." + +Landless acquiesced with a smile, and the four--he and Patricia in +front, the negroes straying in the rear--set out along the shore. The +air was chill and heavy, but there was no wind, and the unclouded sky +gave promise of a hot day. In the east the rosy flush spread and +deepened, and a pink path stretched itself across the fast subsiding +waters. The wet sand dragged at their feet, and made walking difficult; +moreover Patricia was chilled and weary, so their progress was slow. +There were dark circles beneath her eyes, and her lips had a weary, +downward curve; her golden hair, broken from its fastenings, hung in +damp, rich masses against her white throat and blue-veined temples, and +amidst the enshrouding glory her perfect face looked very small and +white and childlike. The magnificent eyes carried in their clear, brown +depths an expression new to Landless. Heretofore he had seen in them +scorn and dislike; now they looked at him with a grave and wondering +pity. + +As the sun rose, the shipwrecked party left the shore, and entered the +forest. A purple light filled its vast aisles. Far overhead bits of +azure gleamed through the rifts in the foliage, but around them was the +constant patter and splash of rain drops, falling slow and heavy from +every leaf and twig. There was a dank, rich smell of wet mould and +rotting leaves, and rain-bruised fern. The denizens of the woodland were +all astir. Birds sang, squirrels chattered, the insect world whirred +around the yellow autumn blooms and the purpling clusters of the wild +grape; from out the distance came the barking of a fox. The sunlight +began to fall in shafts of pale gold through openings in the green and +leafy world, and to warm the chilled bodies of the wayfarers. + +"It is like a bad dream," said Patricia gayly, as Landless held back a +great, wet branch of cedar from her path. "All the storm and darkness, +and the great hungry waves and the danger of death! Ah! how happy we are +to have waked!" + +Her glance fell upon Landless's face, and there came to her a sudden +realization that there were those in the world, to whom life was not one +sweet, bright gala day. She gazed at him with troubled eyes. + +"I hope you care to live," she said. "Death is very dreadful." + +"I do not think so," he answered. "At least it would be forgetfulness." + +She shuddered. "Ah! but to leave the world, the warm, bright, beautiful +world! To die on your bed, when you are old--that is different. But to +go young! to go in storm and terror, or in horror and struggling as did +that man who was murdered! Oh, horrible!" + +The thought of the murdered man brought another thought into her mind. + +"Do you think," she said, "that we had better tell that we saw the +murderer at the first house to which we come, or had we best wait until +we reach Verney Manor?" + +Landless gave a great start. "You will tell Colonel Verney that?" + +She opened her eyes widely. "Why, of course! What else should we do? Is +not the country being scoured for him? My father is most anxious that he +should be captured. Justice and the weal of the State demand that such a +wretch should be punished." She paused and looked at him gravely as he +walked beside her with a clouded face. "You say nothing! This man is +guilty, guilty of a dreadful crime. Surely you do not wish to shield +him, to let him escape?" + +"Not so, madam," said Landless in desperation. "But--but--" + +"But what?" she asked as he stopped in confusion. + +He recovered himself. "Nothing, madam. You are right, of course. But I +would not speak before reaching Verney Manor." + +"Very well." + +Landless walked on, bitterly perplexed and chagrined. The strife and +danger of the night, the intoxicating sweetness of the morning hours +when he knew himself believed in and pitied by the woman beside him, +had driven certain things into oblivion. He had been dreaming, and now +he had been plucked from a fool's paradise, and dashed rudely to the +ground. Yesterday and the life and thoughts of yesterday, which had but +now seemed so far away, pressed upon him remorselessly. And to-morrow! +He did not want Roach to be taken. Always there would have been danger +to himself and his associates in the capture of the murderer, but now +when the vindictive wretch would assuredly attribute his disaster to the +man to whom the lightning flash had revealed his presence on the shores +of the bay, the danger was trebled. And it was imminent. He had little +doubt that another night would see Roach in custody, and he had no doubt +at all that the scoundrel would make a desperate effort to save his neck +by betraying what he knew of the conspiracy--and thanks to Godwyn's +lists he knew a great deal--to Governor and Council. + +Patricia began to speak again. "It imports much that men should see that +there is no weakness in the arm the law stretches out to seize and +punish offenders. My father and the Governor and Colonel Ludlow believe +that there is afoot an Oliverian plot-- What is the matter?" + +"Nothing, madam." + +"You stood still and caught your breath. Are you ill, faint?" + +"It is nothing, madam, believe me? You were saying?" + +"Oh! the Oliverians! Nothing definite has been discovered as yet, but +there is thunder in the air, my father says, and I know that he and the +Governor and the rest of the council are very watchful just now. But +yesterday my father said that those few hundred men form a greater +menace to the Colony than do all the Indians between this and the South +Sea." + +They walked on in silence for a few moments, and then she broke out. +"They are horrible, those grim, frowning men! They are rebels and +traitors, one and all, and yet they stand by and shake curses on the +heads of true men. They slew the best man, the most gracious sovereign; +they trampled the Church under foot, they made the blood of the noble +and the good to flow like water, and now when they receive a portion of +their deserts, they call themselves martyrs! They, martyrs! Roundhead +traitors!" + +"Madam," interrupted Landless with a curious smile upon his lips, "did +you not know that I was, that I am, what you call a Roundhead?" + +"No," she said, "I did not know," and stood perfectly still, looking +straight before her down the long vista of trees. He saw her face change +and harden into the old expression of aversion. The slaves came up to +them, and Regulus asked if 'lil Missy wanted anything. "No, nothing at +all," she answered, and walked quietly onward. + +Landless, an angry pain tugging at his heart, kept beside her, for they +were passing through a deep hollow in the wood where the gnarled and +protruding roots of cypress and juniper made walking difficult, and +where a strong hand was needed to push aside the wet and pendent masses +of vine. Regulus, fifty yards behind them, began to sing a familiar +broadside ballad, torturing the words out of all resemblance to English. +The rich notes rang sweetly through the forest. Down from the far summit +of a pine flashed a cardinal bird, piercing the gloom of the hollow like +a fire ball thrown into a cavern. Landless held aside a curtain of +glistening leaves that, mingled with purple clusters of fruit, hung +across their path. Patricia passed him, then turned impulsively. "You +think me hard!" she said. "Many people think me so, but I am not so, +indeed.... And there are good Puritans. Major Carrington, they say, is +Puritan at heart, and he is a good man and a gentleman.... And you saved +my life.... At least you are not like those men of whom I spoke. You +would not plot against the good peace which we enjoy! You would not try +to array servant against master?" + +It was a direct question asked with large, straightforward eyes fixed +upon his. He tried to evade it, but she asked again with insistence, and +with a faint doubt lurking in her eyes, "If these men are plotting, +which God forbid! you know nothing of it? You have great wrongs, but you +would take no such dastard way to right them?" + +Landless's soul writhed within him, but he told the inevitable lie that +was none the less a lie that it was also the truth. He said in a low +voice, "I trust, madam, that I will do naught that may misbecome a +gentleman." + +She was quite satisfied. He saw that he had regained the ground lost by +his avowal of a few minutes before, and he cursed himself and cursed his +fate. + +Soon afterwards they emerged from the forest upon a tobacco patch, from +the midst of which rose a rude cabin, in whose doorway stood a woman +serving out bowls of loblolly to half a dozen tow-headed children. + +Half an hour later, Patricia, rested and refreshed, took her seat behind +the oxen, which the owner of the cabin had harnessed up, with much +protestation of his eagerness to serve the daughter of Colonel Verney, +emptied her purse in the midst of the open-mouthed children, and bade +kindly adieu to the good wife. Darkeih curled herself up in the bottom +of the cart, and Landless and Regulus walked beside it. + +In two hours' time they were at Verney Manor, where they found none but +women to greet them, Rendered uneasy by the storm, Woodson had +despatched a messenger to Rosemead, who had returned with the tidings +that no boat from Verney Manor had reached that plantation. The overseer +had ill news with which to greet the Colonel and Sir Charles when at +midnight they arrived unexpectedly from Green Spring. Since then every +able-bodied man had deserted the plantation. There were no boats at the +wharf, no horses in the stables. The master and Sir Charles were gone in +the Nancy, the two overseers on horseback. A Sabbath stillness brooded +over the plantation, until a negro woman recognized the occupants of the +ox-cart lumbering up the road. Then there was noise enough of an +exclamatory, feminine kind. The shrill sounds penetrated to the great +room, where, behind drawn curtains, surrounded by essences, and an odor +of burnt feathers, with Chloe to fan her, and Mr. Frederick Jones to +murmur consolation, reclined Mistress Lettice. As Patricia stepped upon +the porch, Betty Carrington flew down the stairs and through the hall, +and the two met with a little inarticulate burst of cries and kisses. +Mistress Lettice in the great room went into hysterics for the fifth +time that morning. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A CAPTURE + + +At noon the next day returned the search party, dispatched by the +Colonel on receipt of his daughter's information, and headed by Woodson +and Sir Charles Carew. In their midst, bound with ropes, and seated +behind one of the mounted men, was Roach. His clothing hung from him in +tatters, and witnessed, moreover, to the quagmires and mantled pools +through which he had struggled; his arm had been injured, and was tied +with a bloody rag; blood was caked upon his villainous face, scratched +and torn in his breathless bursting through thickets; his red hair fell +over his eyes in matted elf-locks; his lips were drawn back in a snarl +over discolored fangs; he panted like a dog, his thick red tongue +hanging out. He looked hardly human. The man behind whom he rode was +Luiz Sebastian. + +The party dismounted in the small square, in the midst of the quarters. +It being the noon rest, the entire servant population was on hand, and +leaving its cabins and smoking messes of bacon and succotash, it +hastened to a man to the square, where, beneath the dead tree and its +sinister appendage, stood the master, listening to Woodson's account of +the capture, and to Sir Charles's airy interpolations. Roach, dragged +from the horse by a dozen officious hands, staggered with exhaustion. +Luiz Sebastian caught him by the arm and so held him during the ensuing +interview. + +When the unusual bustle, the neighing of the horses, and the excited +voices of the crowd brought the news of the capture to Landless, +sitting, sunk in anxious thought, within his cabin, he rose and began to +pace to and fro in the narrow room. Past his door hurried men, women, +and children on their way to the square. One or two beckoned him to +follow, but he shook his head. "If he betray me," he thought, "my fate +will come to me soon enough. I will not go to meet it." + +In his restless pacing to and fro, he stopped before a shelf where, +beside some coarse eating utensils and the heap of tobacco pegs, the +cutting of which occupied his spare moments, lay a little worn book. It +had been Godwyn's. He opened it at random, and read a few verses. With a +heavy sigh he laid his arm along the shelf and rested his burning +forehead upon it. "'Let not your heart be troubled,'" he said beneath +his breath; and again, "'Let not your heart be troubled.'" He +recommenced his pacing up and down the room. "'Peace I leave with you, +My peace I give unto you.'" Going to the doorway, he leaned against it +and looked out into a world of sunshine, and up to where the topmost +branches of a pine slept against the blue. "There may be peace beyond," +he said. "I have not found it here." + +Down the lane came a murmur of voices; then the overseer's harsh tones; +then a light and mocking laugh. Seized by an uncontrollable impulse he +left the cabin and directed his steps towards the square. As he passed a +cabin some doors from his own, a gaunt figure arose from the doorstep +and joined itself to him. + +"The murderer is here," said the sepulchral voice of Master Win-Grace +Porringer. "Verily the blood hath been taken out of his mouth, and his +abominations from between his teeth. Cursed be the shedder of innocent +blood!" + +"Amen," said Landless; then, "This capture is like to be our ruin. This +wretch will not keep silence." + +"But he has no proofs. Since you destroyed those lists there exists not +a scrap of writing about this affair. And we have covered our tracks as +carefully as if we were the cursed heathen of the land upon the +warpath. Let him say what he will. The Malignants, besotted fools! will +think he lies to save his neck." + +"A week ago they might have thought so," said Landless. "But not now. +Something has gotten abroad. Already Governor and Council think they +smell a plot." + +The Muggletonian caught his breath. "How do you know this?" + +"No matter how: I know it." + +Porringer raised his scarred face to heaven. "God," he said, "we are thy +people! Save us! Let destruction come upon them unawares; let them go +down a dark and slippery way to death; make them to be as blind and deaf +adders that see not the foot of the destroyer! Yea, shake thy hand upon +these Malignants and make them a spoil to their servants!" He turned his +ghastly face and burning eyes upon Landless. "Curse them with me!" he +cried. + +Landless shook his head. "Thou, and I look not alike at things, friend," +he said. + +"Thou art a Laodicean!" cried the other wildly. "Thou hast not an eye +single to the Lord's work as had thy father before thee. Thou wouldst +not smite the Amalekites hip and thigh, root and branch! One damsel +would thou save alive, and for her sake thy heart is soft towards the +whole accursed brood! Look to it lest the Lord spew thee out of His +mouth! Woe, woe, to him that putteth his hand to the plough and looketh +back!" He laughed wildly and tossed out his arms. + +"I think thou hast eaten of the Jamestown weed!" said Landless fiercely. +"Collect thy senses, man! And speak something less loudly, or Roach's +betrayal will be superfluous. As to myself, if I curse not, I act; and +as for my motives for what you call luke-warmness, and I call common +humanity, you will please to let them alone!" + +The excitement faded from the fanatic's face, and he said more quietly, +"You are right, friend. I was mad for a moment, mad to see that freedom +which is so near us so imperiled. I meant not to quarrel with you who +have shown in the conduct of this work the discernment of a young +Daniel, yea, who have so borne yourself, that I have grown to care for +you as I never thought to care again for human being. I have prayed much +that you should be brought from the twilight of Calvinism into the pure +light wherein walk the disciples of the blessed Ludovick." + +They reached the square and mingled with the motly crowd that lined its +sides, leaving the centre occupied only by the murderer, his captors, +and the master. Followed by the Muggletonian, Landless made his way to +where the yellow locks of young Dick Whittington towered above the +crowd. The boy saw him coming, and edging past a knot of blacks, met +him in a little open space, whose only occupants were two or three +women, and an Indian squatting upon the ground. Leaning against a pine, +and fixing his gaze and, to all appearance, his attention upon the +central group where the overseer was just finishing a circumstantial +account of the chase, Landless said quietly:-- + +"You were of the party that took him?" + +"That I was!" answered the boy gleefully. "Losh! but it was fun!" His +blue eyes danced with impish delight; a noiseless laugh showed all his +strong white teeth. "We went straight to the spot where you and Mistress +Patricia saw him by the lightning. There the dogs struck his trail and +the fun commenced. Over streams and fallen trees, and chinquepin ridges; +through bogs and myrtle thickets and miles of grape vines--swounds! but +it was hot work! Just look at the scratches on my face and hands! Joyce +Whitbread wouldn't know me! The Court spark, he wore a mask and saved +his beauty. He's a well-plucked one, though, took the lead and kept it, +and when it was over, treated us to usquebaugh at Luckey Doughty's +store. Well, we run the fox to earth in a Chickahominy village. Lord! +I'm sorry for the half king of the Chickahominies! He'll have to answer +to Governor and Council for letting red fox burrow in his village. Found +him squatted in a sassafras patch. Snarled and fought and tried to bite +like the beast he is. Woodson and the Court spark took him." + +"Do you know what will be done with him now?" + +"He'll be taken on to the gaol at the court-house." + +"That is five miles from here," said Landless. + +"Yes, near to the village where we took him. He'll be kept there until +they can try him. And they'll make short work of him. He'll be food for +crows directly." + +The throng pressed upon them, forcing them nearer to the group beneath +the dead tree. The overseer had finished his account, and the master was +clearing his throat to speak. Landless found himself upon the inner +verge of the mass of spectators, directly opposite the murderer, and +confronted by him with a look so dark, wild and malignant, that he could +not doubt the intention that lay behind those scowling eyes. Luiz +Sebastian, still with the murderer's arm in his grasp, gave him a +peculiar look which he could not translate. In the background he saw +Trail's sinister face peering over the shoulder of an Indian. + +"You dog!" said the planter, addressing himself directly to Roach. "What +have you to say for yourself?" + +The murderer made an uncertain sound with his dry lips, and his +bloodshot eyes roamed around the circle from one staring face to +another, until they returned to rest upon the watchful, amber-hued +countenance beside him. + +"Speak!" said his master sternly. + +"I'll say nothing," was the dogged reply, "until I stands my trial. I +demands a fair trial." + +"Remember that this is your last chance to speak to me, to speak to any +one in authority before you are tried. Of course you will hang for this. +Have you anything to say? Do you wish to speak to me in private?" + +The murderer raised his head, and shaking the tangled hair from about +his face, cast at Landless, standing ten paces beyond the planter, such +a look of deadly and blasting hatred, that for a moment the blood ran +cold in the young man's veins. He set his teeth and braced himself to +meet the blow at plans and hopes and life that should follow such a +look. + +To his astonishment the blow did not fall. Roach changed the basilisk +gaze with which he had regarded him to a vacant stare. + +"I've naught to say," he whined, "except that I hopes your honor will +see that I has a fair trial--no d--d Tyburn or Newgate hocus-pocussing." + +The master beckoned to the overseer. "Take him away," he said. "Take two +or three men and carry him on to the gaol." + +He turned on his heel and walked to where Sir Charles Carew leaned +against a tree, idly flicking the mud from his boots with his riding +cane. Landless standing near and listening with strained ears heard the +master say in answer to the other's lifted brows:-- + +"Nothing to be learnt in that quarter. If there's rebellion brewing, he +knows nothing of it." + +Fresh horses were brought from the stables. "You, Luiz Sebastian, +Taylor, and Mathew," said the overseer, swinging himself into the +saddle. The men designated mounted, and Roach, bound and scowling, was +hoisted to his former seat behind Luiz Sebastian. The cavalcade started. +As the horse that bore the double load passed Landless, the murderer +twisted himself about in his seat, and, with a venomous look, spat at +him. Luiz Sebastian smiled evilly. + +The shaven head and fleshless face of Win-Grace Porringer protruded +themselves over Landless's shoulder. + +"What does it mean?" he muttered. + +"God knows," answered the other. "Come to the trysting place to-night. +We must act, and act quickly." + +That night ten men met in the deserted hut on the marsh, having stolen +with the caution of Indians from their respective plantations. Five were +men who had fought at Edgehill and Naseby and Worcester, or had followed +Cromwell through the breach at Drogheda. Four were victims of the Act of +Uniformity; darker, sterner, more determined if possible, than the +veterans of the New Model. The tenth man was Landless. When, late at +night, he and Porringer crept stealthily back to the quarters, it was +with the conviction that this was the last time they should so steal +through the darkness. The date of the rising had been fixed for the +thirteenth of September; this night, by Landless's advice, it was +brought forward to the tenth--and it was now the sixth. + +Groping his way past the slumbering forms of the three other occupants +of his cabin, Landless threw himself down upon his pallet with a heavy +sigh. + +"Liberty!" he said beneath his breath. "Goddess, whom I and mine have +sought through long years, whom once we thought we held, and waked to +find thee gone,--once I thought thee fairer than aught beside; thought +no price too great to pay for thee. But now!" + +He hid his face in his hands with a stifled groan. When at length he +fell into a troubled sleep, it was to see again a storm-tossed boat, and +a woman's face, set like a star against the blackness of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL + + +At a long, low table stood Mistress Betty Carrington, her slender figure +enveloped in an apron of blue dowlas, her sleeves of fine holland rolled +above her elbows, and her white and rounded arms plunged deep into a +great bowl filled with the purple globes of the wild grape. A row of +children knelt on the brick floor at her feet, busily stripping the +fruit from the stems, and negresses, hard by, strained with sinewy hands +the crimson juice from the pulpy mass into jars of earthenware. To this +group suddenly entered a breathless urchin. + +"Ohe, mistis! de Gov'nor an' Massa Peyton comin' up de road!" + +Betty suspended her operations with a little cry. "The Governor!" she +exclaimed in dismay. "And my father is gone a-processioning;--and my +gown is not seemly;--and he cannot be kept waiting!" She threw off her +apron, dipped her hands into the water the slaves poured for her, and +was at the hall door in time to courtesy to the Governor, as, followed +by a groom, and attended by Mr. Peyton, he rode up to the house. + +With the agility of youth his Excellency sprung from his horse, threw +the reins to the groom, and advanced to greet the lady. A richly laced +riding-suit became his still slight and elegant figure to a marvel; his +gilt-spurred, Spanish leather boots were of the newest, most approved +cut; his periwig was fresh curled, and framed with distinction a +handsome, if somewhat withered, countenance. He doffed his Spanish hat +with a bow and flourish: Betty courtesied profoundly. + +"Welcome to Rosemead, your Excellency." + +"I greet you well, pretty Mistress Betty," said the Governor, and took a +governor's privilege. Mr. Peyton looked as though he would have liked to +follow his Excellency's example, but was fain to content himself with +the lady's hand, resigned to the respectful pressure of his lips with a +charming blush and a dropping of long-fringed eyelids. + +"Where is your father, sweetheart?" demanded the Governor. + +"Ah! your Excellency, he is unfortunate. The vestry hath appointed this +day for the examination of boundaries in this parish, and as his +Majesty's Surveyor-General he leads the procession. But will not your +Excellency await his return? He will be here anon, and with him Colonel +Verney." + +"Then will I wait, pretty one; for I have weighty matters to discuss +both with him and with Dick Verney." + +Betty ushered them into the great room, cool, dark, and fragrant of +roses. + +"If your Excellency will permit me to withdraw, I will order some +refreshment for you after your long ride." + +The Governor sank into an armchair, and smiled graciously. + +"Faith! a bit of pasty comes not amiss after a morning canter. And +prithee see to the sack thyself, Mistress Betty. And a dish of pippins +and cheese," continued the Governor, meditatively, "and a rasher of +bacon." + +"There was a fine comb taken from the hive this morning. Will your +Excellency choose a bit? And there are dates, sent my father by the +captain of the Barbary vessel, and a quince tart--" + +"We will taste of it all," said his Excellency, graciously, "and +afterwards a pipe and a saucer of sweet scented, and your company, my +love. Mr. Peyton, the lady may find the honeycomb too heavy for her +lifting. We will excuse you to her assistance." + +"I am your Excellency's most obedient servant," quoth Mr. Peyton with +due submission, and hastened after his blushing mistress. + +The Governor, left alone, strolled to the window and looked out upon the +Chesapeake, lying blue and unruffled beneath the dazzling sunshine; to +the mantel-piece, and smelt of the roses in the blue china bowl; to the +spinet, and picked out "Here's to Royal Charles" with one finger;--and +finally brought up before a corner cupboard, found the key in the door, +turned it, and came upon the Surveyor-General's library. + +"H'm, what has he here?" soliloquized his Excellency. "'Purchas; His +Pilgrimes,' of course; 'General History of Virginia, New England and the +Summer Isles,' well and good; 'Good News from Virginia,' humph! that +must have been before my time; 'Public Good without Private Interest,' +humph! What's this? 'Areopagitica,' John Milton! John Hypocrite and +Parricide! A pretty author, and a pretty cause he advocates,--I thank +God there are no schools and no printing presses in this colony, nor +are like to be,--and a courageous Surveyor-General to keep by him such +pestilent stuff in the present year of grace. 'Abuses Stript and Whipt,' +'Anglia Rediva,' 'Diary of Nehemiah Wallington,' 'Bastwick's Litany!' +Miles Carrington, Miles Carrington! I have my eye on thee! Thou hadst +need to walk warily! 'Zion's Plea against Prelacy,' damnation! 'Speech +of Mr. Hampden,' death and hell! 'Eikonoklastes,' may the foul fiend fly +away with my soul!" + +And the Governor closed the cupboard door with a bang, and, with a very +red and frowning face, went back to his seat, and there sank into a +reverie, which lasted until the entrance of Mistress Betty and Mr. +Peyton, followed by two slaves bearing an ample repast. + +An hour later came home the Surveyor-General, bringing with him Colonel +Verney, Sir Charles Carew, and Captain Laramore. + +The Surveyor-General made stately apologies to his Excellency for his +unavoidable absence: his Excellency, holding himself very erect, heard +him out, and then said coldly, "Major Carrington may rest at ease. I was +sufficiently amused." + +"Truly the county knows Mr. Peyton's powers of entertainment," said the +Surveyor-General with a bow and smile for that young gentleman. + +"Mr. Peyton had other occupation," said the Governor dryly. "And I fear +that his is too cavalier a wit, and that his sonnets and madrigals savor +too much of loyalty to the Anointed of the Lord and to His Church to +have proved acceptable to the worshipful company with whom I have been +engaged. I have to congratulate his Majesty's Surveyor-General on the +possession of such a library as, I dare swear, is to be found in no +other house in this, his Majesty's _loyal_ dominion of Virginia." + +Carrington glanced towards the cupboard, and bit his lip. + +"I am pleased," he said stiffly, "that your Excellency hath found +wherewithal to pass an idle hour." + +"It is, indeed, a choice collection," said the Governor, with a smooth +tongue, but with an angry light in his eyes. "May I ask by whom it was +chosen; who it was that so carefully culled nightshade and poison oak?" + +"_I_ choose my own reading," said Carrington haughtily. "And I see not +why Sir William Berkeley should concern himself--" + +"This passes!" exclaimed the Governor, giving rein to his fury and +striking his hand against the table. "It doth concern me much, Major +Carrington, both as a true man, and as the Governor of this Colony, the +representative of his blessed Majesty, King Charles the Second, may all +whose enemies, private and open, be confounded! that a gentleman who +holds a high office in this Colony should have in his possession--ay! +and read, too, for 'tis a well-thumbed copy--that foul emanation from a +fouler mind, that malicious, outrageous, damnable, proscribed book, +called 'Eikonoklastes!'" + +"If Sir William Berkeley doubts my loyalty--" began Carrington fiercely. + +"Major Carrington, you are too popular a man!" broke in the Governor as +fiercely. "When, upon that black day, ten years ago, the usurper's +frigates entered the Chesapeake, and taking us unprepared, compelled +(God forgive me!) my submission, who but Miles Carrington welcomed and +entertained the four commissioners (commissioners from a Roundhead +Parliament to a King's Governor!)? Who but Miles Carrington was hand in +glove with the shopkeeper Bennett and the renegade Matthews? Oh! they +used their power mildly, I deny it not! They were gracious and +long-suffering; they left to the loyal gentlemen, their sometime +friends, life and lands; they contented themselves with banishing a +loyal Governor to his own manor-house, and not, as they might have done, +to the wilderness, to perish amongst the savages. O, they were exemplary +despots! What, when a turn of Fortune's wheel brought them up, could +grateful, loyal gentlemen, could a grateful King's Governor do, but +follow the example set them and be civil to the officers of the late +Commonwealth, and something more than civil to the gentleman who so +gracefully avowed that he had but bowed to the times, and that the +restored sovereign had no more faithful subject than he? When his +Majesty was graciously pleased to continue that gentleman (at the +solicitation of his loyal kindred at home) in the office of +Surveyor-General to this colony, sure, we all rejoiced. It is not with +the past of Major Carrington that I quarrel; it is with the present. In +his case, that which should speak loudest for his recovered loyalty is +wanting. Others there are who have that witness. Let Mr. Digges ride +abroad, and from his cabin-door some prick-eared cur cried out, +'Renegade!' (Pardon me, the word is not mine.) The Oliverian and +schismatic servants spit at him. Is it so with Major Carrington? By +G--d, no! These people uncover to him as though he were the arch rebel +himself. Speak of his Majesty's Surveyor-General before an Oliverian, +and the fellow pricks up his ears like a charger that scents the battle. +Nay, I am told that in their conventicles the schismatics pray for him, +that he may be brought back into the fold, and may become a second +Moses, and lead them out of Egypt! Even the Quakers have a good word for +him. Major Carrington asks me if I question his loyalty. I answer that I +know not, but I do know that the discontented and mutinous of the land +do look upon him with too favorable a regard. And his loyalty is of that +tender age that it may well be susceptible to the influence of the evil +eye." The Governor, who was now in a white heat of passion, stopped for +breath. + +"Sir William Berkeley, you shall answer to me for this!" said the +Surveyor-General, with white lips. + +"With all the pleasure in life," said the Governor, clapping his hand to +his rapier. + +Carrington folded his arms. "Not now," he said, with stern courtesy. "I +believe your Excellency sleeps at Verney Manor? I, too, am invited +thither. There, and it please you, we will adjust our little difference. +For the present, you are my guest." + +The Governor choked down his passion, though with difficulty. "Till +to-night then--" he began, when Colonel Verney interposed. + +"Neither to-night, nor at any other time," he said sturdily. "Gadzooks! +have not his Majesty's servants enough on hand without employing their +time in pinking one another? Here are the Chickahominies restive, and +those plaguy Ricahecrians amongst us, and the Nansemond Independents +prophesying the end of the world, and the witches' trial coming on, and +the Quakers to be routed out, and on top of it all this story that +Ludlow brings of a redemptioner's assertion that there is afoot an +Oliverian plot. And his Majesty's Governor, and his Majesty's +Surveyor-General with drawn rapiers! For shame, gentlemen! Major +Carrington, my good friend and neighbor, for whose loyalty to our +present gracious sovereign I would answer for as I would for my own, +forget the hasty words which I am sure Sir William Berkeley already +regrets. Come, Sir William, acknowledge that you were over-choleric." + +"I'll be d--d if I do!" cried the Governor. + +"We meet to-night," said the Surveyor-General. + +The Colonel turned to Sir Charles Carew, who had been a highly amused +spectator of this little scene. + +"Charles," he said impressively, "report hath it that you have figured +in more affairs of honor than any man of your age at court. You should +be a nice judge of such gear. Join me in assuring these gentlemen that +they may be reconciled, and their honor receive not the least taint; and +so avert a duel which would be a scandal to the community, and a menace +to the state." + +Sir Charles glanced from the pacific Colonel to the sternly collected +Surveyor-General, and thence to the fiery Governor, whose white, jeweled +fingers twitched with impatience. + +"Certainly, sir," he said lazily, "you are welcome to my poor opinion, +which is that, considering the nature of the provocation, and the +standing of the parties, there is one way out of the affair with honor." + +"Exactly!" said the Colonel eagerly. + +Sir Charles locked his hands behind his head. "There's a very pretty +piece of ground behind your orchard, sir," he said, dreamily regarding +the ceiling. "I noticed it the other day, and sink me! if I did not +wish for Harry Bellasses with whom I have fought three times. 'Tis ever +a word and a blow with Harry! The light just at sunset is excellent, +though your twilight cometh over soon. May I venture to suggest to your +Excellency that your _riposte_ is more brilliant than safe? Major +Carrington, your parade is somewhat out of fashion. I could teach you +the newest French mode in five minutes." + +"I am obliged for your offer, sir," said the Surveyor-General dryly. +"The other has served my turn, and must do so again." + +"Sir Charles Carew will do me the honor to be my second?" asked the +Governor of that gentleman, who answered with a low bow, and a "The +honor is mine." + +"Captain Laramore?" said the Surveyor-General. + +"At your service, Major," cried the Captain, a dashing, black-a-vised +personage, with large gold rings in his ears, a plume a yard long in his +castor, and a general Drawcansir air. + +"Will Captain Laramore fight?" inquired Sir Charles. "I have had the +honor of changing the date for sailing for several gentlemen of his +profession." + +"Even so accomplished a swordsman as Sir Charles Carew is allowed to be, +hath yet a lesson to learn," said the doughty captain. + +"And that is--" + +"Pride shall have a fall--to-night." + +Sir Charles smiled politely. "The ship that is anchored off yonder point +is yours, is it not? Would you not like to take a last look at her? Or +to leave instructions for your lieutenant and successor? There is time +for you to gallop to the point and back." + +"Am I to have the honor of crossing swords with you, Colonel Verney?" +asked Mr. Peyton. + +"No, sir!" exclaimed the vexed Colonel. "You are not! I wash my hands of +this foolish fray. William Berkeley, I have never scrupled to tell thee +when I thought thee in the wrong. I think so now. Charles, thou art an +impudent fellow! I have it in my mind to wish that the Captain may give +thee the lesson he talks of." + +"Thank you, sir," drawled the gentleman addressed. "Mr. Peyton looks +quite disconsolate. Sink me! if it's not a shame to leave him out in the +cold. If he will wait his turn I will be happy to oblige him when I have +disposed of the Captain." + +"You will do no such thing!" retorted his kinsman. "Mr. Peyton, take +your hand off your sword! At least there shall be two sane men at this +meeting. I suppose, gentlemen, you agree with me that this affair cannot +be kept too private? To that end you had best ride with me to Verney +Manor, and there have it out on this plot of ground Charles talks of. It +is at least retired." + +"'Tis a most sweet spot," said Sir Charles. + +"Good!" quoth the Governor. "And now that this little matter is settled, +I am once more, and for the present, sir, simply your obliged guest and +servant," and he bowed to the Surveyor-General. + +Carrington returned the bow. "We will drink to our better acquaintance +to-night. Pompey! the sack and the aqua vitae. And, Pompey! a handful of +mint." + +The company fell to drinking, and then to tobacco. The Governor, whose +fits of passion were as short as they were violent, arrived by rapid +degrees at a pitch of high good humor. The company listened gravely for +the fiftieth time to stories of the court of the first James; of +Buckingham's amours, of the beauty of Henrietta Maria, of a visit to +Paris, an interview with Richelieu, a duel with a captain of +Mousquetaires, a kiss imprinted upon the fair hand of Anne of Austria. +The charmed stream of the old courtier's reminiscences flowed on--he +stopped for breath, and Sir Charles took the word and proceeded to +unfold before their dazzled eyes a gorgeous phantasmagoria. The King, +the Duke, Sedley and Buckingham, Mesdames Castlemaine, Stuart and +Gwynne, Dryden and Waller and Lely, the King's house, the Queen's +chapel, the Queen's duennas, the Tityre Tus, Paul's Walk, the Russian +Ambassador, astrologers, orange girls, balls, masques, pageants, duels, +the court of Louis le Grand, the King's hunting parties, Madame +d'Orleans, Olympe di Mancini. + +The Governor listened with dilating nostrils and sparkling eyes; Colonel +Yerney's vexed countenance smoothed itself; Captain Laramore, sitting +with outstretched legs, and head hidden in clouds of tobacco smoke, +rumbled from out that obscurity laughter and strange oaths. Even Mr. +Peyton, after vainly trying to fix his attention upon the construction +of a sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow, succumbed to the enchantment, and +sat with parted lips, drinking in wonders; but the Surveyor-General, +though he listened courteously, listened with forced smiles and with an +attention which was hard to preserve from wandering. + +In the midst of a brilliant account of the nuptials of the Chevalier de +Grammont came an interruption. + +"De horses am fed an' brought roun', massa." + +The Governor started up. "Rat me, if good sack and good stories make +not a man forget all else beside! Colonel Verney, I wish you, as +lieutenant of this shire, to ride with me to this Chickahominy village +where I have promised an audience to the half king of the tribe. Plague +on the unreasonable vermin! Why can they not give way peaceably? If the +colony needs and takes their lands, it leaves them a plenty elsewhere. +Let them fall back towards the South Sea. Sir Charles, I grieve for the +necessity, but we must leave the court and come back to the wilderness. +Gentlemen, will you ride with Verney and me, or shall we part now to +meet at sunset in his orchard?" + +"We had best ride with your Excellency," said Carrington gravely. "I +like not the temper of the Chickahominies, who ever mean most when they +say least. And these roving Ricahecrians, their guests, are of a strange +and fierce aspect. It is as well to go in force." + +"Those vagrants from the Blue Mountains have been here overlong," said +the Governor. "I shall send them packing! Well, gentlemen, since we are +to have the pleasure of your company, boot and saddle is the word!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED + + +The sun had some time passed the meridian when the party saw through the +widening glades of the forest the gleam of a great river, and upon its +bank an Indian village of perhaps fifty wigwams, set in fields of maize +and tobacco, groves of mulberries, and tangles of wild grape. The +titanic laughter of Laramore and the drinking catch which Sir Charles +trolled forth at the top of a high, sweet voice had announced their +approach long before they pushed their horses into the open; and the +population of the village was come forth to meet them with song and +dance and in gala attire. The soft and musical voices of the young women +raised a kind of recitative wherein was lauded to the skies the virtue, +wisdom and power of the white father who had come from the banks of the +Powhatan to those of the Pamunkey to visit his faithful Chickahominies, +bringing (beyond doubt) justice in his hand. The deeper tones of the men +chimed in, and the mob of naked children, bringing up the rear of the +procession, added their shrill voices to the clamor, which, upon the +booming in of a drum and the furious shaking of the conjurer's rattle, +became deafening. + +The chant came to an end, but the orchestra persevered. Ten girls left +the throng, formed themselves into line, and advancing one after the +other with a slow and measured motion, laid at the feet of the Governor +(who had dismounted) platters of parched maize, beans and chinquepins, +with thin maize cakes. They were succeeded by two stalwart youths +bearing, slung upon a pole between them, a large buck which they +deposited upon the ground before the white men. There came a tremendous +crash from the drum, and a discordant scream from a long pipe made of a +reed. The crowd opened, and from out their midst stalked a venerable +Indian. + +"My fathers are welcome," he said gravely. + +"Where is the half king?" demanded the Governor sharply. "I have no time +for these fooleries. Make them stop that infernal racket, and lead us to +your chiefs at once." + +The Indian frowned at this cavalier reception of the village civilities, +but he waved his arm for the music to cease, and proceeded to conduct +the visitors through a lane made by two rows of dusky bodies and staring +faces, to a large wigwam in the centre of the village. Before this hut +stood a mulberry tree of enormous size, and seated upon billets of wood +in the shade of its spreading branches were the half king of the tribe +and the principal men of the village. + +Their faces and the upper portions of their bodies were painted red--the +color of peace. They wore mantles of otter skins, and from their ears +depended strings of pearl and bits of copper. To the earring of the half +king were attached two small, green snakes that twisted and writhed +about his neck; his body had been oiled and then plastered with small +feathers of a brilliant blue, and upon his head was fastened a stuffed +hawk with extended wings. + +To one side of this group stood a band of Indians, two score or more in +number, who differed in appearance and attire from the Chickahominies. +The iron had entered the soul of the latter; they had the bearing of a +subject race. Not so with the former. They were men of great size and +strength, with keen, fierce faces; their clothing was of the scantiest +possible description; ornaments they had, but of a peculiar +kind--necklaces and armlets of human bones, belts in which long tufts of +silk grass were interwoven with a more sinister fibre. They leaned on +great bows, and each sternly motionless figure looked a bronze Murder. + +The chief of the Chickahominies raised his eyes from the ground as the +Governor and his party entered the circle. "My white fathers are +welcome," he said. "Let them be seated," and looked at the ground again. +The "white fathers" took possession of half a dozen billets, and waited +in silence the next move of the game. After a while, the half king +lifted from the log beside him a pipe with a stem a yard long and a bowl +in which an orange might have rested. An Indian, rising, went to where a +fire burned beneath a tripod, and returning with a live coal between his +fingers, calmly and leisurely lighted the pipe. The half king, still in +dead silence, lifted it to his lips, smoked for five minutes, and handed +it to the Indian, who bore it to the Governor. The Governor drew two or +three tremendous whiffs and passed it on to Colonel Verney, who in his +turn transferred it to the Surveyor-General. When the monster pipe had +been smoked by each of the white men, it went the round of the savages. +An Indian summer haze began to settle around the company. Through it the +patient gazing throng on the outskirts of the circle became shadowy, +impalpable; the face of the half king, now hidden in shifting smoke +wreaths, now darkly visible, like that of an eastern idol before whom +incense is burned. There was no sound save the wash of the waters below +them, the sighing of the wind, the drone of the cicadas in the trees. +The Indians sat like statues, but the white men were more restive. The +elders managed to restrain their impatience, but Laramore began to +whistle, and when checked by a look from the Governor, turned to Sir +Charles with a comically disconsolate face and a shrug of the shoulders. +Whereupon the latter drew from his pocket, dice and a handful of gold +pieces. Laramore's face brightened, and the two, screened from +observation by the Colonel's shoulders, which were of the broadest, fell +to playing noiselessly, cursing beneath their breath. Mr. Peyton leaned +his elbow on his knee, and his chin upon his hand, and allowed the +dreamy beauty of the afternoon to overflow a poetic soul. + +At length, and when the patience of the whites was well-nigh exhausted, +the pipe came back to where the half king sat with lowered eyes and +impassive face. He laid it down beside him and rose to his feet, +gathering his mantle around him. + +"My white fathers are welcome," he said in a sonorous voice. "Very +welcome to the Chickahominies is the face of the white father, who rules +in the place of the great white father across the sea. Their corn feast +is not yet, and yet my people rejoice. Our hearts were glad when my +father sent word that he would this day visit his faithful +Chickahominies. Our ears are open: let my father speak." + +"I thank Harquip and his people for their welcome," said the Governor +coldly. "I have ever found them full of words. They profess loyalty to +the great white father beyond the seas, but they forget his good laws +and disobey his officers. I am weary of their words." + +"Tell me," said Harquip, with a sombre face, "are they good laws which +drive us from our hunting grounds? Are they good laws which take from us +our maize fields? Does the great white father love to hear our women cry +for food? or is his heart Indian and longs for the sound of the war +whoop?" + +"That is a threat," the Governor said sternly. + +The Indian waved his hands. "Have we not smoked the peace pipe?" he said +coldly. + +"Humph!" said the Governor then, "I am not come to listen to idle +complaints. Your grievances as to the land shall be laid before the next +Assembly, and it will pass judgment upon them--justly and righteously, +of course." + +"Ugh!" said the Indian. + +"I am here," continued the Governor, "to ask certain questions of the +Chickahominies, and to lay certain commands upon them which they will do +well to obey." + +"Let my father speak," said the Indian calmly. + +"Why did you shelter in your village the man with the red hair? Word was +sent to all the tribes, to the Nansemonds, the Wyanokes, the Cheskiacks, +the Paspaheghs, the Pamunkeys, the Chickahominies, that he should be +delivered up if they found him among them. Why did the Chickahominies +hide him?" + +"In the night time, the red fox came to the village of the +Chickahominies and burrowed there. The eyes of my people were closed: +they saw him not." + +"Humph! Why did you not carry your guns to the Court House when the +tribes were ordered to do so, a fortnight ago, and leave them there, +taking in exchange roanoke and fire-water?" + +"My fathers asked much," said the half king gloomily. "My young men love +their sticks-that-speak. They love to see the deer go down before them +like maize before the hail storm. My fathers asked much." + +"How many guns has your village?" + +"Five," was the prompt reply. + +"Humph! To-morrow you will deliver ten guns to the captain of the +trainband at the court-house. When do these men," pointing to the +stranger band, "return to their tribe?" + +"They are our friends. They wait to dance the corn dance with us. Then +will they return to the Blue Mountains, and will tell the Ricahecrians +of the great things they have seen, and of the wisdom and power of my +white fathers." + +"When is your corn feast?" + +"Seven suns hence." + +"They must be gone to-morrow." + +The face of the half king darkened, and there was a slight, instantly +repressed movement among the circle of braves. + +"My father asks very much," said the half king with emphasis. + +"Not more than I can, and will, enforce," said the Governor sternly, and +getting to his feet as he spoke. "You, Harquip, shall be answerable to +me and to the Council for these men's departure to-morrow. If by sunrise +of the next morning their canoes are far up the river, headed for the +Blue Mountains, if by the same hour the guns which you have retained in +defiance of the express decree of the Assembly, be given up to those at +the Court House, then will I overlook your hiding the man with the red +hair, and the Assembly will listen to your complaints as to your hunting +grounds. Disobey, and my warriors shall come, each with a +stick-that-speaks in his hand. I have spoken," and the Governor beckoned +to the servants who held the horses. + +The half king rose also. "My white father shall be obeyed," he said with +gloomy dignity. "He is stronger than we. Otee has been angry with the +red men for many years. He is gone over to the palefaces and helps their +god against the red men. My young men shall take their guns back to the +palefaces to-morrow, and shall bring back fire-water, and we will drink, +and forget that the days of Powhatan are past and that Otee fights +against us. Also when the Pamunkey is red with to-morrow's sunset, my +brothers from the Blue Mountains shall turn their faces homewards. My +father is content?" + +"I am content," said the Governor. + +"There is a thing which my brothers have to say to my white fathers," +continued the half king. "Will they hear the great chief, Black Wolf?" + +The Governor pulled out a great watch, glanced at it, and sighed +resignedly. "Gentlemen, have patience a moment longer. Harquip, I will +listen to the Ricahecrian until the shadow of that tree reaches the +fire. What says he?" + +The half king spoke to the strangers in their own tongue--their ranks +broke, and an Indian stalked forward to the centre of the circle. His +tall, powerful, nearly nude figure was thickly tatooed with +representations of birds and beasts; he wore an armlet of a dull, +yellow metal ("Gold! by the Eternal!" ejaculated the Governor to Colonel +Verney); over his naked, deeply scarred breast hung three strings of +hideous mementoes of torture stakes; the belt that held tomahawk and +scalping knife was fringed with human hair; beside his streaming +scalplock was stuck the dried hand of an enemy. The face beneath was +cunning, relentless, formidable. He spoke in his own language, and the +half king translated. + +"Black Wolf is a great chief. In his village in the Blue Mountains are +fifty wigwams--the largest is his. There are a hundred braves--he leads +the war parties. The Monacans run like deer, the hearts of the +Tuscaroras become soft, they hide behind their squaws! Black Wolf is a +great chief. Seven moons of cohonks have passed since the Ricahecrians +sharpened their hatchets and came down from the mountains to where the +waters of Powhatan fall over many rocks. There they met the palefaces. +The One above all was angry with his Ricahecrians. They saw for the +first time the guns of the palefaces. They thought they were gods who +spat fire at them and slew them with thunder. Their hearts became soft, +and they fled before the strange gods. Some the palefaces slew, and some +they took prisoner. Black Wolf saw his brother, the great chief Grey +Wolf, fall. The Ricahecrians went back to the Blue Mountains, and their +women raised the death chant for those whom they left stretched out on +the bank of the great river.... Seven times had the maize ripened, when +Black Wolf led a war party against a tribe that dwelt on the banks of +the Pamunkey where a fallen pine might span it. The waters ran red with +blood. When there were no more Monacans to kill, when the fires had +burnt low, Black Wolf looked down the waters of the Pamunkey. He had +heard that it ran into a great water that was salt, whose further bank a +man could not see. He had heard that the palefaces rode in canoes that +had wings, great and white. He thought he would like to know if these +things were true, or if they were but tales of the singing birds. To +find out, Black Wolf and his young men dipped their oars into the water +of the Pamunkey, and rowed towards the moonrise. In the morning they met +twenty men of the Pamunkeys in three canoes. The Pamunkeys lie deep in +the slime of the river; the eels eat them; their scalps shall hang +before the wigwams of Black Wolf and his young men. In the afternoon, +they drove their canoes into the reeds and went into the forest to find +meat. Black Wolf's arrow brought down a buck and they feasted. +Afterwards they caught a hunter who saw only the deer he was chasing. +They tied him to a tree and made merry with him. When he was dead, they +drew their boats from out the reeds, and rowed on down the broadening +river. The next day, at the time of the full sun-power, they came to +this village. Many years before the palefaces came, the Chickahominies +were a great nation, reaching to the foot of the Blue Mountains, and +then were they and the Ricahecrians friends and allies. When Black Wolf +showed them the totem of his tribe upon his breast, they welcomed him +and his young men. That was ten suns ago. Black Wolf and his young men +have seen many things. When they go back to the Blue Mountains, the +Ricahecrians will think they listen to singing birds. They will tell of +the great salt water, of the boats with wings, of the palefaces, of +their fields of maize and tobacco, of the black men who serve them, of +their temples, werowances and women. They will tell of the great white +father who rules, of his power, his wisdom, his open hand--" + +"I thought it would come at last," quoth the Governor. "What does he +want, Harquip?" + +"The Ricahecrian starts for his wigwam in the Blue Mountains to-morrow +as my father commands. He says: 'Shall I not return to my people with a +gift from the great white father in my hand?'" + +The Governor laughed. "Let one of your young men go to the court-house. +I will give him an order for beads, for a piece of red cloth, and yes, +rat me! he shall have a mirror! I hope he is satisfied!" + +The half king's eyes gleamed covetously. "My father gives large gifts. +He has indeed an open hand. But the Ricahecrian desires another thing. +He says: 'Seven years ago, at the falls of the Powhatan, Black Wolf saw +his brother fall before the stick-that-speaks of the palefaces. Grey +Wolf was a great chief. The village in the Blue Mountains mourned very +much. Nicotee, his squaw, went wailing into the land of shadows. His son +hath seen but seven moons of corn, but he dreams of the day when he +shall sharpen the hatchet against the slayers of his father.... The +Chickahominies have told Black Wolf that his brother was wounded and not +slain by the palefaces. They brought him captive to their great board +wigwams. There they tied him not to the torture stake; they knew that a +Ricahecrian laughs at the pine splinters. They tortured his spirit. They +made him a woman. The great chief of the Ricahecrians no longer throws +the tomahawk--the guns of the palefaces are about him. He dances the +corn dance no more--his back is bowed with burdens. His arrow brings +not down the fleeing deer, he tracks not the bear to his den--he toils +like a squaw in the fields of the palefaces. Black Wolf says to the +white father: "Give back the Sagamore to the Ricahecrians, to his son, +to the village by the falling stream in the Blue Mountains. Then will +the Ricahecrians be friends with the palefaces forever." To-morrow Black +Wolf and his young men row towards the sunset; let the captive chief be +in their midst. This is the gift which Black Wolf asks of his white +fathers. He has spoken.'" + +In the midst of a dead silence the half king took his seat and studied +the ground. The Chickahominies, squatted round the circle, stirred not a +finger, and the outer row of spectators, motionless against a background +of interlacing branches patched with vivid blue, seemed a procession in +tapestry. The Ricahecrians and their formidable chief maintained a stony +gloom. Whatever interest they felt in the fate of their captive chief +was carefully concealed. The sun, now hanging, broad and red, low in the +heavens might have been the Gorgon's head and the whole village staring +at it. + +The Governor began to laugh. Sir Charles chimed in musically and +Laramore followed suit. The Surveyor-General frowned, but the Colonel, +after one or two attempts at sobriety of demeanor, succumbed, and the +trio became a quartette. The glades of the forest rang to the jovial +sound--it was as though there were enchantment in the golden afternoon, +or in the ring of dark and frowning countenances before them, for they +laughed as though they would never stop. Even the servants at the +horses' heads were infected, and laughed at they knew not what. + +The Surveyor-General lost patience. "I think the Jamestown weed groweth +in these woods," he said dryly. + +The Governor pulled himself together. "Faith! I believe you are right!" +he said airily. "But rat me! if the impudence of the varlets be not the +most amusing thing since the Quaker's plea for toleration!" + +"The amusement seems to be on our side," said the Surveyor-General. + +The Governor cast a careless glance in the direction indicated by the +other. "Pshaw! a fit of the sulks! They will get over it. Is this +precious captive the giant whom I have seen at Rosemead, Major +Carrington?" + +"Not so, your Excellency. My man is a Susquehannock." + +"I believe I may lay claim to the fellow, Sir William," said the +Colonel, wiping his eyes. + +"Is he the Indian who was whipt the other day?" asked Sir Charles, +taking snuff. + +"For stealing fire-water--yes." + +The Governor began to laugh again. "Of course you will release the +rascal, Colonel? The Blue Mountains threaten war if you do not. Fling +yourself into the breach, and so prevent a 'scandal to the community and +a menace to the State,' to quote your words of this morning. Consistency +is a jewel, Dick the Peacemaker. Wherefore let the savage go." + +"I'll be d--d if I do!" cried the Colonel. + +The Governor, shaking with laughter, got to his feet. At a signal his +groom brought up his horse and held the stirrup for him to mount. His +Excellency swung himself into the saddle and gathered the reins into his +gauntleted hands; the remainder of the company, too, got to horse. The +Governor's steed, a fiery, coal black Arabian, danced with impatience. + +"Selim scents a fray!" cried his Excellency. "Come on, gentlemen! 'T +will be sunset before we reach that sweet piece of earth behind Verney's +orchard." + +The half king rose from his seat, took three measured strides, and stood +side by side with the Ricahecrian chief. + +"My white father will give to the Ricahecrian the gift he asks?" + +A gust of passion took the Governor. "No!" he thundered, turning in his +saddle. "The Ricahecrian may go to the devil and the Blue Mountains +alone!" He struck spurs into his horse's sides. "Gentlemen, we waste +time!" + +The Arabian dashed down one of the winding glades of the forest; the +remainder of the party spurred their horses into the mad gallop known as +the "planter's pace," and in an instant the whole cavalcade had whirled +out of sight. A burst of laughter, made elfin by distance, came back to +the village on the banks of the Pamunkey, then all was quiet again. The +gold-laced, audacious company had vanished like a troop of powerful +enchanters, leaving behind them a sullen throng of native genii, kept +down by a Solomon's Seal which is _not_ always unbreakable. + +Something stirred in the midst of the great mulberry tree, a tree so +vast and leafy that it might have hidden many things. A man swung +himself down with a lithe grace from limb to limb, and finally dropped +into the circle of Indians who stood or sat in a sombre stillness which +might mean much or little. Only on the outskirts the crowd of women, +children and youths, had commenced a low, monotonous, undefined noise +which had in it something sinister, ominous. It was like the sound, dull +and heavy, of the ground swell that precedes the storm. The man who +dropped from the tree was Luiz Sebastian, and his appearance seemed in +no degree to surprise the Indians. There followed a short and +sententious conversation between the mulatto, the half king and the +Ricahecrian chief. Beside the half king lay the still smoking peace +pipe. When the colloquy was ended, he raised it. At a signal an Indian +brought water in a gourd, and into it the half king plunged the glowing +bowl. The fire went out in a cloud of hissing steam. The sound of the +ground swell became louder and more threatening. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE DUEL + + +The trees of the orchard stood out black against a crimson sky. "Faith! +it is a color we shall see more of presently," said Laramore, divesting +himself of his doublet. + +His antagonist, passing a laced handkerchief along a gleaming blade, +smiled politely. "A pretty tint. Wine, the lips of women, Captain +Laramore's blood--Lard! 'tis a color I adore!" + +"Gentlemen!" cried Colonel Verney. "Once more I beg of you to forego +this foolish quarrel. William Berkeley, for the first time in your life, +be reasonable!" + +The Governor turned sharply, his chest, beneath his shirt of finest +holland, swelling, each closely cropped hair upon his head, bared for +action, stiff with injured dignity. + +"Colonel Richard Verney forgets himself," he began angrily; then, +"Confound you, Dick! keep your hands out of this. I don't want to fight +you too! I say not that this gentleman is disloyal, but I do say, and I +will maintain it with the last drop of my blood, that he strives to draw +to himself a party in the State, with what intent he best knows. If he +choose to pocket that assertion and withdraw, I am content." + +"On guard, sir," said Carrington, raising his sword. + +The Colonel shrugged his shoulders, and returned to his post beside Mr. +Peyton. + +"Very well, gentlemen, since you will not be ruled. Are you ready?" + +The rapiers clashed together, and the game began. + +The Governor fenced brilliantly, if a trifle wildly; his antagonist with +a cool steadiness of manner and an iron wrist. Laramore fought with +bull-like ferocity, striving to beat down his opponent's guard, making +mad lunges, stamping, and keeping up a continuous rumble of oaths. Sir +Charles, always smiling, and with an air as if his thoughts were +anywhere but at that particular spot, put aside his thrusts with the +ease with which the toreador avoids the bull. + +Mr. Peyton was moved to reluctant admiration. "When I was in London, +sir," he said in an excited whisper to the Colonel, "I did see Mathews +fight with Westwicke, and thought I had seen fencing indeed, but your +cousin--ah!" + +Laramore's sword described a curve in the air, and lodged in the boughs +of an apple-tree, while its owner staggered forward and fell heavily to +the ground. At the same instant Carrington wounded the Governor in the +wrist. Colonel Verney struck up the weapons. "By the Lord, gentlemen! +you shall go no further! Jack Laramore's down, run through the shoulder! +Major Carrington, you have drawn blood--it is enough." + +"If Sir William Berkeley is content," began Carrington, bowing to his +antagonist. + +"Rat me! I've no choice," said the Governor ruefully. "You've disabled +my sword arm, and the gout has the other." + +"I shall be happy to wait until the wound shall have healed," said the +Surveyor-General, with another bow. + +"No, no," said his Excellency, with a laugh. "We'll cry quits. And rat +me! if now that we have had it out, I do not love thee better, Miles +Carrington, than ever I did before. In the morning when thou goest home, +burn thy library, burn Milton and Bastwick, and Withers, and the rest of +the rogues, forswear such rascally company forever, and rat me! if I +will not maintain that thou art the honestest, as well as the +longest-headed, man in the colony. There's my hand on it, and to-night +we'll have a rouse such as would make old Noll turn in his grave if he +had one." + +Carrington took the proffered hand courteously, if coldly. "I thank your +Excellency for your advice. Your Excellency should have your wound +attended to at once. You are losing a deal of blood." + +"Tut, a trifle!" said the Governor, airily, winding a handkerchief about +the bleeding member. + +"Is there ever a chirurgeon upon the place?" asked Sir Charles in his +most dulcet tones. "If not, I fear that Captain Laramore will very +shortly make his last voyage." + +"Egad! that will never do!" cried the Colonel, dropping upon his knees +beside the wounded man. "A bad thrust! Charles, thou art the very +devil!" + +"Shall I ride for the doctor?" cried Mr. Peyton. + +"No. Anthony Nash is at the house. Run, lad, and fetch him. He is +surgeon as well as divine." + +Mr. Peyton disappeared; and presently there stood in the midst of the +group gathered about the unconscious captain, a man clad in a clerical +dress and of a very dignified and scholarly demeanor. + +"Ha, gentlemen!" he said gravely, looking with bright, dark eyes from +one to the other. "This is a sorry business. Shirts, drawn rapiers, +trampled turf, Sir William bleeding, Captain Laramore senseless upon the +ground! His Excellency the Governor; Major Carrington, the +Surveyor-General; Colonel Verney, the lieutenant of the +shire;--scandalous, gentlemen!" + +"And Anthony Nash who would give his chance of a mitre to have been one +of us," cried the Governor. "Ha! Anthony! dost remember the fight behind +Paul's, three to one,--and the baggage that brought it about?" + +The divine, on his knees beside Laramore, looked up with a twinkle in +his eye from his work of tying laced handkerchiefs into bandages. "That +was in the dark ages, your Excellency. My memory goeth not back so far. +Ha! that is better! He is coming to himself. It is not so bad after +all." + +Laramore groaned, opened his eyes, and struggled into a sitting posture. + +"Blast me! but I am properly spitted. Sir Charles Carew, my compliments +to you. You are a man after my own heart. Ha, your Excellency! I find +myself in good company. Dr. Anthony Nash, I shall have you out! You have +torn the handkerchief Mistress Lettice Verney gave me." + +The Doctor laughed. "You must be got to the house at once, and to bed, +where Mistress Lettice, who is as skillful in healing as in making +wounds, shall help me to properly dress this one." + +Laramore staggered to his feet. "Give me an arm, Doctor; and Peyton, +clap my periwig upon my head, will you? and fetch me my sword from where +I see it, adorning yonder bough. Sir Charles Carew, I am your humble +servant. Damme! it's no disgrace to be worsted by the best sword at +Whitehall." And the gallant captain, supported by the clergyman and Mr. +Peyton, reeled off the ground; the remainder of the party waiting only +to assume doublets and wigs before following him to the house. + +Two hours later Sir Charles Carew rose from the supper-table, and +leaving the gentlemen at wine, passed into the great room, and came +softly up to Patricia, sitting at the spinet. + +"My heart was not there," he said, answering her smile and lifted brows. +"I am come in search of it." + +She laughed, fingering the keys. "Did you leave it on the field of +honor? Fie, sir, for shame! Doctor Nash says that Captain Laramore will +not use his arm for a fortnight." + +"What--" said Sir Charles, dropping his voice and leaning over +her--"what if I had been the wounded one?" + +"I would have made your gruel with great pleasure, cousin." + +She laughed again, and looked at him half tenderly, half mockingly. +There were silver candlesticks upon the spinet and the light from the +tall wax tapers fell with a white radiance over the slender figure in +brocade and lace, the gleaming shoulders, the beautiful face, and the +shining hair. Her eyes were brilliant, her mouth all elusive, mocking, +exquisite curves. + +He raised a wandering lock of gold to his lips. "The King hath written, +commanding me home to England," he said abruptly. + +"Yes, my father told me. He says the King loves you much." + +Sir Charles left her side, twice walked the length of the room, and +came back to her. "Am I to go as I came--alone?" he asked, standing +before her with folded arms. + +"If you so desire, sir?" + +"Will you go with me?" + +"Yes." + +He caught her in his arms; but she cried out and freed herself. + +"No, no, not yet!" she said breathlessly. "Listen to me." + +She moved backwards a step or two, and stood facing him, her hand at her +bosom, a color in her cheek, her eyes like stars. "I do not know that I +love you, Sir Charles Carew. At times I have thought that I did; at +times, not. There is an unrest here," touching her heart, "which has +come to me lately. I do not know--it may be the beginning of love. Last +night my father had much talk with me. It is his dearest wish that you +and I should wed. He has been my very good father always. If you will +take me as I am, not loving you yet, but with a heart free to learn, +why--" Her voice broke. + +Sir Charles flung himself at her feet, and, taking possession of her +hands, covered them with kisses. A voice passed the window, singing +through the night:-- + + "Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow, + And shake the green leaves from the tree; + O gentle death, when wilt thou come? + For of my life I am weary." + +"Margery again?" said Sir Charles, rising. + +"Yes," said Patricia, with a troubled voice. + +The voice began the stanza again:-- + + "Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow, + And shake the green leaves from the tree?" + +"What is the matter?" cried Sir Charles in alarm. + +Patricia stared at him with wide, unseeing eyes. "Martinmas wind," she +said in a low, clear, even voice. "Martinmas wind! The leaves drift in +clouds, yellow and red, red like blood. Look at the river flowing in the +sunshine! And the tall gray crags! Ah!" and she put her hands before her +face. + +"What is it?" cried her suitor. "What is the matter? You are ill!" + +She dropped her hands. "I am well now," she said tremulously. "I do not +know what it was. I had a vision--" she broke into wild laughter. + +"I am fey, I think," she cried. "Let me go to my room; I am better +there." + +He held the door open, and she passed him quickly with lowered eyes. He +watched her run up the stairs, and then threw himself into a chair and +stared thoughtfully at the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN + + +The master of Verney Manor and his guests slept late, for the carouse of +the night before had been deep and prolonged. The master's daughter rose +with the sun, and went down into the garden, and thence through the +wicket into the mulberry grove, where she found Margery sitting on the +ground, tying golden-rod to her staff. "Come and walk with me, Margery," +she said. + +Margery rose with alacrity. "Where shall we go?" she asked in a whisper. +"To the forest? There were eyes in the forest last night, not the great, +still, solemn eyes that stare at Margery every night, but eyes that +glowed like coals, and moved from bush to bush. Margery was afraid, and +she left the forest, and sat by the water side all night, listening to +what it had to say. A star shot, and Margery knew that a soul was on its +way to Paradise, where she would fain go if only she could find the +way.... There are purple flowers growing by the creek between the cedar +wood and the marsh. Let us go gather them, and trim Margery's staff very +bravely." + +"I care not where we go," said her mistress. "There as well as +elsewhere." + +"Come, then," said Margery, and took the lead. + +When they had entered the strip of cedars which lay between the wide +fields and the point of land on which stood the third tobacco house, +Patricia stopped beneath a great tree. "We will go no further, Margery," +she said. + +Margery objected. "The purple flowers grow by the water side." + +"Do you go and gather them then," said Patricia wearily. "I will wait +for you here." + +Margery glided away, and her mistress sat down upon the dark-red earth +at the foot of the tree. There was a cold and sombre stillness in the +wood. The air smelt chill and dank, and the light came through the low, +closely woven roof of foliage, as though it were filtered through crape, +but at the end of the vista of trees shone a glory of sea and sky and +gold-green marsh. Patricia gazed with dreamy eyes. "It is all fair," she +said. "What was it that Dr. Nash read? 'My lines are fallen in pleasant +places.' Riches and honor, and, they say, beauty, and many to love +me.--O Lord God! I wish for happiness!" She laid her cheek against the +cool earth, and the splendor before her wavered into a mist of rose and +azure. "Why should I weep," she said, "that my lines are laid in +pleasant places?" + +Margery with her arms filled with flowers appeared at her side. "Here +are the purple flowers," she said. "Here is farewell-summer for me and a +passion-flower for you." She threw the blooms upon the ground, and +sitting down at her mistress's feet, began to weave them into garlands. +Presently she took up the passion-flower. "This grew beside the tobacco +house, close to the wall. Margery saw it, and ran to pluck it. The door +of the tobacco house was closed, but above the passion-flower was a +great crack between the logs." She began to laugh. "Margery heard a +strange thing, while she was plucking the passion-flower. Shall she tell +it to you?" + +"If you like, Margery," said Patricia indifferently. + +Margery leaned forward, and laid a cold, thin hand upon her mistress' +arm. + +"There were seven men in the tobacco house. One said, 'When the +Malignants are put down, what then?' and another answered, 'Surely we +will possess their lands and their houses, their silver and their gold, +for is it not written, "The Lord hath given them a spoil unto their +servants."' Then the first said, 'Shall we not kill the Malignant, +Verney?' Margery heard no more. She came away." + +Patricia rose to her feet, pale, with brilliant eyes. + +"You heard no more?" + +"No." + +"Margery, show me the place where you listened." + +Margery took up her staff, and led the way to the outskirts of the wood. +"There," she said, pointing with her staff. "There, where the elder +grows." + +Patricia laid her hand on the mad woman's shoulder. "Listen to me, +Margery," she said in a low, distinct voice. "Listen very carefully. Go +quickly to the great house, and to my father, or to Woodson, or to Sir +Charles Carew give the message I am about to give you. Do you +understand, Margery?" + +Margery nodding emphatically, Patricia gave the message, and watched her +flit away through the gloom of the cedars into the sunlight beyond; then +turned and went swiftly and noiselessly across the strip of field to the +tall, dark, windowless tobacco house. As she neared it, there came to +her a low and undistinguishable murmur of voices which rose into +distinctness as she entered the clump of alders. + +Within the tobacco house were assembled the Muggletonian, the man +branded upon the forehead, the youth with the hectic cheek (who acted as +Secretary to the Surveyor-General), two newly purchased servants of +Colonel Verney, Trail and Godfrey Landless. In the uncertain light which +streamed from above through rents in the roof and crevices between the +upper logs the interior of the tobacco house looked mysterious, +sinister, threatening. Here and there tobacco still hung from the poles +which crossed from wall to wall, and in the partial light the long, +dusky masses looked wonderfully like other hanging things. The great +casks beneath had the appearance of shadowy scaffolds, and the men, +sitting or standing against them, looked larger than life. All was dusk, +subdued, save where a stray sunbeam, sifting through a crack in the +opposite wall, lit the ghastly face and shaven crown of the +Muggletonian. + +Landless, leaning against a cask, addressed a man of a grave and +resolute bearing--one of the newly acquired servants of Verney Manor. + +"Major Havisham, you are a wise and a brave man. I will gladly listen to +any counsel you may have to give anent this matter." + +Havisham shook his head. "I have nothing to say. The spirit of the +father lives in the son. Skillful in planning, bold in action was Warham +Landless!" + +"I am but the tool of Robert Godwyn," said Landless. "You approve, then, +of our arrangements?" + +"Entirely. It is a daring enterprise, but if it succeeds--" he drew a +long breath. + +"And if it fails," said Landless, "there is freedom yet." + +The other nodded. "Yes, death hath few terrors for us." + +"What is death?" cried the hectic youth. "A short, dim passage from +darkness into light; the antechamber of the white court of God; the +curtain that we lift; the veil that we tear--and SEE! My soul longeth +for death, yea, even fainteth for the courts of God! But He will not +call His servants until His work is done. Wherefore let us haste to rise +up and slay, to work the Lord's work, and go from hence!" + +"Yea!" cried the Muggletonian. "I fear not death! I fear not the Throne +and the Judgment seat. The Two Witnesses will speak for me! But Death is +not upon us; he passeth by the weak, and seizeth upon the strong. The +Malignants shall die, for the word of the Lord has gone out against +them. 'Thy foot shall be dipped in the blood of thy enemies, and the +tongue of thy dogs into the same! They shall fall by the sword, they +shall be a portion for foxes; as smoke is drawn away so shall they +vanish, as wax melteth before the fire so shall they perish! He that +sitteth in the heavens shall have them in derision. And the righteous +shall rejoice in His vengeance!'" + +"Amen," drawled Trail through his nose. "Verily, we will fatten on the +good things of the land, we will spend our days in ease and +pleasantness! The Malignants shall work for us. They shall toil in our +tobacco fields, their women shall be our handmaidens, we will drink +their wines, and wear their rich clothing, and our pockets shall be +filled with their gold and silver--" + +"Silence!" cried Landless fiercely. "Once more I tell you, mad dreamers +that you are, that there shall be no such devil's work! Major Havisham, +there are not among us many of this ilk. Two thirds of our number are +men of the stamp of Robert Godwyn and yourself. These men rave." + +"I heed them not," said Havisham with a slighting gesture of the hand; +then, "Let us recapitulate. Upon this appointed day we whom they call +Oliverians, and the great majority of the redemptioners, are to rise +throughout the colony. We--" + +"Are to do no damage to property nor offer any unnecessary violence to +masters and overseers," said Landless firmly. + +"We are simply to arm ourselves, seize horses or boats, and resort to +this appointed place." + +"Yes." + +"Calling upon the slaves to follow us?" + +"Which they will do. Yes." + +"And when all are assembled, to oppose any force sent against us?" + +"Yes." + +"And if we conquer, then--" + +"Then the Republic,--Commonwealth,--anything you choose--at any rate, +freedom." + +"It is a desperate plan." + +"We are desperate men." + +"Yes," Havisham said thoughtfully; "it is the best chance for that +escape of which we all dream, and which two of our number, I see, have +attempted in vain. I had set to-morrow night for my own attempt. This +promises better." + +"Yea," said Porringer, "the stars in their courses fight against the +refugee! Four times have I tried, to be retaken, and handled, as you +see. Twice has this man tried and failed. And the murderer of Robert +Godwyn failed." + +"That remains to be seen," said Trail. "Roach has broken gaol." + +The Muggletonian exclaimed, and Landless turned upon the forger. "How +do you know?" he asked sternly. + +"I heard," was the smooth reply. + +"I am sorry for it," said Landless grimly, and stood with a sternly +thoughtful countenance. + +There was a silence in the tobacco house broken by Havisham. + +"And now--for time passes and the overseer may come and find us not at +our tasks--tell me the day upon which we are to rise, and the place to +which all are to resort." + +"Both are close at hand," said Landless slowly. "The day is--" he broke +off and leaned forward, staring through the dusk. + +"What is it?" cried Havisham. + +"My eyes met other eyes. There, behind that great crack between the +logs!" + +The Muggletonian rushed to the door, flung it open, and vanished; the +branded man followed. The remaining occupants of the tobacco house +started to their feet, and Havisham picked from the floor a pole and +broke from it a stout cudgel. Godfrey Landless strode forward into the +broad shaft of sunshine that entered through the opened door and met the +eavesdropper face to face, as, with either arm in the rude grasp of the +fanatics, she crossed the threshold. + +The conspirators, recognizing the lady of the manor, were stricken dumb. +In the three minutes of dead silence which ensued they saw their plans +defeated, their hopes ruined, their cause vanquished, their lives lost. +The graceful figure with white scorn in the beautiful face was death +come upon them. The shadow fell heavy and cold upon their souls, the +very air seemed to darken and grow chill around them The figure of the +woman in their midst gathered up the sunshine, became ethereal, +transplendent, a triumphant white and gold Spirit of Evil. + +Landless was the first to speak. "Unhand her!" he said in a suppressed +voice. + +The men obeyed, but the Muggletonian placed himself between his prisoner +and the door. She saw the movement and said scornfully, "You need not +fear; I shall not run away." Upon her bare, white arms, where they had +been clasped too rudely, were fast darkening marks. She glanced from +them to the scarred face of the Muggletonian. "_They_ will wear out," +she said. + +"Madam," said Landless hoarsely, "how long were you in that place?" + +She flashed upon him a look that was like a blow. "Liar! be silent!" she +said, then turned to the row of faces that frowned upon her from out the +shadow. "To you others I address myself. Traitors, rebellious servants, +base plotters! I hold your lives in my hand." + +"And your own?" said Trail. + +"Cursed daughter of the mother of evil!" cried the Muggletonian, a +baleful light burning in his eyes. "Scarlet woman, whose vain apparel, +whose uncovered hair and bared bosom, whose light songs and laughter +have long been an offense and a stumbling-block to the righteous--thy +cup of iniquity is full, thy life is forfeit, thy hour is come!" He drew +a knife from his bosom and with an unearthly cry flourished it above his +head, then rushed upon her, to be met by Landless, who hurled himself +upon the would-be murderer with a force that sent them both staggering +against the wall. A struggle ensued, which ended in Landless securing +the knife. With it in his hand he sprang to the side of the girl, who +stood unflinching, a pride that was superb in her still white face and +steadfast eyes. + +"Who touches her dies," he said between his teeth. + +Havisham came to his aid. "Men, are you mad? You cannot murder a +defenseless woman! Moreover such a deed would prove our utter ruin." + +"If her body were found, yes!" cried the hectic youth. "But the water is +near, and who is to know that the devil sent her hither?" + +"It is her death or ours," cried the branded man. + +The Muggletonian tossed his arms into the air. + +"The cause! the cause! Cursed be he that putteth his hand to the plough +and finisheth not the furrow! Ride on! Ride on! though it were over the +bodies of a thousand painted Jezebels such as this!" + +"Time presses!" cried the branded man. "Woodson may come!" + +They closed in upon the three who stood at bay. In their dark faces were +a passion and an exaltation--they saw in the woman fallen into their +hands, a sacrifice bound to the altar. Trail alone looked uneasy and +held back, muttering between his teeth. + +Landless stepped in front of Patricia and faced them with a still and +deadly eye, and with the hand that held the knife drawn back against his +breast. Knowing them, he saw no use in any appeal; also he saw that it +was indeed her life or theirs. On the one hand, the downfall of all +their hopes, the death or perpetual enslavement of many, and for himself +surely the gibbet and the rope; on the other-- + +He made a gesture of command. "Thou shalt do no murder!" he cried. + +"It is not murder; it is sacrifice." + +"There must be another way!" cried Havisham. + +"Find it!" + +Havisham turned to the prisoner. "Madam, will you swear to be silent +concerning what you have heard?" + +The Muggletonian laughed wildly. "Who trusts a woman's oath!" + +"You shall have no need," said the lady of the manor calmly. She paused +and her eyes went to the door in an intent and listening gaze, then came +back to the faces about her with a strange light in their depths. "Rebel +servants," she said in a clear, low voice, "I defy you! And you, false +slave, stand from before me. I need not your hateful aid." In the moment +of ominous silence that followed, she swayed towards the door, her hand +at her throat, her soul in her eyes. Suddenly she cried out, "My father! +Charles! help!" + +From without came an answering cry, followed by a rush of men through +the door, and in an instant the room was filled with struggling forms as +the two parties threw themselves upon each other. The newcomers were +half a dozen blacks, the two overseers and Sir Charles Carew. The +overseers had pistols and Sir Charles his sword. With it he met the rush +of the youth with the hectic cheek, who came towards him in long, +hound-like leaps, brandishing a piece of wood above his head, and drove +the blade deep into the chest of the fanatic. The wretched man staggered +and fell, then rose to his knees. Flinging his arms above his head, he +turned his worn face towards the flood of sunshine pouring in through +the door, and cried in a loud voice, "I see!" A stream of blood gushed +from his lips, his arms dropped, and without a groan he fell back, dead. + +Landless, wrestling with the slave Regulus, at length succeeded in +hurling the powerful figure to the ground, where it lay stunned, and +turned to find himself confronted by Woodson's pistol and the point of +Sir Charles's rapier. A glance showed him the remaining conspirators, +overpowered, and in the act of being bound with the ropes that had lain, +coiled for use in packing, in the corners of the tobacco house. The +hectic youth lay, a ghastly spectacle, in a pool of blood across the +doorway. At his feet was the branded man, a bullet through his brain, +and near him the groaning figure of Havisham's mortally wounded +companion. The woman who had brought all this to pass stood unharmed, +white, with tragic, exultant eyes. + +Sir Charles, serene and debonair, lowered his point. "Your hand is +played," he said with a fine smile. Landless's stern, despairing gaze +passed him and went on to the overseer. "I surrender to you," he said +briefly. + +Woodson chuckled grimly and stuck his pistol in his belt. He was in high +good humor, visions of reward and thanks from the Assembly dancing +before his eyes. "I've had my eye on you for some time, young man," he +said almost genially. "I've suspected that you were up to something, but +Lord! to think that a woman's wit should have trapped you at last! +Haines, bring that rope over here." + +Sir Charles went over to Patricia and offered her his arm. "Dearest and +bravest of women!" he said in a caressing whisper. "Come with me from +this place, which must be dreadful to you." + +She did not answer him at once, but stood looking past him at the +picture of laughing water and waving forest framed in the doorway. + +"I thought I should never see the sunshine again," she said dreamily. +"Did Margery give _you_ the message?" + +"Yes, she met me under the mulberries. I would not wait to rouse your +father, but calling the overseers and the blacks from the fields, came +at once." + +"I owe you my life," she said. "You and--" + +Her eyes left the summer outside and came back to the shadowy forms +within the tobacco house. "I will go with you directly, cousin," she +said quietly, "but first I wish to speak to that man." + +He shot a swift glance at her face, but drew back with a bow, and she +walked with a steady step up to Landless. "Fall back a little," she said +with an imperious wave of her hand to the men about him. They obeyed +her. Landless, left standing before her, his arms bound to his sides, +raised his head and looked her in the face. She met his eyes. "You lied +to me," she said in a low, even voice. + +"Once, madam, and to save others," he said proudly, + +"Not once, but twice. Do you think that now I believe that tale you told +me that night, that fairy tale of persecuted innocence? When I think +that I ever believed it I hate myself." + +"Nevertheless, it is true, madam." + +"It is false! Yesterday I thought of you as a gallant gentleman, greatly +wronged ... and I pitied you. To-day I am wiser." + +He held her eyes with his own for a moment, then let them go. "Some day +you will know," he said. + +She turned from him and held out her hands to Sir Charles. He hurried +to her and she clung to him. "Take me away," she said in a whisper. +"Take me home." + +He put his arm about her. "You are faint," he said tenderly. "Come! the +air will revive you." + +Supporting her on his arm, he guided her from the house. As they passed +the body stretched across the threshold, the skirt of her robe touched +the blood in which it was lying. She saw it and shuddered. + +"Blood is upon me!" she said. "It is an omen!" + +"A good one, then," said her companion coolly, "for it is the blood of a +fanatic traitor. Think not of it." He turned at the threshold and cast a +careless glance back into the tobacco house. "Woodson, get rid of this +carrion, and bring these men quietly to the great house, where your +master will deal with them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE QUESTION + + +"We know all but two things, but those are the most important of all," +said the Governor, tapping his jeweled fingers against the table. + +"It is much to be regretted," said the Surveyor-General, "that the +presence of the young lady was so soon discovered. Otherwise--" + +"Otherwise we might have had further information on more than one +subject," said the Governor dryly. + +"We must make the best of what we have," continued Carrington calmly. +"After all, it is enough." + +The Governor rose and began to pace the floor, his head thoughtfully +bent, his unwounded hand tugging at the curls of his periwig. "It is not +enough," he said at length, pausing before the great table around which +the company were seated. "Thanks to the gallant daughter of the gallant +Verneys,"--a bow and smile to Patricia, sitting enthroned in the great +chair in their midst,--"we know much, but it is not enough. These rogues +have set a day upon which to rise; they have appointed a place to which +they are to resort. That day may be to-morrow, that place any point in +any one of a dozen counties." + +"I apprehend that the cockatrice was to be hatched near by," said Sir +Charles. + +"It is the likeliest thing," answered the Governor, "seeing that their +ringleader belongs to this plantation. But we do not know. And there +may not be time to reach the planters, to give them warning, to arrest +these d--d traitors, scattered as they are from the James to +Rappahannock, and from Henricus to the Chesapeake. It might be best to +assemble the trainbands at this cursed spot if it can be found, and to +await their coming in force. But to know neither time nor place--to +start a hue and cry and have the storm burst before it reaches ten +plantations--to guard one point and see fire rise at another a dozen +leagues away--impossible! Gentlemen, we must come at the heart of this +matter!" + +"It is most advisable," said Colonel Verney gravely. "Examine the +prisoners again," suggested Sir Charles. + +"One of them is no wiser than we. You are certain as to this, Mistress +Patricia?" + +"Yes, your Excellency." + +"Humph! one does not know; three are dead; there remain, then, that +shaven and branded runaway and the two convicts." + +"You will learn naught from the runaway, your Excellency!" called out +the overseer from where he stood at a respectful distance from the +company. "He's one of them crazy fanatics that wild horses couldn't draw +truth from. No Indian torture stake could make him speak if he didn't +want to,--nor keep him from it if he did." + +"I know that kind," said the Governor, with a short laugh, "and we will +not waste time upon him, but will try if the convict--he who seems to +have been their leader--be not more amenable. Bring him in, Woodson." + +When the overseer had gone, a silence fell upon the company gathered in +the master's room. The Governor paced to and fro, perplexity in his +face; the Colonel knit his grizzled brows and studied the floor; Dr. +Anthony Nash brought the writing materials displayed upon the table, +closer to him, and held a quill ready poised for dipping into the ink +horn, while the Surveyor-General with a carefully composed countenance +toyed with a pink which he took from the bowl of flowers before him. Sir +Charles leaned back in his seat and looked at Patricia who, seated +between him and her father, stared before her with hard, bright eyes. +Her lips were like a scarlet flower against the absolute pallor of her +face; her hair was a crown of pale gold. In the great chair, her white +arms resting upon the dark wood, her feet upon a carved footstool, she +looked a queen, and the knot of brilliantly dressed gentlemen her +attendant council. + +The door opened and the two overseers appeared with Landless, who +advanced and stood, silent and collected, before the ring of hostile +faces. + +"What is your name, sirrah?" said the Governor, throwing himself into +his chair and frowning heavily. + +"Godfrey Landless." + +"I am told that you are son to one Warham Landless, a so-called colonel +in the rebel army and hand in glove with the usurper himself." + +"I am the son of Colonel Warham Landless of the forces of the +Commonwealth, and friend to his Highness the Lord Protector." + +"Humph! And did you fight in these same forces yourself?" + +"At Worcester, yes." + +"Humph! the son of a traitor and rebel--traitor and rebel yourself--and +convict to boot! A pretty record! On what day was this rising to +occur?" + +No answer. The Governor repeated the question. "On what day was this +precious mine to be sprung? And to what place were you to resort?" + +Landless remaining silent, the Governor's face began to flush and the +veins in his forehead to swell. "Have you lost your tongue?" he said +fiercely. "If so, we will find a way to recover it." + +"I shall not answer those questions," said Landless firmly. + +"It is your one chance for life," said the Governor sternly. "Answer me +truly, and you may escape the gallows. Refuse, and you hang, so surely +as I sit here." + +"I shall not answer them." + +"Sink me if I ever knew a Roundhead so careless of his own interests," +drawled Sir Charles. The Governor whispered to the master of the +plantation, then turned again to the prisoner. + +"I give you one more chance," he said harshly. "When is this day? Where +is this place?" + +"I shall not tell you." + +"We will see about that," said his Excellency with compressed lips. +"Verney, send your daughter from the room. Woodson, you understand this +gear, having been in the Indies. This man is to tell us all that he +knows of this business. Call in a trustworthy slave or two to help you." + +Patricia uttered a low cry, and the Surveyor-General crushed the flower +between his fingers and turned upon the Governor. "Your Excellency! I +protest! This that you would do is not lawful! Surely such harsh +measures are not needed." + +The Governor's fury exploded. "Not needful!" he exclaimed in a high +voice. "Not needful, when upon these questions hang the fortunes of the +Colony! when if we fail, to-morrow may usher in a blacker forty-four! +And not lawful! I am the law in this. State, Major Carrington; I am the +King's representative, and this is my prerogative! and I say that by +fair means or foul this information must be gained. This is no time to +prate of humanity. We are to show humanity to ourselves; we are to stamp +out this lit fuse. Or does Major Carrington wish it to burn on?" + +"No," said Carrington coldly. "I spoke hastily. You are right, of +course, and I will interfere no further." + +An hour later Patricia stood before the hall window looking out upon the +dazzling water and the green velvet of the marshes with wide, unseeing +eyes. Her hands were clenched at her sides and upon each cheek burned a +crimson spot. Beside her crouched Betty Carrington who, upon the first +rumor of trouble at Verney Manor, had ridden over from Rosemead. Their +strained ears caught no sound from the room opposite other than the +occasional sound of the Governor's voice, raised in interrogation. There +came no answering voice. Patricia stood motionless, with eyes that never +wandered from the rich scene without, and with lips pressed together, +but Betty hid her face in the other's skirts and shivered. The door of +the master's room opened and both started violently. The overseer strode +down the hall and had laid his hand upon the latch of the door leading +to the offices, when his mistress called him to her. "Do they know? Has +the man told?" she asked with an effort. + +Woodson shook his head. "He's as dumb as an oyster. Might as well try to +get anything from an Indian. They're going to try t' other--Trail." + +He left the hall, but was back in five minutes' time with the forger. +They entered the master's room, and Patricia, seized by a sudden +impulse, followed them, leaving Betty trembling in the window seat. + +Unnoted by all but one of the company, she slipt to a seat in the shadow +of her father's burly shoulders. He was leaning forward, talking to the +Governor, who sat very erect, his features fixed in an expression of +dogged determination. The Surveyor-General sat well behind the table, +and upon the polished wood before him lay a little heap of torn petals +and broken stems. At the far end of the room and leaning heavily against +the wall was the prisoner whose examination was just finished. + +Sir Charles had seen the entrance of the lady of the manor, and he now +rose from his seat and came to her. "Not a syllable," he whispered in +answer to the question in her eyes. "Roundhead obstinacy! But I think +that this fellow will prove more malleable." + +His prediction was verified. Ten minutes later the Governor rose to his +feet triumphant. "So!" he said, drawing a long breath. "We are, I think, +gentlemen, at the very core at last. The time, day after to-morrow; the +place, Poplar Spring in this county. And now to work! Those of these +d--d Oliverians whom we can reach must be arrested at once. Swift +messengers must be sent to all plantations far and near. The trainbands +must be called out. Time presses, gentlemen!" + +"And these men?" said the Colonel. + +"Must go to Jamestown gaol, where the one shall hang as surely as my +name is William Berkeley. For the other--" + +"Your Excellency has promised me my life," said Trail cringingly, but +with an inscrutable something that was not fear in his sinister green +eyes. + +"An escort must be gotten together," said the Colonel, "and the day is +far advanced. I advise keeping them here until the morning." + +"See that you keep them straitly then," said the Governor. + +"Trust me for that, your Excellency," said the overseer grimly. + +"Then to work, gentlemen," cried the Governor, "for there is much to do +and but little time to do it in. Major Carrington, you with Mr. Peyton +will ride with me to Jamestown. Colonel Verney, you will know what +measures to take for the safety of your shire. Woodson, have the horses +brought around at once." + +The Council broke up in haste and confusion, and its members, talking +eagerly, streamed into the hall. Carrington was the last in line, and he +paused before Landless. The under overseer and the slave Regulus were at +a little distance replacing the cords about Trail's arms. The +Surveyor-General cast a quick glance towards the door, saw that the last +retreating figure was that of Mr. Peyton, and approached his lips close +to Landless's ear. + +"You are a brave man," he said in a low and troubled voice. "From my +soul I honor you! I would have saved you, would save you now if I could. +But I am cruelly placed." + +"I have no hope for this life--and no fear," said Landless calmly. + +Carrington paused irresolute, and a flush rose to his face. "I would +like to hear you say that you do not blame me," he said at last with an +effort. + +"I do not blame you," said Landless. + +Woodson appeared in the doorway. "The Governor is waiting, Major +Carrington." + +"If I can do ought to help you, I will," said Carrington hastily, and +left the room. A moment later came the jingling of reins and the sound +of rapid hoofs quickening into the planter's pace as the Governor and +the Surveyor-General whirled away. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A MESSAGE + + +In an unused attic room of the great house lay Godfrey Landless, cords +about his ankles, and his arms bound to his sides by cords and by a +thick rope, one end of which was fastened to a beam on the wall. He was +alone, for the Muggletonian, Havisham and Trail were confined in the +overseer's house. Opposite him was a small window framing a square of +sky. He had watched light clouds drift across it, and the sun pass +slowly and majestically down it, and the sunset turn the clouds into +floating blood-red plumes. He had been there since noon. Thick walls +kept from him all sound in the house below--it might have been a house +of the dead. Through the closed window came the low, incessant hum of +the summer world without, but no unusual noise. He had heard the sunset +horn, and the song of the slaves coming from the fields, and as dusk +began to fall, the cry of a whip-poor-will. + +When the door had closed upon the retreating figures of the men who +brought him there, he had thrown himself upon the floor where he lay, +faint from physical anguish, in a stupor of misery, conscious only of a +sick longing for death. This mood had passed and he was himself again. + +As he lay with his eyes following the fiery, shifting feathers of cloud, +he remembered that the gaol at Jamestown faced the south, and he +thought, "This is the last sunset I shall ever see." He had the strong +abiding faith of his time and party, and he looked beyond the clouds +with an awe and a light in his eyes. Verses learnt at his mother's knee +came back to him; he said them over to himself, and the tender, solemn, +beneficent words fell like balm upon his troubled heart. He thought of +his mother who had died young, and then of scenes and occurrences of his +childhood. All earthly hope was past, there could be no more struggling; +in a little while he would be dead. Dying, his mind reverted, not to the +sordid misery from which death would set him free, but to the long past, +to the child at the mother's knee, to the boy who had climbed down great +cliffs in search of a smuggler's cave. The unearthly light that rests +upon that time so far behind us shone strong for him--he saw every twig +in the rooks' nests in the lofty elms, every ivy leaf about a ruined +oriel, black against a gold sky; the cool, dark smell of the box alleys +filled his nostrils; the sound of the sea came to him; he heard his +mother singing on the terrace. He bowed his face with a sudden rain of +tender, not sorrowful, tears. + +Something crashed in at the window, splintering the coarse glass and +falling upon the floor at a little distance from him. It was a large +pebble, to which was tied a piece of paper. He started up and made for +it, to be brought up within two feet of it by the tug of the rope which +bound him to the wall. He thought a moment, then lay down upon the floor +and found that he could touch the end of the string that tied the paper +to the pebble. He took it between his teeth and slowly drew it towards +him, then, rising to his knees, he strained with all his might at the +cords that bound his arms. They were tightly drawn, but when at length +he desisted, panting, he had so loosened them that he could move one +hand a very little way. With it and with his teeth he disengaged the +paper from the pebble and spread it upon his knee. There was just light +enough to read the sprawling schoolboy hand with which it was covered. +It ran thus:-- + +"I don't know as this will ever reach you. I am doing all I can. Luiz +Sebastian has not let me get at arm's length from him since I overheard +him and the Turk, and a sailor from Captain Laramore's ship and _Roach_ +at the hut on the marsh, two hours ago. They would have killed me there, +but I ran, and he did not catch me until I was almost to the quarters. +He will kill me though in a little while, I know; he has a knife and he +is sitting on the doorstep, and the Turk is with him, and I can not +pass them. He held his hand over my mouth and the knife to my heart when +Woodson went the rounds, and I couldn't make no sound--Lord have mercy +upon me! I write this with my blood, on a leaf from your Bible, while he +sits there whispering to the Turk. He goes to his own cabin directly and +he will take me with him and kill me there, I know he will. He goes to +the stables first and I must go with him. If we pass close enough, and +if I can do it without his seeing me I will throw this in at the window +of the room where I know you are, if not--the Lord help us all!... +Landless, for God's sake! before moonrise to-night the Chickahominies +and the Ricahecrians from the Blue Mountains will come down on the +plantation. With them are leagued Luiz Sebastian, the Turk, Trail, +Roach, and most of the slaves.... When all is over, the Indians will +take the scalps and Grey Wolf and will make for the Blue Mountains; Luiz +Sebastian and the others will seize the boats and put off for the ship +at the Point. Her crew will give her up and they will all turn pirate +together. The women go with them if they can keep them from the Indians; +the men are all to be killed.... I have told you all I heard. For God's +sake, save them if you can,--and remember poor Dick Whittington." + +Dropping the paper, Landless strained with all his might, first at the +cords which bound his arms, and then at the rope which fastened him to +the wall. Again and again he put forth the strength of despair--his +muscles cracked, great beads stood upon his forehead--but the ropes +held. As well as he could with his shackled feet he stamped upon the +floor; he called aloud, but there came no answering voice or sound from +below. He was at the end of the house over unused chambers, and the +walls and flooring were very thick. He clenched his teeth and began +again the battle with the cords which held him. All in vain. He shouted +until he was hoarse--it was crying aloud in a desert. With a groan he +leaned against the wall, gathering strength for another effort. It was +dark now and the moon rose at eleven.... There was a piece of glass upon +the floor, one of the splinters from the shattered window. He remembered +noticing it--a long narrow piece like the blade of a knife. Sinking to +his knees he felt for it, and after a long time found it. He now had a +knife, but he could not move the hand that held it six inches from his +side. Stooping, he took the splinter between his teeth, and making the +rope taut, drew the sharp edge of the glass across it. Again and again +he drew it across, and at length he perceived that a strand was +severed. With a thrill of joy he settled to the slow, laborious and +painful task. Time passed, a long, long time, and yet the rope was but +half severed. As he worked he counted the moments with feverish dread, +his heart throbbed one passionate prayer: "Lord, let me save her!" Now +and then he glanced at the blackness of the night outside with a +terrible fear--though he knew it could not be yet--that he should see it +waver into moonlight. Another interval of toil, and he stood erect, +gathered his forces, made one supreme effort--and was free! There was +not time for the cords about his arms, but he must get rid of those +which fettered his ankles. An endless task it seemed, but hand and +friendly splinter accomplished it at last; and he sprang to the door. It +was locked. He dashed himself against it, once, twice, thrice, and it +crashed outwards, precipitating him into a large, bare room. He crossed +this, managed to open its unlocked door with his free hand, descended a +winding stair and came into the upper hall. It was in darkness, but up +the wide staircase streamed the perfumed light of many myrtle candles, +and with it laughter, and the sound of a man's voice singing to a lute. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE ROAD TO PARADISE + + +The family and guests of Verney Manor were assembled in the great room. +The day had been one of confusion, haste and anxiety; but it was past, +and the stillness and forced inaction of the night was upon them. With +the readiness of those to whom danger is no novelty they seized the hour +and made the most of it. Sufficient unto the morrow was the evil +thereof. + +The Colonel, weary from hard riding, but well satisfied with his +afternoon's work, had sunk into a great chair and challenged Dr. Anthony +Nash to a game of chess. "Everything is in train," he told them, "and +all quiet upon the plantations in this shire at least. I believe the +danger past. God be thanked!" Upon a settle piled with cushions lay +Captain Laramore, with a bandaged shoulder, a long pipe between his +teeth, and at his elbow a tankard of sack and an elderly Hebe in the +person of Mistress Lettice Verney. Patricia, sumptuously clad and +beautiful as a dream, sat in the great window with Betty and Sir +Charles. Her eyes shone with a feverish brilliancy, her white hands were +never still, she laughed and jested with her lover, touching this or +that with light wit. Once or twice she broke into song, rich, +passionate, throbbing through the night. The gentle Betty looked at her +in wonder, but Sir Charles was enchanted. + +Steps sounded on the stairs and in the hall. "Who is that?" cried the +master, taking his hand from his rook. + +"The overseer, probably," said Dr. Nash. "Check to your king." + +A loud scream from Mistress Lettice. The master leaped to his feet, +knocking over the chess-table and sending the pieces rattling into +corners. Sir Charles, drawing his rapier, sprang to his side, the +wounded Captain started up from amidst his pillows and the divine +snatched a brass andiron from the fireplace. + +Framed in the doorway, looking larger than life against the blackness of +the space behind him, stood the arch plotter, the Roundhead, the +convict, the rebellious servant whom the Governor had sworn to hang. +Blood dropped from his face, cut by the glass with which he had severed +the rope, to meet the blood upon his arms and chest, lacerated by his +savage straining at his bonds. For a moment he stood, blinded by the +light, then advanced into the room. His master seized him. "Still +bound!" he cried with an oath. "He is alone then! How did you get here? +What are you doing here? Speak, scoundrel!" + +"I bring you this paper, sir," said Landless hoarsely. "Will you take it +from me. I cannot raise my hands." + +The Colonel snatched the paper, glanced at it, read it with a face from +which all the ruddy color had fled, and held it out to Sir Charles with +a shaking hand. "Read it," he gasped. "Read it aloud," and sank into his +chair breathing heavily. + +Sir Charles read. "Damnation!" he cried, crushing the paper in his hand. +Laramore started up with a roar of "My ship!" and then broke into a +torrent of oaths. Mistress Lettice's screams filled the room until her +brother roughly silenced her by clapping his hand over her mouth. "By +the Lord Harry, Lettice, I will throw you out to them if you do not +hush! Gentlemen, in God's name, what are we to do?" + +"Barricade door and window and hold the house against them," said the +baronet. + +"Send for help to Rosemead and to Fitzhugh and Ludwell!" cried the +divine. + +"Five men and three women to hold this house against a hundred Indians +and negroes! And no help could come for hours and it is now nearly ten! +Moreover, the messenger would have to pass through the savages lying in +the woods,--he would never reach Rosemead with his scalp on!" + +"I will be your messenger," said Nash rising, "and as every moment is +more precious than rubies, I had best start at once." + +"You, Anthony! God forbid!" cried the Colonel "You would go to certain +death." + +"I would stay to certain death, would I not?" retorted the other. "But +my mare, Pixie, and I can shew clean heels to the red villains, were +they as thick as chinquepins. Give me the stable-key, Verney. I know the +way to the jade's stall, and she will follow her master through fire and +water without a whinny. I don't want a light. Not a soul on the place +must know that I have left Verney Manor." + +"Anthony, Anthony, I am loth to see you go, old friend!" cried the +Colonel. + +"Tut, tut, as well leave my scalp in the woods as in Dick Verney's +parlor! but I shall do neither. Hold the house as long as you can, and +look for Carrington, and Fitzhugh, and Ludwell, and myself with a +hundred men at our heels before the dawn. Until then _vale_." + +He was gone. "And now the doors and windows," said Sir Charles. + +"The windows, save those in this room, are secured as they always are at +night. The shutters are heavy and strongly barred, and we have but to +draw the chains across the doors. They will find it hard work to fire +the house, for the logs are wet from this morning's shower. There is +ammunition enough, and the shutters are loopholed. If we were in force, +we might hold out, but, my God! what can we do? Even with the overseers +whom we must manage to call to us, if we can do so without arousing +suspicion, we are not enough to defend one face of the house." + +"Are there no honest servants?" + +"How can I tell the true men from the knaves? To rouse the quarters +would be to show that we know, and to ourselves spring the mine which is +to destroy us. And if we brought men into the house, who are leagued +with the fiends outside, then would their work be done for them. There +are a very few whom I know to be faithful, but how to secure them +without giving the alarm--my God! how helpless we are!" + +"Perhaps I can help you, Colonel Verney," said Landless. + +In the midst of a dead silence the eyes of each occupant of the +room,--the master, the courtier, the wounded captain, the women, +trembling in each other's arms,--were turned upon the speaker who stood +before them, haggard, torn and bleeding, but with a quiet power in his +dark face and steadfast eyes. + +"You?" said the master sternly, "What can you do?" + +"I will tell you," said Landless, "but I must be freed from these bonds +first." + +Another pause, and then Sir Charles, responding to a nod from his +kinsman, walked over to Landless, and with his rapier cut the ropes +which bound him. + +"Now speak!" said the Colonel. + + * * * * * * + +The quarters lay, to all appearance, wrapt in the profoundest +slumber--no movement in the low-browed cabins, or in the lane or square; +no sound other than the croak of the frogs in the marshes, the wail of +the whip-poor-wills, and the sighing of the night wind in the pines. All +was dark save in the east, where the low stars were beginning to pale. +Below them glowed a dull red spark, shining dimly across a long expanse +of black marsh and water, and coming from Captain Laramore's ship, +anchored off the Point. + +One moment it seemed the only light in the wide landscape of darkness; +the next the flame of a torch, streaming sidewise in the wind, cast an +orange glare upon the dead tree in the centre of the square and upon the +windowless fronts of the cabins surrounding it. The torch was in the +hand of the overseer, who went the rounds, striking upon each door, and +summoning the inmates of the cabin to the square. "The master wants a +word with you," was all the answer he vouchsafed to startled, sullen, or +suspicious inquiries. In five minutes the square was thronged. White and +black, servant and slave, rustic, convict, Jew, Turk, Indian, mulatto, +quadroon, coal black, untamed African--the motley crowd pressed and +jostled towards that end of the square at which stood the master, his +kinsman, the overseer, and Godfrey Landless. Behind them on the steps of +the overseer's house were the Muggletonian, Havisham, and Trail. They +had been unbound. In the Muggletonian's scarred face was stolid +indifference, but Trail looked furtively about until he spied Luiz +Sebastian, when he signaled "What is it?" with his eyes. The mulatto +shook his head, and continued to shoulder his way through the press +until he stood in the front row, face to face with the party from the +great house. On one side of him was the Turk, on the other an Indian. + +The master stepped a pace or two in front of his companions, and held up +his hand for silence. When the excited muttering had sunk into a +breathless hush, he beckoned to Landless, and the young man stepped to +his side. There were many streaming lights by now, and men saw each +other, now clearly, now darkly, as the fitful glare rose and fell. + +"Now, my man," said the master in a loud, slow voice, "you will point +out to me, as you have agreed to do, every man concerned in the plot +discovered this morning. And you whom he designates, I command you, in +the name of the King, to surrender peaceably. Your hope of pardon +depends upon your doing so. Now, Landless!" + +"John Havisham," said Landless. + +"Taken redhanded," quoth the master. "Place him here, Woodson, in front +of us. When all are in line, I shall have a word to say to them." + +Havisham advanced with quiet dignity, passing Landless as if unaware of +his presence. "I surrender," he said, raising his voice, "because I have +no choice. And I advise those of our number here present to do the same. +Our plans known, our friends taken, betrayed and deserted by the man in +whom we trusted most, whom we called our leader, we have, indeed, no +choice." + +"Win-Grace Porringer," said Landless. + +The Muggletonian threw up his arms. "Iscariot!" he cried wildly. "Woe, +woe to him by whom offenses come! Well for thee, son of Warham Landless, +hadst thou never been born! By the power given to the Two Witnesses and +to their followers I curse thee! Thou shalt be anathema maranatha! +Famine, thirst, and a violent death be thy portion in this life, and in +the world to come mayest thou burn forever, howling! Amen and amen!" +With a wild laugh he stalked to the side of Havisham, leaving Trail +standing alone upon the doorstep. The eyes of the forger met the eyes of +Luiz Sebastian in another puzzled inquiry, but the latter shook his head +with a frown. Not doubting that his name would be the next called, Trail +had already taken a step forward, but Landless's eyes passed him over, +and rested upon the face of a man standing near Luiz Sebastian. + +"John Robert!" he cried. + +The man, a Baptist preacher suffering under the Act of Uniformity, +turned a gentle, reproachful face upon him, and stepping from the crowd, +joined himself to Havisham and the Muggletonian. + +"James Holt!" said Landless. + +A rustic, standing behind Luiz Sebastian, uttered a dreadful +imprecation. "You may hang me and welcome, your Honor," he cried as he +took his place, "if you'll just let me see this d--d Judas hung +first!" + +Luiz Sebastian fixed his great eyes upon Landless. "If he calls my +name," said the wicked brain behind the blandly smiling face, "shall I, +or shall I not--? It is many minutes to moonrise yet." + +But Landless did not call him. He passed him by as he had passed Trail, +and named another rustic at some little distance from the mulatto, then +a Fifth Monarchy man, then a veteran of Cromwell's, then the plantation +miller and the carpenter, then two more Oliverians, then more peasants. +Each man, as his name was called, stepped forward into the lengthening +line that faced the master and his party, standing with pistols leveled +and cocked; and each man bestowed upon Godfrey Landless a curse, or a +look that was bitterer than a curse. + +"Humfrey Elder!" called Landless. + +The old butler shot from out the crowd, as though impelled from a +catapult. "Your Honor!" he screamed, "the man as says _I_ plot against a +Verney, lies! I that fought with your Honor at Naseby! I that you +brought from home with you when Mistress Patricia was a baby, and that +has poured your wine from that day to this! I plot with these +rapscallions and Roundheads! Your Honor, he lies in his throat!" + +"Fall into line, Humfrey," said his master quietly; "I will hear you out +later, but now, obey me." + +The watchful eyes of Luiz Sebastian were growing very watchful indeed. + +"Regulus!" cried Landless. + +Under cover of a burst of protestation from Regulus, the Turk whispered +to the mulatto, "By Allah! this is the slave you would not approach! You +said he would die for his master." + +"He is not of them," returned the other. "St. Jago! if I understand it! +But what can it matter? The moon will rise in less than an hour." + +"Dick Whittington!" cried Landless. + +There was a moment's silence, broken by the mulatto, who had stepped out +of line, and now stood facing the party from the great house. "I grieve +to say, senors," he said in his silkiest tone, "that the poor Dick was +but now taken with the fever, and lies in a stupor within his cabin. +To-morrow, perhaps, he will be better, and will answer when you call." + +"That is your cabin, just beyond you there, is it not?" demanded +Landless. + +"Assuredly," with a quick glance. "And what then?" + +Landless raised his voice to a shout. "Dick Whittngton!" + +"Mother of God! what do you mean?" exclaimed the mulatto. "Your voice +cannot reach him, deaf and dumb from the fever, lying in his cabin at +the far end of the lane." + +"Dick Whittington!" again loudly called Landless. + +A cry arose from the crowd behind the mulatto and between him and his +cabin. The next instant there broke through them the figure, bound and +gagged, of young Dick Whittington. As he rushed past the mulatto, the +latter, with a snarl of fury, grappled with him, but animated with the +strength of despair, the boy, bound as he was, broke from him and rushed +to Landless, at whose feet he dropped in a dead faint. Upon the crowd +fell a silence so intense that nature herself seemed to have ceased to +breathe. Luiz Sebastian, darting glances here, there, and everywhere, +from eyes in which doubt was last growing into certainty, came upon +something which told its own tale. The women's cabins were at some +distance from the square, and nearer to the great house, and from the +one to the other was passing a hurried line of women and children with +the under overseer at their head. + +With the sight vanished the last remnant of doubt from the mind of the +mulatto.... Landless saw that he saw; saw the intention with which he +slipped out of range of the pistols; saw the wicked light in his face; +saw him beckon to the Indian and point to the forest; saw the glistening +and rolling eyeballs and the working lips of the throng of slaves who +had by imperceptible degrees separated from the whites, and were now +massing together at one side of the square; saw the Turk with a knife in +his hand; saw Trail edging away from the group before the overseer's +cabin--and sprang forward, his powerful figure instinct with +determination, the set calm of the face with which he had met Havisham's +quiet disdain and the imprecations of the other conspirators, broken up +into fire and passion, high and resolved. Blood was upon it still, and +upon his arms and half naked breast; his eyes burned; and as he threw up +his arm in a gesture of command, he looked the very genius of war, and +he seized and held every eye and ear. + +"Men!" he cried, addressing himself to the line he had called into +being. "Havisham, Arnold, Allen, Braxton! we fought in the same cause +once, fought for God and the Commonwealth! To-night we will fight again, +and together; fight for our lives and for the honor of women! Comrades, +I am no traitor! I have not sold you! You have cursed me without cause. +Listen! Colonel Verney, will you repeat the oath you swore to me an hour +ago?" + +The master stepped to his side. "I swear," he cried, in his loud, manly +voice, "by the faith of a Christian, by the honor of a gentleman, that +not one of you whose names have been given by this man, shall in any +way suffer by having been privy to this plot. I will so work with the +Governor and Council that your bodies shall not be touched, nor your +time of service increased. Bygones shall be bygones between us. This +applies to all save this man, the head and front of the conspiracy. Him +I cannot save. He must pay the penalty, but he shall be the scapegoat +for the rest of you. You have my promise, the promise of a man who never +breaks his word for good or evil." + +"In the woods yonder are Indians," cried Landless. "They wait but for +moonrise, for the appointed hour, to fall upon the plantation. You +called me traitor! It is Luiz Sebastian and Trail who are the traitors, +the betrayers! They are leagued with the Indians and with the slaves. +Look at them, and see that I speak truth!" + +The look was sufficient. The dusky mass of slaves had swayed forward +with one low, deep, bestial growl. Crouched for the spring, they were +yet held in leash by the menace of the pistols, leveled upon them and +gleaming in the torchlight, and by the restraining gesture and voice of +Luiz Sebastian. In the crowd of servants, now quite separated from the +slaves, was noise and confusion, and behind the Turk, standing midway +between the parties, was forming a phalanx of villainous white +faces--the dissolute, the convict, the refuse of the plantation,--and at +his side, suddenly as though sprung from the earth, appeared the evil +face and red hair of the murderer of Robert Godwyn. + +The silence of the Oliverians, stricken dumb by this new turn of +affairs, was broken by Havisham's crying to Landless,-- + +"What are we to do, friend?" + +"Make for the house and defend it and our lives," answered Landless, +"but first I call upon all true men among you yonder to leave those +murderers and join yourselves to us." + +"In the name of the King!" cried the Colonel. + +"In the name of God!" said Landless. + +Some seven or eight broke from the opposite throng and with lowered +heads ran to them across the open space. Landless stooped, and lifting +the senseless figure at his feet swung it over his shoulder. + +"We are ready, Colonel Verney. Steady, men! Follow me!" He turned to the +great house, rising vast and dark, two hundred yards away. + +A gigantic, coal black Ashantee chief broke from the throng opposite +and, uttering his war cry, bounded across the space between them. +Another instant and he would have been upon them, and close after him a +yelling pack of hell hounds--the overseer's pistol cracked, and the +black giant fell dead. A yell arose from the crowd, but they stood +irresolute. For firearms, so strictly kept from servants and slaves, so +preeminently pertaining to the dominant class, they had a superstitious +dread. Four pistols meant four lives picked from the foremost to +advance. + +"Let them go," cried the mulatto, with a taunting laugh. "Let them go! +Let them go cage themselves in wooden walls where we will take them all +together--rats in a trap. We will wait for the Chickahominies who have +guns, senors, and for the Ricahecrians whose scalping knives are very +bright. Until moonrise, senors from the great house, and you others who +go with them! Mother of God! look well upon it, for it is the last you +will ever see!" + +Fifteen minutes later saw the house of Verney Manor garrisoned by some +thirty desperate men. They had entered to find a scene of confusion--the +hall and lower rooms filled with frightened women and crying children. +Patricia with white cheeks and brilliant eyes had come forward to meet +her father, carrying a three days' child in her arms. Beyond her was +Betty, bending her sweet, pale face over the mother, caught up from her +pallet and carried to the house in the arms of the under overseer. +Mistress Lettice was alternately wailing that they were all undone and +murdered, and wringing her hands over the obstinacy of Captain Laramore +who, rapier in left hand, would stand guard at the door, instead of +keeping quiet as the Doctor had said he must. The master's stern command +for silence reduced the clamor of women and children to an undertone of +lamentation. "We must to work at once," he said, "and apportion our +forces. There are about thirty men, are there not, Woodson? I shall take +the front with ten; Charles, thou shalt have one side, Woodson the +other, and Haines the back. Laramore, thou must let us fight for thee, +man, though I know thou findest it a bitter pill. Do you marshal the +men, Woodson, and divide them into four parties, one for each face, and +tell the women to leave off their whimpering and prepare to load the +muskets. Haines, have the arms taken down from the racks and distribute +them. Men and women, one and all, you are to remember that you are +fighting for your lives and for more than your lives. You know what you +have to expect if you are taken." + +Sir Charles, followed by Landless, the Muggletonian and some three or +four others, entered the great room, which, with the master's room, +occupied that side of the house allotted to the baronet. The wax +candles still burned upon the spinet, and upon the high mantel, and in +the middle of the floor lay the overturned chess table. Three of the +four windows were closely shuttered, but the fourth was open, and before +it stood a graceful figure, looking out into the darkness. + +Sir Charles strode hurriedly over to it. "Cousin! this is madness! You +know not to what danger you may be exposing yourself. Come away!" + +"I am watching for the moonrise," she said dreamily. "It is very near +now. Look at the white glow above the water, and how pale the stars are! +How beautiful it is, and how cool the wind upon your forehead! Listen! +that was the cry of a jay, surely! and yet why should we hear it at +night?" + +"It is the cry of a jay, sure enough," said the overseer, pausing in his +hurried passage through the room, "but it was made by Indian lips." + +"Come away, for God's sake!" cried the baronet. + +"Look! there is the moon!" she answered. + +Above the level of marsh and water appeared a thin line of silver. It +thickened, rounded, became a glorious orb. The marshes blanched from +black to gray, and across the water, from the dim land to the great +silver globe, stretched a long, bright, shimmering path. + +A knot of women appeared in the doorway, laden with powder-flasks and +platters filled with bullets. One, with only a stick wound with faded +flowers in her hand, left them and glided to the open window. + +"Margery!" said Patricia softly. + +The mad woman, pressing in front of her mistress, looked out into the +night and saw the white shining road cutting through the darkness and +stretching endlessly away. She threw up her arms with a cry of rapture. + +"The road to Paradise! the road to Paradise!" + +An arrow whistled through the window and struck into her bosom--into her +heart--the staff dropped from her hand, and she swayed forward and fell +at her mistress's feet. + +The night, so placid, still and beautiful, was rent and in an instant +made hideous by a sound so long, loud, and dreadful, that it might have +been the shriek of a legion of exultant fiends. It rose to the stars, +sunk to the earth and rose again, unearthly, menacing, curdling the +blood and turning the heart to stone. + +"The war-whoop," said Woodson. "Close the window, quick." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +NIGHT + + +That terrible cadence preluded pandemonium, the hush of horror that +followed it being broken by one deep and awful roar of voices as the +insurgents, red, white, and black, joined forces and swept down upon the +devoted house. + +"They will try the front first," quoth the master from his loophole. +"Steady, men, until I give the word! Now, let them have it with a +wannion!" + +The muskets cracked and a louder yell arose from without. + +"Two," said the master composedly, receiving a fresh musket from his +daughter's hand. + +"They will try to dash in the door, your Honor!" cried the overseer from +his post of observation. "They have the trunk of a pine with them." + +"Let them come," said his master grimly. "They will find a warm +welcome." + +A double line of savages raised the great trunk from the ground and +advanced with it at a run, yelling as they came. They had reached the +steps leading up into the porch when from the loopholed door and window +within there poured a deadly fire. Three fell, but the battering-ram +came on and struck against the door with tremendous force. The door +held, and but twelve of the twenty who had entered the porch returned to +their fellows. + +"They won't try that again," said the master with a short laugh. + +"They are dividing," cried the overseer. "They will surround the house. +Every man to his post!" + +Around the corner of the house to the moonlit sward beneath the great +room windows swept a tide of Indians and negroes with Luiz Sebastian and +the two Ricahecrian brothers at their head. A few of the Indians had +guns; the slaves were armed with axes, scythes, knives--the plunder of +the tool house--or with jagged pieces of old iron, or with oars taken +from the boats and broken into dreadful clubs. They came on with a din +that was terrific, the savages from the eastern hemisphere howling like +the beasts within their native forests, those from the western uttering +at intervals their sterner, more appalling cry. + +Within the great room Sir Charles, languidly graceful as ever, stood +beside the small square opening in the door that led down into the +garden, and fired again and again into the mob without. He fought with +an air as became the fine gentleman of the period, but underneath the +elaborate carelessness of demeanor was a cool precision of action. The +hand that so nonchalantly brushed away the grains of powder from his +white ruffles, was steady enough at the trigger; the eye that turned +from the red death without to cast languishing glances at his mistress +where she stood directing the women, was quick to note the minutest +change in savage tactics. He jested as he fought--once he drew a +tremulous wail of laughter from Mistress Lettice's lips. + +A bullet sung through the aperture and grazed his arm. "The first +blood," he said, with a laugh. + +"There's a man killed in the master's room and two in the hall!" cried +young Whittington, from his post at the far window. + +"And Margery," said Patricia, coming forward with the kerchief from her +neck in her hand. "Let me bind up your wound, cousin." + +He held out his arm with a smile and a few low, caressing words, and she +wound the lawn that was not whiter than her face about it; then moved +back to where the women worked, loading and passing the muskets to the +men who kept up an incessant fire upon the assailants. + +The whole house filled with smoke through which the figures of the +besieged loomed large and indistinct, and the noise--the crack of the +muskets, the loud commands and oaths, the scream of a frightened woman +or child, the groans of the wounded, of whom there were now many--became +deafening. The attack was now general, and the men on each face had +their hands full. Without was horrible clamor, oaths, shots, yells, +crashing blows against door and window; within was noise and confusion, +and fear, stern and controlled, but blanching the lip of the men and +showing in the agony of the women's eyes. + +Sir Charles, turning for a fresh musket, after a highly successful shot +as the yell outside had testified, found Patricia at his elbow. "There +are very few bullets left, cousin, and this is all the powder." + +The baronet drew in his breath. "Peste! we are unfortunate! One of you +men go beg, borrow, or steal from the others." + +Landless left his loophole in charge of the Muggletonian and went +swiftly into the hall, where he found the master, his wig off, his shirt +torn, his face and hands blackened with powder, now firing with his own +hand, now shouting encouragement to the panting men. + +"Powder and shot!" he cried. "God help us! are you out? Not a grain or a +bullet can we spare, for if we keep them not from the great door we are +dead men!" + +Landless went to the overseer. "Two more rounds and _we_ are out," said +Woodson coolly, firing as he spoke. + +"There is no sign that they have had enough," said Landless, as the +clamor outside redoubled, and a man fell heavily back from his loophole +with a bullet through his brain. + +"Enough! Damn them, no!" said the overseer. "When they've had our lives +they will have had enough--not before! They're paying dearly for their +fun though." + +Landless went back to the great room with empty hands. + +"They are all in like case," he said, in answer to Sir Charles's lifted +eyebrows. + +The other shrugged his shoulders. "What will be, will be. If we could +have saved our fire--but we had to keep them from the door! Get to your +post, and we will hold them back as long as may be. Then a short passage +to eternal nothingness!" + +"A short passage!" muttered the Muggletonian at Landless's ear. "Well +for those who find that at the hands of the uncircumcised heathen. +Eternal nothingness! The fool hath said in his heart There is no +God--and he is being dashed headlong upon the judgment bar of the God +who saith, I will repay. Cursed be the Atheist! May he find the passage, +fiery though it be, as nothing to the flames of the avenging God; may +he go to his appointed place where the worm dieth not and the fire is +not quenched; may--" + +The trunk of a tree was dashed against the door with a force that shook +the room. "Dey're comin'!" shouted Regulus, who stood behind Sir +Charles, and raised the axe with which he was armed above his head. +Another crash and the wood splintered. Through the ragged opening was +thrust a red hand--the axe, wielded by Regulus's powerful arms, flashed +downwards, and the hand, severed at the wrist, fell with a dull thud +upon the floor. A yell from without, and another blow, widening the +opening. Landless fired his last bullet into the crowd, and clubbing his +musket sprang to the door, in front of which were now massed all the +defenders of that side of the house. Sir Charles threw down his useless +musket and drew his sword. "Cousin," he said over his shoulder to +Patricia, standing white and erect in the midst of the cowering women, +"you had best betake yourselves to the hall, and that quickly. This will +be no ladies' bower presently." + +"Come," said Patricia to the women, and led the way towards the door +leading into the hall. As she passed Sir Charles she put out her hand, +and he caught it, sunk to his knee, and pressed his lips upon it. + +"I am going to my father," she said steadily, "and I shall pray him as +he loves me to pass his sword through my heart when they break into the +hall. So it is farewell, cousin." + +She drew her hand away and moved towards the door, passing Landless so +closely that her rich skirts brushed him, but without a change in the +white calm of her face. The terrified women had pressed before her into +the hall, only Betty Carrington keeping by her side. Her foot was upon +the threshold, when with loud screams they surged back into the great +room. A thundering crash in the hall was followed by a babel of oaths, +screams, triumphant yells. The voice of the master made itself heard +above all the hubbub, "Charles, Woodson, Haines, they are upon us! +Defend the women to the last, as you are men, all of you!" + +The splintered plank between them in the great room and the murderers +without was dashed inwards. An Indian, naked, horribly painted, +brandishing a tomahawk, sprang through the opening, and Sir Charles ran +him through with his sword. A second followed, and Landless dashed his +brains out with the butt of his musket. A third, and the Muggletonian +struck at him through the wildly flaring light and the drifting smoke +wreaths, and missed his aim. The knife of the savage gleamed high in +air, then, descending, stuck quivering in the breast of the fanatic. He +sunk to his knees, flung up his skeleton arms, and raised his scarred +face, into which a light that was not of earth had come, then cried in a +loud voice, "Turn ye, turn ye to the Stronghold, ye prisoners of Hope!" +His eyes closed and he fell forward upon his face, his blood making the +ground slippery about the feet of the others. + +Landless closed with the Indian, finally slew him, and turned to behold +a stream, impetuous, not to be withstood, of Indians and negroes pouring +through the doorway. From the hall came the clash of weapons and a most +terrific din, and presently there burst into the great room the Colonel, +Laramore, Woodson, and Haines, followed by some fifteen men--making, +with the five in the great room, all that were left of the defenders of +Verney Manor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +MORNING + + +The women crouched in a far corner of the room behind a barricade of +chairs and tables; the men stood between them and the thirsters for +blood, and fought coolly, desperately, with such effect that, fearful as +were the odds, a glimmering of hope came to them. The ammunition on both +sides was exhausted, and it had become a hand to hand struggle in which +the advantage of position and weapons was with the assailed. + +"Damme, but we will beat them yet!" cried Laramore, panting, and leaning +heavily upon his rapier. "They're drawing off; we've tired them out!" + +"They'll never tire while that hellhound of an Indian whoops them on and +that yellow devil, Luiz Sebastian, backs him up," said the overseer. + +"They are gathering for a rush," said Landless. + +The assailants had fallen back to the opposite wall, leaving a space, +cumbered with the dead and slippery with blood, between them and the +defenders of the house. In this space now appeared the lithe figure, and +the watchful, large-eyed, amber countenance of Luiz Sebastian. + +"Ohe!" he cried, "slaves, all of you! Ashantees, Popoes, Angolans, +Fidas, Malimbe, Ambrice! you who are all black! think of the jungle and +the village; think of the wives and the children! think of the slaver +and the slave ship! You from the Indies, you who are like me, Luiz +Sebastian, think of the blood which is the white man's blood and yet the +blood of a slave--and hate the white man as I, Luiz Sebastian, hate him! +Kill them and take the women!" + +The swollen figure and dreadful face of Roach appeared at his side. +"Ay!" cried the murderer, with a tremendous oath. "Kill them! Smash +them, batter them, hear them scream! In the old man's pocket is the key +of his money chest. It is filled with bright yellow gold. Kill him and +get the money, and away to turn pirate and get more!" + +"It grows late!" cried Trail. "We must up sail, and away before the +dawn!" + +The gigantic, horribly painted form of the Ricahecrian chief stalked +into the open space and commenced a harangue in his own tongue. It was +short, but effective. + +"God!" said the Colonel, under his breath, and grasped his bloodstained +sword more closely. + +With one shrill and horrible cry Indians, negroes, mulattoes, and +villainous whites were upon them, breaking their line, forcing them +apart into knots of two and three away from the frail barrier, behind +which cowered the screaming women, striking with knife and tomahawk, axe +and club. Two of the Colonel's men fell, one under the knife of the +seven-year-captive Ricahecrian, the other beaten down by the jagged and +knotted club with which Roach, foaming at the mouth, and swearing +horribly, struck madly to left and right. The Ricahecrian, drawing the +knife from the heart of his victim, rushed on to where Landless and Sir +Charles still maintained, by dint of desperate fighting, their position +before the women, but Luiz Sebastian with Roach and half a dozen negroes +swept between him and his prey. He swerved aside, and, bounding into the +midst of the women, seized the one who chanced to be in his path,--a +young and beautiful girl, newly come over from Plymouth, and a favorite +with the ladies of Verney Manor. The despairing scream which the poor +child uttered rang out above all the tumult. Landless turned, saw, and +darted to her aid--but too late. With one hand the savage gathered up +the loosened hair, with the other he passed the scalping knife around +the young head--when Landless reached them, she who so short time before +had been so fair to see, lay a shocking spectacle, writhing in her death +agony. With white lips and burning eyes Landless swung his gun above his +head, and brought it down upon the shaven crown of Grey Wolf. It cracked +like an egg shell, and the Indian dropped across the body of his victim. + +Landless, springing back to the post he had quitted, found Sir Charles +in desperate case, but as coolly composed as ever, and with the air of +the Court still about him despite his bared head and torn and +bloodstained clothing, treating those who came against him to an +exhibition of swordsmanship such as the New World had probably rarely +witnessed. Landless, striking down a cutpurse from Tyburn, saw him run +the Turk through, and saw behind him the nightmare visage and the raised +club of Roach. He uttered a warning cry, but the club descended, and the +handsome, careless face fell backwards, and the slender debonair figure +swayed and fell. Landless caught him, saw that he was but stunned, and +letting him drop to the floor at his feet, wrenched the sword from his +hand, and stood over him, facing Roach with a stern smile. + +The murderer raised his club again. + +"We've met at last!" he cried with a taunting laugh. "Do you remember +the tobacco house, and what I said? I says: 'Every dog has its day, and +I'll have mine.' It's my day now!" + +"And I said," rejoined Landless, "'I let you go now, but one day I will +kill you.' And _that_ day has come." + +With an oath Roach brought down the club. Landless swerved, and the blow +fell harmlessly; before the arm could be again raised, he caught it, +held it with a grasp of steel, and shortened his sword. The miscreant +saw his death, and screamed for mercy. "Remember Robert Godwyn!" said +Landless, and drove the blade home. + +The sword was a more effective weapon than the gun, and with it he kept +the enemy at bay, while he glanced despairingly around. There were as +many dead as living within the room by this. The floor was piled with +the slain; they made traps for the living who in the wild surging to and +fro stumbled over them, and fell, and were slain before they could rise. +Three fourths of the dead belonged to the insurgents, but the attacked +had suffered severely. Of the thirty men with whom the defense had +commenced there now remained but twelve, and of that number several were +wounded. The Colonel was bleeding from a cut on the head, the under +overseer had a ball through his arm, Sir Charles still lay without +movement at Landless's feet. + +Forced, together with almost all of his party, by the mad rush of the +assailants to the further end of the room, the master had seen with +agony the women left well-nigh defenseless. Followed by Woodson, +Havisham, Regulus, and young Whittington, he had all but cut his way +back to them, when a fresh influx from the hall of slaves and whites who +had been engaged in plundering the house, drove them apart again. + +The newcomers came fresh to the work, maddened, moreover, by the +master's wines. They advanced upon the Colonel and his party with +drunken shouts, some brandishing rude weapons, others silver salvers and +tankards, the spoil of the plate chest. The voice of Luiz Sebastian rang +through the room. "Quick work of them, friends; I smell the morning!" +With a laugh and a scrap of Spanish song upon his lips he came at +Landless with a knife, but a turn of the white man's wrist sent the +weapon hurling through the air. + +"Curse you!" cried the mulatto, springing out of reach of the deadly +point, and holding his arm from which the blood was flowing. "Mother of +God! but I will have you yet!" and bounded towards his weapon. Landless, +steadily watchful, and pointing that fatal sword this way or that +against all comers, cleared for himself and the still senseless man at +his feet a circle into which few cared to intrude, for the fame of that +blade had gone through the room. "Leave him until we have dealt with the +others," said the mulatto between his teeth. "Then will we give him +reason to wish that he had never been born." + +A touch upon his arm, and Landless turned to find Patricia standing +beside him. "Go back," he cried. "Go back!" + +"They are murdering them all over there," she said steadily. "My father +is dead. I saw him fall." + +"Not so, madam. He did but stumble over the dead. See, Woodson fights +them back from him. For God's sake, get back behind the barricade!" + +She shook her head. "He is dead. They will all be dead directly, my +cousin and all. My father cannot help me, and he who lies here cannot +help me. I will not be taken alive by these devils, and I have no knife. +Will you kill me?" + +"My God!" + +"Quick!" she said in the same low, steady tones. "They are coming; they +will beat us down in a moment. Kill me!" + +For answer Landless raised his voice until it rang high above the +uproar, and arrested the attention of the combatants on both sides. +"Fight with a will, men," he cried, "for help is at hand! Do you not +hear the hoofs of the horses?" + +"By God! you are right!" cried the Colonel, suddenly struggling to his +feet. "Hold out, men! Anthony Nash reached Rosemead, and has brought us +aid!" + +"The dog priest!" the mulatto cried fiercely to Trail. "Was he here? +Then they have sent for help, and Mother of God! it is here!" + +"And coming at the planter's pace," answered Trail. "They will be upon +us before we reach the boats." + +The mulatto glanced at the friend with whom he had fled the Indies with +a sinister smile. "Ay," he muttered to himself. "They will be upon us +indeed, before we reach the boats, wherefore Luiz Sebastian goes not to +turn pirate this time. He throws in his lot with the Ricahecrians whose +canoes are close at hand in the inlet that winds into the Pamunkey. +They are very swift, and in the Blue Mountains there is safety. But one +thing first." + +He gave a shrill and peculiar whistle which brought to him half a dozen +Indians. He pointed to the body of Grey Wolf and then to Landless. A +yell burst from the lips of the savages, and they rushed upon the +latter. He met them, ran his sword through the heart of the first, of +the second: Sir Charles moaned, stirred, and struggled to his knees. A +third raised his knife; it would have descended, but Landless darted +between the savage and the half-dazed, utterly helpless man at whom the +blow was aimed, struck up the arm, and plunged his sword into the dark +breast. A broken oar, snatched from the floor by the mulatto, descended +upon his head, and with a woman's scream sounding in his ear, he fell +heavily to the floor, and lay as one dead. + +When he came to himself, it was to find the great room still crowded +with men, and filled with noise and confusion, but the thronging figures +and the excited voices were those of friends--of servants from the +neighboring plantations, of small planters and tenants of Colonels +Ludwell and Fitzhugh, the Surveyor-General, and Dr. Anthony Nash. He saw +the master, panting, bleeding, but exultant, seize Dr. Nash's hands in +his own. He saw Sir Charles smile and extend his box of richly scented +snuff to Colonel Ludwell, and the women leaving their corner of refuge +with hysterical laughter and tears; saw Betty Carrington in her father's +arms, and Mistress Lettice being helped across a heap of dead by Captain +Laramore. Indians, negroes, mulatto, scoundrel whites, were gone. + +"They got off clear--the d--d villains," said Dick Whittington, +appearing beside him, "just before the horses came up. But Woodson has +gone after the slaves and the convicts with a party of Carrington's men. +He'll catch them, I'm thinking, and they'll come to a pirate's +end--that's all the pirating they'll get. The Indians will get clean +away; they're most to the Pamunkey by now, I reckon." + +Landless staggered to his feet, and put his hand to his head, which was +bleeding. "The women are all safe?" he demanded. + +"All but poor Annis," said the boy. "When I saw the poor maid fall, I +thanked the Lord that Joyce Whitbread was safe in her mother's cottage +at Banbury. But none of the others were hurt. There is Mistress Lettice +and Mistress Betty Carrington--I do not see Mistress Patricia." + +The master of Verney Manor, pouring forth a rapid account of the late +affair to the gentlemen who crowded around him, was brought to a dead +stop by the appearance of a man who had burst through the throng, and +now stood before him, half naked, bleeding, with white, drawn face and +wild eyes. + +"What is it? Speak!" cried the master, terror of he knew not what +growing in his eyes. + +"Your daughter, Colonel Verney!" cried Landless. "She is not here. The +Ricahecrians have carried her off." + +With a sound between a groan and a scream the Colonel staggered, and +would have fallen had not Carrington caught him. "Gone! Impossible!" +cried Sir Charles vehemently, all his studied insouciance thrown to the +winds. "She was with the women behind the barrier that we made. She is +here." + +He began to call her by name, loudly, appealingly, but there came no +answering voice. + +"She will not answer," said Landless hoarsely. "She is not here. She was +with the women until just before the last. She saw her father fall, and +thought him dead, and you dead, too, Sir Charles Carew, and she came to +me, and prayed me to kill her. Then we heard the sound of the horses, +and six Indians--Ricahecrians--with Luiz Sebastian, came against me. She +stood at my side while I killed three. Then I was struck down, and I +heard her scream as I fell." + +The master freed himself from Carrington's supporting arm, and raised +from his hands a face that had suddenly become that of an old man. But +the voice was steady with which he said quietly,-- + +"Let them search the room thoroughly, for the child may be laying in a +faint beneath these dead, though my soul doth tell me that it is as this +man says, and that she is gone. But we will after them at once, and, +please God, we will have her back, safe and sound. They have but an +hour's start." + +"Ay," muttered young Whittington to Havisham. "Only an hour. But the +Chickahominies build the swiftest canoes in this corner of the world, +and I have heard that the canoes of the Ricahecrians are to the canoes +of the Chickahominies as swallows are to cranes." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS + + +Great trees, drooping from the banks of the Pamunkey, shadowed into inky +blackness the water below them; but between the lines of darkness slept +a charmed sheet, glassy, fiery red from the sunken sun. Three boats +moved silently and swiftly up the crimson stream, until, rounding a low +point, they came upon an Indian village, nestling amidst vines and +mulberries, and girt with a green ribbon of late maize, when they swung +round from the middle stream and made for the bank. They were rowed by +stalwart servants, and in the foremost sat the master of Verney Manor +and Sir Charles Carew. In the second boat was the Surveyor-General and +Dr. Anthony Nash, and in the third the overseer, and among the rowers of +this last was Godfrey Landless. + +As they neared the bank their occupants saw that the usual sleepy +evening stillness was not upon the village above them. A shrill sound of +wailing from women and children rose and fell through the gathering +dusk, and in the open space round which the bark wigwams were built, +dark figures moved to and fro in a kind of measured dance, slow and +solemn, and marked at intervals by dismal cries. As the boats touched +the shore and the white men sprang out, a boy, stationed as scarecrow +upon the usual scaffold in the midst of the maize fields, raised a +shrill whoop of warning which brought the lamentation of the women and +the dance of the men to a dead stop. The latter rushed down to the river +side, brandishing their weapons, and yelling; but there seemed little +strength in the arms that flourished the tomahawk; the voices sounded +cracked and shrill, and the weak fury and noise died away when a nearer +approach showed the newcomers to be white. A very aged man, with a face +all wrinkles and a chest all scars, stepped from out the throng which +was now augmented by the women and children. + +"My white fathers are far from the salt water. Seldom do the Pamunkeys +see their faces coming up the narrowing stream or through the forest. +They are welcome. Let my fathers tarry and my women shall bring them +chinquepin cakes and tuckahoe, pohickory and succotash, and my young +men--" + +He paused, and a low wailing murmur like the sound of the wind in the +forest rose from the women. + +"Where are your young men, your braves?" demanded the Surveyor-General. +"Here are only the very old and the very young--they who have not seen a +Huskanawing." + +The Indian pointed to the crimson flood below. "There are my young men; +there are my braves. Among them were a werowance and a sagamore. They +two have strings of pearl thicker than the stem of the grape vine; they +are painted with puccoon, and the feathers of the bluebird and the +red-bird are upon them. They have hills of hatchets and of arrow heads, +sharp and clean, and very much tobacco, and they sing and dance in the +great wigwam of Okee, in the home of Kiwassa, in the land beyond the +setting sun. But the rest--they lie deep in the slime of the river; it +is red with their blood; their wives wail for them; their village is +left desolate.... When the time of the full sun power was past the +smoking of three pipes, came up the Pamunkey, swift as the swallow that +skims its waters, the Ricahecrian dogs who, passing down towards the +salt water twelve suns ago, slew the young men of a village that lieth +below us. My young men went out against them, but a cloud came up and +Kiwassa hid his face behind it. They came not back, their boats were +sunk, the Ricahecrians laughed and went their way, swift as swallows." + +"Ask him," said the Colonel huskily. + +"Had they a captive with them--a woman, a paleface woman?" demanded +Carrington. + +"With hair like the sunshine and a white robe. And a man, the color of +the falling sycamore leaf, one of those who work in the fields of the +white fathers. The arms of the woman were bound, but his were not--he +fought with the Ricahecrian dogs." + +"Luiz Sebastian!" said the overseer with a muttered oath. "I thought as +much when we found that he was not with the drunken scoundrels whom we +took before they reached the Point. And we had better have killed him +than all the rest put together, for he is the devil incarnate." + +"Let us get on!" Sir Charles cried impatiently. "We waste time when +every moment is precious." + +The Colonel, who had been speaking to the Surveyor-General, came over to +him. All the jovial life and fire was gone from his face, his eyes were +haggard and bloodshot, he stooped like an old man, but the voice with +which he spoke was steady and authoritative as ever. + +"Ay," he said. "We must on at once, but not all of us. Richard Verney +must not forget the danger of the state, in the danger of his child, nor +let his private quarrel take precedence. I had hoped when we left the +Manor at dawn to have been up with the villains ere now, but it was not +to be. This will be a long chase and a stern one, and how it will end +God only knows. We go into a wilderness from which we may never return. +Behind us in the settlement is turmoil and danger, a conspiracy to be +put down, the Chickahominies to be subdued, the strong hand needed +everywhere. Every man should be at his post, and Richard Verney, +Lieutenant of his shire, and Colonel of the trainbands, is many leagues +from the danger which threatens the colony, and with his face to the +west. He must on, but Major Carrington must go back to do his duty to +the King, and Anthony Nash must not desert his flock. And you, Woodson, +I send back to the Manor to do what you can to repair the havoc there, +and to protect Mistress Lettice. My kinsman will go on with me; is it +not so, Charles?" + +"Assuredly, sir," said the baronet quietly. + +"I'd a sight rather go with your Honor," growled the overseer, "but I'll +do my best both by the plantation and by Mistress Lettice, and I look +for your Honor and Mistress Patricia back in no time at all. We are to +take the small boat, I reckon?" + +"Yes, with four men to row you. We will press a boat and a crew from the +next Pamunkey village. Pick out your men, and let us be gone." + +"Humph! There's one that I reckon had best go back with us. Does your +Honor know that you've got with you the head of all this d--d +Oliverian business, the man that Trail swore was their general--that +they all obeyed as though he were Oliver himself?" + +"No! How came he here?" cried the master, staring at Landless, who stood +at some distance from them with folded arms and compressed lips, gazing +steadily up the glowing reaches of the river. + +"Found him in the boat when I stepped into it myself. I didn't say +anything then, for we were in a mortal hurry and he's a good rower. But +I reckon your Honor will send him back with me? He'll give you the slip +the first chance he gets." + +"Of course he must go back," the master said peremptorily. "He should +never have been brought thus far. A dozen or so of these Oliverians must +swing as an example to the rest, and he, their leader, and a felon to +boot, at their head. The service he did us last night can not help +him--he fought for his own life. The Governor has sworn to hang him, and +I am accountable for his safe delivery at Jamestown. Bind him and take +him back with you, and send him at once to Jamestown under a strong +escort." He turned from the overseer to the two gentlemen who were to go +down the river. "Carrington, Anthony Nash, old friends, farewell--it may +be forever. Anthony, pray that I may find my child safe and spotless." + +They embraced, and he wrung their hands, and, stepping hastily into the +boat, sank down and covered his face with his cloak. The +Surveyor-General stood with a pale and troubled face, and Dr. Anthony +Nash prayed aloud. The rowers took their places and the boat shot out +into the middle stream. + +Landless, seeing the second boat filling, and supposing that the third +would receive its load in a moment, stepped towards it. As he passed the +overseer, standing a little to one side with two servants belonging to +Colonel Fitzhugh, a tenant of Colonel Verney, and an Indian from +Rosemead, Woodson put forth an arm and stopped him. + +"No, no, my man," he said with a grim smile but with a watchful eye, and +nodding to the men to close in around them. "Your way's down, not up." + +"What do you mean?" cried Landless, recoiling. + +"I mean that the Doctor and the Major and I and these men go back to the +settlements to look after things there, and that you are going to renew +your acquaintance with Jamestown gaol." + +For a moment Landless stood, turned to stone, within the other's grasp, +then with a cry he broke from him and rushed to the water's edge. The +boat containing the master had turned her head up stream and was beyond +call; in the second boat the men held the oars poised while Sir Charles, +with one foot upon the gunwale, gave a gravely courteous farewell to the +Surveyor-General and the divine. + +"Sir Charles Carew!" cried Landless. "I pray you to take me with you!" + +Without moving, Sir Charles looked at him coldly, a peculiar smile just +curling his lip. + +"I remember a day," he said, "when you said that I might wait until +doomsday and not hear favor asked of me by you." + +"You are not generous," Landless said slowly, "but I ask the favor. I +ask it on my knees. Let me go with you." + +Sir Charles stepped into the boat and took the seat reserved for him. "I +regret," he said politely, "that it comports not with my duty as a +gentleman and an officer of the King to assist you in your very natural +endeavors to escape the gibbet. Push off, men." + +The boat shot from the shore and up the darkening stream, hastening to +overtake its consort. Sir Charles raised his Spanish hat and fluttered a +lace handkerchief. "To a happier meeting, gentlemen!" The +Surveyor-General and the divine returned the salute, and stood in +silence watching the canoe with its brawny rowers and the slender, +elegant figure in the stern. It caught up with the Colonel's boat and +the two grew smaller and smaller, until they became mere black dots and +the dusk swallowed them up. + +Landless watched them too with a face set like a stone. The overseer, +backed by two of the servants, approached him with caution, but there +was no need,--he submitted to be bound without a word, or struggle, or +change in the expression of his face. He turned mechanically towards the +boat, but the overseer plucked him back. "Not yet," he said. "We are all +dead beat, and we have not the need to hurry that have those who are +gone on. The Major's commander now, and he says sleep here a few hours. +I'll fasten you so that you can't get away, I promise ye! Fegs! it's a +pity that a man who can fight as you fought last night should have to +die a dog's death after all! But you've only yourself to thank for it." + +The red glow died from the river like the scarlet from cooling iron, and +it lay dark and silent, dimly reflecting a myriad of stars. The sloping +bank, the maize fields, tobacco patch and mulberry grove, the plateau +upon which were ranged the wigwams of the Indians, the dark and endless +forest--all the wide, sombre earth--had their stars also--myriads on +myriads of fireflies, restlessly sparkling lanterns swung by legions of +fairies. There was no wind; the cataracts of wild grape descending from +the tops of the tallest trees stirred not a leaf; the pines were +soundless. But the whip-poor-wills wailed on, and once a catamount +screamed, and the deer, coming to a lick close by, made a trampling over +the fern. + +Landless, tightly bound to a great bay tree with thongs of deerskin, +watched the night grow old with hard, despairing eyes. The stars paled +and the moon rose softly above the tree-tops, silvering the world +beneath. By her light he saw the little glade of which the tree to which +he was bound marked the centre, and the recumbent forms of those who +were to return to the settlements stretched on Indian mats laid upon the +short grass. Worn out with the toil of the day and the storm and stress +of the night before, they slumbered heavily. The watcher in their midst +thought, "If I could sleep!" and resolutely closed his eyes, but the +vision of a flying canoe and a brightness of golden hair, which had +vexed him, passing up the reaches of the river over and over and over +again, was with him still, and he opened them and raised them to the +stars, thinking, "She may be above them now." + +How still it was! no air, no breath, no sound--the thongs, that, wound +many times around his body, bound him to the tree, fell at his feet, a +figure slipped from behind the trunk, laid a hand, in which was a knife +that gleamed in the moonlight, upon his arm, and whispering, "Follow," +glided over the grass, past the sleepers and into the forest. + +Swiftly but cautiously Landless went after it. The overseer lay within +ten feet of him; he passed him, passed the unconscious servants, +crossed a strip of moonlight, entered the shadow of a locust, and all +but stumbled over a man lying asleep beneath it. He recoiled, and a twig +snapped beneath his foot. The sleeper stirred, turned upon his side, and +opened his eyes. The moon, now high in the heavens, shone so brightly +that there was soft light even beneath the heavy branches of the trees, +and by this light his Majesty's Surveyor-General and his Majesty's +rebellious, convicted, and condemned servant recognized each other. For +one long minute they stared each at the other, then, without a word or +sign to denote that he was aware that aught stood between him and the +moonlight, Carrington lay down again, pillowed his head upon his arm and +closed his eyes. Landless was passing on with a light and steady step +and the ghost of a smile upon his lips when the apparently slumbering +figure put forth an arm and laid something long and dark across his +pathway. He glanced quickly around, but the Surveyor-General lay +motionless, with closed eyes. Stooping, he took up the object, which +proved to be a richly inlaid musket with flask and pouch. He paused +again, but no sign coming from the quietly breathing form on the grass +he lightly and silently left it and the tiny encampment and entered the +forest, where he found a dark figure leaning against a tree, waiting for +him. Without a word it moved forward into the dense shadow of the +forest, and in the same silence he followed it. They were now in thick +woods, moving beneath interlocking branches and a vast canopy of wild +grape that, stretching from the summit of one lofty tree to that of +another, formed a green and undulating roof upon which beat the +moonbeams that could not penetrate the close darkness of the world +below. They came to a small and sluggish stream, flowing without noise +between the towering trees, and stepping into the water, walked up it +for a long while with giant blacknesses on either hand and above them +the moon. + +All this time the figure had stalked along before Landless without +speaking or turning its head, but now, the trees thinning, and they +coming upon a field of wild flax that lay fair and white beneath the +moon, it quitted the lazy stream, and turning upon Landless as he too +stepped upon the bank, showed him the bronze countenance and the +gigantic form of the Susquehannock to whom he had once done a kindness, +and with whom he had fought on such a night as this, in such a moonlight +space. + +"Monakatocka, I thought it had been you," said Landless quietly. + +With the never failing "Ugh!" the Indian took Landless's hand and with +it touched his own dark shoulder. + +"I too am grateful, and with far more reason," said Landless smiling. "I +will be yet more so if you will bring me out upon the bank of the river +at some distance above yonder encampment." + +"What will my brother do then?" + +"I will go up the river." + +"After the canoes in which sit the palefaces from whom my brother +flees?" + +"After the canoe which those canoes pursue." + +"If my brother wishes to take the warpath against the Algonquin dogs," +said the Indian quietly, "he must not follow the Pamunkey, but the +Powhatan." + +"They passed this village yesterday, going up the Pamunkey!" cried +Landless. + +"A false trail. Let my brother come a little further and I will show +him." + +He stepped in front of the white man, and moving rapidly across the +field of flax, dived into the forest again. Following the stream in its +windings they came to where it debouched into a wide and muddy creek, +which, in its turn, flowed into an expanse of water that lay like molten +silver beyond the fringe of trees. + +"The Pamunkey!" exclaimed Landless. + +The Indian nodded and led the way to a thicket of dwarf willow and alder +that grew upon the very brink of the creek. + +"While the palefaces slept, Monakatocka was busy. Look!" he said, +parting the bushes and pointing. + +Within the thicket, drawn up upon the sloping mud, were two large +canoes, quite empty save for a debris of broken oars. + +Landless gasped. "How do you know them to be the same?" + +The Indian stooped and pointed to dark stains. "Blood. They had wounded +among them. And this." He put something into the other's hand. Landless +looked at it, then thrust it into his bosom. "You are right. It is a +ribbon which the lady wore. But why have they left their boats, and +where are they?" + +The Indian pointed to the side of the larger canoe. "The hatchets of the +Pamunkeys were sharp. They fought like real men. This canoe could go no +further. See, it is wet within--they had to ply the gourd very fast to +keep afloat so far. One canoe would not hold them all, so they hid both +here. They knew the palefaces would follow up the river, so they cared +not to stay upon its banks; the Pamunkeys, too, are their enemies. They +have gone through the forest towards the Powhatan. My brother cannot see +their trail, for the eyes of the palefaces are clouded, but Monakatocka +sees it." + +Landless turned upon him. "Will Monakatocka go with me against the +Ricahecrians?" + +"Monakatocka has dreamt of the village on the pleasant river where he +was born. The arm of the white men cannot reach him here, in these +woods, far from their wigwams and warriors and guns; it cannot pluck him +back to be beaten. He toils no more in their fields. He is a real man +again, a warrior of the long house, a chief of the Conestogas. Let my +white brother go with him, across the great rivers, through the forest, +until they come to the Susquehanna and the village of the Conestogas. +There will the maidens and the young men welcome Monakatocka with song +and dance, and my brother shall be welcome also and shall become a great +chief and shall take the warpath against the Algonquin and against the +paleface at the side of Monakatocka. In the Blue Mountains is Death. Let +us go to the pleasant river, to the hunting grounds of the Conestogas." + +Landless shook his head. "My thanks and good wishes go with you, friend, +but my path lies towards the Blue Mountains. Farewell." + +He put out his hand, but the Indian did not touch it. Instead, he +stooped and examined the ground about him with attention, then, +beckoning the other to follow, he moved rapidly and silently along the +border of the creek. Landless overtook him and laid his hand upon his +arm. "This is my path, but yours lies across the river, to the north." + +"If my brother will not go with me, I will go with my brother," said the +Conestoga. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE BRIDGE OF ROCK + + +For twenty days they had followed the Ricahecrians. At times the trail +lay before them so plain that even Landless's unaccustomed eyes could +read it; at times he saw nothing but untrodden ways--no sign to show +that man had been in that wilderness since the beginning of the +world--but the Susquehannock saw and went steadily onward; at times they +lost it altogether, to find it hours, days afterwards.... It had led +them westward, then south to the banks of the Powhatan, then westward +again. At first they had to avoid an occasional clearing with the cabin +of a pioneer rising from it, or some frontier post, or the village of +one of the Powhatan tribes, but that time had long past. The world of +the white man was far behind them, so far that it might have been +another planet for all it threatened them; the Indian villages were few +and far between and inhabited by tribes whose tongue the Susquehannock +did not know. For the most part they gave these villages a wide berth, +but sometimes in the quiet of the evening they entered one, and were met +by the eldest man and conducted to the stranger's lodging, where slim +brown maidens came to them with platters of maize cakes and nuts and +broiled fish, and the warriors and old men gathered around, marveling at +the color of the one and conversing with the other in stately gesture. +Sometimes, crouched in a tangle of vines or behind the giant bole of +some fallen tree they watched a war party file past, noiseless, like +shadows, disappearing in the blue haze that filled the distant aisles of +the forest. Once a band of five attacked them, coming upon them in their +sleep. Three they killed and the others fled. They dipped into the next +stream that crossed their path and swam up it a long distance, then +emerged and went their way, tolerably confident that they had covered +their trail. Sometimes they struggled for hours through coverts of wild +grape, thick with fruit; sometimes they walked for miles down endless +colonnades of pine trees, where the needle-strewn ground was like ice +for slipperiness, and the blue sky gleamed faintly through the far away +tree tops. The wind in the pines rose and fell in long, measured +cadences. It made the only sound there, for the birds forgot to sing and +the insect world kept silence in those vast and sombre cathedrals. + +On the afternoon of the twentieth day they came to a halt upon the bank +of a small stream that fell purling over a long, smooth slide of +limestone into the river. Mountains had loomed into existence in the +last few days. In the distance they made a vast blue rampart which +seemed to prop the western skies. When the sun sank behind them it was +as though a mighty warrior had entered his fortress. Nearer at hand they +fell into lofty hills, over which the forest undulated in unbroken +green. In front the river made a sudden turn and was lost to sight, +disappearing through a frowning gateway of gray cliffs as completely as +though it had plunged into the bowels of the earth.... Landless sat down +on the bank of the stream above the fall and, chin in hand, gazed at +the mountain-piled horizon. The Indian, leaning against a great sycamore +whose branches trailed in the water, watched him attentively. + +"My brother is tired," he said at last. + +Landless shook his head. The Susquehannock paused, still with his eyes +upon the other's face, and then went on, "We have searched and have +found nothing. There have been five suns since the great rains blotted +out the trail. My brother has done very much. Let him say so and we will +go back to the falls of the far west and thence to the northward, to the +pleasant river, to Monakatocka's people, to the graves of his fathers. +And my brother will be welcome to the Conestogas, and he shall be made +one of them, and become a great warrior, and both he and Monakatocka +will forget the evil days when they were slaves--until they meet a +paleface from the great water. My brother has but to speak." + +"If these hills in front of us," said Landless with gloomy emphasis, +"were higher than the Alps, I would climb them. If behind them there +were another range, and then another, and another, if we looked upon the +nearest wave of an ocean of mountains, I would climb them all. If they +are before us, sooner or later I shall find them. But not to know that +they are before us! To know that they may be to the north of us, may be +to the south of us! that we may even have passed them! it is maddening!" + +"We have not passed them," said his companion slowly, "for--" he stopped +abruptly, broke off a bough from a sumach bush beside him, and falling +on his knees, leaned far out over the stream. There were many tiny +cascades in the brook with little eddies below them where sticks and +leaves circled gaily around before they were drawn on to the next +miniature fall, and into one of these eddies the Indian plunged the +bough. The next moment he drew it carefully towards him, something white +clinging to one of its twigs. It proved to be a fragment of lace--not +more than an inch or two--and it might have been torn from a woman's +kerchief. Landless's hand closed over it convulsively. + +"It came down the stream!" he cried. + +The other nodded. "Monakatocka saw it slip over that fall. It has not +been in the water long." + +"Then--my God!--they are close at hand! They are up this stream!" + +The Indian nodded again with a look of satisfaction upon his bronze +features. Landless raised his eyes to the cloudless blue, and his lips +moved. Then, without a word he turned his face up the mountain stream, +and the Indian followed him. + +For an hour they crept warily onward, following the stream in its +capricious wanderings. A broken trailer of grapevine, a pine cone that +had been crushed under foot, the print of a moccasin on a bit of muddy +ground told them that they had indeed recovered the long lost trail. +They moved silently, sometimes creeping on hands and knees through the +long grass where the bank was barren of bushes, sometimes gliding +swiftly through a friendly covert of alder or sumach. The hills closed +in upon them, and became more precipitous. The stream made another bend, +and they were in a ravine where the water flowed over a rocky bed +between banks too steep to afford them secure foothold. The +Susquehannock swung himself down into the shallow water, and motioned to +his companion to do likewise. "Monakatocka smells fire," he whispered. + +A moment later they rounded an overhanging, fern-clad rock, and came +full upon that at which Landless stared with a sharp intake of his +breath, and which even his impassive guide greeted with a long-drawn +"Ugh!" of amazement. + +Towards them brawled the impetuous stream through a wonderful gorge. The +precipitous hillsides, clothed with a stately growth of oak and +chestnut, changed suddenly into a sheer and awful mass of rock. On +either side of the stream towered up the mighty walls until, two hundred +feet above the water, they swept together, spanning the chasm with a +majestic arch. Great trees crowned it; trailers of grape and clematis +made the span one emerald; below, through the vast opening, shone the +evening sky with little, rosy clouds floating across it. A bird, +flashing downwards from the far-off trees, showed black against the +carnation of the heavens. + +The Indian uttered another "Ugh!" then stole forward a pace or two, +stood still, and waited for the other to come up. "My brother sees," he +said simply. + +From a covert of arbor-vitae they looked directly up the creek and +through the archway. Beneath it, and for a few yards on the hither side, +the water flowed in a narrower channel, leaving a little strip of +boulder-strewn shore. With a leap of his heart Landless saw, rising +from this shore, the blue smoke of a newly kindled fire, and squatting +about it, or flitting from place to place, a dozen or more dark figures. +At a little distance from the fire, close against the wall of rock, had +been hastily constructed a rude shed or arbor. As he gazed at this +frail shelter, he saw the flutter of a white gown pass the opening which +served as door. + +"Night soon," said Monakatocka at his ear. "Then will my brother see one +Iroquois cheat all these Algonquin dogs." + +They drew further back into the dense shade of the overhanging boughs. A +large flat boulder afforded them a secure resting-place, and drawing +their feet from the stream, the two curled themselves up side by side +upon its friendly surface. The Indian took some slices of venison from +his wallet, and they made a slender meal, then set themselves patiently +to await the night and the time for action. The tiny encampment was +hidden from them by the thick boughs, but through the screen of +delicate, aromatic leaves they could see the bridge of rock. Around them +was the stir and murmur of the summer afternoon--the wind in the trees, +the whir of insects, the song of birds, the babble of the water--but far +above, where the great arch cut the sky, the world seemed asleep. The +trees dreamed, resting against the crimson and gold of the heavens. The +Indian's appreciation of the wonders of nature was limited--with a +grunted, "All safe: wake before moonrise," he turned upon his side, and +was asleep. + +His Anglo-Saxon neighbor watched the pensive beauty of the evening with +a softened heart. The glory behind the tremendous rock faded, giving +place to tender tints of pearl and amethyst. Above the distant tree tops +swam the evening star. In the half light the shadowy forest on either +hand blended with the great bridge carved by some mysterious force from +the everlasting hills. Together they made a mountain of darkness +pierced by a titanic gateway through which one looked into heavenly +spaces. The chant of the wind swelled louder. It was like the moan of +distant breakers. The night fell, and the stars came out one by one +until the blue vault was thickly studded. Up and down the sides of the +ravine flickered millions of fireflies. Their restless glimmer wearied +the eyes. Landless raised his to the one star, large, calm and +beautiful, and prayed, then thought of all that star shone upon that +night--most of the white town of his boyhood, lying fair and still like +a dream town, above a measureless, slumberous sea. A great calm was upon +him. Toil and danger were past; passionate hope and settled despair were +past. That he would do what he had come this journey to do, he now had +no doubt,--would not have doubted had there been encamped between him +and the frail shed built against the rock all the Indians this side of +the South Sea. + +The stars that shone through the great archway slowly paled, the stream +became dull silver, and down the towering darkness on either hand fell a +soft and tremulous light like a veil of white gauze. Landless put out +his hand to waken the sleeping Indian, and touched bare rock. A moment +later the branches before him parted. He had heard no sound, but there, +within three feet of him, were the high features and the bold eyes of +the Susquehannock. + +"Monakatocka has been to the great rock," he said in a guttural whisper. +"The Algonquin dogs sleep sound, for they do not know that a Conestoga +is on their trail. They have camped beneath the rock three days, and +they will move on the morrow. They have built a shed for the maiden +against the rock. About it lie the Ricahecrians, the moccasins of one +touching the scalp lock of another. They keep no watch, but they have +scattered dried twigs over all the ground. Tread on them, and the god of +the Algonquins will make them speak very loud. But a Conestoga is +cunning. Monakatocka has found a way." + +"Then let us go," said Landless, rising. + +As they crept from out their leafy covert, the moon appeared over the +tree-tops far above them, flooding the glen with light, and making a +restless shimmer of diamonds of the rushing brook. The two men moved +warily up the stream, setting their feet with care upon the slippery +stones. Once Landless stumbled, but caught at a huge boulder, and saved +himself from falling, sending, however, a stone splashing down into the +water. They drew themselves up within the shadow of the rock, and +listened with straining ears, but there came no answering sound save the +cry of a whip-poor-will, and they went on their way. When they were +within a hundred feet of the encampment, the Indian left the stream, +crossed the strip of earth between it and the cliff, and pointed to a +broken and uneven line that ran at a height of some five feet from the +ground along the face of the cliff. Landless looked and saw a very +narrow ledge, a mere projection here and there of jagged and broken +rock, a pathway perilous and difficult as might well be imagined. So +narrow and insignificant it looked, such a mere seam along the vast +wall, that a white man passing through the ravine might never have +noticed it. + +"It is our path," said the Susquehannock. "It leads above the heads of +these dogs and their crackling twigs, straight to where lies the +maiden." + +Without a word Landless caught at the stem of a cedar projecting from a +fissure in the rock, and swung himself up to the cleft. The Indian +followed, and with silence and caution they commenced their dangerous +journey. Landless was no novice at such work. When a boy, he had often +rounded the face of frowning white cliffs with the sea breaking in +thunder a hundred feet below. Then a bird's nest had been the prize of +high daring, death the penalty of dizziness or a misstep. Now, although +not two yards below him was the solid earth, a misstep would send him +crashing down to a more fearful doom--but the prize! A light was in his +eyes as he crept nearer and nearer to the shed built against the rock. + +They passed the smouldering embers of a large fire, and came full upon +the circle of sleeping Indians. They lay in the moonlight like fallen +statues, their bronze limbs motionless, their high, stern features +impassive as death. From their belts came the glint of tomahawk and +scalping knife, and beside each warrior lay his bow and quiver of +arrows. Only one man had a gun. It lay in the hollow of his arm, its +barrel making a gleaming line against his dark skin. The skin was not so +dark as was that of the other recumbent figures, and the face, flung +back and pillowed on the arm, was not the face of an Indian. It was Luiz +Sebastian. He lay somewhat nearer to the shed than did the Ricahecrians, +and directly in front of the doorway; as Landless paused above him, he +turned and laughed in his sleep. + +Slowly and cautiously Landless swung himself down from the ledge, his +moccasined feet touching ground that was clear of pebbles and beyond the +line of twigs. He glanced back to see the gigantic figure of the +Susquehannock, standing upright against the rock, knife in hand, and +watchful eyes roving from one to the other of the sleeping warriors, +then stepped lightly across the body of the mulatto, and entered the +hut. + +Within it the darkness was gross. Pausing a moment to accustom his eyes +to the blackness, there came to him from without the hoot of an owl. It +was the signal agreed upon between him and his companion, and he wheeled +to face the danger it announced. + +The lithe, yellow figure that had lain in front of the doorway had +waked. As Landless gazed, it rose to its knees, then with a quick, +cat-like grace to its feet, stretched itself, cast a listening look +around the sleeping circle, and laid its gun softly down, then with a +noiseless step and a smile upon its evil face, it too entered the hut. + +Landless waited until the mulatto was well across the threshold, and +then sprang upon him, dragging him to the ground, where he held him with +his knee against his chest. He writhed and struggled, but the white man +was the stronger, and held him down; he tried to cry out, but the +other's hands were at his throat choking the life from him. Putting all +his strength into one hand, Landless felt with the other for his knife. +The movement brought his face forward into the shaft of moonlight that +trembled through the opening. "You!" said the eyes of the mulatto, and +his clutching hands tore at the hand about his throat. The hand pressed +closer, and with the other Landless struck the knife into the yellow +bosom. When the writhing form was quite still, he rose from his knees, +and looked down upon the evil face flung back to meet the moonlight. The +struggle had lasted but a minute, and had been without sound--not a +sleeping savage had stirred. But he now heard frightened breathing +within the hut. By this time his eyes were accustomed to the darkness, +and he made out something white niched into the corner opposite. As he +advanced towards it, it started away, and would have brushed past him, +but he seized it. "Madam!" he whispered. "Do not scream. It is I, +Godfrey Landless." + +In the darkness he felt the rigor of terror leave the form which he +held. It swayed against him, and the head fell back across his arm. He +raised the fainting figure, and stepping across the body of the mulatto +issued from the shed, to find Monakatocka standing beside the entrance, +knife in hand, and watchfully regardful of the sleeping Ricahecrians. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE BACKWARD TRACK + + +Landless turned to the pathway by which they had come, but the Indian +shook his head, and pointing to the stream which, making a sudden turn, +brawled along at their very feet, stepped noiselessly down into the +water, first, however, possessing himself of Luiz Sebastian's gun, which +lay upon the ground beside the hut. Landless, following him in silence, +would have turned his face towards the river, but again the +Susquehannock shook his head and began to make his way slowly and warily +up stream. + +The other knew how to obey. Holding with one arm the unconscious form of +the woman he had come so many leagues to seek, and with the other +steadying himself by boulder and projecting cliff, he followed his +companion past the sleeping Ricahecrians, out of the shadow of the great +arch, into the splendor of the moonlight beyond. It was not until they +had gone a long distance, past vast, scarred cliffs, through close, +dark, scented tunnels formed by the overarching boughs of great +arbor-vitaes, up smooth slides where the water came down upon them in +long, unbroken, glassy green slopes, that Landless said, in a low voice: + +"Why do we go up this stream instead of back to the river? It is their +road we are traveling." + +The faint, reluctant smile of the Indian crossed the Susquehannock's +face. "The white man is very wise except when he is in the woods. Then +he is as if every brook ran fire-water and he had drunk of them all. A +pappoose could trick him. When these Algonquin dogs wake and find the +fawn fled and the yellow slave killed, they will cast about for our +trail, and they will find that we came up from the river. Then, when +they find no backward track, but only that we entered the water there, +before the maiden's hut, they will think that we have gone down the +stream, back to the river. They will go down to the river themselves, +but when they have reached it they will not know what to do. They will +think, 'They who come after the Ricahecrians into the Blue Mountains +must be many, with great hearts and with guns.' They will think, 'They +came in boats, and one of their braves and one Iroquois, stealing up +this stream, came upon the Ricahecrians when Kiwassa had closed their +eyes and their ears, and stole away the fawn that the Ricahecrians had +taken, and killed the man who fled with them from the palefaces.' And it +will take a long time for them to find that there were no boats and that +but two men have followed them into the Blue Mountains, for I covered +our trail where this stream runs into the river very carefully. After a +while they will find it, and after another while they will find that the +chief of the Conestogas and his white brother and the maiden have gone +up the stream, and they will come after us. But that will not be until +after the full sun power, and by then we must be far from here." + +"It is good," said Landless briefly. "Monakatocka has the wisdom of the +woods." + +"Monakatocka is a great chief," was the sententious reply. + +"Do you think they will follow us when they find how greatly we have the +start of them?" + +"They will be upon our track, sun after sun, keen-eyed as the hawk, +tireless as the wild horses, hungry as the wolf, until we reach the +tribes that are friendly to the palefaces. And that will be many suns +from now. I told my brother that we followed Death into the Blue +Mountains. Now Death is upon our trail." + +They came to a rivulet that emptied itself into the larger stream, and +the Susquehannock led the way up its bed. Presently they reached a +gently sloping mass of bare stone, a low hill running some distance back +from the margin of the stream. + +"Good," grunted the Susquehannock. "The moccasin will make no mark here +that the sun will not wipe out." + +They clambered out upon the rock and stood looking down the ravine +through which they had come. "My brother is tired," said the Indian. +"Monakatocka will carry the maiden." + +"I am not tired," Landless answered. + +The Indian looked at the face, thrown back upon the other's shoulder. +"She is fair, and whiter than the flowers the maidens pluck from the +bosom of the pleasant river." + +"She is coming to herself," said Landless, and laid her gently down upon +the rock. + +Presently she opened her eyes quietly upon him as he knelt beside her. +"You came," she said dreamily. "I dreamt that you would. Where are my +father and my cousin?" + +"Seeking you still, madam, I doubt not, though I have not seen them +since the day after you were taken. They went up the Pamunkey and so +missed you. Thanks to this Susquehannock, I am more fortunate." + +She lay and looked at him calmly, no surprise, but only a great peace in +her face. "The mulatto," she said, "I feared him more than all the rest. +When I saw him enter the hut I prayed for death. Did you kill him?" + +"I trust so," said Landless, "but I am not certain, I was in too great +haste to make sure." + +"I do not care," she said. "You will not let him hurt me--if he +lives--nor let the Indians take me again?" + +"No, madam," Landless said. + +She smiled like a child and closed her eyes. In the moonlight which +blanched her streaming robe and her loosened hair that, falling to her +knees, wrapped her in a mantle of spun gold, she looked a wraith, a +creature woven of the mist of the stream below, a Loerelei sleeping upon +her rock. Landless, still upon his knee beside her, watched her with a +beating heart, while the Susquehannock, leaning upon his gun, bent his +darkly impassive looks upon them both. At length the latter said, "We +must be far from here before the dogs behind us awake, and the Gold Hair +cannot travel swiftly. Let us be going." + +"Madam," said Landless. + +She opened her eyes and he helped her to her feet. "We must hasten on," +he said gently. "They will follow us and we must put as many leagues as +possible between us before they find our trail." + +"I did not think of that!" she said, with dilating eyes. "I thought it +was all past--the terror--the horror! Let us go, let us hasten! I am +quite strong; I have learned how to walk through the woods. Come!" + +The Indian glided before them and led the way over the friendly rocks. +They left them and found themselves upon a carpet of pine needles, and +then in a dell where the fern grew rankly and the rich black earth gave +like a sponge beneath their feet. Here the Indian made Landless carry +Patricia, and himself came last, walking backwards in the footprints of +the other, and pausing after each step to do all that Indian cunning +could suggest to cover their trail. They came to more rocky ledges and +walked along them for a long distance, then found and went up a wide and +shallow stream. Slowly the pale light of dawn diffused itself through +the forest. In the branches overhead myriads of birds began to flutter +and chirp, the squirrels commenced their ceaseless chattering, and +through the white mist, at bends of the stream, they saw deer coming +from the fern of the forest to drink. A great hill rose before them, +bare of trees, covered only with a coarse growth of grass and short blue +thistles in which already buzzed a world of bees; they climbed it and +from the summit watched a ball of fire rise into the cloudless blue. The +morning wind, blowing over that illimitable forest, fanned their brows, +and a tide of woodland sound and incense swept up to them from the world +below. Around them were the Blue Mountains--gigantic masses, cloudy +peaks, vast ramparts rising from a sea of mist--mysterious fastnesses, +scarcely believed in and never seen by the settlers of the level land--a +magic country in which they placed much gold and the wandering colonists +of Roanoke, the South Sea, and long-gowned Eastern peoples. + +"Oh, the mountains!" said Patricia. "The dreadful, frowning mountains! +When will we be quit of them? When will we reach the level land and the +blue water?" + +"Before many days, I trust," said Landless. "See, our faces are set to +the east--towards home." + +She stood in silence for a moment, her face lifted, the color slowly +coming back to her cheeks and the light to her eyes, then said +suddenly:-- + +"Did my father send you after me?" + +"No, madam." + +"Then how are you here?" + +He looked at her with a smile. "I broke gaol--and came." + +A shadow crossed her face, but it was gone in a moment. "I am very +grateful," she said. "You have saved me from worse than death." + +"It is I that am thankful," he answered. + +They descended the hill in silence and found the Susquehannock, who had +preceded them, squatted before a fire which he had kindled upon a flat +rock beside one of the innumerable streamlets that wound here and there +over the land. + +"The dogs yonder will need Iroquois eyes to spy out this trail," he said +with grim satisfaction, as they came up to him. "Let my brother and the +Gold Hair rest by the fire, and Monakatocka will go into the forest and +get them something to eat." + +He was gone, his gigantic figure looking larger than life as he moved +through the mist which still filled the hollow between the hills, and +Landless and Patricia sat themselves down beside the fire. Landless +piled upon it the dead wood with which the ground was strewn, and the +flames leaped and crackled, sending up thin blue smoke against the +hillside and reddening the bosom of the placid stream. When he had +finished his task and taken his seat, there fell a silence and +constraint upon the man and woman, brought through so many strange and +wayward paths, through lives so widely differing, to this companionship +in the heart of a waste and savage world. They sat opposite each other +in the ruddy light of the fire, and each, looking into the dark or +glowing hollows, saw there the same thing--the tobacco house and what +had there passed. + +"I wish to believe in you," said Patricia at last, lifting appealing +eyes to the opposite face. "But how can I? You lied to me!" + +Landless raised his head proudly. "Madam, will you listen to me--to my +defense if you will? You are a Royalist: I am a Commonwealth man. Can +you not see, that as ten years ago, in the estimation of you and yours, +it was all that was just and heroic for a Cavalier to plot the downfall +of the Government which then was, both here and at home, so they of the +Commonwealth saw no disgrace in laboring for their cause, a cause as +real and as high and as holy to them, madam, as was that of the Stuart +and the Church to the Cavalier.... And will not the slave fight for his +liberty? Is it of choice, do you think, that men lie rotting in prison, +in the noisome holds of ships, are bought and sold like oxen, are +chained to the oar, to the tobacco field, are herded with the refuse of +the earth, are obedient to the finger, to the whip? We--they who are +known as Oliverians, and they who are felons, and I who am, if you +choose, of both parties, were haled here with ropes. What allegiance did +we owe to them who had cast us out, or to them who bought us as they buy +dumb beasts? As God lives, none! We were no longer regarded as men, we +were chattels, animals, slaves, caged, and chained. And as the caged +beast will break his bars if he can, so we strove to break ours. You +have been a captive, madam. Is not freedom sweet to you? We also longed +for it. We staked our lives upon the throw--and lost. That dream is +over,--let it go!... There is honor among rebels, madam, as among +thieves. That morning after the storm, I had the choice of lying to you +or of becoming a traitor indeed.... But as to what I had before asked +you to believe, that was the truth, is the truth. I know that in your +eyes I am still the rebel to the King, well deserving the doom which +awaits me, but if, after what I say to you, by the faith of a gentleman, +before the God who is above the stillness of these hills, you still +believe me criminal in aught else, you wrong me much, you wrong +yourself!" + +He ceased abruptly, and rising, began to heap more wood upon the fire. +The figure of the Indian, with something dark upon its shoulder, emerged +from the spectral forest, and came towards them through the mist. + +"Monakatocka has found our breakfast," said Landless, forcing himself to +speak with indifference, and without looking at his companion. "I am +glad of it, for you must be faint from hunger." + +"I am very thirsty," she said in a low voice. + +"If you will come to the water's edge, that at least can be quickly +remedied." + +She rose from the rock upon which she had been seated and followed him +down to the brink of the little stream. "I would I had a cup of gold," +he said, "and here is not even a great leaf. Will you drink from my +hands, madam?" + +"Yes," she said; then deliberately, after a pause, "for I well believe +them to be clean hands." + +Her own hand touched his as she spoke, and he put it to his lips in +silence. Kneeling upon the turf by the stream, he raised the water in +his hands and she stooped and drank from them, and then they went back +to the fire and sat beside it without speaking until the arrival of +Monakatocka, laden with a wild turkey. An hour later the Susquehannock +carefully extinguished the fire, raked all the embers and ashes into the +stream, hid beneath great rocks the debris of their morning meal, +obliterated all moccasin prints, and having made the little hollow +between the hills to all appearance precisely as it was a few hours +before, when the foot of man had probably never entered it, stepped into +the stream and announced that they were ready to pursue their journey. +Before midday, the stream winding to the south, they left it, and +plunging into the dark heart of the forest pushed rapidly on with their +faces to the east. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE HUT IN THE CLEARING + + +Five days later saw the wayfarers some thirty leagues to the eastward of +the hollow in the hills. They had traveled swiftly, sleeping but a few +hours of each night and in the daytime pausing for rest only when +Landless, quietly watchful, saw the weariness growing in the eyes of the +woman beside him, or noted her lagging footsteps. They had left the +higher mountains behind them, but still moved through what seemed an +uninhabited territory. No Indian village crowned the hills above the +streams; they encountered no roving bands; no solitary hunter met them; +nowhere was there sign of human life. If their enemies were upon their +track, they knew it not--perfect peace, perfect solitude seemed to +encompass them. Still the Indian was vigilant; covering their trail with +unimaginable ingenuity, taking advantage of every running stream, every +stony hillside, building a fire only in some hidden hollow or fold of +the hills, using his bow and arrow to bring down the deer or wild fowl +which furnished them food--he stalked behind them, or sat bolt upright +against the tree or rock beneath which they had made their resting +place, tireless, watchful, the breathing image of caution. If he slept, +it was a sleep from which the sound of a falling acorn, the sleepy stir +of a partridge in the fern was sufficient to awaken him. Sometimes they +rested by fires, for they heard the wolves through the darkness; upon +the nights when this was necessary the Susquehannock sat with his gun +across his knees, piercing the darkness in every direction with keen and +restless eyes. Nothing worse than the wolves--cowardly as yet, for +though drawing swiftly nearer, winter and famine were still +distant--threatened them; no sound other than the forest sounds +disturbed them; through the scant undergrowth or over the moss and +partridge berry brushed nothing more appalling than bear or badger. But +the Indian watched on. + +Day after day Landless and Patricia walked side by side through the +reddening forest. His hands steadied her over crags or down ravines, or +broke a way for her through vast beds of sassafras or mile-long tangles +of wild grape, and when their way lay along the bed of streams he +carried her. She had no need to complain of fatigue, for he saw when she +was weary, and called a halt. At their rustic meals he waited upon her +with grave courtesy, and when they halted for the night he made her +couch of fallen leaves and wove for it a screen of branches. They spoke +but little and only of the needs of the hour. She bore herself towards +him kindly and gently, thanking him with voice and smile for all that he +did for her, and there was no mistrust in her eyes; but he saw, or +fancied he saw, a shadow in their depths, and thinking, "She does not +forget, and neither must I," he set a watch upon himself, and bounds, +across which he was not to step. + +Upon the afternoon of the sixth day they were passing through a deep and +narrow ravine--a mere crack between two precipitous, heavily wooded +mountains--when the Indian stopped short in his tracks and uttered a +warning "Ugh!" then bent forward in a listening attitude. + +"What is it?" asked Landless in a low voice. "I hear nothing." + +"It is a sound," said the other in the same tone. "I do not know what +yet, for it is far off. But it is in front of us." + +"Shall we go on?" demanded Landless, and the Indian nodded. + +It was late afternoon, and the hills which closed in behind them as the +gorge writhed to left and right hid the sun. Great trees, too, pine and +chestnut, walnut and oak, leaned towards each other from the opposing +banks, and together with the overhanging rocks, mantled with fern, made +a twilight of the pass beneath. Here and there the silver stem of a +birch stood up tall and straight, and looked a ghostly sentinel. "Do you +hear it still?" demanded Landless when they had gone some distance in +dead silence. + +"Yes." + +"And still in front of us?" + +"Yes." + +"Ah, what can it be?" cried Patricia, turning her white face upon +Landless. + +A cold wind, blowing from open spaces beyond, rushed up the ravine. "I +hear a very faint sound," said Landless, "like the tapping of a +woodpecker in the heart of the forest." + +"It is the sound of the axe of the white man," said the Indian. "Some +one is cutting down a tree." + +"There can be no ranger or pioneer within many leagues of us!" exclaimed +Landless. "No white man hath ever come so far. It must be an Indian!" + +The Susquehannock shook his head. "Why should an Indian cut down a tree? +We kill them and let them stand until they are bare and white like the +bones of a man when the wolves have finished with him, and they fall of +themselves." + +"If my father still searches for me," said Patricia in a low voice, "may +it not be his party that we hear? There may be a stream there. They may +make canoes." + +"With all my heart I pray that it be so, madam," said Landless. "But we +will soon know. See, Monakatocka has gone on ahead." + +She did not answer, and they walked on through the gloom of the defile. +Presently their path became rough and broken, blocked with large stones +and heavily shadowed by cedars projecting from the rocks above and +draped with vines. He held out his hands and she took them, and he +helped her across the rough places. He felt her hands tremble in his, +and he thought it was with the ecstasy of the hope which inspired her. + +"If it is indeed so," she said once in a voice so low that he had to +bend to catch the words, "if it is indeed my father, then this is the +last time you will help me thus." + +"Yes," he answered steadily. "The last time." + +They passed the rocks and came to where the ravine widened. The sound +that had perplexed them was now plainly audible; there was no mistaking +the quick, ringing strokes of the axe. They rounded a jutting cliff and +abruptly emerged from the chill darkness of the gorge upon a noble +landscape of hill and valley, autumn woods and flowing water, all bathed +in the golden light of the sinking sun and inestimably bright and +precious of aspect after the gloom through which they had been +traveling. But it was not the beauty of the scene which drew an +exclamation from them both. At a little distance rose a knoll, covered +with short grass and fading golden-rod, and with its base laved by a +crystal stream of some width, and upon the knoll, shaded by a couple of +magnificent maples, and covered with the pale and feathery bloom of the +wild clematis, stood a small, rude hut. Smoke rose from its crazy +chimney, and upon the strip of greensward before the door rolled a +little, half-naked child--a white child. As the travelers stared in +amazement, a woman's voice rang out, freshly and sweetly, in an English +ballad. The trees had been cleared away from around the knoll, and in +their place rose the yellowing stalks of Indian corn. The little mound, +feathered with the gold of the golden-rod and girt with the gold of the +maize, rose like a fairy isle from the limitless sea of forest, and the +apparition of a troop of veritable elves would have astonished the +wanderers less than did the tiny cabin, the romping child, and the clear +song of the woman. + +The Indian glided to their side from behind the trunk of an oak. "Ugh," +he said with emphasis. "He is mad and so he has his scalp still." As he +spoke he pointed to where, at a little distance, a man, with his back +turned to the forest, was busily felling a tree. + +"He dares much," said Landless. "We did not think to see the face of a +white man--pioneer, ranger, trapper or trader--for many a league yet. He +has built his house in the jaws of the wolf." + +Patricia gazed at the hut with wistful eyes. "There is a woman there," +she said, and Landless heard her voice tremble for the first time in +their long, toilsome and painful journey. "There is no need to pass them +by, is there? It looks very fair and peaceful. May we not rest here for +this one night?" + +"Yes," said Landless gently, reading, as he read all her fancies and +desires, her longing for the companionship of a woman, though for so +short a time. The Indian, too, nodded assent. "Good! but Monakatocka +will watch to-night." + +They moved through the checkered light and shade towards the man who +worked at the foot of the knoll. They were quite near him when the +woman, whose voice they had heard, came to the door of the cabin, shaded +her eyes with her hand, looked towards the ravine, and saw the three +figures emerging from it. With a loud cry she snatched up the child at +her feet and rushed down the knoll towards the man, who at the sound of +her voice dropped his axe, caught up a musket which leaned against a +stump beside him, and wheeling, presented the gun at the newcomers. + +"Give me your kerchief, madam," said Landless, and advanced with the +white lawn in his hand. + +"Halt!" cried the man with the gun. + +"We are friends," called Landless. "This lady and I are from the +Settlements. This Indian is not Algonquin, but Iroquois--a +Susquehannock, as you may tell by his size. You need have no fear. We +are quite alone." + +The man slowly lowered his gun. "What, in the name of all the fiends, do +you here?" he said, wiping away with the back of his hand the cold sweat +that had sprung to his forehead. He was a tall man with a sinewy frame +and a dare-devil face, tanned to well-nigh the hue of the Indian. + +"I might ask the same question of you," said Landless, coming up to him +with a smile. "This lady was captured and carried off by a band of +roving Ricahecrians who bore her into the Blue Mountains. We ask your +hospitality for to-night. The lady is very weary, and she has not seen +the face of a woman for many weeks. Your good wife will entreat her +kindly, I know." + +The woman, who now stood beside the man, smiled, but doubtfully; the +man's face too was clouded, and there was an uneasy light in his eyes. +Landless, looking steadily at him, saw upon his forehead a mark which +served to explain his evident perturbation. + +"You need not fear me," he said quietly. "'Tis none of our business how +you come to be here in this wilderness, so far from what has been +counted the furthest outpost." + +The man, feeling his gaze upon him, raised his hand with an involuntary +motion to his forehead, then dropped it, awkwardly enough. + +"I see," said Landless. "I understand. I have been--I am--a servant. A +runaway, too, if you like. I have been in trouble. I would not betray +you if I could: that I cannot, goes without saying. Now, will you +shelter us for this night?" + +"Yes," said the man, his face clearing. "As you say, you couldn't do us +harm if you would, seeing that masters, and d--d overseers, and +bloodhounds are at the world's end for us. We are beyond their reach. +Bring up the lady. Joan, here, will see to her." + +An hour later the woman and Patricia sat side by side upon the doorstep +in the long mountain twilight. At their feet the little child crowed and +clapped its hands, and plucked at the golden-rod growing about the +door. Below them, beside the placid stream, the owner of the hut and +Godfrey Landless paced slowly up and down, now disappearing into the +shadow of the trees, now dimly seen in the open spaces, while the Indian +lay at full length beneath the maples, with his eye upon the blackness +of the ravine down which they had come. + +"It is fair to look upon, and peaceful," Patricia said dreamily, "but +Danger lives in these dreadful mountains. Why did you come here?" + +"We came because we loved," the woman said simply. + +"But why into the very land of the savages, so far from safety, so far +from the Settlements?" + +The woman turned her eyes upon the beautiful face beside her and studied +it in silence. + +"I will tell you," she said at last, "for I believe you are as good as +you are beautiful, and you are as beautiful as an angel. And, though I +can see that you are a lady, yet you are woman too, as I am, and you +have suffered much, as I have, and have loved too, I think, as I have +loved." + +"I have never loved," said Patricia. + +The woman smiled, and shook her head. "There is a look in the eyes that +only comes with that. I know it." She gathered the child to her, and +beating its little hand against her bosom, began her story:-- + +"It is four years since I signed to come to the Plantations, to become +the servant of an up-river planter--and to better myself. It was a hard +life, my lady, a hard life--you cannot guess how hard.... One day a +neighboring planter sent a message to my master, and I (for I served in +the house) took it from the messenger. The messenger was one that I had +known in the village at home, in England. He had left home to make his +fortune, and I had not heard of him for a long time. They used to call +me his sweetheart. When I saw him I cried out, and he caught my hands in +his.... After that we met whenever we could, on Sundays, on Instruction +days, whenever chance offered. He had tried to run away twice before we +met, but he never tried afterwards. His master was a hard man--mine was +worse.... After a while we began to meet in secret--at night.... You are +a lady--that is different--you cannot understand; but I loved him, loved +him as well as any lady in the land could love; better, maybe.... There +came a night when I was followed, and taken, and he with me." She broke +off to smell at the scentless spear of golden-rod which the child held +up, and to say, "Yes, my darling, pretty, pretty, pretty," then went on +with her eyes following the figures walking up and down beside the +stream. "The next night found us in the sheriff's hands, in the gaol at +the court-house. Oh that blank, dreadful, heavy night! I felt the lash +already--I did not mind that--but I saw the platform and the post, and +the gaping crowd beneath. I thought of him, and my heart was sick; I +thought of my mother, and my tears fell like rain.... There was a noise +at the window, and I stood upon my stool to see what it was. It was he! +He had a knife and he worked and wrenched at the bars until he had +wrenched them away, then dragged me through the window and we stood +together beneath the stars--free! Another moment and we were down at the +water side and into a boat which was fastened there. We loosed it and +rowed with all our speed up the river. He had killed the gaoler and +gotten away, bringing with him a musket and an axe. All that night we +rowed, and when morning broke we were well-nigh past the settlements, +for we had been far up river to begin with. That day we hid in the +reeds, but when night came we sped up the stream. We came to the falls +of the far west and left our boat there. For many days we walked through +the woods, hurrying on, day after day, for when we lay down at night, I +saw in my dreams the flash of the torches and heard the baying of the +hounds. After a long while we came to an Indian village not many leagues +from here, and there we found the mercies of the savage kinder than the +mercies of the white man. They may have thought us mad--I do not +know--but they did not harm us. There we dwelt for a time, in the +stranger's wigwam, and there the child was born." She pressed the little +hand which she held, and which she had never ceased to beat against her +bosom, to her lips. "He would have stayed in the village, but in sleep I +still heard the bloodhounds, and we left the friendly Indians and +pressed on. We came upon this knoll on just such an evening as this--the +light in the west, and the stream very still, with a large white star +shining down upon it. We lay down beside it, and that night I slept +without a dream.... We have been here ever since, and here we shall stay +until we die." + +"It is fair now," said Patricia, "but in a little while it will be +winter and very cold." + +"Bitterly cold," said the woman. "The snow lies long in these hills, and +the wind howls down the ravine." + +"And the wolves are bold in winter." + +"Very bold. This scar upon my arm is from the teeth of one which I +fought here, on the very threshold." + +"The Indians threaten always, summer or winter." + +"Ay, sooner or later they will come against us. We shall die that way at +last. But what does it matter--so that we die together?" + +The lady of the manor turned her pure, pale face upon the other with +wonder, and yet with comprehension, written upon it. + +"You are happy!" she said, almost in a whisper. + +"Yes, I am happy," the woman answered, a light that was not from the +faintly crimson west upon her face. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +ATTACK + + +About midnight, Landless, lying upon the dirt floor of the lean-to +attached to the one room of the cabin, felt a hand upon his shoulder and +opened his eyes upon a shadowy figure, blocking up the starlight that +came faintly in at the open door. + +"Hist!" said the figure. "Ricahecrians!" + +Landless sprang to his feet. "My God! You are sure?" + +"They are coming out of the ravine. You will hear the whoop directly." + +The owner of the hut, stirred by the Susquehannock's foot, started up. +Such an alarm being about the least surprising thing that could happen, +he kept his wits, and after the first intake of the breath and +exclamation of, "Indians!" he went about his preparations coolly enough. +Rushing into the cabin where Landless had already waked the women, he +groped for his tinder box, and with a steady hand struck a light and +fired a pine knot which he stuck into a block of wood pierced to receive +it; then jerked from the wall his musket and powder horn. + +"You both have guns," he said coolly. "Good! We'll die fighting." The +woman had flown to the door, had seen that the heavy wooden bars were +drawn across it, and now stood beside him with a resolute face, and an +axe in her hands. + +A moment of silence, and then the quiet night was cleft by the war +whoop--dreadful sound, forerunner of death and torture, concentrating in +its savage cadence all ideas of terror! A moment more, and there came +the sound of many moccasined feet and the hurling of many bodies against +the door. The door held, and the man put the muzzle of his gun in one of +the cracks between the logs and fired. The explosion was followed by a +yell. Shot and cry preluded pandemonium. Without were demoniacal cries, +quick crashing blows against the door, stealthy feet, clambering forms; +within were smoke and the noise of the muskets, the crying of the child, +and a red and flickering light which now brought out each detail of the +rude interior, now plunged all into shadow. + +"We are making it hot for them," cried the owner of the hut, reloading +his musket. "There's some shall go to hell before we do. Joan, my +girl--" + +An arrow, whistling through a crack, pierced his brain and he fell to +the ground with a crash. The shriek that the woman set up was answered +from without by a triumphant yell, and then one voice was heard +speaking. + +"It is the mulatto!" cried Patricia, clasping her hands. + +"Yes," answered Landless grimly. "I thought I had done for that devil, +but it seems not. May I have better luck this time!" + +"Ugh!" said the Indian, and pointed to the roof, which was low and +thatched with dried grass and moss. + +"I see," said Landless. "The cabin is on fire. We must leave it in five +minutes, come what may." + +"We will never leave it alive," the Indian said calmly. "The dogs have +us fast. The Chief of the Conestogas will die in a strange land; his +bones will be a plaything for the wolves of the mountains; his scalp +will hang before the wigwam of an Algonquin dog. He will never see the +village and the pleasant river, never will he smoke the peace pipe, he +and his braves, with the Wyandots and the Lenni Lenape, sitting beneath +the mulberries in front of the lodge. He will never see the cornfeast. +He will never dance the war dance again, nor will he lead the war party. +The sagamore dies, and who will tell his tribe? He falls like a leaf in +the forest, like a pebble that is cast into the water. The leaf is not +seen: the stream closes above the pebble--it is gone!" His voice rose +into a chant, stern and mournful, and his vast form appeared to expand, +to become taller. He threw down his gun and drew his long, bright knife. + +"They are upon us!" cried Landless, and thrust Patricia behind him. + +The rude door, constructed of the trunks of saplings, bound together +with withes, crashed inwards, coming to the floor with a tremendous +noise, and a dozen savages precipitated themselves into the cabin. +Landless fired, bringing one to his knee; then clubbed his musket and +swung it over his shoulder. Between him and the Susquehannock, standing +beside him with bent body and knife drawn back against his breast, and +the invaders, was a space some few feet in width, and in this space +something dreadful now happened. + +On one side lay the body of the man with the woman crouched above it, on +the other a pile of skins upon which lay the little child. It had +sobbed itself into exhaustion and quiet, but terrified afresh by the +savage forms pouring through the doorway, the increased and awful +clamor, the flames which had now seized upon the walls, and the choking +smoke which filled the hut, it now scrambled from the pallet, and with a +weak cry started across the space towards its mother. It crossed the +path of the Ricahecrian chief--he glanced downwards, saw the tiny +tottering figure with its outstretched arms, caught it up, and holding +it by its feet, dashed its head against the ground. The cry which the +child uttered as he raised it reached the until then deaf ears of the +mother. She started up with a shriek that rang high above the yelling of +the savages, and darted forward, only to receive at her very feet the +mangled form of the baby she had sung to sleep but a few hours before. +She caught it to her breast and with another dreadful cry rushed upon +the savage. He met her, seized her free arm, raised it, and plunged his +knife into her bosom. Still clasping the child to her bosom, she fell +without a groan, while the Indian bounded on towards the three who yet +remained alive. + +The Susquehannock met him. "A chief for a chief," he said with a cold +smile, and the two locked together in a deadly embrace. When the +Ricahecrian was dead, the Susquehannock turned to find Landless--one +Indian dead before him, another writhing away like a wounded +snake--confronting across the body at his feet the graceful figure and +the amber-hued, evil, smiling face of Luiz Sebastian. So strong were the +flames by now, and so dense and stifling the smoke, that of the score or +more who had broken into the cabin but few remained within its walls, +which were fast becoming those of a furnace, the majority retreating to +the fresh air outside, whence they whooped on to their devil's work the +bolder spirits within. + +These now bore down _en masse_ upon the devoted three. One threw his +tomahawk; it whistled within half an inch of Landless's head, and stuck +into the wall behind him. Another struck at him with his knife, but he +beat him down with his musket, and turned again to the mulatto, who, +knife in hand, watched his chance to run in upon him. + +"Look to the yellow slave, my brother," cried the Susquehannock, "I will +care for these dogs," and hurled his gigantic form upon them. One went +down before his knife; he broke the back of another, bending him like a +reed across his knee; a third fell, cleft to the brain by his +tomahawk--there was a fresh influx from without, and he was borne down +and knives thrust into him. Struggling to his feet, with one last +superhuman exertion of his vast strength, he shook them off as a stag +shakes off the dogs, and stretching out his arm, cried to Landless, +dimly seen through the ever thickening smoke;-- + +"My brother, farewell! I said we should find Death in the Blue +Mountains.... The Iroquois laughs at the Algonquin dogs, laughs at +Death--dies laughing." + +He broke into wild, unearthly, choking laughter, his figure swaying to +and fro like a pine in a storm. The laughter, an indescribable and most +dreadful sound, became low, choked, a mere rattle in the throat, died +into silence, and the laugher crashed to the ground like a pine for +which the storm has been too much. + +Landless drew a breath that was like a moan, but kept his eyes upon the +yellow menace before him. + +"The Ricahecrians are my good friends," said Luiz Sebastian. "They +promise me a wigwam in their village in the Blue Mountains. I shall lead +to it a bride, and she shall be no Indian girl." + +Landless struck at him over the dead body between them, but the mulatto, +springing back, avoided the blow. + +"It is my hour," he said, still with a smile. + +A portion of the roof fell in, making a barrier of flame between them. A +volume of smoke arose, and through it Landless and Patricia dimly saw +Indians and mulatto making for the doorway, driven forth by the +intolerable heat and the imminent danger of the burning walls and the +remainder of the roof caving in upon them. Beyond Landless was the +square opening leading into the tiny shed in which he had been sleeping +when this midnight visitation came upon them. Raising Patricia in his +arms, he made for it, and they presently found themselves in temporary +security. It was but for a moment, he knew, for the flames were already +taking hold upon the shed, but as he set his burden down he whispered +encouraging words. + +"I know," she answered. "We are in God's hands. I would rather die than +to come into that man's power. But the door to the shed is open and the +way seems clear. Could we not escape even now?" + +"Alas! madam, the flames make it as light as day around the cabin. They +would certainly see us. And yet if we stay, we burn. When the fire +reaches this straw above our heads we will try it." + +"I would rather stay here," said Patricia. + +Behind them the flames roared and crackled, the cabin burning like a +torch, and with the flames rose and fell the triumphant cries of the +savages, who, unaware of the existence of the tiny shed, so covered +with the vines that draped the cabin that it seemed one with it, +congregated in front of the gap in the wall where had been the door, and +waited for their still living victims to emerge from it. + +"Look!" breathed Patricia, grasping Landless's arm. + +They stood facing the open door of the shed, and gazing through it down +the lit slope of the knoll. Into the light, out of the darkness at the +foot of the hill, now glided a man, naked save for the loin cloth, and +painted with horrible devices; in the figure, noiseless and bent +forward, savage cunning; in the eyes, the lust for blood. In his +footsteps came his double, then a third, in all points exactly similar, +then a fourth, a fifth--a long line, creeping as silently as shadows--a +nightmare procession--up through the lurid light. + +Landless drew Patricia further into the shadow. + +"Wait," he said. "They may prove our deliverance." + +The stealthy line reached the summit of the knoll, then broadened into a +disc, and swept past the frail shelter in which stood the fugitives. A +moment, and the war whoop rang out, to be answered by a burst of yells +from the Ricahecrians, and then by prolonged and awful clamor. + +"Now is our time," said Landless. + +Hand in hand they ran from the shed that was now in a light flame, and +down the slope up which had come the band of unconscious Samaritans. + +"The stream!" said Landless. "There is a small raft upon it if they have +not destroyed it." + +They made for the water, found the raft hidden in a clump of reeds and +uninjured, and stepped upon it. In ten minutes' time from the appearance +of the new factor in the sum they were moving steadily, if slowly, down +a stream so wide that in Europe it would have been called a river. The +glare from the burning cabin faded, the flaming mass itself shrunk until +it looked a burning bush, then dwindled to a star. The noise of the +struggle upon the mount was with them longer, but at length it, too, +died away. + +"Which will conquer?" said Patricia at last, from where she crouched at +the feet of Landless, who stood erect, poling. + +"The Ricahecrians were the stronger," he answered. "But they may be so +handled that they will not come at us again. That must be our hope." + +There followed a long silence, broken by Patricia. + +"The baby," she said in a quivering voice, "the poor, pretty, innocent +little thing!" + +"It is well with it," said Landless. "It is spared all toil and +suffering. It is better as it is." + +"The man and woman went together," said Patricia, still with the sob in +her voice. "They would have chosen it so, I think. But the poor +Indian--" + +"He was my friend," said Landless slowly, "and I brought him death." + +"It is I that brought him death!" cried Patricia, tossing up her arms. +"I that shall bring you death!" + +Her voice rose into a cry that echoed drearily from the hills about +them, and she beat her hands against the raft with a sudden passion. + +"You would bring me no unwelcome gift," said Landless steadily, +"provided only that the time when I could serve you with my life were +past." + +She did not answer, and they floated on in silence down the little +river, between banks lined with dwarf willows and sighing reeds. With +the dawn they came to rapids through which they could not pilot their +frail craft. Leaving the water, they turned their faces towards the +rising sun, and pursued their journey through the forest that seemed to +stretch to the end of the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE FALL OF THE LEAF + + +Days passed, and the forest put on a beauty, austere, yet fantastic, +bizarre. Above it hung a pale blue sky; within it, a perpetual, pale +blue haze, through which blazed the scarlet and gold of the trees--great +bonfires which did not warm, flaming pyres which were never consumed. +Morning and evening a shroud of chill, white mist fell upon them, or +they would have mocked the sunrise and the sunset. Along the summit of +low hills ran a comb of fire--the scarlet of the sumach, leaf and berry; +underfoot were crimson vines like trails and splashes of blood; into the +streams from which the wanderers stooped to drink, fell the gold of the +sycamore. From the hills they looked down upon a red and yellow world, a +gorgeous bourgeoning and blossoming that put the spring to shame, a sea +of splendor with here and there a dark-green isle of cedar or of pine. +Day after day saw the same calm blue sky, the same blue haze, the same +slow drifting of crimson and gold to earth. The winds did not blow, and +the murmur of the forest was hushed. All sound seemed muffled and +remote. The deer passed noiseless down the long aisles, the beaver and +the otter slipped noiseless into the stream, the bear rolled its +shambling bulk away from human neighborhood like a shapeless shadow. At +times vast flocks of wild pigeons darkened the air, but they passed like +a cloud. The singing birds were gone. Only at night did sound awake, +for then the wolves howled, and the infrequent scream of the panther +chilled the blood, and the fires which the wanderers must needs build +roared and crackled through the darkness. In the daytime beauty, vast +and melancholy; in the night, shadows and mysteries, the voice of wild +beasts and the stillness of the stars; at all times an enemy, they knew +not how far away or how near at hand, behind them. + +Through this world which seemed more a phantasm than a reality, Landless +and Patricia fared, and were happy. All passion, all fear, all mistrust +and anger slept in that enchanted calm. They never spoke of the past, +they had well-nigh ceased to think of it. When they knelt upon the turf +beside some crystal brook, and drank of the water which seemed red wine +or molten gold according to the nature of the trees above it, it might +have been the water of Lethe. + +In the illimitable forest, too, in the monotony of sunshine and shade, +of glade and dell, of crystal streams and tiny valleys, each the +counterpart of the other, in dense woods and grassy savannahs; in the +yesterday so like to-day, and the to-day so like to-morrow, there was no +hint of the future. It was enchanted ground, where to-morrow must always +be like to-day. They kept their faces to the east, and they walked each +day as many leagues as her strength would permit, and Landless, +imitating as best he could the dead Susquehannock, took all precautions +to cover their trail; but that done all was done, and they put care +behind them. Landless, walking in a dream, knew that it was a dream, and +said to himself, "I must awaken, but not yet. I will dream and be happy +yet a little while." But Patricia dreamt and knew it not. She kept her +wonted state, or, rather, with a quiet insistence he kept it for her. He +never addressed her save as "Madam," and he cared for her comfort, and +in all things bore himself towards her with the formal courtesy he would +have shown a queen. He said to himself, "Godfrey Landless, Godfrey +Landless, thou mayst forget much, perhaps, for a little while; but not +this! If thou dost, thou art no honorable man." + +Master of himself, he walked beside her, cared for her, tended her, +guarded her, served her as if he had been a knight-errant out of a +romance, and she a distressed princess. And she rewarded him with a +delicate kindliness, and a perfectly trustful, childlike dependence upon +his strength, wisdom, and resource. All her bearing towards him was +marked by an inexpressible charm, half-playful, wholly gracious and +womanly. The lady of the manor was gone, and in her place moved the +Patricia Verney of the enchanted forest--a very different creature. + +Thus they fared through the dying summer, and were happy in the present +of soft sunshine, tender haze, fantastic beauty. Sometimes they walked +in silence, too truly companions to feel the need of words; at other +times they talked, and the hours flew past, for they both had wit, +intelligence, quick fancy, high imagination. Sometimes their laughter +rang through the glades of the forest, and set the squirrels in the oaks +to chattering; sometimes in the melancholy grace of the evening when the +purple twilight sank through the trees, and the large stars came out one +by one, they spoke of grave things, of the mysteries of life and death, +of the soul and its hereafter. She had early noticed that he never lay +down at night without having first silently prayed. There had been a +time when she would have laughed at this as Puritan hypocrisy, but now, +one dark night, when the noises of the forest were loud about them, and +the wind rushed through the trees, she came close to him and knelt +beside him. Thenceforward each night, before they lay down beside their +fire, and when from out the darkness came all weird and mournful sounds, +when the owl hooted, and the catamount screamed, and the long howl of +the wolf was answered by its fellow, he stood with bared head, and in a +few short, simple words commended them both to God. "I will both lay me +down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in +safety." + +There came a day when they sat down to rest upon the dark, smooth ground +in a belt of pines, and looked between rows of stately columns to where, +in the distance, the arcade was closed by a broken and confused glory of +crimson oak and yellow maple. Landless told her that it was like gazing +at a rose window down the long nave of a cathedral. + +"I have never seen a cathedral," she said; "I have dreamed of them, +though, of your Milton's 'dim religious light,' and of the rolling +music." + +"I have seen many," he answered. "But none of them are to me what the +abbey at Westminster is. If you should ever see it--" + +Something in her face stopped him; there was a silence, and then he said +quietly:-- + +"When you shall see it, is perhaps better, madam?" + +"Yes," she answered, gazing before her with wide fixed eyes. + +He did not finish his sentence, and neither spoke again until they had +left the pines and were forcing their way through the tall grass and +reeds of a wide savannah. They came to a small, clear stream, dotted +with wild fowl and mirroring the pale blue sky, and he lifted her in his +arms as was his wont and bore her through the shallow water. As he set +her gently down upon the other side, she said in a low voice, "I thought +you knew. Had it not been for that night, that night which sets us here, +you and me,--I should be now in London, at Whitehall, at some masque or +pageant perhaps. I should be all clad in brocade and jewels, not like +this--" She touched her ragged gown as she spoke, then burst into +strange laughter. "But God disposes! And you--" + +"I should be in a place which is never mentioned at Court, madam," said +Landless grimly. "The grave, to wit. Unless indeed his Excellency +proposed hanging me in chains." + +She cried out as though she had been struck. "Don't!" she said +passionately. "Don't speak to me so! I will not bear it!" and ran past +him into the woods beyond the savannah. + +When he came up with her he found her lying on a mossy bank with her +face hidden. + +"Madam," he said, kneeling beside her, "forgive me." + +She lifted a colorless face from her hands. "How far are we from the +Settlements?" she demanded. + +"I do not know, madam. Some twenty leagues, probably, from the frontier +posts." + +"How far from the friendly tribes?" + +"Something less than that distance." + +"Then when we reach them, sir," she said imperiously, "you are to leave +me with them at one of the villages above the falls." + +"To leave you there!" + +"Yes. You will tell them that I am the daughter of one of the paleface +chiefs, of one whom the great white chief calls 'brother,' and then they +will not dare to harm me or to detain me. They will send me down the +river to the nearest post, and the men there will bring me on to +Jamestown, and so home." + +"And why may not I bring you on to Jamestown--and so home?" demanded +Landless with a smile. + +"Because--because--you _know_ that you are lost if you return to the +Settlements." + +"And nevertheless I shall return," he said with another smile. + +She struck her hands together. "You will be mad--mad! If you had not +been their leader!--but as it is, there is no hope. Leave me with the +friendly Indians, then go yourself to the northward. Make for New +Amsterdam. God will carry you through the Indians as he has done so far. +I will pray to him that he do so. Ah, promise me that you will go!" + +Landless took her hand and kissed it. "Were you in absolute safety, +madam," he said gently, "and if it were not for one other thing, I would +go, because you wish it, and because I would save you any pang, however +slight, that you might feel for the fate of one who was, who is, your +servant--your slave. I would go from you, and because it else might +grieve you, I would strive to keep my life through the forest, through +the winter--" + +"Ah, the winter!" she cried. "I had forgotten that winter will come." + +"But to do that which you propose," he continued, "to leave you to the +mercy of fierce and treacherous Indians, but half subdued, friends to +the whites only because they must--it is out of the question. To leave +you at a frontier post among rude trappers and traders, or at some half +savage pioneer's, is equally impossible. What tale would you have to +tell Colonel Verney? 'The Ricahecrians carried me into the Blue +Mountains. There your servant Landless found me and brought me a long +distance towards my home. But at the last, to save his own neck, forfeit +to the State, he left me, still in the wilderness and in danger, and +went his way.' My honor, madam, is my own, and I choose not so to stain +it. Again: I must be the witness to your story. You have wandered for +many weeks in a wilderness, far beyond the ken of your friends. To your +world, madam, I am a rebel, traitor and convict, a wretch capable of any +baseness, of any crime. If I go back with you, throwing myself into the +power of Governor and Council, at least I shall be credited with having +so borne myself towards my master's daughter as to fear nothing from +their hands on that score. The idle and censorious cannot choose but +believe when you say, 'I am come scatheless through weeks of daily and +hourly companionship with this man. Rebel and traitor and gaol-bird +though he be, he never injured me in word, thought, or deed....' For all +these reasons, madam, we must be companions still." + +She had covered her face while he was speaking, and she kept it hidden +when he had finished. The slowly lengthening shadows of the trees had +barred the little glade with black when he spoke again. It was only to +ask in his usual voice if she were rested and ready to continue their +journey. + +She raised her head and looked at him with swimming eyes, then held out +two trembling hands. He took them, helped her to her feet, and before +releasing them, bent and touched them with his lips. Then side by side +and in silence they traveled on through the halcyon calm of the world +around them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +AN ACCIDENT + + +It was early morning, and the mist lay heavy upon the forest and on the +bosom of the James. Landless and Patricia raked together the dying +embers of their fire and heaped fresh wood upon them. The flames leaped +up, warming their chilled bodies and filling the hollow that had been +their camping place with a cheerful light, in which the moisture that +clothed tree bole and fallen log and withered fern glistened like +diamonds. Their breakfast of deer meat and broiled fish, nuts and a few +late clusters of grape, with coldest water from a spring hard by, was +eaten amidst laughter and pleasant talk. When they had lingered through +it and when Landless had carefully extinguished their fire and had seen +to the priming of his gun, they addressed themselves to their journey. + +A bowshot away was the river, and Patricia willed that they walk along +its banks that they might see the white mist lift, and the silver flash +of fish rising from the water, and the swoop of the kingfisher. Landless +agreeing, they went down to the river, and standing upon a rocky spit of +ground which ran far out into the stream, they looked down the misty +expanse, then turned involuntarily and looked up. At that moment the fog +lifted. + +"Ah!" cried Patricia, and shrunk back, cowering almost to the ground. + +Landless seized her in his arms and ran with her across the shingle and +up the bank. Plunging into the woods he made for the little stream which +flowed past their camping place, and entering the water, walked rapidly +up it. + +"Did they see us?" Patricia asked in a low, strained voice. + +"I am afraid so." + +"They turned their boats towards the land. They are in the forest by +now." + +"Yes." + +"And there is no doubt that they are the same. I saw the scarlet +handkerchief upon the head of the mulatto." + +"Yes, they are the same." + +"They were such a little way from us. Oh, they may be upon us at any +moment!" + +"We are in great danger," he answered gravely, "but it is not so +imminent as that. They were nearly a mile above us, and they have to +land, to hide their boats and to find our trail, all of which will take +time. We may count on having an hour's start of them, and we will do all +in our power to increase it by breaking our trail as we are doing now. +Then we cannot be many leagues from the falls, and the post below them, +or we may stumble at any moment upon some Monacan village which will not +need our urging to fly out against the Ricahecrians. Please God, we will +win through them yet." + +Somewhat comforted, she lay within his arms without speaking until they +left the stream, when he set her down, and giving her his hand, ran with +her over the fallen leaves down the long aisles of the forest. + +Red gold showers fell upon them; fiery vines clutched at their feet, or, +swinging from the trees, struck at their faces with vicious tendrils; +the pines made the ground beneath like ice; rotting logs covered with +gorgeous fungi barred their way; dark and poisonous swamps appeared +before them, and had to be skirted--the forest leagued itself with its +children and did them yeoman service. + +The two aliens hastened breathlessly on. The sun climbed above the tree +tops and looked down upon them through the half denuded branches. Midday +came, and the short bright afternoon, and still they went fast through +the woods, and still they heard no other sound than the rustle and sough +of the leaves and the beating of their own hearts. They came to rising +ground, and mounting it, found themselves upon a chinquepin ridge, and +before them an abrupt descent of rain-washed, boulder-strewn earth. It +was so nearly a precipice that Patricia shrunk back with an exclamation +of dismay. + +"I will go first," said Landless. "Give me your hands. So!" + +Half way down, the earth began to slip. Patricia, looking up and over +her shoulder, uttered a cry. A great boulder, imbedded in the earth +directly above them, was dislodging itself, was falling! At her cry +Landless raised his eyes, saw the threatening mass, caught her around +the waist, and with one supreme effort swung her out of the path of the +avalanche which descended the next moment, bearing him with it to the +ground beneath. + +He was recalled to consciousness by the dash of water against his face, +and opened his eyes to behold Patricia bending over him, very white, +with tragic eyes, and lips pressed closely together. She had run to the +river, flowing through the sunshine a hundred yards away, for water, +which she had brought back in his cap, and she had taken the kerchief +from her neck, wet it, and laid it upon his forehead. Her hands were +torn and bleeding. He saw them and uttered an exclamation. "It is +nothing," she said; "I had to move the rock." Scarcely fully conscious +as yet, his eyes glanced from her to the great rock which lay upon one +side, and upon which there were bloodstains. "I have had a bad fall," he +said unsteadily, but with an attempt to speak lightly because of the +trouble in her eyes, "but it is over. Come! we must hurry on. We have no +time to lose." + +As he spoke he strove to rise, but with the effort came a pang of +anguish, and he sank back, faint and sick, upon the ground. + +"Ah! you cannot!" cried Patricia with a great sob in her voice. "It is +your foot. The rock fell upon it." + +After a moment of lying with closed eyes, he sat up and with his knife +began to cut away the moccasin from the wounded limb. Presently he +looked up. "Yes, it is badly crushed. There is no doing anything with +it." + +For many moments they gazed at each other in a despairing silence, +broken by Patricia's low, "What are we to do now?" + +"We must go on," answered Landless. "It is death to stay here." + +Holding by the bank against which he had leaned, he dragged himself up +and stood for an instant with eyes dark with pain; then, setting his +lips, took a step forward. The bronze of his face paled, and beads of +anguish stood upon his brow, but he took another step. Patricia, the +tears running down her cheeks, came to him and put his arm around her +shoulder. "I will be your crutch," she said, striving to smile. "I will +carry the gun, too." + +Before them was a steeply sloping, grass-grown ascent rising to a broken +line of cliffs, scarred and gray, crowned with cedars and hung here and +there with crimson creepers, and with a chance medley of huge gray +boulders scattered about their base. Up this ascent they labored, so +slowly that the crags seemed like the mountain in the Arabian tale, ever +receding as they advanced. Twice Landless staggered and fell to his +knee, but when, after what seemed an eternity of pain and distress, they +reached the summit and Patricia would have had him rest, he shook his +head and motioned with his hand towards the narrow, boulder-strewn +plateau at the foot of the crags. + +With her accustomed unquestioning obedience she turned towards the +rocks, and after another interval of painful toil they found themselves +in a sort of rocky chamber, a natural blockhouse, of which the sheer +cliff formed one wall and boulders of varying height and shape the +others. + +Above them gleamed the blue sky; through the gaps between the rocks they +looked down upon the shining river and the parti-colored woods, and +behind them towered the cliffs. A strong wind was blowing and it sent +red leaves from the vines that draped the rock whirling down upon them. + +"The tall gray crags," said Patricia in a strange voice, "and the +Martinmas wind. The river flowing in the sunshine too." + +Landless sank upon the rocky floor. "I can go no further," he said. "God +help me!" + +"I do not think another man could have come so far," she answered. "What +are we to do now?" + +"You must go on without me." + +She cried out angrily, "What do you mean? I don't understand you." + +"Listen," he said earnestly, dragging himself closer to her. "We can be +but a very few leagues from the falls, still fewer from the Indian +villages above them. Reach one of those villages and you are safe from +these devils at least. We have kept the start of them. They may not +reach this spot for several hours, and when they come, I will keep them +here, God helping me, for more hours than one. This place is a natural +fortress, and they have no guns. They will not take me until my +ammunition is exhausted, and you know there is store of bullets and +powder. They will think that you are with me, hidden behind the rocks--" + +"And I shall be with you!" she cried vehemently. + +"No, no. You must go through this pass in the cliff to the right of us, +and thence down the river with all your speed. Please God, to-morrow +will find you in safety. It is the only way. To stay here is to fall +into their hands. And you must not delay. You must go at once." + +"And you--" she said in a whisper. + +"What does it matter if I lose my life to-day instead of a few weeks +hence? I grieve for this," with a glance at his foot, "because it keeps +me from being with you, from guarding you into perfect safety. Otherwise +it does not matter. You lose time, madam." + +She stood with heaving bosom and foot tapping the ground, an expression +that he could not read in her wonderful eyes. "I am not going," she said +at last. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT + + +"You will not go?" cried Landless. + +"No, I will not!" she answered passionately. "Why should you think such +a thing of me? See! we have been together, you and I, for long weeks! +You have been my faithful guide, my faithful protector. Over and over +again you have saved my life. And now, now when you are the helpless +one, when it is through me that you lie there helpless, when it is +through me that you are in this dreadful forest at all, you tell me to +go! to leave you to the fate I have brought upon you! to save myself! I +will not save myself! But the other day it was dishonor in you to leave +me below the falls--almost in safety. Mine the dishonor if I do what you +bid me do!" + +"Madam, madam, it is not with women as with men!" + +"I care not for women! I care for myself. Never, never, will I leave, +helpless and wounded, the man who dies for me!" + +"Upon my knees I implore you!" Landless cried in desperation. "You +cannot save me, you cannot help me. It is you that would make the +bitterness of my fate. Let me die believing that you have escaped these +fiends, and then, do what they will to me, I shall die happy, blessing +with my last breath the generous woman who lets me give--how proudly and +gladly she will never know--my worthless life in exchange for hers, so +young, bright, innocent. Go, go, before it is too late!" + +He dragged himself a foot nearer, and grasping the hem of her dress, +pressed it to his lips. "Good-bye," he said with a faint smile. "Keep +behind the rocks for some distance, then follow the river. Think kindly +of me. Good-bye." + +"It is too late," she said. "I can see the river through this crack +between the rocks. One of those two canoes has just passed, going down +the river. In it were seven Ricahecrians and the mulatto. I saw him +quite plainly, for they row close to the bank with their faces turned to +the woods. They will land at some point below this and search for our +trail. When they do not find it, they will know that we are between them +and the rest of the band, and they will come upon us from behind. If I +go now, it will be to meet them. Shall I go?" + +"No, no," groaned Landless. "It is too late. God help you! I cannot." + +The large tears gathered in her eyes and fell over her white cheeks. +"Oh, why," she said plaintively, "why did He let you hurt yourself just +now?" She turned her face to the rock against which she was standing, +and hiding it in her arm, broke into a low sobbing. It went to the heart +of the man at her feet to hear her. + +Presently the weeping ceased. She drew a long tremulous sigh, and dashed +the tears from her eyes. Her hands went up to her disheveled hair in a +little involuntary, feminine gesture, and she looked at him with a wan +smile. + +"I did not mean to be so cowardly," she said simply. "I will be brave +now." + +"You are the bravest woman in the world," he answered. + +Below them waved the painted forest flaunting triumphant banners of +crimson and gold. A strong south wind was blowing, and it brought to +them a sound as of the whispering of many voices. The shining river, +too, murmured to its reeds and pebbles, and in the air was the dull +whirr of wings as the vast flocks of wild fowl rose like dark smoke from +the water, or, skimming along its surface, broke it into myriad diamond +sprays. Around the horizon towered heaped-up masses of cloud--Ossa piled +on Pelion--fantastic Jack-and-the-Beanstalk castles, built high above +the world, with rampart and turret and bastion of pearl and coral. Above +rose the sky intensely blue and calm. + +All the wealth, the warmth and loveliness of the world they were about +to leave flowed over the souls of the doomed pair. In their hearts they +each said farewell to it forever. Patricia stood with uplifted face and +clear eyes, looking deep into the azure heaven. "I am trying to think," +she said, "that death is not so bitter after all. To-day is +beautiful--but ours will be a fairer morrow! After to-day we will never +be tired, or fear, or be in danger any more. I am not afraid to die; but +ah! if it could only come to us now, swiftly, silently, out of the blue +yonder; if we could go without the blood--the horror--" she broke off +shuddering. Her eyes closed and she rested her head against the rock. +Landless watched the beautiful, pale face, the quivering eyelids, the +coral underlip drawn between the pearly teeth, in a passion of pity and +despair. Horrid visions of torture flashed through his brain; he saw the +delicate limbs writhing, heard the agonized screams.... If he killed +the mulatto, it might come to that; if the mulatto lived, he knew that +she would kill herself. He had given her the knife that had been +Monakatocka's, and she had it now, hidden in her bosom.... The glory of +the autumn day darkened and went out, the bitter waters of affliction +surged over him, an immeasurable sea; it seemed to him that until then +he had never suffered. A cold sweat broke out upon him, and with an +inarticulate cry of rage and despair he struck at his wounded foot as at +a deadly foe. The girl cried out at the sound of the blow. + +"Oh, don't, don't! What are you doing? You have loosened the bandage, +and it is bleeding afresh." + +Despite his effort to prevent her she readjusted the kerchief which she +had wound about the torn and crushed foot, very carefully and tenderly. +"It must hurt you very much," she said pityingly. + +He took the little ministering hands in his and kissed them. "Oh, madam, +madam!" he groaned. "God knows I would shed every drop of my blood a +thousand times to save you. Death to me is nothing, nor life so fair +that I should care to keep it. The grave is a less dreadful prison than +those on earth, and I think to find in God a more merciful Judge. But +you--so young and beautiful, with friends, love--" + +She stopped him with a gesture full of dignity and sweetness. "That life +is gone forever,--it is thousands of miles and ages on ages away. It is +a world more distant than the stars, and we are nearer to Heaven than to +it.... It is strange to think how we have drifted, you and I, to this +rock. A year ago we had never seen each other's faces, had never heard +each other's names, and yet you were coming to this rock from prison and +over seas, and I was coming to meet you.... And it is our death place, +and we will die together, and to-morrow maybe the little birds will +cover us with leaves as they did the children in the story. They were +brother and sister.... When our time comes I will not be afraid, for I +will be with you ... my brother." + +Landless covered his face with his hands. + +The shadows grew longer and the cloud castles began to flush rosily, +though the sun still rode above the tree tops. A purple light filled the +aisles of the forest, through which a herd of deer, making for some +accustomed lick, passed like a phantom troop. They vanished, and from +out the stillness of the glades came the sudden, startled barking of a +fox. A shadow darted across a sunlit alley from gloom to gloom, paused +on the outskirts of the wood below the crags while one might count ten, +then turned and flitted back into the darkness from whence it came. They +beneath the crags did not see it. + +Suddenly Landless raised his head. Upon his face was the look of one who +has come through much doubt and anguish of spirit to an immutable +resolve. He looked to the priming of his gun and laid it upon the rock +beside him, together with his powderhorn and pouch of bullets. Raising +himself to his knees he gazed long and intently into the forest below. +There was no sign of danger. On the checkered ground beneath two mighty +oaks squirrels were playing together like frolicsome kittens, and +through the clear air came the tapping of a woodpecker. The forest was +silent as to the shadow that had flitted through it. It can keep a +secret very well. + +Landless sank back against the rock. He had lost much blood, and that +and the pain of his mangled foot turned him faint and sick for minutes +at a time. He clenched his teeth and forced back the deadly faintness, +then turned to the woman who stood beside him, her hands clasped before +her, her eyes following the declining sun, her lips sometimes set in +mournful curves, sometimes murmuring broken and inaudible words of +prayer. He called her twice before she answered, turning to him with +eyes of feverish splendor which saw and yet saw not. "What is it?" she +asked dreamily. + +"Come back to earth, madam," he said. "There is that that I wish to say +to you. Listen to me kindly and pitifully, as to a dying man." + +"I am listening," she answered. "What is it?" + +"It is this, madam: I love you. For God's sake don't turn away! Oh, I +know that I should have been strong to the end, that I should not vex +you thus! It is the coward's part I play, perhaps, but I must speak! I +cannot die without. I love you, I love you, I love you!" + +His voice rose into a cry; in it rang long repressed passion, hopeless +adoration, fierce joy in having broken the bonds of silence. He spoke +rapidly, thickly, with a stammering tongue, now throwing out his hands +in passionate appeal, now crushing between his fingers the dried moss +and twigs with which the ground was strewn. "I loved you the day I first +saw you. I have loved you ever since. I love you now. My God! how I love +you! Die for you? I would die for you ten thousand times! I would _live_ +for you! Oh, the day I first saw you! I was in hell and I looked at you +as lost Dives might have looked at the angel on the other side of the +gulf.... I never thought to tell you this. I know that never, never, +never.... But this is the day of our death. In a few hours we shall be +gone. Do not leave the world in anger with me. Say that you pity, +understand, forgive.... Speak to me, madam!" + +The sun sank lower and the shadows lengthened and deepened, and still +Patricia stood silent with uplifted and averted face, and fingers +tightly locked together. With a moan of mortal weakness Landless dragged +himself nearer until he touched with his forehead the low pedestal of +rock upon which she stood. "I understand," he said quietly. "After all, +there is nothing to be said, is there? Try to forget my--madness. Think +of it, if you will, as the raving of one at death's door. Let it be as +it was between us." + +Patricia turned--her beautiful face transfigured. Roses bloomed in her +cheeks, her eyes were fathomless wells of splendor, an exquisite smile +played about her lips; with her nimbus of golden hair she looked a rapt +mediaeval saint. Her slender figure swayed towards Landless, and when she +spoke her voice was like the tone of a violin, soft, rich, caressing, +tremulous. + +"There was no boat," she said. + +"No boat!" he cried. "What do you mean?" + +"The canoe going down the river. I told you that it held seven Indians +and the mulatto. I lied to you. There were no Indians, no mulatto, no +canoe. The shadows of the clouds have been upon the river, and the wild +fowl, and once a fish-hawk plunged. I have seen nothing else." + +Landless gazed at her with staring eyeballs. "You have thrown away your +life," he said at last in a voice that did not seem his own. + +"Yes, I have thrown away my life." + +"But why--why--" + +The rich color surged over her face and neck. She swayed towards him +with the grace of a wind-bowed lily, her breath fanning his forehead, +and her hand touching his, softly, flutteringly, like a young bird. + +"Can you not guess why?" she said with an enchanting smile. + +All the anguish of a little while back, all the terror of the fate that +hung over her, all the white calm of despair was gone. The horror that +moved nearer and nearer, moment by moment, through the painted forest, +was forgotten. She looked at him shyly from under her long lashes and +with another wonderful blush. + +Landless gazed at her, comprehension slowly dawning in his eyes. For +five minutes there was a silence as of the dead beneath the crags. Then +with a great cry he caught her hands in his and drew her towards him. +"Is it?" he cried. + +"Yes," she answered with laughter trembling on her lips. "Death hath +enfranchised us, you and me. Give me my betrothal kiss, my only love." + +For them one moment of Paradise, of bliss ineffable and supreme. The +next, the crags behind them rang to the sound of the war whoop. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE LAST FIGHT + + +Out from the forest rushed the remnant of that band which had smoked the +peace pipe with the Governor one sunny afternoon on the banks of the +Pamunkey. Tall and large of limb, painted with all fantastic and ghastly +devices, and decorated with hideous mementoes of nameless deeds; with +the lust of blood written large in every fierce lineament and dark and +rolling eye; with raised hands grasping knife and tomahawk, and lips +uttering cries that seemed not of earth--a more appalling vision could +not have issued from out the beautiful, treacherous forest, a more +crashing discord have come into the music of the golden evening. + +For the two in their rocky fortress beneath the crags the apparition had +no terrors. All the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness of the world was +passing from them--the cry that swelled through the forest was its +knell. They smiled to hear it, and with raised faces looked beyond the +many-tinted evening skies into clear spaces where Love was all. The +intoxication of the moment when hidden and despairing love became love +triumphant and acknowledged abode with them. In the very grasp of death +ineffable bliss possessed them. Their countenances changed; the lines of +care and pain, the marks of tears, were all gone and the beauty of the +happy soul shone out. For that brief space of time transcendent youth +and loveliness was theirs. About them, as about the sun now sinking +behind the low hills, there breathed a glory, a dying splendor as bright +as it was fleeting. They felt, too, a lightness and gaiety of +spirit--they had drunk of the nectar of the gods, and no leaden weight +of care, no heavy sorrow, could ever touch them, ever drag them down +again to the sad earth. + +"You are beautiful," said Landless, gazing at her, even in the act of +raising his gun to his shoulder; "as beautiful as you were the day I +first saw you. I hear the drone of the bees in the vines at Verney +Manor. I smell the roses. I look up and see the Rose of the World. My +eyes were dazzled then, are dazzled now, my Rose of the World." + +"That day I wore brocade and lace, and there were pearls around my +throat," she said with a laugh of pure delight. "There was rouge upon my +cheeks, too, sir, and my eyes were darkened. To-day I go a beggar maid, +in rags, burnt by the sun--" + +"The nut-brown maid," he said. + +"Ay," she answered, "the nut-brown maid--'For in my mind of all +mankind'--you may e'en finish it yourself, sir." + +The Ricahecrians had paused at the foot of the ascent to hold a council. +It was soon over. With another burst of cries they rushed up the steep +and upon the rocks, behind which were hidden their victims. Landless, +kneeling to one side of the gap between the boulders by which he and +Patricia had entered, fired, and the foremost of the savages threw up +his arms, uttered a dreadful cry, and fell across the path of his +fellows. For one moment the rush was checked, the next on they came, +yelling furiously and brandishing their weapons. Landless fired and +missed, fired again and pierced the thigh of a gigantic warrior, +bringing him crashing to the ground. The line wavered, paused, then +turning, swept to one side and so passed out of sight. + +"They have found this pass too formidable," said Landless. "They will +try now to force an entrance from the side. Do you watch the front, my +queen, while I face them, coming over the rocks." + +"I looked only at the mulatto," she said. "The others are shadows to +me." + +"His time is come," said Landless. "Do not fear him, sweetheart." + +"I fear not," she answered. "I have the perfect love." + +Along the top of a tall boulder to their right appeared a dark red +line--the arm of a savage, with clutching fingers. Above it, very slowly +and cautiously, there rose first an eagle's feather, then a coarse black +scalp lock, then a high forehead and fierce eyes. The echo of Landless's +shot reverberated through the cliffs, and when the smoke cleared only +the bare gray boulder faced him. But from behind it came a derisive +yell. + +"Thou wilt think me a poor marksman, my dear," he said, smiling, as he +reloaded his musket. "I have missed again." + +"It is because you are wounded," she said. "I would I had thy wounds." + +"I had a wounded heart, but you have healed it," he said, and looked at +her with shining eyes. + +The sun sank and the long twilight of the hills set in. The evening star +was brightening through the pale amethyst of the sky when Landless said +quietly: "The last charge," and emptied it into an arm which for one +incautious moment had waved above the rocks. + +"It is the end, then," said Patricia. + +"Yes, it is the end. We have beaten them back for the moment, but +presently they will find that all we could do we have done, and then--" + +She left her post beside the gap in the front, and came and knelt beside +him, and he took her in his arms. + +"It is not Death before us, but Life," she said in a low voice. + +"It is God and Love, naught else," he answered. "But the river between +will be bitter for you to cross, sweetheart." + +"We cross it together," she said, "and so--" She raised her head that he +might see her radiant smile, and their lips met. + +"Hark!" she said directly with her hand on his. "What is that sound?" + +He shook his head. "The wind has risen, and the forest rustles and +sighs. There is nothing more." + +"It is far off," she answered, "but it is like the dip of oars. Ah!" + +Over against them, framed in the narrow opening between the rocks, his +lithe, half-nude figure dark against the crimson west, and with a smile +upon his evil lips and in his evil eyes, stood Luiz Sebastian. In the +dead silence that succeeded he looked with a smiling; countenance from +the musket, now useless and thrown aside, to his enemy, wounded and +unarmed save for a knife, and to the woman in that enemy's arms; then, +without turning, he said a few words in an Indian tongue. From the dusky +mass behind him came one short, wild cry of savage triumph, followed by +another dead silence. + +Still holding Patricia in one arm, Landless rose from his knee, and +stood confronting him. + +"We are met again, Senor Landless," said Luiz Sebastian smoothly. +Receiving no answer, he spoke again with a tigerish expansion of his +thick lips. "You have had an accident, I see. Mother of God! that foot +must pain you! But you will forget it presently in the pleasure of the +pine splinters." + +"I will forget it in the pleasure of this," said Landless, releasing +Patricia, and springing upon the mulatto with a suddenness and violence +that sent them both staggering through the opening between the rocks, +out upon the narrow plateau and into the ring of Ricahecrians. Luiz +Sebastian was strong, with the easy masked strength of the panther, but +Landless had the strength of despair. The mulatto, thrown heavily to the +ground, and pinned there by his adversary's knee, saw the gleam of the +lifted knife, and would have seen nothing more in this life, but that a +woman's cry rang out and saved him. Landless heard, turned, saw Patricia +dragged from the shelter of the rocks, leaped to his feet, leaving his +work undone, and rushed upon the knot of savages with whom she was +struggling. A moment saw him beside her with the Indian who had held her +dead at his feet. Behind them was the great boulder which had formed the +front wall of their chamber of defense. He put his arm around her, and +drew her back with him until they stood against this rock, then faced +the advancing savages with uplifted knife. + +So determined was his attitude, so terribly had they proved his power, +so certain it was that before he should be taken one at least of their +number would taste that knife, that the Ricahecrians paused, swaying to +and fro, yelling, working themselves into a fury that should send them +on like maddened brutes, blind and deaf to all things but their lust for +blood. + +"I hear a sound of footsteps over the leaves," said Patricia. + +"The wind rustles in them, or the deer pass," answered Landless. "Oh, my +life! are you content?" + +She answered with a low, clear laugh. "I hold happiness fast," she said. +"It cannot escape us now." + +"They are coming," he said. "The last kiss, heart of my heart." + +Their lips met, and their eyes with a smile in them met, and then he put +her gently behind him, and turned to again face Luiz Sebastian. + +With his eyes fixed upon the yellow face, he had raised his hand to +strike at the yellow breast, spotted and barred with the black of the +war paint, when an Indian, gliding between, struck up his arm, and sent +the knife tinkling down upon the rocks. With a yell of triumph the +savage snatched up the weapon, and brandished it, showing it to his +fellows, who, seeing their work accomplished, and the two whom they had +tracked so far actually in their hands, made the forest ring with their +exultant shouts. A few closed in around the devoted pair, directing at +them fiendish cries and no less fiendish laughter, and menacing them +with knife and tomahawk, but the majority streamed down the steep and +into the forest at its base. + +"They go to gather wood," said the still smiling Luiz Sebastian. "By and +by we are to have a bonfire. Senor Landless has often carried wood, I +think, in those old times when he was a slave, and when the pretty +mistress behind him there treated him as such--unless she gave him +favors in secret. But, Mother of God! now that she has made him master, +we must carry the wood for him!" + +Landless, standing with folded arms, looked at him with quiet scorn. "It +is the nature of the viper to use his venom," he said calmly. "Such a +thing cannot anger me." + +"At the same time it is as well to crush the viper," said a voice at his +elbow. + +The speaker, who was Sir Charles Carew, had come from behind the +boulders which ran in a straggling line down the hillside toward the +river. He had his drawn sword in his hand, and as he spoke, he ran the +mulatto through the body. The wretch, his oath of rage and astonishment +still upon his lips, fell to the ground without a groan, writhed there a +moment or two, and then lay still forever. + +From the forest below rose a loud confusion of shouts and cries, +followed by a volley of musketry. At the sound the half dozen savages +upon the plateau turned and plunged down the hillside, to be met before +they reached the bottom by the upward rush of a portion of the rescuing +party. For a short while the twilight glades, low hills and frowning +crags rang to the sound of a miniature battle, to the quick crack of +muskets, the clear shouts of the whites, and the whoops of the savages. +But by degrees these latter became fainter, further between, died +away--a short ten minutes, and there were no warriors left to return to +the village in the Blue Mountains. Fierce shedders of blood, they were +paid in their own coin. + +On the hilltop Sir Charles shot his rapier into its scabbard, and +strode over to Patricia, standing white and still against the rock. "I +was in time," he said. "Thank God!" + +She made no motion to meet his extended hands, but stood looking past +him at Landless. Her face was like marble, her eyes one dumb question. +Landless met their gaze, and in his own she read despair, renunciation, +strong resolve--and a long farewell. + +"You are come in time, Sir Charles Carew," he said. "A little more, and +we should have been beyond your reach. You will find the lady safe and +well, though shaken, as you see, by this last alarm. She will speak for +me, I trust, will tell you that I have used her with all respect, that I +have done for her all that I could do.... Madam, all danger is past. +Will you not collect yourself and speak to your kinsman and savior?" + +He spoke with a certain calm stateliness of voice and manner, as of one +who has passed beyond all emotion, whether of hope or fear, and in his +eyes which he kept fixed upon her there was a command. + +"Speak to me, my cousin; tell me that I am welcome," said Sir Charles, +flinging himself upon his knee before her. + +With a strong shudder she looked away from the still, white, and sternly +composed face opposite to the darkening river and the evening star +shining calmly down upon a waste world. + +At length she spoke. "I was all but beyond this world, cousin, so pardon +me if I seem to come back to it somewhat tardily. You have my thanks, of +course--my dear thanks--for saving my life--my life which is so precious +to me." + +She gave him her hand with a strange smile, and he pressed his lips +upon it. "Your father is below, dearest cousin. Shall we descend to meet +him? As to this--gentleman," turning with a smile that was like a frown +to Landless, "I regret that circumstances combine to prevent our +rewarding him as the guardian (a trusty one, I am sure) of so precious a +jewel should be rewarded. But Colonel Verney will do--I will do--all +that is possible. In the mean time I observe with regret that he is +wounded. If he will allow me, I will send him my valet, who is below, +and is the best barber surgeon in the three kingdoms. Come, dearest +madam." + +He bowed low and ceremoniously to Landless, who returned the salute with +grave courtesy, and gave his hand to Patricia. For one moment she looked +at Landless with wide, dark eyes, then, her spirit obedient to his +spirit, she turned and went from him without one word or backward look. + +The color had quite faded from the west, and the stars were thickening +when Landless became conscious that the overseer was standing beside +him. "You are the hardest one to hold that ever I saw," said that worthy +grimly, and yet with a certain appreciation of the qualities that made +the man at his feet hard to hold showing in his tone, "but I fancy we've +got you at last. You've gone and put yourself in bilboes." + +Landless smiled. "This time you may keep me. I shall not interfere. But +tell me how you come here. You were sent back to the Plantations." + +"Ay," said the other, "and there was the devil to pay, I can tell you, +when I had to report you missing to Sir William. But Major Carrington +stood my friend, and I got off with a tongue-drubbing. Well, after about +three weeks or so, during which time the dogs and the searchers brought +back most all of the runaway niggers, and Mistress Lettice had hysterics +every day, back comes the Colonel and Sir Charles with ten of the twenty +men who had rowed them up the Pamunkey. The rest had fallen in a brush +with the Monacans. They hadn't come up with the Ricahecrians, hadn't +seen hair nor hide of them, had but one report from the Indian villages +along the river, and that was that no Ricahecrians had passed that way. +So after a while they were forced to believe that they were upon a false +scent, and back they comes post haste to the Plantations to get more +men, and go up the Rappahannock. Well, they went up the Rappahannock, +and found nothing to their purpose, so back they came again to try the +James and the country above the Falls. This time they found the +Settlements, which had been before like an overturned hive, pretty +quiet, the ringleaders of your precious plot having all been strung up, +and the rest made as mild as sheep with branding and whipping and +doubling of times. So, the tobacco being in and the plantation quiet, +things were left to Haines, and I came along with the Colonel. Major +Carrington, too, who they say is in the Governor's black books, though +Lord knows he was active enough in stamping out this insurrection, asked +to be allowed to join in the search for his old friend's daughter, and +so he's down in the woods yonder. And Mr. Cary is there, and Mr. Peyton +(Mistress Betty Carrington made _him_ come) and Mr. Jaclyn Carter. Fegs! +half the young gentry in the colony pressed their services on the +Colonel. It got to be the fashion to volunteer to run their heads into +the wolf's mouth for Mistress Patricia. But Sir Charles choked most of +them off. 'Gentlemen,' he says, says he, 'despite the saying that there +cannot be too much of a good thing, I beg to remind you that the +disastrous fortunes of those who first struggled with the forest and the +Indians in this western paradise are attributed to the fact that they +were two thirds gentlemen. Wherefore let us shun the rock upon which +they split'--" + +"How many of my fellow conspirators were put to death?" interrupted +Landless. + +"All the principal ones--them that Trail denounced as leaders. The rest +we pardoned after giving them a lesson they won't soon forget. We let +bygones be bygones with the redemptioners and slaves--all but those +devils who got away that night at Verney Manor, and with Trail at their +head, made for Captain Laramore's ship which was going to turn pirate. +Well, they got to the boats, and one lot got off safe to the ship which +hoisted the black flag, and sailed away to the Indies, and is sailing +there, murdering and ruining, to this day, I reckon. But the other boat +was over full, and the steersman was drunken, and she capsized before +she got to the middle of the channel. Some were drowned, and those that +got ashore we hung next morning. But Trail was in the first boat." + +"When do you--do we--start down the river?" + +"At midnight. And it's the Colonel's orders that until then you stay +here among the rocks and not show yourself to the men below. He'll see +you before we start. In the mean time I'll keep you company." And the +overseer took out his pipe and tobacco pouch, filled the former, lighted +it, and leaning back against the rock fell to smoking in contented +silence. + +Landless too sat in silence, with his head thrown back against the rock +and his face uplifted to the growing splendor of the skies. The night +wind, blowing mournfully around the bare hill and the broken crag, +struck upon his brow with a hint of winter in its touch. With it came +the tide of forest sounds--the sough of the leaves, the dull creaking of +branch against branch, the wash of the water in the reeds, the whirr of +wings, the cries of night birds--all the low and stealthy notes of the +earth chant which had become to him as old and tenderly familiar as the +lullabies of his childhood. Below him, at the foot of the hill, a square +of dark and stately pines was irradiated by a great fire which burnt +redly, casting flickering shadows far across the smooth brown earth, and +around which sat or moved many figures. Laughter and jest, oaths and +scraps of song floated up to the lonely watcher upon the hilltop. He +heeded them not--he was above that world--and no sound came from that +other and smaller fire blazing at some distance from the first--and the +tree trunks between were so many and so thick that he could see naught +but the light. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +VALE + + +The overseer knocked the ashes from his pipe and stuck it in his belt. +"The master," he said curtly, getting to his feet as three cloaked +figures, followed by a negro bearing a torch, came up the hillside and +into the waste of stones beneath the crags. Advancing to meet them, he +took the torch from Regulus's hand and fired a mass of dead and leafless +vine depending from the cliff. In the bright light which sprang up, +filling the rocky chamber and burnishing the face of the crags into the +semblance of a cataract of fire, the parties to the interview gazed at +one another in silence. + +Colonel Verney was the first to speak. "I am sorry to see that you are +wounded," he said gravely. + +"I thank you, sir,--it is nothing." + +The Colonel walked the length of the plateau twice, then came back to +his prisoner's side. "My daughter has told me all," he said somewhat +huskily. "That you and the Susquehannock sought for her and found her; +that you fought for her bravely more than once; that after the Indian +was slain you guided and protected her through the forest; that you have +in all things borne yourself towards her faithfully and reverently, not +injuring her by word, thought or deed. My daughter is very dear to +me--dearer than life, I am not ungrateful. I thank you very heartily." + +"Mistress Patricia Verney is dear to me also," said Sir Charles, coming +forward to stand beside his kinsman. "I too thank the man who restores +her to her friends--to her lover." + +"And I would to God," said the third figure, advancing, "that we could +save the brave man to whom so much is owed. If I were Governor of +Virginia--" + +"You could do naught, Carrington," broke in the Colonel impatiently. +"The man is convict--outside the pale! A convict, and the head of an +Oliverian plot! Scarce the King himself could pardon him! And if he did, +how long d' ye think the walls of the gaol at Jamestown would keep him +from the rabble--and the nearest tree? No, no, William Berkeley does but +his duty. And yet--and yet--" + +He began to pace the rocks again, frowning heavily, and pulling at the +curls of his periwig. "You are a brave man," he said at last, stopping +before Landless and speaking with energy, "and from my soul I wish I +could save you. I would gladly overlook all that is over and done with, +would gladly free you, aid you, help you, so far as might be, to +retrieve your past--but I cannot. My hands are tied; it is +impossible--you must see for yourself that it is impossible." + +"None can see that so clearly as myself, Colonel Verney," Landless said +steadily. "I thank you for the will none the less." + +"To take you back with me," the other continued, beginning to stride up +and down again, "is to take you back, bound, to certain death. And there +is but one alternative--to leave you here in the wilderness. Your +presence here is known only to those upon whose discretion I can depend. +They would hold their tongues, and none need ever be the wiser. But the +Settlements will be barred to you forever, and hundreds of leagues +stretch between this spot and the Dutch or the New Englanders. Moreover, +your description hath been sent to the authorities of each colony. And +you are wounded, and winter is at hand. It may be but a choice of +deaths! I would to God there were some other way--but there is none! You +must choose." + +In the dead silence that ensued the Colonel moved back to the side of +the Surveyor-General, and the two stood, thoughtfully regardant of the +prisoner. The light from the partially consumed vines beginning to wane, +the overseer motioned to Regulus to collect and apply his torch to a +quantity of the fagots with which the ground was strewn. The negro +obeyed, and stood behind the light flame and curling smoke which he had +evoked, like the genie of an Arabian tale. Sir Charles, left standing in +the centre of the rocky chamber, hesitated a moment, then walked with +his usual languid grace over to where Landless leaned against a boulder, +his eyes, shaded by his hand, fixed upon the ground. + +"Whichever you choose--Scylla or Charybdis--" said Sir Charles in his +most dulcet tones, "this is probably the last time you and I will ever +speak together. There have been passages between us in the past, which, +in the light of after event, I cannot but regret. You have just rendered +me an inestimable service. I have learnt, too, that you saved my life +the night of the storming of the Manor House. I beg to apologize to you, +sir, for any offense I may have given you by word or deed." And he held +out his hand with his most courtly smile. + +"It becomes a dying man to be in charity with the world he leaves," said +Landless, somewhat coldly, but with a smile too, "and so I do that which +I never thought to do," and he touched the other's fingers with his own. + +Sir Charles looked at him curiously. "You make a good enemy," he said +lightly. "Had it not been predestined that we were to hate each other, I +could find it in my heart to desire you for a friend. You remain in the +forest, I dare swear?" + +"Yes," answered Landless, with his eyes upon the light in the glade +below. "I choose the easier fate." + +"The easier for all concerned," said the other with a peculiar +intonation. + +Landless glanced at him keenly, but the courtier face and the +inscrutable smile told nothing. "The easier for myself, whom alone it +concerneth," said Landless sternly. + +Dragging himself up by the rock behind him, he turned to the two elder +men. "I have decided, Colonel Verney," he said slowly, "I will stay +here, an it please you." + +"You shall have all that we can leave you," said the Colonel eagerly and +with some emotion. "Ammunition in plenty, food, blankets, an axe--it's +little enough I can do, God knows, but I do that little most willingly." + +"Again I thank you," said Landless wearily. + +Sir Charles caught the inflection. "You stand in need of rest," he said +courteously, "and, this matter settled, our farther intrusion upon you +is as unnecessary as it must be unwelcome. Had we not best descend, +gentlemen?" + +"Ay," said the Colonel. "We have done all we could." Then, to Landless, +"With the moonrise we drop down the river--from out your sight forever. +I have told you frankly there is no hope for you amongst your kind in +the world to which we return. I believe there to be none. But have you +thought of what we must needs leave you to? Humanly speaking, it is +death, and death alone, in the winter forest." + +"I have thought," said Landless. + +"From my soul I wish that some miracle may occur to save you yet!" + +"An ill wish!" said the other, smiling, "with but little chance, +however, of its fulfillment." + +"I fear not," said the Colonel with something like a groan, "but I wish +it, nevertheless. Here is my hand, and with it my heartfelt thanks for +your service to my daughter. And I wish you to believe that I deeply +deplore your fate, and that I would have saved you if I could." + +"I believe it," Landless said simply. + +The Colonel took and wrung his hand, then turned sharply away, and +beckoning the overseer to follow, strode out of the circle of rocks. + +Sir Charles raised his feathered hat. "We have been foes," he said, "but +the strife is over--and when all is said, we are both Englishmen. I +trust we bear each other no ill will." + +"I bear none," said Landless. + +Sir Charles, his eyes still fixed upon the pale quiet of the other's +face, passed out of the opening between the rocks, and his place was +taken by the Surveyor-General. + +"I would have saved you if I could," he said in a low and troubled +voice. "I bow to a brave man and a gallant gentleman," and he too was +gone. + +In the glade below, the movement, the laughter and the song sank +gradually into silence as the gentlemen adventurers, the rangers, Indian +guides, and servants composing the rescuing party threw themselves down, +one by one, beside the blazing fires for a short rest before moonrise +and the long pull down the river. + +Among the crags, high above the twinkling watch-fires and the wash of +the dark river, there was the stillness of the stars, of the white frost +and the bare cliffs. In the northern heavens played a soft light, and +now and then a star shot. The man who marked its trail across the +studded skies thought of himself as of one as far withdrawn as it from +the world of lower lights in the forest at his feet. Already he felt a +prescience of the loneliness of the morrow, and the morrow, and the +morrow, of the slow drift of the days in the waning forest, the hopeless +nights, the terror of that great solitude--and felt, too, a feverish +desire to hasten that approach, to embrace that which was to be +henceforth bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. He wished for the +dash of oars in the dark stream below and for the rise of the moon which +was to shine coldly down upon him, companionless, immured in that vast +fortress from which he might never hope to escape. + +The sound of cautious footsteps among the rocks brought his sick and +wandering fancy back to the present. Raising himself upon his elbow and +peering intently into the darkness, he made out two figures, one tall +and large, the other much slighter, advancing towards him. Presently the +larger figure stopped short, and, seating itself upon a flat rock at the +brink of the hill, turned its face towards the fires in the woods below. +The other came on lightly and hurriedly--another moment, and rising to +his knees, he clasped her in his arms and laid his head upon her bosom. + +"I never thought to see you again," he said at last. + +"I made Regulus bring me," she answered. "The others do not know--they +think me asleep." + +She spoke in a low, even, monotonous voice, and the hand which she laid +upon his forehead was like marble. "My heart is dead, I think," she +said. "I wish my body were so too." + +He drew her closer to him and covered her face and hands with kisses. +"My love, my lady," he said. "My white rose, my woodland dove!" + +She clung to him, trembling. "Down there I was going mad," she +whispered. "But now--now--I feel as though I could weep." He felt her +tears upon his face, but in a moment she was calm again. "Do you +remember the bird we found the other day, all numbed with cold?" she +said. "It had been gay and free and light of heart, but it had not +strength to flutter when I took it in my hands and tried to warm it--and +could not. I am like that bird. The world is very gray and cold, and my +heart--it will never be warm again." + +"God comfort you," he said brokenly. + +"They have told me that at moonrise we leave this place--and you. They +say that it is all they can do for you--to leave you here. All!--Oh, my +God!" + +"They have done what they could," he said gravely. "I recognize that. +And I wish you to do so too, sweetheart." + +She looked at him wildly. "I have been silent," she said, pressing her +clasped hands against her bosom. "I have not told them. I have obeyed +what I read in your eyes. But was it well? Oh, my dear, let me speak!" + +He took her hands from her breast and laid them against his own. "No," +he said with a smile, "I love you too well for that." + +From the woods across the river came the crying of wolves, then a +silence as of the grave; then a whisper arose in the long dry grass and +the leafless vines, and a cold breeze lifted the hair from their +foreheads. The whisper grew into a murmur, prolonged and deep, a sound +as of a distant cataract, or of the dash of surf upon a far away +shore--the voice of the wind in the world of trees. A star shot, leaving +a stream of white fire to fade out of the dark blue sky. From the forest +came again the cry of the wolves. In the camp below there seemed some +stir, and the figure seated on the rock turned its head towards them and +lifted a warning hand. + +"You must go," said Landless. "It was madness for you to venture here. +See, the light is growing in the east." + +With a low, desolate moaning sound she wrung the hands he released and +raised her face to his. He kissed her upon the brow, the eyes and the +mouth. "Good-by, my life, my love, my heart," he said. "We were happy +for an hour. Good-by!" + +"I will be brave," she answered. "I will live my life out. I will pray +to God. And, Godfrey, I will be ever true to you. I shall never see you +again, my dear, never hear of you more, never know till my latest day +whether you are of this world still, or whether you have waited for me a +long time, up there beyond those lights. If it--if death--should come +Boon, wait for me--beyond--in perfect trust, my dear, for I will come +to you--I will come to you as I am, Godfrey." + +He bowed his face upon her hands. + +The breeze freshened, and the sound of the surf became the sound of +breakers. In the east the pale light strengthened. The figure below them +stood up and beckoned. + +"The moon is coming," said Patricia. "Once before I watched for it--in +terror, with pride and anger in my heart. Then, when I thought of you, I +hated you. It is strange to think of that now. Kiss me good-by." + +"I too will be strong," he said. "I will await the pleasure of the Lord. +Until His good time, my bride!" + +Rising to his feet he held her in his arms, then kissed her upon the +lips and put her gently from him. For a moment she stood like a statue, +then with a lifted face and hands clasped at her bosom, she turned, and +slowly, but without a backward look, left the circle of rocks. Through +the opening he saw the slave come up to her, and saw her motion to him +to fall behind--another moment, and both dark figures had sunk below the +brow of the hill. + +Stronger and stronger blew the wind, louder and louder swelled the voice +of the forest. Below, the wash of the river in its reeds, the dull +groaning of branch grating against branch, the fall of leaf and acorn, +the loud sighing of the pines, the cries of the owl, the panther, and +the wolf--above, the vast dome of the heavens and the fading stars. An +effulgence in the east; a silver crest, like the white rim of a giant +wave, upon the eastern hills; a pale splendor mounting slowly and calmly +upward--a dead world,--all her passion, all her pain, all toil and +strife over and done with,--shining down upon a sadder earth. + +From beneath the shadowy banks there shot out into the middle of the +broad moonlit stream a long canoe, followed by a second and a third, and +turning, went swiftly down that long, bright, shimmering, rippling path. + +In the last and smallest of the three boats a man rose from his seat in +the stern, and with his eyes upon the line of moon-whitened cliffs above +him, raised his plumed hat with a courteous gesture, then bent and spoke +to a cloaked and hooded figure sitting, still and silent, between him +and a burlier form. This canoe was rowed by negroes, and as they rowed +they sang. The wild chant--half dirge, half frenzy--that they raised was +suited to that waste which they were leaving. + +The black lines upon the silver flood became mere dots, and the wailing +notes came up the stream faintly and more faintly still. For a while the +echoes rolled among the folded hills and the tall gray crags, but at +length they died away forever. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +[Transcriber's note: added omitted word "time" in "By this time his eyes" +on line 9427, original page 304, of this text.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prisoners of Hope, by Mary Johnston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONERS OF HOPE *** + +***** This file should be named 21886.txt or 21886.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/8/21886/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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. diff --git a/21886.zip b/21886.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba2e3f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/21886.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..744ff52 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #21886 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21886) |
